I get your point, but the fact that the data is available elsewhere isn’t really an argument for allowing another vector to collect the data (and also cross verify it).

There’s more of an argument if there’s not really another choice, say buying a new car that doesn’t collect data isn’t really an option since they all do it on some level. You either buy a car or not.

But cameras there are options that are not cloud based. Safemo is probably the best comparable product to other WiFi cameras, and then there’s any NVR system. You can accomplish the same thing without much sacrifice or compromise.

Then there’s the its “fine” today but tomorrow things change… Like Ring now feeding images to Flock and their surveillance/facial recognition system.

So no, its not quite okay that “they already have my data from other places so it doesn’t matter”

Graphene is more than easy. It’s a browser based install with a USB cable. It’ll take some time to read through and execute the steps, but at the core its like 15 minutes of real work.

I too thank you for the recommendation.

This is exactly why I don’t use it. I have a super tiny chance of getting somebody to message me on signal. I have zero chance of getting them to simplex.

Good call. I didn’t know that any banking apps were working with it at all, so good to know there are some. I also don’t know why I said that it didn’t support NFC as I did know it has it, but somehow in my mind payment platforms became the use case, and therefore not supported.

Both options are good. I think for the most part it boils down to wanting a single product or suite of products.

While you certainly can get just one proton service, the idea of having an easy entry point into multiple privacy focused solutions is what they are going for.

The pro argument for that is cheaper overall, simpler to get into and mange, etc. The con argument is an eggs in one basket philosophy isn’t ideal because you can have a single point of failure. This is all subjective to your personal threat model.

Gotcha. So with a few exceptions they overall seem perform well across the board.

Once upon a time I dreamed of switching them all out for something better, and was actually looking forward to Tapo with matter support.

But for my uses I’m basically pulling the plug. My switches are smart enough. I can do schedules, profiles, and control with the app.

I don’t need more than that and there’s not really a privacy focused option as far as I know. Blocking internet is my solution to keep things contained.

Confirming that Graphene does not have NFC, and as such cannot support any payment system.

Edit: I stand corrected. GOS does have NFC but it’s the payment system hat needs to be compatible (and Google wallet is not)

I have kasa switches and everything is blocked on my firewall so they can’t phone home.

Overall they function fine. But I have 1 pesky switch that is constantly in a disconnected state (red light) no matter what I do. Every time I reconnect it it disconnects not too long later. It functions fine though, possibly because its a 3 way and the paired switch is fine.

I have another set of 3 way switches that have disconnected a few times but reconnecting them works just fine for a long while (years).

So my questions are, that pesky red light switch sounds kind of like your situation. When you say they reset themselves, do the lights go red?

Secondly, yours reset every 10 minutes? Most of mine seem fine. I’m not sure what’s different between our setups.

I didn’t say anything about the Trump tweet. I only mentioned the journalist comment, which there is more information an nuance to it than you allow for.

But you assume because I say one thing I must be your enemy. You call me names. You refer to me as a group instead of a person.

So clearly you are an island to yourself. I hope your relationships in real life are far more fruitful.

There has been enough information released to essentially debunk the connotation you are implying.

I’m sure its in the link the other comment provided, but I’ll call out that you not only can unlock your bootloader to install your OS but you can relock it so nothing can install anything afterwards.

So if your phone is ever not in your possession you can be sure that nobody installed anything. Also keeps your phone safe from malware (at root level).

Opnsense with unbound DNS here. Running on an old PC that got converted to dedicated firewall (with added NIC card for ports). Nothing crazy, just enough to control what communicates out of my network.

I think one of the biggest challenges is alternate choices for creators. If everybody posted their content to YT plus another platform, things would naturally start shifting.

If a channel I follow posts to Odysee then I watch it there. I follow multiple channels that also post to Nebula, so I try to watch it there.

But there’s no clear standard for what platforms are good for what. There’s also a paywall issue with some (like aforementioned Nebula) that not everybody will be able to pay. I’ve also tried Curiosity Stream, and never watched it because there was no content I found worth it.

Then there’s the technical issues. I can’t believe that I am paying for Nubula when their app sucks so badly. (I will probably cancel but haven’t yet). Odysee is so much better than when it launched but it’s still a pile of dung. PeerTube I never felt worked well at all, so much so that maybe I’m missing something. But while I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed if I can’t figure it out then its a bad platform.

So in all reality, there isn’t a replacement for YT. I wish there was, but there isn’t. There should be, but there isn’t. Yes, we should try to post alternate links and such, but that’s not going to make much of a difference in the end.

And sorry, this all came out significantly negative sounding. I don’t mean to be crapping on the post or the idea. I just mean to point out that the issue is much deeper than user interactions. There’s an infrastructure problem first (we need a viable working alternative), then a content problem second (we need to convince creators to move there), and only last is there a user interaction issue (which this post is discussing).

SMS

Nobody wants to use a messaging app at all. At this point I’d rather be stuck on WhatsApp. But its all family. Big family and try to get them to agree on anything is like pulling teeth.

I even sent everybody a “contact card” I made with my links to signal, simplex, and even whatsapp (figuring that’s the path of least resistance) saying I’d prefer to communicate on any of those apps. ZERO people changed nor did they even ask about it, options, or my reasoning.

A lot of those requests are met with, “give us all your data in full so we ensure we have everyrhing there is and we will process it to not be sold” So no, the grass isn’t all that greener on the other side.

Ameliorated.io

If you’re gong to stick with windows that is a really good way to do it, and super simple to install.

The clarify, they said to get rid of all that stuff from OTHER peoples devices. The point being that you’re not the weakest link in this chain.

To illustrate, I have a phone number for less than a year that maybe 20 people have. All friends and family. I still had a sales call on it who was targeted and addressed me by name.

If your internet connection is coming from hotspot tethering to your phone you’ll want to put it in a Faraday bag when not in use since your phone will be trackable at all times even if off. If you use a hotspot instead the cell signal and WiFi are still trackable but the lack of Bluetooth and GPS aids greatly in keeping the tracking to a minimum.

I’ve had the same thing happen for my own personal domain that I run through Addy. Its frustrating because people can’t tell what a “good” domain is, so how can you have any rules about it? And if you do, then have a verification system with your customer service team.

But I’ve always said to myself, if this service won’t take my email then I don’t really want to be their customer. What else are they going to screw up when I give them my data?

I don’t know. I’m sure it only transmits when active, but that doesn’t mean its not collecting data at all times. If you’re on windows you can turn it off with a script, but it might turn back on after major updates.

I would probably argue they are the same in terms of security and privacy. Privacy communities tend to disfavor Proton because its all eggs in one basket, and also for political reasons. Both of those are subjective to your personal threat/privacy profile.

Its true that a single point of failure is more risk than separate services, but that fact doesn’t undermine their security on a technical level, and has nothing to do with privacy. As for the political, yes it’s something to watch but nothing wrong has been done. They are set up as a non profit with checks and measures in place to prevent corruption from happening. I’m OK with different points of view and having different points of view on a board is a good thing.

Steam has telemetry. They gather a ton of data on you. What details, how they use it, and how secure it is I can’t answer, but it’s clear that it’s happening.

Don’t kid. I did that with a folder in my testing just to eliminate the variables. Of course I put it back.

My issue was that my initial setup was accessing it from a different machine, and windows at that. I had to simplify in order to make it all mentally make sense.

Thank you for this. I appreciate the write up, learning a few things, and just the general let’s all get along heart behind it.

Just as a tip, set up and use a spare machine if you have one to make the transition easier. I’ve been running Mint now for a few months.

I have a test machine that I am learning and getting familiar with, setting up a virtual machine to learn that (I have some windows apps I will not escape from so running in a VM is my solution), etc… And all of this is with the freedom that if I break something I can wipe it and not care. I have since set up a media center and a gaming machine as well.

That experience is getting me feeling better about he whole thing. Honestly learning little idiosyncrasies like folder permissions not being inherited (I say as I set up my media center) are the things you juat need to learn through practice. Just my two cents as I am only a step ahead of you in a similar journey.

I don’t actually agree that your analogy applies, because it ignores my point.

Neither “side” (as if there were only a binary choice but that’s how they want you to think) wants you to have privacy. Be united with those who want to fight for those rights instead of divided on other policies which are political smokescreens.

Maybe a better analogy is that we are drowning in water that is not cold, maybe it’s tepid and maybe its boiling. But arguing over which is worse really doesn’t matter because we’ll be dead in a minute anyway.

Neither did he last administration and neither will the next. They want us polarized and fighting each other so we don’t fight them.

I use two domains.

One is my name for people that actually know me.

The other is something random (it has meaning to me but nobody else would think that). I use that for all my “private” emails, creating aliases that forward to me.

The most important thing is to pick something easy to understand so its easy to convey. My domain is actually quite long, which normally is a bad thing but its distinct words so people understand it when I give it to them verbally.

As many have said, it shouldn’t matter.

Personally, I have been known to look at email addresses because I assess everything the resume gives me. No, I don’t really care what provider you choose, but it’s a tiny bit of information.

So if your email name is “BigBootyQT” then I have a glimpse of your personality and how you may or may not fit in the role. That’s a real example BTW. It also might bear light in other ways, say if you’re applying for a job in cybersscurity but you’re using a yahoo email. Yeah, that’s a negative mark.

Will any of this be THE reason I ditch somebody? No. But it weighs with the rest of it. I would not disqualify somebody for a typo for instance, but it is a negative because that should not have occurred (especially of the role requires attention to detail).

Is that what it does? I thought it deleted any profile other than the primary one.

With that in mind, security and privacy are two completely different things.

For instance, I would say that WhatsApp is fairly secure. It just isn’t private at all. Meta can (and does) see and track your meta data.

Why is that important? I liked these 2 examples I read somewhere because they are simple but explain how powerful it is. Your phone calls are private. Your carrier isn’t allowed to listen in on your call to know what you talk about. But they can see that you called a suicide hotline while standing on a bridge. They can see that your doctor’s office called you and then you called an abortion clinic next. The following week your GPS location went to that clinic. Are these things Person A would willingly tell their phone provider? It’s none of their business so I assume not. But they essentially are when they don’t care about their privacy.

Another stance I take is that even if they don’t care about their privacy, can they at least respect mine? I don’t give their phone number out to anybody that asks. But non private apps look at all their contacts so they are doing exactly that to me. Think of the last spam call they got. If they knew it was because of you wouldn’t they be upset?

Change your password, and hopefully you don’t use the same password across multiple accounts. Since you’re asking, I assume you do. (Not shaming, just informing)

It would be best practice to use a different email and password for every account you create, and enable MFA. Email aliases work great for this, and use unique randomly generated passwords for everything. A password manager will help you create, remember, and fill these fields for you so its not cumbersome. There are many good ones, I personally recommend Bitwarden. You can get pretty far with their free version, but I recommend paying to get the authenticator built in, so you can auto fill MFA codes.

If you can’t afford this, or want to keep the codes separate (not all your eggs in one basket) then download the Aegis authenticator app. Its free and very good.

Pretty much. I’d add one other factor to the mix: The threat is amped up so much that people become overwhelmed and say screw it they can never keep up with the threats so they’ll just take their chances - they’ve been okay so far.

I would add to the conversation with the questions;

Should all information be known? Just because something doesn’t need to be hidden doesn’t imply that it should be known broadly. It’s not okay for somebody to know what color underwear I’m wearing right now.

Is all information equal in value? Presuming one kind of data point is okay to be public does not mean that all data points are okay to be public. My address is public record (unfortunately) but that doesn’t mean my social security number, ID number, and passport number should be public as well.

I agree that it helped with adoption. In a way I wish they still had it so I could get my text messaging family to use a messaging app instead.

The flip side was, if somebody tried signal and didn’t like it and uninstalled it, then any SMS message to them from signal went to their signal account that they no longer had installed so they didn’t get it. You had no way of knowing so it really sucked.

I got started with aliases on anonaddy (now just Addy). After using a while I jumped into using my own domain, this is the real game changer.

Aliases are great and do their thing, but owning your own domain let’s you move everything all at once if you need to.

For instance, when proton added aliases I tried it out. I just redirected my MX records and was done. I didn’t like how they handled the header data because it broke a majority of my filters, so I switched back. Again, a simple setting adjustment and done.

For the record, I’ll probably switch everything over to proton eventually, but at the time didn’t want to recreate my filters. It makes sense to have all email controls under your email provider.

This concept is very understated. We need more options.

I’ll second the recommendation for GrapheneOS. One of the available options I use is to keep mic, camera, and location off at all times until I need them. That simple toggle ability changes your privacy stance greatly.

Hotspots work well. They are hotspots though, so you have trade offs. For instance, you probably don’t want to leave it on all day (because it won’t last all day, probably 8 hours). You can set it to turn off if there’s no connected devices for x minutes to save battery. When you turn it on you need to wait for it to actually turn on and connect, then have your phone connect. It takes a while, relatively speaking (not long but longer than turning on your phone).

The Mifi X Pro also has an Ethernet port which is convenient for hard wiring a laptop.

The service is solid. Overall there’s no issues. I’ve had issues in hotels, but it’s a T-Mobile network so I’d presume a standard sim card would equally have issues.

Privacy is an interesting take. I’ll go ahead and trust them to not share my data (which you can sign up anonymously if you wish). The number is still trackable though, and I’d suspect stands out more because it’s in a specific spectrum range. But the sim isn’t in your phone, so it’s not technically tracking your phone (and a side benefit is you can’t get sim jacked) and I use a VPN to connect to it as well. I don’t think the sim card tracks the same way because there’s no GPS in the hotspot, but of course it still calls out to cell towers. I don’t know if it does this when off like a phone does (I’ve always presumed it does).

Overall my experience has been a positive one. Choosing a phone service has been a harder issue for me. But that’s another story.