@FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works

member since 17 Feb 2026 17:19

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c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 10 Sep 2026

Meet Florida’s “Flock Blocker”

MotorBiscuit Meet Florida's “Flock Blocker,” the Man Who Sits in Front of ALPR Cameras All Day

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Edit -> putting link here instead of in post URL to avoid auto-embed of YT vid.

motorbiscuit.com/meet-floridas-flock-blocker-the-…

77 yo guy in Florida sits in front of Flock cameras for hours, holding up a strategically placed protest sign. There are social media claims the man was arrested. But that looks like misinfo. Police talked to him, but journalists found no arrest record, plus,

Police have said that his protest is legal because he is not damaging or tampering with the cameras.

Gunn uses a 12-foot pole from his pool and a broomstick to extend it. He attaches the sign to the end and positions it in front of the camera lens. So anyone accessing footage from that Flock camera will only see the sign “Down with the Flock.” He is careful to choose only Flock camera locations where he won’t obstruct sidewalks, WUSF reported.

A man of the people. And of the pedestrians!

Anyone in or near St Pete should buy this guy free lunches.

From the Verge, Americans are cheering for vigilantes who take down Flock cameras

c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 4 Sep 2026

Pre-enshittification tech. [discussion/fun]

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What kind of pre-enshittification tech do you all use? Stuff where ppl look at you like you’re an alien b/c nobody does it that any more.

Me ->

Oldschool offline mp3 player rather than Spottify or other streaming or phone app, to use when running.

Paper books rather than e-books.

DRM free games I buy on GOG to avoid rootkitting my own comp.

Wired speakers rather than smart speakers.

Old ass pre-connected car.

Prob more but I can’t think of it all rn.

c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 1 Sep 2026

Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways

NBC News Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways

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In stopped clock is right twice a day news, Florida is moving to ban Flocks from state highways.

Aside from Florida, there is a bunch of momentum all around the US now. Some cities just moved to another ALPR vendor like Axon. That sucks ofc. But many have eliminated ALPR entirely too, after citizens spoke out! Some cities had a constant stream of ppl speaking at city council meetings about it, months on end, dozens of ppl in every meeting.

It’s harder to deal with Flocks on private property. Like Home Depot and Lowes. A city gov terminating its own contract, doesn’t stop Home Depot. I dream of a coordinated, nation-wide boycott of co’s that put private Flocks in their lots. And letting them know exactly why.

Let’s keep the anti ALPR momentum going. It’s starting to see results. And don’t fall into the illogic of thinking it’s not perfect, therefore it’s useless.

c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 30 Aug 2026

ALPR (Flock etc) & TPMS thoughts

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Flock, and other ALPR companies like Axon, Motorola, and Verkada have been adding capabilities to gather signals from airpods, smart watches, fitness trackers, even toll lane passes.

There were allegations too about TPMS. That is harder, b/c TPMS do not xmit actively. The power comes only from reflecting a received RF, so it is weak. But it may not be impossible. The car itself gets the signals like that, tho shorter range. There may be a larger antenna on the roadside than your car uses, to capture weaker signals. Unclear if it’s possible. But unclear it isn’t!

TPMS started in 1980s. It didn’t get real widespread until 2000s. But even “older” cars, safe from online telematics, still may have TPMS. If there is any way for Flock and the rest to use it as a fingerprint, they will. TPMS has a unique ID.

So I started looking. Can TPMS be removed at home? Answer is, kinda. It’s a little hard without special tire equipment, and it may fuck up the tire balance. A shop can do it, but IDK if they are legally allowed to.

But would that do anything for you? TBH I doubt it helps much. The ALPRs use so many techniques. Plates, ofc. Also scratches. Dents. Bumper stickers. Trailer hitches. Ski racks. Window stickers and passes. Any distinguishing aspect of the vehicle. There are even rumors they can use FR on the driver, but IDK if that has been substantiated. So TPMS delete maybe not worth the squeeze.

Even avoiding ALL emissions, portable devices and TPMS, the ALPR can still ID you in enough other ways. Optical side harder to defeat than radio side.

Once, we could drive without private companies recording everywhere we go. We could even travel from state to state. No papers.

c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 27 Aug 2026

Streaming from restaurants (shitpost minirant)

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Couple days ago. Hanging out with a few friends, burgers and beers at a sit down place. Not high end, but not McDs either. Normal place.

I notice a girl one table over is clearly doing a whole ass livestream or sth. Not just a quick selfie. Clearly streaming. Wagging her phone all around, for like 10+ minutes.

My friends didn’t even notice. I’m mad tho, b/c I don’t wanna be on whatever shit some influencer is gonna u/l the stream to. Prob youtube or her IG or w/e.

But nothing I can do. Getting up to ask her to cut it TF out would only have made it worse. That just makes me content fodder!

That is all. Thank you for coming to my rant, and I hope you are all having a good day.

c/privacy@lemmy.ml · FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works · 26 Aug 2026

AliExpress caught using silent audio to fingerprint visitors’ browsers | Malwarebytes - sh.itjust.works

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This was posted to cybersecurity and I am not sure how to make a proper crosspost. Or even if that is a thing I can do. So just dropping a lemmy link in the url. Hope that is OK. The external link is here -> malwarebytes.com/…/aliexpress-caught-using-silent…

Given how much fingerprinting relates to privacy, seems related for this group too. Yet Another Fingerprinting Technique. It doesn’t record the user, just a silent signal which still has variance due to the unique device.

researchers and browser maker Brave reported finding silent Web Audio processing on the site that could help fingerprint visitors’ devices.

on top of that, the traditional fingerprinting signals are used too,

The scripts also gathered information tied to canvas rendering, WebGL, display settings, hardware configuration, WebRTC behavior and user interactions. Together, those signals can create a more detailed profile of a device than any one signal would provide on its own.

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I could imagine some uses for non-connected smart glasses. Mechanics who may want to refer to schematics as they work with both hands, without having to disengage and paw through paper or look it up on a laptop? Ppl with various disabilities, run a cheap algorithm to give acoustic cues to blind people?

Prob is, there’s no visual way to know if the devices are cloud connected and spying for FB, or not. And even if not, if they’re storing pics locally that will later get sent to a big tech co.

I miss the pre-IOT days TBH.

on Zuckerberg's Pervert Glasses Have Been So Publicly Shamed That Meta's Reportedly Now Working on a Version With No Camera in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 6d ago
That’s more or less what I do most of the time. The more roadblocks you put up for the tracking and data broker companies, the more the site is likely to block you.

There are lists of VPN endpoints you can just whack into an apache or nginx config. That’s becoming more and more common for sites, over time.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 17 Sep 2026
But it will work with Android, IOS, Windows. Big-tech trusted platforms

We are talking about Linux. Do you not know what Linux is?

At this point I begin to think you are simply a troll.

The point was that if those OSs work for the things normal ppl want to do, and Linux doesn’t, then most ppl won’t consider Linux as a viable platform, and will not use it. Under that possible future.

I’m using Linux. I don’t care what “most home users” do.

But you asked, and I am quoting you exactly,

So you think everyone will just abandon free software?

My answer was to your question. It was not about YOU personally. You asked about “everyone”, so I answered. You are welcome to not care what most ppl want. But the capability to deny your linux machine so much as basic network connectivity can happen. If you want to yank the network cable and use it in your house, and you are happy with that, then great.

If you want to engage in a non-troll manner, that’s fine. But I will not reply to troll type responses any further.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
No? I sure don’t.

You sure do. I don’t think you quite realize the possible implications.

So you think everyone will just abandon free software?

Everyone? No. Ofc not. But most home users? Yes. If we ever see strong attestation gating requiring a “trusted” OS, then I expect most who use linux today would abandon it. B/c everything they want to do, won’t work. But it will work with Android, IOS, Windows. Big-tech trusted platforms. Data centers and so on will be able to use Linux… by abiding the attestation reqs.

Ofc it won’t be every single last person or every single use. There are offline uses for computers too. But normal ppl want to use online services with that laptop on their desk. They want to bank. Shop. Use social media. Etc.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
Can’t apps and services just start blocking Linux and start specifically demanding Windows or Mac?

In principle? Yes. It could become a complete cryptographic attestation chain.

I don’t think we’re right on the edge of that rn. But years or decades from now? Who TF knows.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
Good news, I already don’t do that

You do it for every single thing you do online. The goal of many govs and big tech is to gate everything behind an attestation requirement. Everything.

That’s the point. The initial move here is extremely weak attestation. You can just lie to it, or use an OSS OS. But they won’t stop there. If everything gets gated behind strong attestation, then all those things become off limits to Linux. Sure, you can keep using your Linux box in your house. That cannot be stopped. But what CAN be stopped, is your ability to do anything whatsoever with it which requires the internet. Heck, even the ability to get a n/w connection can be gated.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
you can’t stop free software.

No. But you CAN stop providing any online services to free software.

G already has been moving toward requiring a “trusted OS” to get past fucking recaptcha. It isn’t rolled out yet. But it could be.

Linux can’t stop that, b/c it can just be blocked from everything if the trusted OS attestation isn’t present.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
bust open a pre-code copy of ‘How to build Linux from scratch’

Short term, that’ll help. Long term, it won’t.

Sure, you can do that. Then what? If every single site requires a secure attestation from an identity service before you can use it, you re boned. Want to shop? Bank? Social media? Check the gd weather? If the site won’t serve you w/o a strong identity proof, then linux won’t save you. Linux will be an island.

IDK if it’ll get that far. But it isn’t that far fetched. Already today, I estimate 50% of site I try to use won’t answer me if I totally block fingerprints and use a VPN. I’m talking mundane shit, recipes, car repair info, w/e. If I remove my privacy protections, they work fine. Nothing stops that from happening to any OS that deosn’t prove a trusted ID attestation.

on Your Computer Might Demand Your Age Soon, No Matter Where You Live in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
I’m afraid we could eventually see an internet where it’s required, just to get ISP service. And on top of that, essential services only available online.

IDK if it’ll get that far. But we’re headed toward it. KYC for the internet and everything on it. Every possible action tied back to a “trusted device”.

on Ursula Leyen - State of the European Union speech - EU Kids Act in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
Long time ago, you could sign up for ebay under any name + PO box.

I did that, and I had sth like 8 (?) years of frequent buying and selling with 100% top feedback scores as a buyer and seller. I literally never had a single feedback that wasn’t the best rating.

Then, Ebay went all in on KYC, and my PO box and not-my-real-name triggered an account suspension unless I sent them a copy of my photo ID. Despite 100’s of transactions. All made in good faith. With zero probs.

But I can’t single out Ebay. All the big online markets go this way now. I get it, they have to protect against fraud and abuse. But holy shit. I had 8+ yrs of good faith transactions. I’m not a gd frauster.

on What do you do for online shopping? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
I tried to sign up for privacy.com once and they demanded a copy of my photo ID. They wanted me to send it to a 3rd party ID verification service.

I didn’t wanna give out a scanned copy of my DL. Which in hindsight feels like a good choice -> krebsonsecurity.com/…/fbi-probes-service-selling-…

If you are not very private already, they may not require that. But if you are, they’ll punt you to an identity broker service before you can sign up.

on What do you do for online shopping? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 16 Sep 2026
OK so not exactly what OP asked, but if you might like a 2D minecraft-like, check out Terraria. Fun, and plays fine with no network access. So zero potential for data collection. Has native linux version.

on privacy friendly minecraft client? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
In theory 23hr 59min 59sec of audio every day is not continuously recording.

Practically speaking, it’ll be a lot of false positive detections of the wake word + following audio. Which phones and other voice devices also suffer from. Even if the wake word happens locally, it’s fragile! Other words sound like it, enoguh to trigger it. Then audio gets sent to the cloud. Often with no notice to the user b/c they figure the wake word was on purpose.

on LG responds to TV spying allegations in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
Apple seems really focused on preventing the audio from making it off the device.

Which fine, I believe they’ll make that very difficult. Apple has engineering chops.

But it’s not the fucking point. I ALSO don’t want every watchhole around me making transcriptions of anything I say within earshot of whoever wears one. Which will be way less noticeable than even smart glasses. Say goodbye to having an unrecorded conv in most public places.

The whitewashing of the privacy probs with this is galling.

on The new Apple Watch will use microphone and other sensors to generate AI recaps of your day - 9to5Mac in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
Just any parts of your day you spent near ppl wearing one of these.

Or any of the others that’ll have a shittier implementation than Apple’s.

on The new Apple Watch will use microphone and other sensors to generate AI recaps of your day - 9to5Mac in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 13 Sep 2026
LOT to be said for that.

Paper ones that don’t track everything you read. Old fashion paper. Browse your fav local bookstore. Or hit the library. Walk out with little stack of books. Read 'em over weeks or months. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

on The insane amount of requests my LG tv has sent since last Friday in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 12 Sep 2026
Agree. Also weird b/c G has a special Google for Education scheme for schools. Which the school would be tied into, and accounts would be made through that. G makes promises like it won’t use the student’s data for other purposes, no profiling, no ads, etc.

I still wouldn’t be happy with having to use G as a student. For lots of reasons, like normalizing it so students will keep using G after they graduate. Even so, I believe G does make a good faith effort to adhere to their promises about not using student data for other purposes. But prob only if done through the official channels to create the acct.

on I am asked for Gmail in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 12 Sep 2026
Well, very many deaf people can talk just fine, and do, for the benefit of hearing ppl who may not know sign language.

on Watch out: Apple timepiece can grab snippets of conversation without both speakers' consent in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 12 Sep 2026
I just hope this sort of post won’t be happening with any frequency.

on Your reminder to remove the microphone from your TV remote today in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 11 Sep 2026
The audio warning chime would also not help ppl who are deaf.

on Watch out: Apple timepiece can grab snippets of conversation without both speakers' consent in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 11 Sep 2026
There’s an entire spectrum of similar attacks

I see what you did there.

on Your reminder to remove the microphone from your TV remote today in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 11 Sep 2026
Ugh, some video got embedded b/c I put the story link. It isn’t playing for me (YT block) and I have no idea what that is.

Sorry! Trying to figure out if i can undo it sh.

Edit -> hopefully fixed.

on Meet Florida’s “Flock Blocker” in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 10 Sep 2026
Blocking JS is a fingerprint

IMO, that is true… but could potentially be misleading. It can still be better to block, even if blocking itself is a fingerprint. (edited here, fix bad wording)

It only makes you worse off if the bits of identifying info with javascript exceed the bits obtained by the single option of disabling JS. And that depends on how many ppl do it. It’s the -log2 of the probability of that event. Let’s say that only 1 in 100,000 disables JS. (It’s gotta be more than that?) That is just under 17 bits of information from seeing that JS is disabled, b/c you’re only unique to one part in 100K. So if the number of bits obtainable with JS enabled exceed 17, then it’s a net win to disable JS!

I don’t know what % of ppl disable JS. I feel it’s more than 1:100K. That’s only 1 person in a decent sized city. IDK what the right % is. But for any reasonable value I can imagine, it seems like a win. Far more bits of ID-ing info can be obtained through JS, than the -log2 of that %.

Also, the more ppl disable JS, the fewer bits are obtained by seeing that JS is disabled, b/c the log2(%-who-disables-JS) gets smaller.

on How to safely use javascript? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 8 Sep 2026
In theory a neighbours lg tv could broadcast their wifi credentials to your tv to connect to upload the data.

but its technically doable.

Agree that mesh networking is technically doable. Credentials, IDK about that, but mesh, yes.

I thought I remembered a mfg who sold appliances that would try to mesh-network with others from the same mfg. Even if it was at another household or w/e.

But I can’t seem to find the story now! IDK, maybe I’m fulla shit. Maybe I’m just jaded and my brain made it up. I’m trying to search but overloaded with pages about legit mesh networking.

on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 7 Sep 2026
Be aware that you will have no privacy on the school’s network. They usually block all known VPN endpoints, and require certs that will allow MiTM even for HTTPS connections. For lotsa reasons it’s best to cleanly separate personal activity, from school activity. Or work activity when you get a job.

Since you mentioned “gaming distro”… what I do for private gaming is buy games from GOG. Every one I ever tried runs fine even with no network access. You can use sth like firejail to do this super easy. No need to set up a VM or w/e. Then you know it isn’t phoning home. B/c it can’t!

Plus, all their games are DRM-free. Which is part of what makes them private. I’d rather my dollars support DRM-free stuff. Supply and demand. The more ppl buy DRM games, the more it teaches game vendors that we don’t care. There are other DRM-free stores too. Stay away from Steam. Go for GOG, Humble, and w/e else. Then you can have private gaming.

on can you have vlan without touching the router in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 7 Sep 2026
While I haven’t heard about any TVs that do this, seems like only a matter of time until Tvs that won’t function unless they can contact the mothership.

It wouldn’t be hard to make it. Or w/e other consumer devices. Just gate all functionality behind the user “agreeing”. Most ppl will click OK on literally anything.

By clicking agree, you accept that we or our 1829 partners can break into your house, steal your shit, shoot your puppy, plant rootkits in all your devices, piss in your pot of soup, and set the place on fire before we go. Millions of ppl -> Clicks OK.

on 216,000,000 LG Smart TVs are spying on you - Gamers Nexus in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 7 Sep 2026
Or maybe just a machine at the shipping carrier or post office that slaps a label on the package? Vendor still wouldn’t get access to the info, since label is applied after the carrier gets the package. Then the delivery person wouldn’t have to faff around with a code.

Ofc, the carrier would have to be somehow prevented from selling the link from 17bkHdb74nKl to 123 Main Street. That may have to be solved legally, since they have a financial incentive to sell the link.

Provided the problems could be ironed out, I like the 1 time code idea. I like it a lot. It cuts a lot of the commercial surveilence ecosystem off at the knees.

on Can a "Unknow Your Customer" (UYC) architecture actually be implemented at scale? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 6 Sep 2026
Phone call tapping needs a warrant.

This is correct for the US, and I think quite a few others. Generally that req has been upheld in the US.

It is also correct that there is little to no technical protection against intercepting the content. The only protection you have is legal.

Hence why discussions become confusing. You get people insisting there is no protection. They are correct, in a way. Then you get people insisting there is. They are also correct, in a different way. Then, here’s an example of when the legal protection failed, therefore, the legal protection does not exist. Which is generally wrong.

To add even more confusion, the NSA was collecting metadata about the phone calls of over 100M people! Per Snowen’s disclosures,

Under the order, the numbers of both parties on a call, as well as the location data, unique identifiers, time of call, and duration of call were handed over to the FBI, which turned over the records to the NSA

But that is not the same as collecting and processing the audio.

It is important to be specific about the exact thing you are worried about. I live in the USA, and for USA-to-USA conversations over the traditional phone network, I generally do not worry about the audio being interepted without a warrant. Even though my only protection is legal. If I was going to have an extremely sensitive conversation, esp if I was afraid of disclosure of who I talked to, I would chose a different method to talk. But not b/c I think the risk is very high of my phone audio being surveiled. Just from an abundance of caution.

on are phone calls private? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
Ugh! Surely that must just be for online payments? Or is there an EU wide plan to phase out cash for offline purchases? I heard some individual countries (not the entire ass EU) were moving to eliminate cash, but I thought it was still impractical to do it.

I’m worried about the future of cash payments here. Nearly every store or vendor accepts it, but nobody in my age group uses it. They’re all about Apple Pay or other payment apps. Aside from myself I only see old ppl using cash. It could fade out as they die off. If cash becomes a tiny %, it won’t be worth the overhead for vendors or stores to accept it. That would leave only digital-trail methods.

We still have anonymous gift cards. Well in US. Less sure about Can/Mex. But those are a huge target for fraud, so it’s hit and miss if they are accepted at any given place.

on Can a "Unknow Your Customer" (UYC) architecture actually be implemented at scale? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
Seconding electric nan’s comment. There is a valid use case for that model IMO, but it also ties your identity to a different fixed IP. Maybe if you were PERFECT about opsec it wouldn’t tie to your ID, but in practice nobody is going to be. That’s nearly impossible in today’s tracking centric world. So data brokers will learn user X has IP Y, nobody else uses that IP, so other connections from IP Y are probably user X too.

There’s a benefit to sharing an IP with many other ppl and rotating the IP around. There are drawbacks too ofc.

on For those looking to migrate away from Mullvad VPN, what are some alternatives that the community recommends? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
Similar on the other side of the pond. US & Canada both have legal KYC requirements for banking. We didn’t used to, but anti-laundering laws were passed. I think it’s also true for Mexico (?). We also have KYC laws to get a PO box in the US, and some other services too.

We don’t have legal KYC reqs for making purchases, and offline it is easy to use cash. Online tho, it’s very hard, borderline impossible to avoid a KYC-style trail even tho it isn’t a legal req. Some of that is b/c of the KYC laws around mailing addresses.

on Can a "Unknow Your Customer" (UYC) architecture actually be implemented at scale? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
i genuinely don’t understand why people ‘self-host.’

I self host an XMPP server for family and friends. No electron anywhere near it. It’s tiny, will run on a potato. But it’s ample for the 16-ish of us on the thing.

I do it because it let us avoid big tech surveilence IM services.

I also self host web pages. I am 100% sure they have no tracking pixels, no analytics scripts, no enshittification of any kind. The moment I use a commercial “build your web site with our super easy app!” thing, enshittification gets bundled right in behind the scenes.

on Pre-enshittification tech. [discussion/fun] in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
looking online i can find a similar system for like $1000, and only in america.

If there are any thrift shops or used electronics shops near you, check into those. While back, I scored a sweet mid/high end 1990’s AV receiver for $60 USD at a local surplus & thrift shop.

If you don’t need all that stuff, like you can make do with a normal single CD player, you might be able to put a nice system together on the cheap. Esp if you are willing to collect it bit by bit.

on Pre-enshittification tech. [discussion/fun] in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
I assume contact information

IMO that’s a big one b/c it can dox sources.

Frankly I think most random internet activists won’t be bothered at airports. But selected ones seen as “a problem” might be. They’d have to worry about their social graph. Who they communicate with, are ppl with similar views.

Also both journalists and activitists have to worry about fishing expeditions. “Give me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough in them to hang him.” - Richelieu.

on what to do with your phone on nternational travel? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 4 Sep 2026
Cash

A good one!

on Pre-enshittification tech. [discussion/fun] in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 4 Sep 2026
I’d probably use a burner. Out of principle.

But! I think it is important to keep the risk in perspective too. For most ppl, the chance is tiny. Could happen. Almost certainly won’t. There are about 55K device searches / yr, and most of those are shallow. Only a few were deep. That sounds like a lot, until you realize there are 260 million international travelers / yr. Edit -> for the USA alone. That’s around 0.02% who even get the shallow search.

Ofc the risk may be a LOT higher for certain ppl. Reporters say. So keep that in mind too. Assess your own risk with open eyes! For some it will be far more than 0.02%. You’re a reporter, better have your shit sorted! But that also means the risk is lower than 0.02% for the rest.

Tiny chance for most ppl, But nothing wrong with being careful out of principle.

on what to do with your phone on nternational travel? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 4 Sep 2026
It’s a fine line against stalking, so maybe do it with a few hundred of your friends.

Also NAL, but that’s an interesting idea. If I constantly follow Zuck around, might be stalking. But if I spot him Mon at 3pm and never see him again in my life, and someone else Mon at 4pm, and someone at 5pm… I wonder if that’s a legal loophole. Tho, might be hard to spot him at all.

Even privatebjets emit a transponder signal

There was a big controvery over Elon’s transponder. Also for Taylor Swift and other very high profile celebs. I lost track of where it ended up. From here,

The most prominent was @ElonJet, which tracked Elon Musk’s air travel and amassed more than half a million followers in 2022. The account’s creator, then 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, became embroiled in a public feud with Musk after rejecting a cash offer from the Tesla CEO to delete the account. Sweeney was eventually banned from Twitter after Musk acquired the platform in October 2022.

Ofc just being banned from Twitter doesn’t effect the data, which is still available on public web sites.

on Flock bans Journalist from Convention, Journalist use their tools against them. in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 3 Sep 2026
Bookmarked this to watch later, but my fantasy timeline includes crowdsourcing constant surveilence of tech bros, Zuck, Flock execs, data broker CEOs, Brin, and the rest. Livestream every single thing they ever say or do. Speech to text for a searchable archive by topic or location or time. Anyone can go back, see what they did 3 years ago on Tuesday.

If it’s good for the goose…

Well I guess in practice it is very hard, if legal at all. Zuck travels by private jet. Private limos. Catered meals. Buys out all the houses on his block, for privacy. Doesn’t mingle with the poors. At those levels of wealth, you can carve out a private little corner of the world just for you.

on Flock bans Journalist from Convention, Journalist use their tools against them. in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 3 Sep 2026
so everyone use the toll-based " private" highways.

Can only speak for my area. (edit, not FL). We do have some toll highways, but it’s very small as a % of the total hw system. So it’s not even close to the majority of what ppl use. They do exist, however. All the ones I know about are not “private”, tho. They are owned and maintained by a commission of elected public officials who collects the tolls and allocate the funding to maintain the road. Ofc there are probably contracts to private companies for maintenance. But the road itself is not owned by a private co.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 2 Sep 2026
Not sure, TBH. The ones in private lots near me seem pointed to surveil the lots, if I go by the de-flock map. But I would be surprised if a few didn’t pick up short segments of the public roads sometimes.

So my guess is it happens, but it’s still a big improvement on having that PLUS the public road network too.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 1 Sep 2026
No, that is untrue. I hate this kind of defeatism.

It is true by a simple count of cameras, most in Florida remain. But that is not the right metric, unless you planned a tour of every Lowes and Home Depot and w/e in the state. Getting them off the state highway system is a big deal. And more and more cities are starting to terminate contracts too.

Just because the whole problem isn’t solved in a single stroke, does NOT mean we should minimize how important each step is.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 1 Sep 2026
Same, I’ve noticed they point into their lots.

Depending on where ppl live, there’s also Ace Hardware. Sometimes too, small local HW stores. I just discovered a locally run one near me. Never knew about them. But found it when looking for alternatives to Lowes and HD.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 1 Sep 2026
It really is. While back, I saw a poll, can’t remember the city. But just over 90% of the local citizens there wanted Flocks gone. Rest were either unsure, or in favor of Flocks.

90%! You can’t get 90% of Americans to agree that 2+2=4.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 1 Sep 2026
Yes. But I don’t have to go to Home Depot or Lowes or w/e. Contrast, it is effectively impossible to avoid the Flock network on public roads. They capture cars and bikes and pedestrians.

So even if most of the cameras remain by simple count, it is still a very big deal to get them off public highways. And the more cities who join, the better that will be too.

on Florida bans Flock cameras and other license plate readers from state highways in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 1 Sep 2026
Also… even if a co tries to fill a deletion request in good faith, and even if they didn’t sell your data already… it can actually be hard.

Major companies have disaster recovery procedures. Multiple off-site backups. You have to not only remove from all live systems, but w/e kinds of backups exist. Those might be on mag tape in a vault deep underground in a mine! Managed by a whole other data archiving company.

Even deleting from online systems can have issues. Normal delete just removes the dir metadata. The disk blocks remain. You can overwrite to scrub those, but some drives may re-allocate or duplicate blocks on their own, making that hard too.

on I asked 100 companies for my data. Some deleted it instead. in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 31 Aug 2026
Good thoughts, tyvm. That all make sense to me. I am far from an expert too. But I believe you are right, it would require more xmit power from the ALPR, and people would detect it easly with an RF detector.

You succeeded in changing my guess, towards less likely they are harvesting TPMS ids.

difficult to protect from interference

That’s a fun idea. Some kinds of RF jamming are very illegal and will get the FCC (*) all up in your business, like that guy running a cell phone jammer from his car a while back. But obv it’s legal to xmit on wifi type frequences. Everybody’s wifi AP does that. I’m sure there are power limits and stuff. But maybe what’s legal, would still be enough to frustrate a Flock portable device scan for gizmos using those freqs.

If you’re the only one doing it, you’d stick out like a sore thumb. But if 1 in 4 cars were doing it…

NAL so I can’t comment on legality there. Or even on the practicality. But it does make me wonder.

(*) Or your country’s equivalent, the ppl who regulate the radio spectrum.

on ALPR (Flock etc) & TPMS thoughts in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 30 Aug 2026
I just tell people I was out of focus when I was born, and doctors weren’t able to correct it.

on Blur your house in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 30 Aug 2026
Standalone devices. MP3 players. Cameras. GPS units. All disconnected, except a local USB port. No wifi, no network of any kind.

None of them seem likely to disappear tomorrow. But given the push to put everything from your toothbrush to your vacuum cleaner online and harvest data from it, IDK how long until offline standalone electronics are no longer made.

on What's something people should buy today instead of tomorrow? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 30 Aug 2026
IMO the same concept as Cris_Citrus makes here, applies when ppl say “your address was always in the phonebook”. Or how a film photo stuck in a drawer in Joe Sixpack’s house is different from a digital photo analyzed by sophisticated machine learning algorithms by dozens of data brokers to build a dossier of your life. Even if in both cases “someone could always take your picture in public.”

Scale, and ease of access, have real impacts. Even if technically, the data was “always available.”

False equivalences, all of 'em. But pro-surveilence advocates love making them.

on Blur your house in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 30 Aug 2026
because a restaurant doesn’t want to get plastered all over YT or IG either.

True. I’ve even heard of cases where a “food influencer” demands a free meal from a place. If they won’t acquiesce, they threaten terrible reviews on their socials. Now maybe influencer has 73 followers so who cares. But maybe they have 73M and restaurant takes a drubbing on social media. I don’t envy the restaurants either TBH.

on Streaming from restaurants (shitpost minirant) in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 27 Aug 2026