I have an android phone that had some unnecessary apps which i wanted to remove . Today i was reading up on how to remove it and came across shizuku and canta which seemed easy enough so i borrowed my friends phone to use his hotspot (you have to use wireless debugging for shizuku to work and it needs to connect to a hotspot) and connected it and removed my apps . As i was at his place and reading up on all the apps to remove and etc i was connected to his phone for a good 2-3 hours while having usb debugging and wireless debugging and shizuku on .

And now it just hit me that i may have done more damage by doing that than letting the bloat be cause the guy is infamous for having all kinda malware apps and games on his phones and computers and i have seen and jocked about it today too :(. So my question is how much did i mess up ? could his malicious phone and apps have installed or messed up my device while connected ? how much access did that phone have over my device ? The thing is none of the shizuku guides or reddit posts had any warnings about needing to connect to a secure network and me being the idiot i am didn't think of that .How to check if i messed up and whay should i do ? Also for the next time would a random router be secure to do this on this ? or is a personnel computer/phone necessary ?

UPDATE : Have scanned it with hypatia and extended list and no positives have come up . The smart play would prolly be to wipe the phone but i have too much things on it and have customized it to my liking a lot throughout the years to do it on suspicion . Should i ? a lot of lemmings are saying its a niche attack vendor but i have not yet seen anyone explaining if it was possible and how ? or what all should i do better next time . Do feel free to chip in .

Basically create an alias for every combination to prevent privacy cross contamination.

For instance, not only should you make an email alias for an Eventbrite account, but for every organization you sign up for events with. You are required to enter an email (any email) for the event, which can be seen by both Eventbrite and the organization. If you enter in the email of your Eventbrite account then the org could give that away, resulting in email spam and you can't be sure if it was either Eventbrite itself or the org that sold you out. If that happens then you would probably want to delete email address but then you have to change it in other places you need to send/receive emails from.

Another example is Discourse forum sites. While Discourse is open source and self-hostable, you may not always be sure if a Discourse site is self-hosted or using paid hosting. A lot online places have both their own website and a separate discourse site. Bitwarden's forum site doesn't have a sign-in option using your Bitwarden.com account, and Raindrop.io uses canny.io to track app feedback which has also uses its own login. (I'm actually glad I made an alias for every single Discourse forum site before realizing all of this).

Shows all the information Google gets from just one photograph, using Ai.

On Librewolf i got 16.48 bits of information, on TOR browser 10.32 bits, but on Tails I managed to get only 9.3 bits.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

Hello I use GOS have for almost a year and finally removed sandboxed play services in my main profile and only use Aurora for my bank app and Apple Music in my main profile still have Google Voice in private space but seperated from my main profile all my apps are only FOSS other than the 2 apps from aurora and it feels so good to finally say that. I just wanted to share my big news with you and hope you can all ditch Google apps/services as I have its amazing how my spam calls/texts have stopped or become less the more I degoogled.

I hope everyone has a great Degoogle/privacy enchancing experience

Any better replacements for Google Voice welcome in the comments if there is any.

There are lot of people in the privacy communities who are shaming and attacking those of us who want take take privacy seriously. more than just using firefox and a vpn. So many people are trying to influence the privacy community to not use whonix or tor browser. That it's paranoid and extreme to leave your phone at home. And so on.

They keep pushing this propaganda without even knowing what they are talking about. They will keep spamming everywhere that you don't need to protect your firmware from physical access adversaries because the only adversaries who can do something like that are feds and feds will never target you unless you are a cartel leader or running a darknet market or something very terrible.

But these same people who spread this propaganda can't even tell you what the difference is between bios and uefi. Which means they have no idea what they are talking about and are just spreading propaganda/disinformation.

Why would they do that? They are probably american feds. We all know there is lots of evidence of feds like fbi,nsa,cia corruption and they all hate privacy and keep spamming their propaganda about if you have nothing to hide then you don't need privacy. With that in mind it's obvious that they are doing at least some sort of propaganda/influence campaigns to slow down, derail, end privacy activism.

We also know it doesn't take much to become a terrorist. UK gov has officially publicly announced that anyone on X who retweets an ongoing protest is a terrorist and they will be arrested. Elon musk is officially a terrorist and the uk gov has repeatedly asked usa to hand him over. So it's very easy to become targeted by feds, you dont have to do anything bad, just use freedom of speech.

And in france it was many times in the news about a group of friends who were arrested for using Signal. A girl they tried to convince to start using signal called the police and said they are using anonymous communication called Signal and then they were arrested and all their computers taken and forensics went through all the data on their computer and judge said its criminal evidence they have ad blockers on their browser.

It's an infinite list of evidence about how tyrannical the feds are and it doesn't take anything to become targeted by them, just bad luck.

Imagine if you are traveling and go to a hostel and tell the people you're staying there together with that your computer is off limits, no touching it and you will know because you have lots of security to detect tampering. If they start gossiping about this and then call the police you will probably have your computer confiscated and then forensics will go through it. Or maybe they'll send an undercover hacker to try some covert physical access attacks.

And this is just talking about feds being adversary. There are also criminals that are hackers. And feds can be criminals too, like the high ranking cia officer who recently traveled south america and drugged and raped dozens of women before he was finally caught.

This all leads to my suggestion. I think we need to stop the feds influence and propaganda campaigns against the privacy communities. Stop shaming and attacking people for wanting more privacy than you. We need to start banning these people. Are there any privacy communities remaining where you can say you're using tor browser without getting attacked for being an "extremist" and paranoid just because you use tor browser or leaving phone at home?

I'm happy there are so many that agree with me. Remember to not get stuck in the details but it's about the bigger picture I'm saying here. To the few who are questioning the little stories I said and asking for sources: I didn't think it was necessary, i honestly believed most here would have heard of it. Of course you won't find an "official" source because of all the corrupt censorship the governments are doing. That france story was a hot topic in all the privacy and tech communities when it was happening. I found discussions everywhere about it. If you can't find any good sources for these stories then I maybe will have trouble finding it too, maybe it is gone because of censorship. And even if I do find it, then it will just give the feds more meta data about me because they are probably angry at me for making this post and want to find me and punish me for making this post. I bet half the downvotes are from feds.

I want firefox on my laptop to only go through a VPN and the easiest solution I came up with is forcing firefox SOCKS5 Proxy Docker Container which goes through a Mullvad gluetun docker container. I connect to my home server via tailscale

Browser < -tailscale- > SOCKS5 Docker <

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gluetun Docker <

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Internet

Is that a good idea? It seems a little overengineered, but simpler than running two VPNs on one machine?

Thanks

I just did this on a website that said my Simplelogin alias isn't allowed for signup, but changed it successfully after the fact from a disposable email.

(I'm aware that many Lemmy users hate Reddit. this discussion would be useful for anyone that Lemmy users that also use Reddit)

This came as a big surprise to many users on places like r/help and r/bugs, including me. Reddit made this post last week on it: Say goodbye to new.reddit on Dec 11, 2024 : r/modnews.

Seeing this r/privacy post: sh.reddit (shreddit) is a Google spyware machine designed to de-anonymize you : r/privacy, New New reddit (2023 Reddit redesign) pings Google repatcha on every single page load. I saw the comments but its not clear how to counter this other than using old.reddit.com (which I like even less than 2023 reddit) or using 3rd party apps.

Hello all,

I'm looking to switch over to move privacy focused setup, so far i have a VPN, and will be making other changes. Is there any email providers that you know respect privacy, or how one would do this?

Hi everyone! 😀

Found cool program that you can use to backup\save important file like pgp key, mnemonic and much more (up to 1.9 KiB) in encrypted QR-code and store\share it on a paper

It works only from CLI, but wish to ask, and hope to find someone who can help:

• To make Small GUI and multiplatform release, for example AppImage, Deb, Flatpak or probably one page HTML version? So users can visually works with it not only from CLI

• Later add release of .apk file for Android to generate\scan protected QR’s and decrypt them?

I could help with translations on other languages ;)

https://github.com/matiaskorhonen/paper-age

Thanks! ✌️

https://windowsreport.com/mozilla-firefox-removes-do-not-track-feature-support-heres-what-it-means-for-your-privacy/

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/15995282

Real unfortunate news for GrapheneOS users as Revolut has decided to ban the use of 'non-google' approved OSes. This is currently being posted about and updated by GrahpeneOS over at Bluesky for those who want to follow it more closely.

Edit: had to change the title, originally it said Uber too but I cannot find back to the source of ether that's true or not..

Hey! ✌️

Open up for myself and want to share it with everyone this cool program to create LAN over Internet (P2P) -> https://gitlab.com/Monsterovich/lanemu/

I had success to create\join room but not chat, not ping ain’t works for me

Does anybody had try it or could try? Maybe there’s something blocking over NAT settings, don’t know… I also don’t get how it works over Torrent\DHT connection 🥲

Maybe any alternatives? I know Tailscale and NetBird, but maybe there’s some more?

Thanks 😀👍

Happy Christmas and Merry Hanuka!

If you're struggling to find something to buy your privacy enthusiast friend for the holidays, I have some gift ideas. As with any gift, not everyone will need these, but it can give you a good idea of what to look for. Feel free to submit your own suggestions, as well!

No affiliate links, no sponsors, no favorites. All prices are in USD. If a price is something like "$X.99" or "$X.49" or "$X39" I have rounded it up by one digit.

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Subscriptions

Some privacy tools come at a cost, and not all open source software can be used for free!

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Addy.io

Addy.io is an email aliasing service.

Pricing

Lite: $1 / month

Pro: $3 / month

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Bitwarden

Bitwarden is a cloud-synced password manager.

Pricing

Personal Premium: $10 / year

Personal Families: $40 / year

Business Teams: $48 / user / year

Business Enterprise: $72 / user / year

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Calyx Institute Internet Membership

The Calyx Institute Internet Membership provides you with a privacy respecting cellular hotspot.

Pricing

Contributor Yearly: $500 / year for first year, $400 / year thereafter

Contributor Quarterly: $150 / 3 months

Contributor Plus: $600 / year for first year, $500 / year thereafter

Sustainer Yearly: $750 / year for first year, $500 / year thereafter

Sustainer Quarterly: $175 / 3 months

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JMP

JMP is an open source phone number provider.

Pricing

Plan (USD): $5 / month + additional usage costs

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Mullvad VPN

Mullvad VPN is a virtual private network.

Pricing

1 month: $5.28 / month

Physical vouchers are also available through resellers.

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MySudo (PROPRIETARY)

MySudo is a proprietary aliasing software. I could not find any open source option for aliasing phone numbers, especially this cheap.

Pricing

SudoGo: $1 / month or $10 / year

SudoPro: $5 / month or $50 / year

SudoMax: $15 / month or $150 / year

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Privacy.com (PROPRIETARY)

Privacy.com is a proprietary financial transaction masking and aliasing tool. There are other options such as Revolut (open source), but Privacy.com seems to be the one that works best in the United States. Consider your threat model while using these tools.

Pricing

Plus: $5 / month

Pro: $10 / month

Premium: $25 / month

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Proton

Proton is a software suite that includes email, VPN, cloud storage, password manager, calendar, and wallet. Their pricing is extremely convoluted and difficult to navigate.

Pricing

Proton Unlimited 1 month: $13 / month

Proton Unlimited 12 months: $10 / month

Proton Duo: $15 / month

Proton Family: $24 / month

Mail Plus 1 month: $5 / month

Mail Plus 12 months: $4 / month

Drive Plus Monthly: $5 / month

Drive Plus Yearly: $4 / month

Proton VPN Plus 1-month plan: $10 / month

Proton VPN Plus 1-year plan: $5 / month

Proton VPN Plus 2-year plan: $4.50 / month

Pass Plus Monthly: $5 / month

Pass Plus Yearly: $3 / month

Proton Business Suite Monthly: $15 / user / month

Proton Business Suite Yearly: $13 / user / month

Mail Essentials Monthly: $8 / user / month

Mail Essentials Yearly: $7 / user / month

Mail Professional Monthly: $11 / user / month

Mail Professional Yearly: $10 / user / month

VPN Essentials Monthly: $9 / user / month

VPN Essentials Yearly: $7 / user / month

VPN Professional Monthly: $12 / user / month

VPN Professional Yearly: $10 / user / month

Pass Essentials Monthly: $5 / user / month

Pass Essentials Yearly: $2 / user / month

Pass Professional Monthly: $7 / user / month

Pass Professional Yearly: $3 / user / month

Drive Professional Monthly: $10 / user / month

Drive Professional Yearly: $6 / user / month

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Hardware

Not everything is digital. Hardware is the foundation for privacy, after all!

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Dumb Television

Smart TVs are so last century... and this century... and the next century... Enjoy the luxury of buying a "dumb TV" while it lasts, because your TV doesn't need to spy on you! There's no best option here. You might need to purchase a large monitor instead of a TV.

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Google Pixel

Google Pixel phones are one of the most secure devices, especially when you run a security/privacy focused custom Android distribution such as GrapheneOS. Other phones exist for this category, but the Google Pixel is a good baseline. Prices here are based on what are actively being sold on Google's own website.

Some things to look out for when installing a custom Android distribution:

• Make sure the custom Android distribution you want to install supports being installed on the device you get. GrapheneOS, for example, only supports Google devices.
• Make sure the device you purchase allows unlocking the bootloader.
• Make sure the custom Android distribution you want to install supports locking the bootloader after installation for the device you get. Some devices do not allow relocking the bootloader, and in some cases this can brick the device. Google Pixels generally have the best support for this.
• Make sure the device you purchase is carrier unlocked or the carrier allows OEM unlocking/bootloader unlocking. Some carriers (most notoriously Verizon) will disable this functionality to maintain a monopoly and will refuse to lift the restriction. Second hand sellers are often unaware of this and will mistakenly list the device as "carrier unlocked" when it is in fact not.

Pricing

Refurbished Pixel 6 128GB: $340

Refurbished Pixel 6 256GB: $390

Refurbished Pixel 6 Pro 128GB: $540

Refurbished Pixel 6a: $250

Refurbished Pixel 7 128GB: $430

Refurbished Pixel 7 256GB: $480

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 128GB: $630

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 256GB: $680

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 512GB: $780

Pixel 7a: $500

Pixel 8 128GB: $700

Pixel 8 256GB: $760

Pixel 8 Pro 128GB: $1,000

Pixel 8 Pro 256GB: $1,060

Pixel 8 Pro 512GB: $1,180

Pixel 8 Pro 1TB: $1,400

Pixel 8a 128GB: $400

Pixel 8a 256GB: $460

Pixel 9 128GB: $650

Pixel 9 256GB: $750

Pixel 9 Pro 128GB: $850

Pixel 9 Pro 256GB: $950

Pixel 9 Pro 512GB: $1,070

Pixel 9 Pro 1TB: $1,300

Pixel 9 Pro XL 128GB: $950

Pixel 9 Pro XL 256GB: $1,050

Pixel 9 Pro XL 512GB: $1,170

Pixel 9 Pro XL 1TB: $1,400

Pixel 9 Pro Fold 256GB: $1,500

Pixel 9 Pro Fold 512GB: $1,620

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OpenWrt One

OpenWrt One is the first router designed specifically to run OpenWrt. It's not the only supported device, and there are other open source router firmware projects, but this is a good out-of-the-box choice.

Pricing

This can currently only be purchased from unofficial resellers for $90.

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Qubes OS certified hardware

Qubes OS is likely the most hardened Linux distro available. They have their own list of certified hardware that comes with Qubes OS preinstalled. Those devices aren't the only ones capable of running Qubes OS. You can also check out the Hardware compatibility list and Community-recommended computers. These computers can run more than just Qubes OS, but if it's good enough to be certified by them, it will likely run anything else just as securely!

Pricing

NitroPad V56: Lowest $1,565.58

NovaCustom V56 Series 16.0 inch coreboot laptop: Lowest $1,256.40

NitroPC Pro 2: Lowest $1,614.73

Star Labs StarBook: Lowest $863.00

NitroPC Pro: Lowest $1,614.91

NovaCustom NV41 Series Lowest $930.60

Dasharo FidelisGuard Z690: Lowest $994.28

NitroPad T430: Lowest $737.79

NitroPad X230: Lowest $737.79

Insurgo PrivacyBeast X230: $1,341.46

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Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pis are miniature computers that are very useful for setting up proxy servers.

Pricing

There's endless configurations, but the most recent Raspberry Pi model is the Raspberry Pi 5. There are multiple resellers of this, and the cheapest one is the $50 Raspberry Pi 5 2GB

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Self-hosting hardware

A privacy enthusiast's best tool is being able to self-host certain things. There is no single device to self-host, but some ideas are:

• A server rack for general self-hosting
• A powerful GPU for self-hosting AI
• A self-hosted home automation kit

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Hardware Accessories

What is a piece of hardware without a few accessories? Modularity is always a benefit of modern technology.

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Camera covers

From laptops to webcams to phones, cameras are everywhere. If you don't fully trust the device you use and want some peace of mind, having an accessory to obscure the lenses of your cameras is a good thing to have. There are lots of options here depending on which camera you want to cover. Some phone cases even offer a sliding camera cover.

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CD/DVD/Blue-ray drives

Some CD/DVD/Blue-ray drives can allow you to preserve the physical DVDs that you have bought and paid for, that may soon be end-of-life. These devices allow you to read the contents of the disk, and save a digital copy of it for archival purposes. There is no best-option here, so look around to find one that fits.

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Data storage devices

Data storage devices are useful for many things such as backups, installing operating systems, booting live operating systems, data transfer, and more. The market here is huge and convoluted, so learn about different types of drives, different connectors, different connector versions (such as USB), etc. before making an educated decision.

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Hardware security keys

Hardware security keys allow your accounts to be locked with a physical form of multi-factor authentication. Many organizations sell these, and some of them even provide open source hardware/software. Here are a few common brands:

• Nitrokey
• OnlyKey
• SoloKeys
• YubiKeys

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Microphone blocker

Microphone blockers come in all shapes and sizes, but they all serve the same function: making sure your microphone is not able to hear anything. The effectiveness of some of these are debatable, given that most phones have multiple microphones, but it can be a fun gift nonetheless.

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Privacy screen protector

Privacy screen protectors are films that you apply over your screens to restrict viewing angles. This means that if someone were to look at your phone while standing next to you, they likely wouldn't be able to see what you're doing. These screen protectors are also available for laptops, smart watches, and other screens.

When buying these, make sure of the following:

• The screen protector supports fingerprint unlock for relevant devices.
• The screen protector actually works well.
• The screen protector will actually protect the device as a screen protector.
• The screen protector fits correctly for the device you're getting.
• The cameras will still work after the screen protector is applied to relevant devices.

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Wired headphones

Bluetooth can pose a privacy risk, and that is especially true when you need to play sensitive audio. One time I was in a hallway with my Bluetooth earbuds in, connected to my phone but not playing anything, when suddenly I heard a grainy piano song. My phone wasn't playing anything, and eventually the music just cut out. To this day I have no idea how it happened, but it does mean you should be careful with wireless headphones.

Wires can be annoying, but being able to fully turn off Bluetooth can give you peace of mind knowing that your audio stays inside the wire. Having high quality wired headphones can be a blessing, and even provide a better listening experience. It's worth looking at many brands, but Google still sells USB-C wired earphones and headphones from a few different brands. Here are a few:

Google Pixel USB-C™ earbuds: $30

AIAIAI Pipe 2.0 USB-C Earphones: $40

AIAIAI Tracks 2.0 Headphones: $60

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Currency

Anonymous payments are growing more and more difficult, so if you aren't sure what to buy, these are well appreciated options.

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Cash

Cash is one of the most anonymous methods of payment, and can be a privacy enthusiast's gold. Multiple small bills ($1, $5, etc.) are appreciated more than a few large bills ($20, $50, etc.) because many places do not accept cash in large bills. You can also gift some rare or interesting cash, such as $2 bills, half dollars, silver dollars, dollar coins, etc.

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Cryptocurrency

Getting cryptocurrency, especially anonymously, can be a long and painful process. If you are comfortable setting it up, this is a huge time saver and a great gift. Monero is generally considered the most private cryptocurrency, so that's a better choice than other cryptocurrencies. However, Bitcoin is the most popular and most widely accepted, even though it isn't very private. Try to obtain these through anonymous means such as using cash at cryptocurrency ATMs that may be in your city.

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Prepaid cards

There's usually no option to pay in cash online, but there are ways around this. If you buy gift cards or prepaid VISA cards with cash, it can be almost as anonymous as cash itself. Some good choices may include:

• Amazon Gift Cards: Amazon is very hard to use privately, but this can help significantly.

• Google Play Gift Cards: Google Play is one of the most secure ways of installing apps, but not all of them are free. Google Play gift cards can allow you to pay for apps anonymously, so you can maintain your security.

• Visa Prepaid Card: This is a catch-all solution for when there's no specific gift card available.

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Physical Items

As with hardware, not everything needs to be digital. There are plenty of items that are cheaper and good for almost anyone.

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Books

eBooks are a marvel, but they come with complications. Sometimes the formatting isn't right, sometimes you can't get them anonymously, and you need a device to even view it. If the digital apocalypse ever happens, the only way to access information will be through books. No ads, no eye strain. A good privacy related book you could buy is Michael Bazzell's Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear

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Calendar

Digital calendars can be convenient, but not always safe. Anything digital can risk being remotely accessed or spied on. Having a physical calendar means you can have the benefits of a calendar, without the need for a digital device. Plus, it comes with pictures that you get to pick.

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DVDs

Best paired with a DVD ripper, having physical copies of movies and games means no company can take it away from you with the push of a button. You have no ads, use no internet, no subscriptions, and have full quality.

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Faraday bags

Faraday bags and pouches are containers for your devices that block all incoming and outgoing signals. That means anything that goes inside of it will have no Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, NFC, etc. This is useful if you want to make sure your device isn't phoning home. This is an item that you may want to spend extra on, because lower quality ones can still leak radio signals.

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Merchandise

Privacy themed merchandise can be a good way to show that you care about privacy and to help spread it. You can find privacy merch anywhere, but NBTV (a privacy YouTuber) has a good selection of products: https://shop.nbtv.media/en-usd/

Monerochan my beloved

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Notebooks

Having everything in a digital notes app can be nice or convenient, but I much prefer to write a lot of things down in a physical notebook. From diaries to sketches, it's nice to take a break from your digital life to jot down some ideas, privately.

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Paper shredder

When you have sensitive documents that you need discarded, one of the best ways is a paper shredder. If you buy one of these, the best ones are ones that dice the paper or burn it entirely. Even those small squares can be pieced together again.

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Safes and lockboxes

Speaking of sensitive documents, where do you store those? A good place to store sensitive documents is in a safe or a lockbox. From government documents to your best ideas, they deserve to stay (in a) safe. It's good to make sure you buy a fireproof safe, just in case Fahrenheit 451 becomes more of a reality.

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Surveillance camera jackets

As the looming threat of widespread AI surveillance comes closer, defenses against them grow stronger. Generally, you have two options:

• A jacket that fights AI recognition

• A jacket that blinds cameras entirely

These can be expensive and hard to find, but the best way to fight surveillance.

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Ending notes

Thank you all for reading this! I hope it helps you find a gift for a privacy enthusiast you can't think of a gift idea for. You don't have to buy the exact things listed here, but it gives you a general outline with ideas. I know there are some great gift ideas I missed here, so please leave them in the comments to help out others!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, and have a nice day!

- The 8232 Project

About 70 percent of Ukraine's population uses Telegram as their main source of news, but the government is worried that the app is being used as a method of disinformation and spying by Russia. They are trying to pivot to apps like Signal instead, but it is difficult to break the habit of such a majority of the country.

You guys remeber Hungarian? The country that tried to run chatcontrol again just a few days ago? Ye those guys..

I bought a monitor since the smarts in my smart-tv died, making the entire display unusable. Now I wanted to use a separate SBC for smarts in the "dumb" monitor. I would have gone for a modded fire-stick, but Amazon in their infinite wisdom, sunset all versions except the 720p potato and the smart-speaker-cube. I'm currently using a RaspberryPi 4 and looking at argon one for a remote control case. Googles widevine does limit the DRM on some content I "own" though. With Amazon on course to EOL the more sane sticks, are there any well-moddable streaming-sticks/boxes, that bring the relevant codecs and DRMs?

In my (European) country now we can have a digital copy of the driving license on the phone. It specifically says that it's valid to be presented to law enforcement officers during a check.

I saw amazed in the beginning. They went from limited beta testing to full scale nationwide launch in just two months. Unbelievable. And I even thought "wow this is so convenient I won't need to take the wallet with me anymore". I installed the government app and signed up with my government id and I got my digital driving license.

Then yesterday I got stopped by a random roadblock check and police asked me my id card. I was eager to immediately try the new app and show them the digital version, but then because music was playing via Bluetooth and I didn't want to pause it, i just gave the real one.

They took it and went back to their patrol for a full five minutes while they were doing background checks on me.

That means if I used the digital version, they would had unlimited access to all my digital life. Photos, emails, chats, from decades ago.

What are you are going to do, you expect that they just scan the qr code on the window, but they take the phone from your hand. Are you going to complain raising doubts? Or even say "wait I pin the app with a lock so you can't see the content?"

"I have nothing to hide" but surely when searching for some keywords something is going to pop-up. Maybe you did some ironic statement and now they want to know more about that.

And this is a godsend for the secret services. They no longer need to buy zero day exploits for infecting their targets, they can just cosplay as a patrol and have the victim hand the unlocked phone, for easy malware installation

Immediately uninstalled the government app, went back to traditional documents.