Em Adespoton

It’s worth noting that a sizeable number of Tor exit nodes are actually run by the German government. Meaning: they know exactly what’s going through those nodes.

So all they need to do to unmask a Tor source IP is control the first hop too. They’re in a position where they can narrow searches down to activity they’re actually interested in without significantly decreasing the privacy of other Tor users, and then they can peel back the onion.

This has been the case since shortly after Tor was created.

Google implemented WebP because they can control it without having to pay anyone else. Apple then bungled the client-side implementation.

Funny… I did the same thing. Chose Grand Central as my provider… who were then acquired by Google and became Google Voice :-/

These days I still have my GV number as it’s a known number, but I never call out on it. When possible I use Signal; I’ve also got burner talkatone numbers that change regularly, and Matrix/Element for any regular communication.

I figure the combination means that no provider has a full picture and all of those providers are unlikely to aggregate to the same databases.

The Beelink ones come with Windows 11 Home; since this is a privacy community, it should be obvious that that’s not all that great for privacy.

For wireless keyboards; I just got a cheap Bluetooth one with a trackpad because I knew it would be abused.

Take a TV, strap a mini PC like one of those BeeLink ones to the back (it comes with mounting hardware), plug an HDMI cable between them. Connect a wireless keyboard with trackpad, and congrats! You’ve got a big screen computer.

The next bits really depend on your technical know-how. What I did was wiped Windows from the PC and installed Linux, then installed Jellyfin and Firefox.

Jellyfin works as a media server so I can stream my own collection of videos/images anywhere im my home, and Firefox with uBlock Origin means I can log in to any streaming service I want, without the ads. And I can log into my (on-device) Jellyfin server the same way.

I’ve tried all the interfaces like XBMC/Kodi and Plesk etc. and find it’s more of a headache than just having a keyboard handy.

So… doomed?

I had this experience once in an Ikea, of all places. I calmly told the clerk that according to local laws (which I cited), it was illegal for them to demand that information from me (phone number and post code) to sell me anything, and if the computer wouldn’t let them do it, then they should call a manager for an override.

When the manager came, the clerk said “this person refuses to give me their info” — to which I added, “your computer refuses to comply with the law; please override and then notify HQ that they are in contravention of the law and liable for significant fines.”

The next time I went in, they still asked me for the info, but the clerk was able to override. I suspect they just put in fake info for everyone who refused to supply it.

Yeah; my reaction to the headline was “…and good riddance?”

I never signed up for Facebook in the first place because I knew some of the people involved in the original Facebook. I didn’t want them getting their hands on my personal info because I knew what they’d do with it… and they did.

Tor is indeed about providing cover. US Military and US and German covert operations use it, and hide in the noise. But in those situations, it’s a win/win, as they provide funding and everyone gets to have a somewhat secure channel.

I’d argue though that in any case where you don’t control the exit node, you have no expectation of real privacy. So it becomes a question of how much you’re willing to trade.

How do they know your phone number? Only a cryptographic hash of it is sent to their servers.

Signal is designed to collect meta-metadata. They don’t hold any information that can tie a person to their account, but they definitely know how those accounts interact via their servers.

Some people realized when Signal removed SMS support on Android that Signal is a private org that can make changes as they see fit, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Other people get stuck on the fact that Signal requires a legitimate phone number in order to operate.

In both of these situations, the people up in arms usually don’t understand WHY the changes were privacy and security improvements and make Signal a better platform. But the argument about not being fully in control still stands.

So it could be argued that Signal may keep you safer than if you try to roll your own Matrix or SimpleX server, and it’s definitely a better platform for anyone who wouldn’t have a clue how to set up and secure their own server. But people have definitely had reasons for leaving it.

Personally, I use both Signal and Matrix, and push average people towards Signal.

I thought people had been moving OFF signal lately?

Personally, I’m on signal, but never signed up for a Meta property because, well, it was obvious from the start that they had bad privacy controls that depended only on corporate promises.

It’s about time.

The phone isn’t going to end up in China from people passing them hand to hand; they’re going to be collected somewhere and bundled for shipping in an EM-protected covering of some sort. The record of the route they took right up until they go silent will be available for every phone. Looking at an aggregate map of this data should give the police a pretty good idea of what’s going on.

I suspect the difficulty is that the police need to get a data release from each individual involved and then get Google/Apple and/or the owners to voluntarily share the historical location data with the police… which most people aren’t willing to do out of an abundance of caution.

Folks say all sorts of things.

Personally, I’m fine with house spiders as long as they do their job AND don’t start laying eggs indoors.

Don’t nest where you hunt, house spiders. It never ends well.

Doesn’t even have to be new; I’ve got one at ~/Downloads in my fstab.

Until Elon decides to use it as leverage to get something he wants.

Why am I not seeing it on my new tab screens?

In reality, you can use any blogging solution; they can be hosted on I2P or TOR or WriteFreely or even Lemmy. A Lemmy community is essentially a P2P microblogging solution if used that way.

Then, just sign all your posts on the platform you choose.