If I created a Udemy account with my Gmail, then what's the difference between signing in with email and signing in with Google? Thanks in advance.

I've been play around with ollama. Given you download the model, can you trust it isn't sending telemetry?

This is not a long post, but I wanted to post this somewhere. This may be useful if someone is doing an article about Google or something like that.

While I was changing some things in my server configuration, some user accessed a public folder on my site, I was looking at the access logs of it at the time, everything completely normal up to that point until 10 SECONDS AFTER the user request, a request coming from a Google IP address with Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html user-agent hits the same public folder. Then I noticed that the user-agent of the user that accessed that folder was Chrome/131.0.0.0.

I have a subdomain and there is some folders of that subdomain that are actually indexed on the Google search engine, but that specific public folder doesn't appear to be indexed at all and it doesn't show up on searches.

May be that google uses Google Chrome users to discover unindexed paths of the internet and add them to their index?

I know it doesn't sound very shocking because most people here know that Google Chrome is a privacy nightmare and it should be avoided at all times, but I never saw this type of behavior on articles about "why you should avoid Google Chrome" or similar.

I'm not against anyone scrapping the page either since it's public anyways, but the fact they discover new pages of the internet making use of Google Chrome impressed me a little.

Edit: Fixed a typo

Hi,

I'm looking for a E2EE and decentralized (or self hosted) videoconferencing that would have the following feature

• video or voice-only call
• share screen
• files transfer (optional)
• text chat

( all of it E2EE )

I'm considering Jitsi meet, that seem the meet those requirements

Do you know better alternatives or do you have remarks about Jitsi ?

Thanks.

Mornin' Been wondering if I should install GOS on my Pixel8 or keep my present setup with TC. I'm not conversant with the mechanics behind TC but it feels right to me. I don't use Google Apps and have been on F-Droid more often then Google Play. I do have a few apps which require net access hence using TC.

What say you..?

I am a long term GrapheneOS user and would like to talk about it. r/privacy on the redditland blocks custom OS discussions which I think is very bad for user privacy, and I hope this post will be useful to anyone who are in the hunt for better privacy.

Nowadays smartphones are a much bigger threats to our privacy and Desktop systems, and unfortunately manufacturers has designed them to be locked down devices with no user freedom. You can't just "install Linux" on most smartphones and it is horrible. And most preloaded systems spy on us like crazy. That was why I specifically bought a pixel and loaded GOS onto it.

According to https://grapheneos.org/features , they start from base AOSP's latest version, imptoves upon it's security and significantly hardens it. There's hardened_malloc to.prevent against exploitation, disabling lots of debugging features, disabling USB-c data, hardening the Linux kernel and system apps etc. They even block accessing the hardware identifiers of the phone so that apps cannot detect whqt phone you're using. That means with Tor and zero permissions given, apps are anonymous.

Compatibility with apps are best in Custom ROMs but there are still that can't work, especially if they enforce device integrity. Very few apps usually enforce that tho. Also their community isn't the friendliest but you can get help. Just don't try and engage too much or have too many debates.

Anyone else here use GrapheneOS, or any other privacy ROMs? What is your experience? Do you disagree on any point? Let's have a discussion!

EDIT: Just thanking everyone for the thoughtful responses. Really enjoyed reading everyone's takes here and will definitely think on things moving forward and try various configurations out!

Hi all, interested in your thoughts here. Recently signed up for Proton Unlimited via Black Friday sale mainly for email/VPN/drive. For passwords I've been happy with Bitwarden and DDG for email forwarding (plus you get a duck.com address which is just fun).

If you were me would you move over to ProtonPass to streamline, or keep these things broken up? On one hand I don't want all my eggs in one basket, on the other hand I feel like it means I am trusting my info to one Swiss-based org vs Proton + DDG/Bitwarden which are US based. Plus if I am paying for a service I feel a little less like the product in the long term.

Feel pretty ok with both options as my main objective is de-Googling, but interested to hear what has worked well for others. Appreciate any input!

Up until like a year or two ago, YouTube links always used to be pretty clean. The format was youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID]. A year or two ago, they started adding a tracking suffix on, so it would be youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID] &si=[tracking_ID].

Over the last day or so, I've noticed links with a different format, youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID]&pp=[tracking_ID] - only the pp= string is much longer than the si= string. This can only be because they're including more information in it. What that information is is anyone's guess.

This is basically a PSA to watch YouTube links more carefully, as people are by and large complacent with them (moreso than other links) and never even realised the si= change, let alone this new pp= change.

It could also be that the change to pp= is meant to circumvent communities, like this one, which automatically filter out the si= suffix. They may have decided to address that, then took the opportunity to make their tracking more severe.

Installed #GrapheneOS several days ago on my Pixel 8. It works great without any Google services! https://grapheneos.org/

Hi. Has anyone had experience with Riseup? How are they as opposed to Tuta or Proton? Iam just wandering if anyone did an analysis esp for activist. Thank u in advance.

I'm impressed at how obvious of a lie this is and how hard they're trying to do mental gymnastics to justify their argument.

The EMMC on my PC-TV finally broke down and I'd like to replace it with something that doesn't run an OS or will predictably fail with a countdown. But dumb TVs are hard to come by and monitors come at a premium at that size. I want to run a PC (DP/HDMI) and an SBC (HDMI) with it. I also have an S2 satellite cable, but that's secondary. I'd like to have ~43", 16:9, 4K but without an embedded smart-hub, ideally running of eeprom-firmware, or just anything independent of write-cycles. But I can't find any good options online. Are there companies for this. Comments and recommendations welcome.

Edit: I'm EU, hence the DVB-S2 cable. Scepter would be great, but doesn't run on EU power.

Edit: I've pretty much settled on a philips 439P1/00. I'll give it another day, but it seems good. The PC over DP is my main focus and I can connect my own SBC for streaming. It lacks freesync but has adaptive sync and basic HDR. Being an office-monitor, it has no smarts and at ~600 bucks with consumer warranty and support it fits what I'm asking for well. Industry-signage wasn't really an option.

@Zagorath@aussie.zone wanted to know, should you expect privacy in public places?

Before I answer that, I would like to give my genuine thanks to everyone who responded in my previous post where I asked you for some controversial privacy topics. You did not disappoint, and I'm glad I will be able to cover them!

This question is a bit complex, depending on how you ask it. The answer also largely depends on what you believe. If you believe that privacy is a fundamental right, then privacy should be expected no matter where you go. If the question is "Can you expect privacy..." versus "Should there be privacy...", the answer changes dramatically.

Is there currently privacy in public spaces?

In many places, there is little to no privacy when you walk out the door. With Ring doorbells latching on to every home like a parasite, or security cameras clinging to the ceiling of every store you walk inside, surveillance is everywhere. This section won't cover whether or not surveillance is moral/ethical/justified, but either way surveillance infringes on privacy. Even with no surveillance cameras, Sarah-from-down-the-street is always on a video call with her bestie.

Saying "privacy in public" is a bit of an oxymoron, since no matter what you will always give up a little privacy the moment you walk out the door. Things you do privately in the bathroom are simply not allowed in public places.

Should there be more privacy in public spaces?

Now may be a good time to clear up a common misconception. What is privacy? Privacy does not mean obscuring every detail of your life. Privacy is the ability or choice to share or hide information about yourself. That is why surveillance cameras infringe on privacy: You have no control over what they record, who has access to those recordings, and what those recordings will be used for.

That sort of answers the question, too. If you believe privacy is a fundamental right, then there should be an expectation of privacy in public spaces, and so a reform needs to happen.

What are the real effects of privacy in public spaces?

People act differently when they know they are being surveilled. See the Panopticon for an experiment about that. It has negative effects, whether people realize or not.

@Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de told a story that I particularly love:

"Just last week, my partner and I were on a long hike. No one was around us so to loosen our muscles we started dancing like goofballs on the trail only to look up and find a drone hovering in the shadows recording us. I was embarrassed, but my partner is a very private person and was really upset. [...]"

When they expected to be in a secluded, private space, they freely expressed themselves. The moment they realized that someone had been watching, they became embarrassed or upset, like a switch had flipped. That is the real affect surveillance has on us. We express ourselves less freely, we conform to rules without question out of fear. Surveillance becomes a form of oppression on a wide scale.

I even have my own anecdote. I once took a trip to a small town. When I got there, I subconsciously looked around for security cameras. I do that to gauge how much privacy I currently have. I then noticed that I couldn't see any obvious security cameras. I stopped and looked around harder. The town had not a single security camera in sight. I have almost no way to describe the sense of calm and relaxation that washed over me. It felt like someone giving you a massage after being stressed all week, or finally being honest with everyone about a secret you've been keeping. It was such a nice feeling to walk around a town privately.

Why do we have surveillance?

The main justification for these surveillance measures is to prevent crime. It makes sense intuitively, if you have an eye on every corner you can catch any criminal easily. However, it ignores one massive flaw: criminals will always find a way to do things privately. If you make privacy illegal, it doesn't change anything, because criminals won't follow the law anyways.

I have my own quote about this, that I love very much: “Unjust laws only burden the just, as the lawless will not heed them.” Removing privacy only hurts the people who will follow and abide by the rules. You're removing the privacy of the good people, while the criminals will program "illegal" software to achieve privacy. Giving privacy to everyone means that, yes, it makes criminals' jobs easier, but it means we can shift to actually solving the problems that cause the crimes in the first place. "The best way to conquer bad ideas is with better ideas, not by suppressing ideas." - Naomi Brockwell

"The optimal crime rate is not zero. We can't burn down the entire world just to stop somebody from stealing a pack of gum. The cost is too high. There is a percentage of crime that is going to exist. It's not ideal, but it is optimal." - Nick We need privacy for a free society. Surveillance is not the answer for fighting crime. There are ways to combat crime without infringing on privacy.

Is blurring your house on the map unreasonable?

This question is another one brought up by @Zagorath@aussie.zone. Blurring your house is a way to achieve some privacy, and in that scope, it is good to do. However, as @RiderExMachina@lemmy.ml points out, it could cause someone to do the opposite and start looking closer into why your house is blurred. That's called the Streisand effect.

Site note: I find it hilarious why the Streisand effect is named how it is. The story goes that Barbra Streisand tried to hide her place of residence by suppressing a photograph that had made it to the public. That, of course, had the opposite effect, drawing more attention to the photograph and her residence. Then, even more attention was drawn, because the Streisand effect got named after her and the very same image is now plastered on Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, blurring your house on the map doesn't provide much privacy, since the organization who photographed it still has a clear picture of it. It doesn't stop the surveillance. It's not unreasonable to blur it, though. You should still want privacy against the Streisand effect. The best solution would be a quiet legal take down of the images altogether.

I have another story to go along with this. I got a job, and it was later revealed in conversation to me and my coworkers that our boss likes to look up everybody's address on Google Street View. Everyone was uncomfortable with that, but our boss saw no issue with it. This is a legitimate case where blurring your house is a good idea. Sure, people may try to ask you why it's blurred, or try to look up pictures on other sites like housing retail, but it still prevents (frankly, creepy) bosses from snooping at your home.

Conclusion

Privacy is a fundamental part of our lives, and surveillance infringes on that. We should all do our part to gain what privacy we can, because every bit of privacy you gain now is freedom you will have in the future. This was a lot of fun to write, and I thank @Zagorath@aussie.zone and all of you for your suggestions. I will continue to tackle each of the topics asked in the previous post one by one.

Thank you for reading!

- The 8232 Project

cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/5041387

Take a break from Twitter

• If you use the Tor Browser or the Mullvad Browser you will see the popup of NoScript - because your identity at X can be open to other websites in your web browser. Keep your privacy in mind.

• You may leave traces without realizing it. The way you write, what you read about and how much, when you are active, etc. Remember, if you are a Monero XMR user, you may not want this at all!

• Mental hygiene; it feels good not to be at the mercy of the posts there for a while. Try it out!

• It usually takes up a lot of your time without you doing anything productive.

• Elon Musk himself is a major disinformation disseminator on his own platform. But many of the posts there are also questionable.

• X Using Your Tweets to Train Its AI. And even if you have deactivated the artificial intelligence option, the users you interact with probably haven't deactivated it. Because it was introduced without notifying the users.

If you don't know me, I make frequent write ups about privacy and security. I've covered some controversial topics in the past, such as whether or not Chromium is more secure than Firefox. Well, I will try my hand again at taking a look at some controversial topics.

I need ideas, though. So far, I would like to cover the controversy about Brave, controversy around Monero and other cryptocurrencies, and controversy around AI. These will be far easier to research and manage than Chromium vs. Firefox, for example. I'd like to know which ideas you have!

Which controversial privacy topics do you know of that you would like to see covered?

PLEASE DO NOT ARGUE ABOUT THEM IN THE COMMENTS!

Please save any debate for if/when I make a write up about the topic. Keep the comments clean, and simply upvote ideas you would like to see covered. I won't be able to cover everything, so it helps bring attention!

Above all else, be kind, even if you don't agree with an idea or topic :)

So I was checking my Proton Mail inbox, as I usually do, when I came across a hilarious email in my spam folder.

Your Mailbox storage is 99% full

You are currently using 4852.3 MB of 5000.00 MB available

Don't risk losing new incoming messages, Follow below to increase your email account storage.

Increase Your Email Storage

I was very careful not to click on any links in the email.

I was not fooled even for a second. It was impossible for me to have run out of storage. You know why? Because I paid for a Proton Unlimited subscription a few months ago, and I have more than enough storage!

The fact that I got this email means someone got access to my email address, which makes it hard to narrow it down because I used to sign up for a LOT of services. I've started using Addy to create new aliases, but I really wish I had done that sooner, so I could see who sold me out.

Here's a lesson: always use an email alias, so that when/if this happens, you'll know who leaked your email address!

In a new filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson writes that defendant Mukhtar Shariff “knew about the bribery attempt” and deleted the encrypted messaging app Signal from his phone when Judge Nancy Brasel ordered the defendants to surrender their devices to the FBI as the trial was concluding.

The deleted app included texts that Shariff’s co-defendant Abdiaziz Farah sent about the bribery plot, as well as a video of the cash delivery. But Thompson writes that even though investigators could not find the complete set of messages between Farah and Shariff, FBI digital forensics experts recovered notifications of incoming messages to Shariff’s phone from Farah.

With over 3 billion users globally, mobile instant messaging apps have become indispensable for both personal and professional communication. Besides plain messaging, many services implement additional features such as delivery and read receipts informing a user when a message has successfully reached its target. This paper highlights that delivery receipts can pose significant privacy risks to users. We use specifically crafted messages that trigger delivery receipts allowing any user to be pinged without their knowledge or consent. By using this technique at high frequency, we demonstrate how an attacker could extract private information such as the online and activity status of a victim, e.g., screen on/off. Moreover, we can infer the number of currently active user devices and their operating system, as well as launch resource exhaustion attacks, such as draining a user's battery or data allowance, all without generating any notification on the target side. Due to the widespread adoption of vulnerable messengers (WhatsApp and Signal) and the fact that any user can be targeted simply by knowing their phone number, we argue for a design change to address this issue.