Privacy & FOSS

So I’m not sure if y’all are following this series, its insane and it gets really dark. I highly recommend.

Scenario: you’re using opensource software and you aren’t donating yet, however you have enough money left over every month to do so. Something(s) is holding you back from donating. Think about what that is and what would have to change for you to change that.

I sadly kinda need Reddit because it’s the only place where I can talk to other Turkish LGBTQ+ people, and I need my account to be anonymous because of the recent developments in Turkey, where the majority government is about to propose a bill that will literally make publicly identifying as LGBTQ illegal.

Hi there. I’m looking for advice to improve my online privacy while browing on android. I’m currently using vanilla Firefox, strict enhanced Tracking protection (fix major site errors), HTTPS-only mode, default dns, no technical data collection, delete cookies / cache / page data on quit. As extensions, I use only Decentraleyes and uBlock extensions. However, I heard vague warnings from the privacy community about using vanilla Firefox with self-hardened privacy-conscious settings, because my settings and yours might be sligthtly different, introducing entropy that can be used for fingerprinting. The only browser I recognize by name on F-Droid is LibreLynx Lite, which is barely customizable (e.g., no ‘decline cookies’ or ‘delete cookies on restart’ setting without subscribing to pro) and was last updated 7 months ago. People on the web recommend ‘Mull for android’, but that was last updated in 2024 and is not on F-droid anymore. I am not generally opposed but a little candid about using Brave or DuckDuckGo Browser, as these are built on Chromium and I would prefer to stay within the Firefox ecosystem. I am also naively a fan of ‘hiding in the crowd’: using a common browser / what looks like a common browser to a web page being more private than using a super niche one.

Brave Origin is now available for free on Linux!

My current car is old. I had a lot of repairs done on it recently. If I get a new car, I don’t want features. Lane assist, backup camera, DUI Camera, telemetry, auto breaking or other frankly silly features. Call me grumpy, but I find modern cars very distracting.

Looking to leave GMAIL and am currently testing Proton for a $1 a month. So far it’s pretty good and the issue I have is not with Proton, but with who I’m sending messages to. If I send an email to a gmail account my information is still sitting on a Google server. So is Proton worth it? Is something like Fastmail just as good over all due to how email works? With Fastmail I can get email for my whole family for $14 a month. I won’t have the VPN, ProtonPASS and other Proton apps, but are they worth the $12 a month for one person?

Hey all, until now I’m being super reluctant about using any AI tool. On top of all the privacy issues it obviously comes with it (I can’t believe there are people talking to ChatGpt and literally teaching them how to impersonated!), I have a feeling that it only does jobs that you are capable of doing with other tools, but since it looks like a person and not a computer, people start to fantasize that it will do everything they don’t know or don’t want to do it and become numb and stupid. But, maybe there are some uses for it and at my office we will soon have access to Claude, so I want to explore it and check for myself. My question is what precautions should I take and what limits should I put on my usage? I thought about creating a new email account just for signing up, but obviously that’s nothing nowadays.

Hi, a long time ago, when I was less informed on privacy risks on the internet, I used to use Doodle Poll. Using my work account (only used for work and no personal resons), I accessed it again after many years as need to arrange a work meeting. It has become a lot less useful that it was as they have clamped down on free tier features.

So, I have a question on Motorola Mobility. The company is Chinese-owned, but US-based. This means it’s subject to the invasive CLOUD Act, and that US kangaroo courts even can require parent companies to provide that data.

Hi. I’ve been unable to find any app for monitoring sleep that it’s not infested with ads, trackers, or in-app purchases.

Here are a few of my faves:

Gmail for android silently overwrites links in your emails, so it can track what you open