“A republic, if you can keep it.”

OC by @[email protected]

This is original content. AI was not used anywhere except for the bottom right image, simply because I could not find one similar enough to what I needed. This took around 6 hours to make.

Transcription (for the visually impaired)

(I tried my best)

The background is an iceberg with 6 levels, denoting 6 different levels of privacy.

The tip of the iceberg is titled "The Brainwashed" with a quote beside it that says "I have nothing to hide". The logos depicted in this section are:

• Instagram
• Apple
• TikTok
• PayPal
• Google Chrome
• CashApp
• WhatsApp
• Samsung
• Steam
• Microsoft Windows
• Ring (Security Camera)
• YouTube
• Amazon
• Discord
• Gmail
• ChatGPT

The surface section of the iceberg is titled "As seen on TV" with a quote beside it that says "This video is sponsored by...". The logos depicted in this section are:

• NordVPN
• Bitdefender
• Incogni
• Malwarebytes
• Opera GX
• ExpressVPN

An underwater section of the iceberg is titled "The Beginner" with a quote beside it that says "I don't like hackers and spying". The logos depicted in this section are:

• Telegram
• Authy
• Brave Browser
• Privacy.com (Virtual Cards)
• DuckDuckGo
• iMessage
• Proton Mail
• AdBlock (Browser Extension)

A lower section of the iceberg is titled "The Privacy Enthusiast" with a quote beside it that says "I have nothing I want to show". The logos depicted in this section are:

• Signal (Messenger)
• Tuta
• addy.io
• Linux
• Bitwarden
• uBlock Origin
• Tor and Tor Browser
• ProtonVPN

An even lower section of the iceberg is titled "The Privacy Activist" with a quote beside it that says "Privacy is a human right". The logos depicted in this section are:

• Monero
• GrapheneOS
• Vanadium (Web Browser)
• KeePassDX
• SimpleX Chat
• Accrescent
• SearXNG
• Aegis Authenticator
• OpenWrt
• Mullvad VPN
• An illustration of physical cash

The lowest portion of the iceberg is titled "The Ghost". There is a quote beside it that has been intentionally redacted. The images depicted in this section are:

• A cancel sign over a mobile phone, symbolizing "no electronics"
• An illustration of a log cabin, symbolizing "living in a log cabin in the woods"
• A picture of gold bars, symbolizing "paying only in gold"
• A picture of a death certificate, symbolizing "faking your own death"
• An AI generated picture of a person wearing a black hoodie, a baseball cap, a face mask, and reflective sunglasses, symbolizing "hiding ones identity in public"

End of transcription.

• In December, an investigation by Tom's Hardware found that Recall frequently captured sensitive information in its screenshots, including credit card numbers and Social Security numbers — even though its "filter sensitive information" setting was supposed to prevent that from happening.

glitr.io

im working on a p2p file transfer app. at the moment its a close-source webapp, but i hope to work towards some selfhosted options as seen on my other projects.

the storage is local-only from your browser/device. so like "the cloud", but the cloud storage capacity is made up of your devices.

ive recently updated the landing page and i hope ive got it as simple as possible to transfer a file from one device to another.

im looking for feedback on the experience.

(Note 1: its still a work in progress. if there is an issue, you can usually refresh the browser and try again)

(Note 2: it seems important to mention: this app is not libre software. This needs more consideration to see if I can align to this. For similar open-source projects, take a look at the docs.)

I recently stumbled upon Keet, which is a peer to peer messaging app with video calls and file sharing.

This app has a lot going for it:

• The user experience is really good
• Free and open source
• Privacy friendly (no datacentre, server or middleman between you and the people you are talking to)
• Better quality since there's no throttling of traffic
• No file size limit

I'm baffled that this app seems like a well kept secret, so I just wanted to share it with you guys.

To me, peer to peer technology seems really interesting because it addresses the root cause of many of the harms that plagues the modern day internet: surveillance, platform silos, the market dominance of multi-national tech-conglomerates, energy usage of datacentres, etc.

What do you think? Can P2P be the solution to these problems?

I know I could and should encrypt whole drives but I want another layer of protect specific folders when my devices are unlocked, a password. I want the folders to behave like regular folders where I can add or remove files as usual, without a clunky UX like password protected zips. I looked it up and didn't find any straightforward solutions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31957116

Millions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies, according to an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), including several that were recently owned by a sanctioned firm with links to China’s military.

TTP’s investigation found that one in five of the top 100 free virtual private networks in the U.S. App Store during 2024 were surreptitiously owned by Chinese companies, which are obliged to hand over their users’ browsing data to the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws. Several of the apps traced back to Qihoo 360, a firm declared by the Defense Department to be a “Chinese Military Company." Qihoo did not respond to questions about its app-related holdings.

[...]

VPNs allow users to mask the IP address that can identify them, and, in theory, keep their internet browsing private. For that reason, they have been used by people around the world to sidestep government censorship or surveillance, or because they believe it will improve their online security. In the U.S., kids often download free VPNs to play games or access social media during school hours.

However, VPNs can themselves pose serious risks because the companies that provide them can read all the internet traffic routed through them. That risk is compounded in the case of Chinese apps, given China’s strict laws that can force companies in that country to secretly share access to their users’ data with the government.

[...]

The VPN apps identified by TTP have been downloaded more than 70 million times from U.S. app stores, according to data from AppMagic, a mobile apps market intelligence firm.

[...]

The findings raise questions about Apple’s carefully cultivated reputation for protecting user privacy. The company has repeatedly sought to fend off antitrust legislation designed to loosen its control of the App Store by arguing such efforts could compromise user privacy and security. But TTP’s investigation suggests that Apple is not taking adequate steps to determine who owns the apps it offers its users and what they do with the data they collect. More than a dozen of the Chinese VPNs were also available in Apple’s App Store in France in late February, showing that the issue extends to other Western markets.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/23777198

especially estonians

Fastbackgroundcheck. com says there's info on me on truthfinder, spokeo, peoplefinders and instantcheckmate. When I try going through all four of those sites takes a super long time, including a few times in the past when I tried getting reports on myself.

The progress bars reach 100% and reset continously. If these sites are legimate like some reddit users claim, then why or be upfront about wanting me to pay? Right now I'm convinced that these sites are snake oil, maybe they work if you pay but the behavior of the free options turn me off. They act 100% like typical scam websites, the kind that asks you to complete three surveys on external sites with fake progress bars.

Basic info like my full name, address, age, and siblings can be found with search engines easily but I feel like there's no point in trying to wipe it if there aren't methods that could definitely work.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19675447

Archived version

Here is an Invidious link for the video (and 'Lola' part starts at ~5 minutes)

To demonstrate this, Sadoun introduces the audience to “Lola,” a hypothetical young woman who represents the typical web user that Publicis now has data about. “At a base level, we know who she is, what she watches, what she reads, and who she lives with,” Sadoun says. “Through the power of connected identity, we also know who she follows on social media, what she buys online and offline, where she buys, when she buys, and more importantly, why she buys.”

It gets worse. “We know that Lola has two children and that her kids drink lots of premium fruit juice. We can see that the price of the SKU she buys has been steadily rising on her local retailer’s shelf. We can also see that Lola’s income has not been keeping pace with inflation. With CoreAI, we can predict that Lola has a high propensity to trade down to private label,” Sadoun says, meaning that the algorithm apprehends whether Lola is likely to start buying a cheaper brand of juice. If the software decides this is the case, the CoreAI algo can automatically start showing Lola ads for those reduced price juice brands, Sadoun says.

TL;DR: With Firefox 56, Mozilla combined Firefox Health Report and Telemetry data into a single setting called “technical and interaction data”, which was then enabled by default. This data was then shared with advertising partners on a de-identified or aggregated basis.

Privacy Badger on Bluesky

Using an older version of Firefox?

ALL add-ons will stop working on Firefox versions older than 128 (or older than ESR 115.13+) on March 14, in just a few days from now.

To keep using your add-ons including Privacy Badger, you will need to update Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/root-certificate-expiration

I haven't played Minecraft since 2015, but I get the feeling I might again in the new few years as I wanna find new hobbies. I know that game has changed a whole lot but I don't have any official online data on it.

I've had this Microsoft account for over a decade and its probably full of personal information that I wanna let go of, I've already exported all my data. I would need to pay $30 for another copy of Minecraft, same price I paid in 2013. I just did a bunch of searching and its not possible to transfer my Minecraft license to another account.

We're very happy to share Techlore's video review of the BusKill Kill Cord.

Can't see video above? Watch it on PeerTube at neat.tube or on YouTube at youtu.be/Zns0xObbOPM

Disclaimer: We gave Techlore a free BusKill Kit for review; we did not pay them nor restrict their impartiality and freedom to publish an independent review. For more information, please see Techlore's Review Unit Protocols policy. We did require them to make the video open-source as a condition of receiving this free review unit. The above video is licensed CC BY-SA; you are free to redistribute it. If you are a video producer and would like a free BusKill Kit for review, please contact us

To see the full discussion about this video on the Techolore forums, see:

• discuss.techlore.tech/t/buskill-secure-your-laptop-in-seconds

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The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion/