I have to use Whatsapp, unfortunately. Are there any good alternatives to the default app on Android?

I'm worried about all the data it shares with Meta. I denied all permissions but this makes it less convenient, and the app probably still sends over the data that available without them.

If you use the privacy respecting Gboard alternative called FUTO keyboard, you've probably noticed that the built in swipe typing is HOT GARBAGE. (Typing this currently with two thumbs for this exact reason.)

Most keyboards improve their swipe algorithms by simply spying on you and logging your typing data. FUTO isn't about that, so they have built a simple webpage based typing game that you can use to improve their system in an ethical and voluntary manner! Just swipe the website's keyboard to type a provided sentence.

I love this, they can crowdsource the improvement without invading privacy!

Share with any relevant communities you're a part of. The more data, the better this gets.

Okay the title is a bit exaggerated, but honestly not far off. This post is very mundane and a bit long, but thought it fits the community.

I'm visiting my home country and went shopping for pants, there were "30% off everything!" signs with a tiny text underneath that said "member discount" (don't have membership). Not a problem, did not notice and I don't care for such marketing tricks to get you into the store but okay.

Picked up couple of pants, went to the cashier and they asked me "do you have our membership?" - I answered no and expected the follow up question whether I'd like to join, but, to my positive surprise the cashier just happily responded "okay, not a problem!" and continued to bag my stuff.

I stood ready to pay and then the cashier said "now I just need your phone number and you can pay". Hold up. What. I did not expect that, I honestly had a burst of anger inside me (never gonna take it on a cashier, they are just doing their job). I asked nicely why do I need to give my phone number and I was told that to register me as a member so I can get the discount.

I declined and said I don't want to join and would like to just pay.

The entire interaction after questioning why they need my phone number was awkward, as if I had been the first person to decline, the weirdo, aluminum foil hat wearing hermit.

This was just one of many interactions in the recent years that make me feel as if I was a weirdo for not sharing all my info around. The worst is when everyone keeps telling me "its just an app, just download it and use that why do you make things complicated" or "just sign up you don't need to pay anything".

Thank you for reading my mundane rant, would you like to hear more? Just sign up for my weekly mailing list! ~~Your email will be shared with our 12 453 partners~~

Hi :)

I am trying to find a good privacy-friendly Android-Keyboard that supports more then just emojis. I used to use OpenBoard and also tried out FlorisBoard but both do not support stickers or gifs. So I was hoping anyone of you has some ideas :)

On a linux machine I ran lsof -i while running tor just cuz; and I saw this plaintext URL that tor connected to, It persists even after i restart it or change identity, it is probably harmless but still is there some kind of event going on?

After federal police came to an employee’s house to ask questions, encrypted messaging company Session has decided to leave Australia and switch to a foundation model based in Switzerland.

• PayPal to Share Shopping Details
• LinkedIn Opts You In for AI Data Sharing
• 23andMe May Sell Your DNA Data

I'm considering buying a new TV. There's plenty of posts about trying to find dumb TVs, comments like 'just don't connect it to the internet/network'.

What surprises me is that there isn't a good overview of (popular) TVs or brands with basic information, answering for each TV:

• Can you use it as a basic TV by choosing not to enable smart features during setup?
• Can you opt out by just not accepting a bunch of agreements?
• Does it have a camera and/or microphone? Where in the device are these? Is there a physical disable switch for microphone?
• Does it nag when not connected to any network?
• Does it have higher than normal power usage when not able to phone home?
• Has it been discovered to connect to public WiFi networks? Does it have the (theoretical) ability to connect to 5G mobile networks?

And similar.

There are extensive lists with a lot of detail about VPN services but nothing like that for TVs. Am I ignorant of a good source, or does this just not exist (yet)?

If one chats/mails with a person using Windows, despite using secure private protocols, every message will be stored by Microsoft's Windoze Recall. Either I'm missing something but this feature seems like the most grotesque breach in online privacy/security.

What are ways to avoid this except for using obfuscated text?

This has to be against some kind of law right?

Swedish author and famous pro-Ukraine blogger Lars Wilderäng (Cornucopia) reports today that the Swedish security expert Karl Emil Nikka has revealed that Kagi is using the Kremlin propaganda tool Yandex as a backend for searches.

Wilderäng speculates this might mean search terms are leaking to Russia, while others worry about how Kremlin thus can get their talking points into western search results.

Security expert Karl Emil Nikka tells us that the search engine Kagi, popular among tech geeks, uses Russian Yandex, which was introduced after the full-scale invasion. This, of course, gives Russia the opportunity to look at what is searched for via Kagi.

Link (in Swedish), see 11:22 update: https://cornucopia.se/2024/10/uppdateras-ryssland-medger-bruk-av-c-stridsmedel-mot-ukraina-rysk-pilot-som-mordade-68-ukrainare-ihjalslagen-med-hammare-bland-de-allra-storsta-ryska-forlusterna-under-kriget-igar/

Latest news i was able to find: https://last-chance-for-eidas.org/

I cite that article:

Last week, representatives of the European Parliament, Council and Commission announced they had signed off on the eIDAS Regulation and that a vote in Parliament’s ITRE committee will be held on November 28th. We understand that although no changes have been made to Article 45, there were last-minute changes to the accompanying Recital 32. However, the EU has still not published the agreed legal text. There are now less than 13 days until the vote and the cyber security community, civil society and the public are still unable to read the proposed regulation, let alone scrutinize its impacts.

After some investigation and benchmarking, it looks like the best PIR protocol for this use case is YPIR+SP (from February). On a single compute- and network-constrained server, with users on constrained (and possibly metered) networks, this would amount to providing service to up to 1000 users while keeping latencies reasonable; by (quadratically) scaling the server(s) enough, that could become up to 100,000. That means this method of message routing could definitely work, although I look every day in case new protocols are published.

I saw a few VPN extensions on Mozilla's addon store but they require full access and is closed source . Foxy proxy seems open source and doesn't seem to be collecting any data for themselves and I'm hopping that combined with https sites only give the proxies which sites im visiting even if they wanted to sell me out CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG THO . and i don't trust my isp much so it doesn't matter to me if they are selling that only but those vpn extensions will have acess to everything on every site . so yea feel free to correct me on anything and reccomend any .

edit : I don't want recommendations for vpn or any other way like changing dns etc . I just want to change the location on only firefox for android to get past some censorship and geo blocking . if you have any other way to achieve that or better extension than froxy proxy feel free to recommend .

edit : is there anyway to configure proxies on android firefox without using an extension ? i have access to about:config as i use fennec from fdroid .

Anyone try out these hotspots? Any opinions? The cost is comparable or cheaper to buying directly from a phone provider. Are the hotspot devices decent? Customizable?

The non profit itself seems interesting and privacy focused. Their OS seems well maintained and it "just works".

Hi guys, as title suggests how can i extract desired apk file (that is armv8a and En) from app bundles (apkm and apks) ?

We’ve been anticipating it for years,1 and it’s finally happening. Google is finally killing uBlock Origin – with a note on their web store stating that the ...

For example, on WhatsApp, use the whole 25 character limit for profile name. Examples:

Bob Moved To Signal.org

Alice MovedTo Signal.org

CharlieMovedTo Signal.org

Say Signal.org, not Signal, because they won't know it's an app.

Use your about section too. Same on Discord, Steam, Instagram, etc.

I download the apk file from Whatsapp website to install in GrapheneOS, and I've noticed that notifications for messages are very delayed from 15 minutes to no notifications at all until I turn on phone screen and then all of the messages come through. Is there other Whatsapp users with similar issues with functionality?

Signal functions good but there have been times of small delays with messages coming through to get a notification.

hi guys!! ( linux users don't jump on me pls i only use windows for some apps) so i was noticing that my windows os is full with microsoft garbage that consumes my ram and network speed for nothing!! like shitty edge!! and looked for a solution and i found debloating. but i need to make a backup first in case something goes wrong . local disk is : 237gb - used 133gb = 103gb free i have a 64gb usb i want to make a high compressed backup for everything including my windows 11 is it possible with that 64gb usb? and what software to use pls? pls don’t tell using a cloud !! 😓i have a slow internet cuz i live in a rural area. thanks in advance to anyone!

With the looming presidential election, a United States Supreme Court majority that is hostile to civil rights, and a conservative effort to rollback AI safeguards, strong state privacy laws have never been more important.

But late last month, efforts to pass a federal comprehensive privacy law died in committee, leaving the future of privacy in the US unclear. Who that future serves largely rests on one crucial issue: the preemption of state law.

On one side, the biggest names in technology are trying to use their might to force Congress to override crucial state-level privacy laws that have protected people for years.

On the other side is the American Civil Liberties Union and 55 other organizations. We explained in our own letter to Congress how a federal bill that preempts state law would leave millions with fewer rights than they had before. It would also forbid state legislatures from passing stronger protections in the future, smothering progress for generations to come.

Preemption has long been the tech industry’s holy grail. But few know its history. It turns out, Big Tech is pulling straight from the toxic strategy that Big Tobacco used in the 1990s...

https://github.com/umutcamliyurt/MockTraffic

I've looked through Obtainium source code a while back and there seems to be no hash verification whatsoever. Looks too susceptible to supply chain attacks to me.

I don't like that Aurora Store sends a list of installed applications to Google and the only way to stop it is to blacklist.

Is there an option that combines multiple sources together like Obtainium but contains automatic hash verification for added security (I am aware updates are protected by Android)? Something I can use to download non-FOSS apps from a mirror but make sure it's the APK from the Play Store?