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Cake day: Jun 01, 2023

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2 accounts consistently reporting the same IP, location and user habits etc being linked is more absurd than nobody ever noticing excessive uploaded data from their phones? It is very easy to monitor the amount of uploaded and downloaded data on a device, lots of people would have noticed by now. The amount of storage, bandwidth and processing power that would be required to monitor the audio from hundreds of millions of android users globally 24/7 would make this the dumbest business decision ever when there are so many easier and efficient ways to track users.


https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/33490543992467/Grand-Theft-Auto-Online-BattlEye-FAQ

Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online

Such a crappy way of wording it and trying to blame the steam deck when BattlEye has said that they have had linux and wine support long before the steam deck came out

Official Rockstar Community (RP) Servers will not require BattlEye to play. Community Server launchers will disable BattlEye as part of their launch processes.

What makes RP servers so special that they don’t need BattlEye?

https://www.pcgamer.com/battleye-anti-cheat-confirms-steam-deck-support/

BattlEye has provided native Linux and Mac support for a long time and we can announce that we will also support the upcoming Steam Deck (Proton). This will be done on an opt-in basis with game developers choosing whether they want to allow it or not.


Finally a good take. Or maybe I’m just a pessimist lol

Microsoft are masters at dancing around anti competitive regulation. Xbox is struggling, they’ve said so themselves. I think they’re going to focus more on Gamepass and the Windows Store so making it as difficult as possible for the likes of the Steamdeck to succeeded is in their best interest. If they can push companies to adopt their new framework and at the same time make that framework almost impossible to implement into wine then its a win win. They can hurt wine while painting it as better security so they’re isn’t another CrowdStrike incident.

Anticompetitive practices disguised as user security.

I know linux isn’t very popular for the general public but Apple has their own implementation of wine in development and Google has flooded schools with Chromebooks. If I was Michaelsoft, I’d want to crush the competition quickly and discreetly now before I implement my Windows subscription so people don’t have any good alternatives left


If your phone has a password on it then its data is going to be encrypted until you unlock the phone.

You can temporarily boot a twrp recovery image. It will let you put in your password and decrypt your storage.

You should be able to transfer the files to your PC with a cable then


For me the issue here is, why put so much time and energy into basically rebranding an LLM. I’ve seen LLMs running on RPi and android phones. Why not write a blog post showing how to run LLMs locally with existing tools for the best privacy instead and put more focus on their existing services. It just seems like they’re jumping on the AI bandwagon and charging a premium for an already freely available LLM.

I see some benefits of AI like quality tts when using OSM and stt when transcribing/translating audio but other things like Googles AI answers and Microsofts Copilot leave me scratching my head wondering why consumer would want this


Am I out of touch?

a writing assistant was one of the most requested features in our recent survey

Apparently, I am. People actually want this

For Proton Mail, 59% of respondents want an easier way to send end-to-end encrypted emails to non-Proton users, while 29% want a writing assistant for proofreading, grammar, and composing emails.

Nothing I hate more than not giving a link to the repo

Scribe relies on open source code and models, and is itself open source and therefore available for independent security and privacy audits

Not on their support page specifically for it either

Had to got to Reddit and look at their comments to find out they’re using Mistral

https://reddit.com/comments/1e68sof/comment/ldsbs24

We built Scribe in r/ProtonMail using the open-source model Mistral AI to empower anyone in need of email productivity to use a privacy-respecting alternative to r/ChatGPT or r/GeminiAI that:
 ❌ doesn’t log or save prompts
 ⛔️ doesn’t use your data for training
 🔎 open-source code that anyone can inspect
 🖥️ can be run locally, so your data never leaves your device
 
See the official announcement here: https://proton.me/blog/proton-scribe-writing-assistant

https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-7B-v0.1/discussions/8

Hello, thanks for your interest and kind words! Unfortunately we’re unable to share details about the training and the datasets (extracted from the open Web) due to the highly competitive nature of the field. We appreciate your understanding!


You could chance it, but they probably have logs of your IP/location data or they bought your data somewhere and so they could check, if they cared enough, but if you’re not an EU citizen and you live in an EU country then GDPR applies to you


Every few months I like to clear out my password manager of any accounts I don’t need anymore, usually just throwaway emails aliases.

I’ll usually attempt to log into any services that I know I’ve deleted/requested to delete to make sure they’re not accessible anymore and so far I haven’t been able to log in to any of them so I can only assume my requests are working.

I suppose if a service had a data breach, after my information was meant to be deleted, and I found my information there then I’d make a complaint to my regulator about not deleting my data. I would have proof of my request and their acknowledgement of the request so it’d be pretty silly of them not to delete it after saying they did

I rarely use anything but email aliases and fake information anyway and I never let online retailers save my card information. And if my address in on my account I change it to P. Sherman 42 Wallabyway Sydney before I delete/request to delete my account.


I spend too much time reading emails so I try to keep mine short, especially when they’re going to a generic email like support or privacy.

https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/

The GDPR does not specify what a valid request to erasure entails. An individual can make a request for erasure verbally or in writing. This request can also be made to any member of your organization, not just to a designated contact. As long as a request meets the conditions above, it is valid, even if it does not refer to “Request for Erasure” the “Right to be Forgotten,” Article 17, or the GDPR.

There’s no template to follow for a request. Once GDPR is mentioned, they usually just email back saying that they’re doing it or its done.

I haven’t come across any difficult companies but I’ve heard some make it as hard as possible and follow the Erasure Request form template in the link above and ask for proof of I.D etc


I usually just write

Hi,

Please delete my account and all data associated with this email in accordance with Article 17 of GDPR, I’m an EU citizen

Thanks x

I just assume if they haven’t made it easy to delete your account by now then they never will but these are really good points that will hopefully make companies change their policies, especially since its all things that benefit them


The “media network” is https://kinectivemedia.com/ and they have a link for US customers to opt out that leads to here https://uniteddigital.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_88OQmAbr20oeHn8 but of course you’re going to want to also read Qualtrics privacy policy before using their services https://www.qualtrics.com/privacy-statement/

Clicking https://kinectivemedia.com/ privacy policy links to https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/customer-data-privacy-policy.html

They collect the usual stuff you use for travel like name, address, payment details, biometrics, I.D etc and also

Information collected in your use of our mobile application(s) includes, but is not limited to:

  • With your consent, your pinpointed physical location information from technologies like GPS, Wi-Fi, or cell tower proximity (geo-location tracking)
  • With your consent, while at or near certain airports in the U.S., your pinpointed physical location will be tracked continuously to provide you location-based offers, services and other information. For more information, see the Location Services FAQ located on the side menu of the United App;
  • Your domain name;
  • Device ID or alternative ID where required by the platform provider;
  • Electronic data concerning operating systems and computing devices/browser, including types;
  • Features you use and links you click;
  • Amount of time spent in the application;
  • Installs and uninstalls;
  • Transaction details and history.

We may combine this information with information that we already have collected about you.

We collect information about you from third parties. If you make a reservation through a travel agent, we will obtain your travel information from that agent. We may also obtain information about you from our marketing partners, advertisers and other third parties.

We primarily use your information, including personal information, to provide our services to you and to fulfill your requests. In certain circumstances, such as for advertising purposes, we combine your information with other information that we have about you, that is publicly available and/or that we have obtained from third parties (either individually or in the aggregate)

We also use your information for the following purposes:

For marketing and advertising. United uses your information, consistent with applicable law, individually, in the aggregate, and/or combined with demographic information that we maintain or collect from third parties, for marketing and advertising purposes (via email, direct mail, telephone, web or other electronic advertising) and to send you news and newsletters. Specifically, information that we collect about you may be used to send you email, direct mail, or telephone communications about offers from United, its partners or other third parties, that might be of interest to you (please see the section on Disclosing your information below and the section on Changing your marketing preferences below). We also use your information to determine appropriate advertising channels and venues and to place ads on such channels and venues, including placing advertising on social networking sites.

I’m sure the money they make from this will subsidies flight costs that will be passed on to the end user for cheaper flight!


Yeah, carrier unlock and OEM unlock are completely separate and have nothing to do with each other. People will say ‘unlocked’ and mean carrier unlocked because most people don’t know what OEM unlocking is so it can get really confusing when trying to buy second hand and explaining the difference. Its a really common misconception that has been an issue for over a decade that’s why I always try to explain they have nothing to do with each other

I don’t know any other carriers that do this but I wouldn’t be surprised if more did. I never recommend buying from a carrier since most just carrier lock their phones anyway so its just more hassle if you decide to switch carriers.

I find buying from the manufacturer works out cheaper than from any carrier where I am. Its also better for privacy since I don’t have to deal with bill pay and can just pay cash for PAYG without giving any personal information and can switch to whoever has the best deal without faffing about, just get a new Sim card and I’m ready to go


OEM unlocking is not the same as carrier unlocking

Carrier unlocking is to allow you to use your phone with a different network e.g switching from Verizon to T-Mobile and putting a T-Mobile Sim in the Verizon phone. This can be done with both Android and iOS

OEM unlocking is an Android setting that enables the end user to modify the firmware of the device e.g unlocking the boot loader, installing custom boot images, ROMs and gaining root access.

AFAIK both T-Mobile and Verizon have custom Android settings that completely grey out the OEM unlock option in Android settings. There is no way around this as an end user, even if you had got customer support to carrier unlock your phone it would have made no difference, OEM unlocking would still be disabled.

AFAIK There is no way around this and the only solution is to never buy from either carrier.

I bought a refurbished Pixel a few years ago from the Netherlands and it ended up being originally from Verizon, I found a Verizon system app still preinstalled in settings and it was impossible it enable OEM unlocking.

Either buy directly from Google or buy second hand on the condition that you can check to make sure OEM unlocking is possible before purchase



Debian based distros tend to be slower to update for stability reasons so your graphics drivers might be out of date

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope

AMD requires Mesa 20.3+, Intel requires Mesa 21.2+. For NVIDIA’s proprietary driver, version 515.43.04+ is required (make sure the nvidia-drm.modeset=1 kernel parameter is set).

Do these games launch when the gamescope option is disabled?

You can also check the logs by selecting the game in lutris and pressing the arrow beside the play button on the bottom to bring up the logs and see if theres any useful info there


All my drives are encrypted and have an encrypted backup of 2FA, a whole bunch of drives and my phone would all have to fail at the same time. This is following 3-2-1 so not all are in the same place or running at the same time

I use veracrypt to make encrypted portable files that contain 2FA and I back them up to random cloud storage using simplelogin email accounts, no 2FA on these for this exact reason. I know my password manager passphrase but I also do the same thing with it as the 2FA file just on a different account.

If any of the accounts gets hijacked then all they have is a throwaway email and password for that account and a random tiny encrypted file.

My codes aren’t labeled with the email that they are for, just the service, e.g Proton1, and the passphrase has no other information stored with it so even if they magically managed to decrypt either of the files and gain access to the codes/ passphrase they don’t have any idea what accounts any of them are for.

Log in to a cloud storage -> download the file -> decrypt it -> add it to any compatible app -> login to the password manager


If you know anyone that has a card, ask them can you use it or ask in local groups. On reddit people used to share pictures of their clubcards so other people could scan it when they shop. The card holders get loads of extra points and the people that use the cards get the discount and privacy, win-win


I’ve been deGoogled for years, the battery saving was probably from not having Gapps running in the background, I know that Googles and Co are constantly phoning home but to say that they are turning on peoples mics and either running a service locally to transcribe the audio or sending whole audio files to themselves for marketing is unsubstantiated and a bit ridiculous, there’s way easier ways to profile users through behavior analysis on their phones whether it be what apps and how long they use them or what posts/ ads user either scroll past slower or actually tap on.

There’s a very obvious difference between a few kilobits of text and a few megabits of audio and people would easily see if megabits of data were constantly being sent to from their phones every day

Why waste so much energy and bandwidth trying to figure out what the mic picks up when the majority of it would be inaudible because of background noise or phones being in peoples pockets/bags when they can glean so much more data from how a user interacts with their phone for so much cheaper


Facebook isn’t randomly turning on your microphone to sell you more targeted ads, as some conspiracy theories have asserted

the company admitted that it had been employing third-party contractors to transcribe the audio messages that users exchanged on its Messenger app.

They’re using data that people sent to their servers. If they were turning on peoples mics and sending the recordings to themselves then anyone that monitors their network traffic at all would notice all of that data being uploaded.


The amount of battery used and data that your phone would be sending if it was constantly recording and sending the data to Google would be very obvious

Its more likely that Google and Co have just profiled you really well and or you searched for that specific topic before. Or that topic was an ad that you clicked on in the past or that you slowed down when scrolling to look at

Newer android version notify you in the top right when your microphone is active and you should also be able to see when the last time, down to the minute, that any app accessed the mic in settings


There seems to be a lot of discount codes and affiliate links which usually means payment from the providers to the person running the list. When money is involved, truth is often the first casualty, so I would take it with a grain of salt.

https://www.techlore.tech/vpn.html has a pretty good list, its open source so anyone can create an issue/contribute on github https://github.com/techlore/website/tree/master/assets/vpn. They’re open about any affiliate links https://discuss.techlore.tech/pub/sponsors-affiliates and are pretty well regarded for an intro in to online privacy

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/ is also a great resource with a much smaller and stricter list with regards to privacy and tends to be my go to when I’m looking for a new privacy respecting service. I think they have a community here but I don’t think its very active and they also have a subreddit which was pretty active the last time I was on it a few months ago


Weirdly in this case I think I agree. You can look at my previous comments about how much I hate Apple but it seems to me that OP isn’t too technical and installing a custom ROM might not be what they’re after. iPhones don’t have any of those annoying games and stuff preinstalled, as long as the carrier doesn’t install stuff. I’d suggest a refurbished unlocked iPhone though, to save some money. Make sure the previous owners account is removed from the device or else it’ll probably just be a paper weight.

If OP is open to custom ROMs then GrapheneOS is a great choice but LineageOS and DivestOS are also great options for someone that wants to get started with privacy and they support a lot more devices, that can be got for cheaper than an iPhone/Pixel. Again, I’d recommended a refurbished, carrier unlocked phone that is supported by one of these projects


The service could not appeal because a Swiss law had actually been broken and because “legal tools for serious crimes” were used.

Yep under Swiss law he was a criminal, we may not agree with the law but unfortunately that’s the case here



ProtonMail also guaranteed that “by default” it would not store any IP addresses that could be linked to users’ email accounts.

They don’t store IP addresses by default but when required to by law, they don’t have a choice just like any other company would.

Bad OPSEC by the activist, Protons hands were tied


Insular uses the work profile to isolate apps.

Or you can add a whole new user to the phone and switch between them when you need


https://github.com/pablouser1/ProxiTok is similar to teddit and invidious, you can self host an instance or use a public one


NOYB have a good write up about how they came to the agreement by using this simple trick, the EU and US have different definitions of the word “proportionate” but the US’s definition is undisclosed…

https://noyb.eu/en/european-commission-gives-eu-us-data-transfers-third-round-cjeu


Online ads, they were so annoying to deal with, I tried Adblock (don’t use it) then ABP (don’t use it) then finally I found UBlock Origin (absolutely use this) and just seeing the amount of unnecessary connections on every single website annoyed me even more. On mobile I used Adaway and looking at the logs for that annoyed me so much I switched to LineageOS.

I “upgraded” to windows 10 and I couldn’t deal with how annoying it was with all the bloatware and random notifications so I switched to linux


DivestOS is a privacy focused android ROM that supports a bunch of devices and has support for relocking the bootloader on most devices that support it


What’s new, Snowden blew the whistle over a decade ago now. Taxpayer’s money being used to fund mass surveillance.

And now more recently taxpayer’s money being used to buy their information from private companies all in the name of national security.

They want to ban TikTok because they don’t want a government entity from harvesting their data but its fine when the US government does it because they always paint themselves as the good guys and not as the biggest and longest running group of international terrorists ever…