Yandex is pretty much as evil as Google but on a smaller scale. I appreciated it for allowing easy burners, but recently I have not seen options to register any new account without a phone number.
*What rights do you have to the digital movies, TV shows and music you buy online? That question was on the minds of Telstra TV Box Office customers this month after the company announced it would shut down the service in June. Customers were told that unless they moved over to another service, Fetch, they would no longer be...
I don't like physical copies. For convenience, I would be ripping it anyway, and then what? CDs and DVDs take up way too much space, then I would have to eiher throw a perfectly working disk away (which just feels bad) or bother selling it (which is not even guaranteed). I understand it if you're into the collecting aspect, but I am personally not. If I was really set on paying for the media, I would rather go for a DRMless purchase. Or if it is not available, do it like with my Steam games - buy a DRMed copy and then pirate a DRMless one corresponding to it.
Session is also sus because you effectively cannot host a node, last I have seen. They claim it is "against a Sybil attack" but all it does is making sure only people wih large disposable funds can have nodes, and the effect might be the exact opposite.
Simplex is more interesting in this regard because while I am concerned with initial centralization (the default servers), they made hosting your own easy. But I personally stick with imperfect yet trusty XMPP.
Last I have seen, it still requires a number to register - it just doesn't have to be public.
What gets me the most is the requirement of a smartphone to register. No way I am trusting my non-public chats to a phone, so that means either Waydroid/VM (which creates issues with copypasting) or signal-cli (which is fairly inconvenient).
Not quite Europe, but here we have mandatory KYC on simcards too (you can get an illegal anonymous one still, but this is a different story). Guess what, it does nothing to prevent simswapping, it very much still happens.
I've been a social media hermit for the past 3 years but recently I've given up and created a few accounts across different apps again. It's unreal how strict the requirements are now....
Unless you mean "accidentally being somewhere in the background of a stranger's photo", yes. I usually opt out of being photographed, was never forced into this.
By the way, the earlier posted article https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain had an update starting at the paragraph with title Update: Statement from Proton and additional commentary
I do not blame Proton for complying with a request - it is a completely expected action from a company. However, I would blame them for advertising that makes them seem safer than they are for people who don't know better.
No thanks, I would rather not have to use Waydroid and deal with Google's services because of course you didn't make the app available on your website or on F-Droid.
Oh, nice! Where was the VPN server, if you remember? Also heard of it being possible on a real Android device, but not on an Android VM so even harder to fake.
Crypto IS usable as an alternative to regular card payments though. If it gets illegal - what do we have left for online payment? Bank system, which is very hard and illegal to use anonymously, and is subject to sanctions/seizures/whatever. There is cash by mail, which is not always feasible. GNU Taler looks interesting, but seems like it not implemented much yet.
I personally use it for my domain name and a VPS. Not exactly illegal or requiring personal information.
As for cards that "you can buy in brick and mortar stores" - a) they will be affected by the same sanctions as normal cards, b) not even a thing in a lot of places (like, the only ones I have seen here are only sold at certain banks and only payable with a bank card). But yea, might indeed work well in certain cases!
I use GrapheneOS ony phone and a Mac with the security options as optimized as possible. For most of my emailing etc, I use Tuta and Proton. There are instances however, where having a Google account is beneficial (some apps for example won't download from Aurora store in anonymous mode)....
The thing I wonder about is whether such an account can stay in your possession even after you no longer have the sim. Where I live, the simcards that don't require ID are illegal and thus you cannot guarantee that you'd stay in possession of it permanently. And even if it were legal - you'd have to be adding or spending funds to retain the sim.
Yea, I got this from your comment. I was wondering about different jurisdictions where this is not as easy - thought someone in the comments had such an experience.
In a lot of situations this is sadly not plausible. Here it is pretty much as dominant among younger generations as Whatsapp is among the older ones. Like, my uni group has all its communication there: technically could leave, but I would need far more organizational and social skill than I have now. So I just isolate it from private information and treat as public.
Here an ID is required by law, but you can still buy "gray" simcards in various places. Although not as reliable as if it were a legal one - it can get blocked by the provider, but I don't know exactly how long they usually last.
For groceries and most regular purchases (including online stores), there is cash. But I do use Monero for a legit reason - paying for my VPS and domain.
Yes! I don't get why Matrix is the one that's more popular now. My Prosody is botherless, consumes little RAM and does not have storage concerns like Matrix does. It just does all the messaging basics. It needs more love.
And even if centralization wasn't a concern, there would be a massive issue: much harder to maintain several accounts. I cannot imagine using the same account for things related to my real identity and to my online one. Also would not like to expose my encrypted conversations to a smartphone: thus, the public groupchats are on a separate account that I log into on both devices, while personal messages are left on laptop only.
This was a completely different thing - the report was about what data they collect or have the capability to collect, rather than how easy it is to remove the telematics unit and which functions would be impacted by it. The suggested measures against this were pretty basic, no mention was made of actual modifications.
For self-hosting though, the project I work on - Snikket - uses XMPP but has all the nice modern things you'd expect ready to go right out of the box, more like a Matrix (Synapse/Element) setup. Probably the biggest thing missing for Snikket right now is an official web app (we currently have Android and iOS apps)....
It is weird to see people recommending projectors as a replacement for TV. That would require having a fairly large room so that a large wall surface could be dedicated to the projection. Not to mention that it would be uncomfortable to use with lights on...
The shadowban I am pissed about is Reddit. The comments would appear for me just fine, but not visible outside of my account. Given that I have pretty much only commented about very neutral, even childish topics - I blame my email, which is on my own domain.
I have a raspberry pi running postfix. I Realised unless I open port 25 I absolutely cannot receive emails (I have 587 open and can send but not receive them). However I heard there are scaries online which someone could potentially send emails from your server without consent. I believe as well my ISP doesn't block port 25. Is...
Google and MS are the entities you'd definitely want to keep your data away from, no thanks. And Proton doesn't work with normal mail clients, which is kind of a dealbreaker. I remember seeing a comparison chart somewhere with an assortment of other services.
I'm looking into hosting one of these for the first time. From my limited research, XMPP seems to win in every way, which makes me think I must be missing something. Matrix is almost always mentioned as the de-facto standard, but I rarely saw arguments why it is better than XMPP?...
I am hosting both XMPP and Matrix now, and my main concern with Matrix is storage. I am afraid it would eat up the very limited disk space I have on my VPS. Conduit offers no built-in way to clean files up, and media is stored in a weird way that makes it a PITA to see which ones can and cannot be deleted. I now know that neither the database files nor the media can be just deleted.
I sorta like the idea of a chatroom existing on more than one server, but that MUST have been opt-in or at the very least opt-out.
I have read quite a few posts about preventing account password takeover from various malicious ways, and many OPSEC measures are there to prevent it from happening....
Log in to your password manager? KeepassXC just needs a decryption password. AFAIK you can set up additional protection but none of that include email.
I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:...
My main issue with Peertube is that for some reason, after just a bit of its use the internet connection on my laptop just shuts down until a reboot. It was present on both old and new laptop, and while the same thing happens when I torrent sometimes - only Peertube does it consistently. Would really like if there is a fix for this.
But yea, I agree in that the answer is not a platform, but a selfhostable solution.
I live in Canada. My girlfriend is Chinese (also living in Canada), and while we are able to communicate via SMS, her mobile carrier isn't the best, and so there have often been issues for us with regular texting. She expressed a strong preference to use WeChat, at least as a backup option for when texting fails us. While I...
EDIT : Option to vote for Official F-droid Repository https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/945460-general-ideas/suggestions/47173612-official-f-droid-repository
I did open an account once (for the free vpn), but ditched it very soon because it could not use a normal mail client. I need all my mail in one place, and I need convenient PGP however rarely it does happen.
Signal's UX is NOT good unless you want to expose your encrypted conversations to a smartphone (of which far from all can run a private OS). All because of no desktop registration. You either have to use inconvenient signal-cli, or an Android emulator which creates its own troubles.
I know I might not be relevant because I am not in the US (and in a big city), but I pretty much always order from online stores to the stores' offices. Not only to not surrender my address, but also because usually they allow paying in cash upon reception (big Amazon-like aggregators are an exception but I usually avoid them), and this also does not cost extra unlike a delivery to your door.
Curious how none of the coverage of this launch mention that the app isn't actually open-source (though they pretend to be an open-source project), which makes all of their claims of "end-to-end encryption" worthless...
I don't like that it does pretty muh the same thing as XMPP but more inefficiently. Like, my Conduit, already a lighter than Synapse implementation, consumes around 100 megs of RAM compared to Prosody's 30.
Also it is worrying how prevalent the central matrix.org instance is. Like, the network is federated, but if you defederate from the single central one - things might break.
What is sad is that users would not care even when explained why "Fast Free VPN" from Play Store should not be used. It allows them to go to the blocked sites? Then it doesn't matter what else happens. It is very much understandable that people wouldn't want to pay, especially with current restrictions. If I didn't find a way to pay for my VPS, I would have rather gone for a charity-ran VPN or extension.
Telegram CEO calls out rival Signal, claiming it has ties to US government ( www.theregister.com )
[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]
Are right wingers creating FUD around Signal? ( hachyderm.io )
‘My whole library is wiped out’: what it means to own movies and TV in the age of streaming services ( www.theguardian.com )
*What rights do you have to the digital movies, TV shows and music you buy online? That question was on the minds of Telstra TV Box Office customers this month after the company announced it would shut down the service in June. Customers were told that unless they moved over to another service, Fetch, they would no longer be...
Chat Apps, Government Ties, and Transparency – Threema ( threema.ch )
Why the state monopoly on identity is worse than Big Tech ( medium.com )
Instagram locked my account and forced me to appeal and send a picture of my face, so I sent a picture of Shrek. They deleted my account
I've been a social media hermit for the past 3 years but recently I've given up and created a few accounts across different apps again. It's unreal how strict the requirements are now....
Does self-hosted VPN make sense?
Hey all,...
Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist | TechCrunch ( techcrunch.com )
By the way, the earlier posted article https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain had an update starting at the paragraph with title Update: Statement from Proton and additional commentary
Telegram founder and CEO alledges signal has backdoors, they don't provide reproduceible builds, etc.
Here's what he said in a post on his telegram channel:...
"Everything being a sleek App, instead of being a clunky website. Which is definitely the way to go." - Mrwhosetheboss
(timestamp-link) iPad Pro M4 Hands on - Why I just bought it....
Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain ( restoreprivacy.com )
The Bitcoiners were wrong: a blog post about privacy and bitcoin, and how they failed to design a cash alternative ( unfathom.ing )
Why people don't talk about Google Maps' privacy issues ( www.youtube.com )
Title is editorialized because the original is, frankly, clickbait garbage
Creating dummy Google accounts
I use GrapheneOS ony phone and a Mac with the security options as optimized as possible. For most of my emailing etc, I use Tuta and Proton. There are instances however, where having a Google account is beneficial (some apps for example won't download from Aurora store in anonymous mode)....
telegram ads
As Telegram ads are getting more misleading and dangerous than ever (specially crypto ads) just wanted to know is there a way to block them?...
Digital surveillance is omnipresent in China. Here’s how citizens are coping ( theconversation.com )
The TRUTH about Bank Privacy ( odysee.com )
any xmpp user ?
Started using xmpp recently because messaging apps sucks . I want to see if anyone use this thing .
People Are Slowly Realizing Their Auto Insurance Rates Are Skyrocketing Because Their Car Is Covertly Spying On Them ( www.techdirt.com )
Snikket is a simple, secure and private messaging app (based on XMPP) ( snikket.org )
For self-hosting though, the project I work on - Snikket - uses XMPP but has all the nice modern things you'd expect ready to go right out of the box, more like a Matrix (Synapse/Element) setup. Probably the biggest thing missing for Snikket right now is an official web app (we currently have Android and iOS apps)....
TV recommendations
It finally happened. My 'dumb' TV died for good....
PSA: Twitch Shadowbans Users on VPN + Linux
If you notice your chat messages show up in the chat feed but don't appear on the streamers in-screen chat, you have been shadowbanned....
What to be aware of before opening port 25 on a postfix Raspberry Pi?
I have a raspberry pi running postfix. I Realised unless I open port 25 I absolutely cannot receive emails (I have 587 open and can send but not receive them). However I heard there are scaries online which someone could potentially send emails from your server without consent. I believe as well my ISP doesn't block port 25. Is...
Why is Matrix mentioned more often than XMPP in self hosted forums?
I'm looking into hosting one of these for the first time. From my limited research, XMPP seems to win in every way, which makes me think I must be missing something. Matrix is almost always mentioned as the de-facto standard, but I rarely saw arguments why it is better than XMPP?...
How you all prevent Password/OTP/TOTP deadlocks?
I have read quite a few posts about preventing account password takeover from various malicious ways, and many OPSEC measures are there to prevent it from happening....
Youtube is now unusable without a frontend ( lemmy.world )
I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:...
Safest way of using WeChat on Android?
I live in Canada. My girlfriend is Chinese (also living in Canada), and while we are able to communicate via SMS, her mobile carrier isn't the best, and so there have often been issues for us with regular texting. She expressed a strong preference to use WeChat, at least as a backup option for when texting fails us. While I...
When will Proton Mail be in F-Droid ?
EDIT : Option to vote for Official F-droid Repository https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/945460-general-ideas/suggestions/47173612-official-f-droid-repository
NSA ’just days from taking over the internet’ warns Edward Snowden ( cointelegraph.com )
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14393091...
Downsides of Signal alternatives compared to Signal?
I'm thinking of the things listed on the Privacy Guides real-time communication section...
How do you take deliveries anonymously?
I realise that this question is subject to local trends (and I'm in the US), but I encourage people in other countries to submit their methods!...
Microsoft is trying to convince Windows 10 users to upgrade with full-screen prompts ( www.theverge.com )
Automattic buys Beeper for $125MM, launches closed-source "privacy" app ( techcrunch.com )
Curious how none of the coverage of this launch mention that the app isn't actually open-source (though they pretend to be an open-source project), which makes all of their claims of "end-to-end encryption" worthless...
Interesting findings within a VPN app
edit: please see comments for more informed insights....