Archon of the Valley
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Joined 7M ago
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Cake day: Nov 19, 2023

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Yes. If you’re on public property, filming is fair game unless you’re harassing a person.


I’ve experienced no such issue. I use hardened Firefox for some stuff including Twitter, never encountered this.


Sounds like someone is mad that security experts would rather trust a tried-and-true encryption standard over Telegram’s encryption which is known to not be anywhere near as secure as the Signal protocol.

Pavel resorting to outright slander to promote Telegram is not something I expected to see.



And DDG is on record for censorship and caving to Microsoft. They also both provide results based off MS and Google results.

Neither are ideal. It’s why only use them as a fallback. Brave Search all the way.


I agree somewhat. I know how to use a search engine, I don’t need AI. The main problem is that, sadly, AI is going to be required to stay competitive.

I will say Brave’s AI is very useful, though.


Brave Search. At this point, I almost never need a different one. They also have optional AI but they’re doing so in a way that preserves privacy.



As unfortunate as it is, the only way privacy search engines will survive is by adding AI. Brave recognized this early on and implemented it very well, so I’m glad to see DDG seems to be implementing it well also. Hopefully Startpage catches up because even though I almost exclusively use Brave Search, I do enjoy Startpage as a secondary source.



There have been instances where judges ruled in favor of them being protected which sets a legal precedent. The SCOTUS probably won’t get involved unless a major lawsuit or federal-level case occurs.

Either way, passcodes are superior. Not sure why you’re arguing this.


It’s protected under the fifth. Even so, requiring a warrant to get your passcode is far better than not requiring a warrant to demand biometrics. Either way you slice it, passcode > biometrics.


Right… that’s what I’m saying. Under the fifth, they can’t compel you to unlock your phone if it’s protected by a PIN or password and if you set it to factory reset after a bunch of failed attempts, they can try but it’s unlikely they’ll break the PIN/pass in a few attempts.


I didn’t mention the others. It’s simply that this current “administration” has been a disaster in literally every way so it’s not surprising they’re trying to end our constitutional rights.


Just don’t use biometrics. Bad idea in general. A 6+ digit PIN or password is just fine, especially if you set your phone to factory reset after a certain number of failed unlock attempts.


It’s actually rather stunning to see just how hard they’re attacking privacy in these final months of the disastrous dumpster fire that is the Biden administration. This is exactly why I believe centralized cloud and CDN infrastructure is massively dangerous.

Make the web decentralized again.


Not that long ago, they drastically improved their privacy policy, consent and opt-out capabilities. Is it perfect? No but it has never been better.


I’d say just keep doing what you would have done before to protect your privacy. Switch to privacy tools, especially encrypted communications services, and use both trustworthy VPNs and Tor for different use cases. Also, I heard (can’t verify) that this effectively lets the government legally co-opt regular people to essentially function as spies under gag orders, so I’d just keep an eye out if you ever need to let some sort of professional into your home.


Source on this? It’s very unlikely. It would be hard to crack down on VPNs given the fact that businesses need them, especially now with the prevalence of remote work.


Honestly, Bluetooth sucks. I’m incredibly sick and tired of everything trying to use ancient technology for far more than it was ever intended. Besides, it never works the way it should anyways.


It IS. It’s a fact. You can run the tests yourself.


Because it objectively IS. It passes privacy tests in so many areas where others fail and I’m not just talking about those privacy test sites, I’m talking tests we can run ourselves. It’s fine if you don’t like Brave but don’t let your emotions get in the way of the fact that it is, by default, the best option for privacy out of the box. Sure, you CAN harden Firefox or use Librewolf but even those don’t always succeed in passing those tests like Brave does.


The AI is intrinsically linked to the search engine if I’m not mistaken. Brave has AI built into their search engine and their browser, but it’s very well done and pro-privacy.


I’m sorry that not everyone from my instance believes that Firefox is the only option 🙄


Better privacy, better UI not cluttered by excessive and unnecessary options, and a fantastic feature set… but I’m referring to their search engine in this context.


Yeah, and? It’s one of the best options for privacy. I’m referring to their search engine though.



I’m happy to stick with Brave. Far superior to DDG in literally every way.


Based. This is something I may do down the road since it may be the only way I can get my friends and family on Signal.


I know Futo has an app called Circles which is designed for things like that and staying in contact with family without social media. It’s supposedly E2EE and controlled by the person hosting the circle.

I haven’t used it yet for myself so I can’t say whether it’s good or not, but it sounds like something you might be interested in.

Congrats on the newborn, by the way!


Don’t go the fingerprint route if you care about your rights in the US. Biometrics, for some bizarre reason, don’t fall under the fourth amendment.


I’m not an expert but the way I see it is this: if you’re tech-savvy and use common sense, they’re not necessary, as a 2FA app with TOTP along with random, strong passwords should be enough. I still use both for most things, only securing more sensitive stuff with a physical key.

However, having one definitely can’t hurt, and if you’re passionate about cybersec, it’d be kinda strange if you didn’t have one.


I’d argue that randomization is more effective than making everyone look the same. It’s less noticeable when the fingerprint is randomized.


No, I’m talking about running it through test sites. No other browser outside of the Tor Browser is able to pass fingerprinting tests as consistently as Brave, in my experience.


First off, if you’re concerned about ISPs selling your data (couldn’t exactly tell if that’s a part of your concern), switching to private DNS provider and enabling DNS over HTTPS/TLS can significantly cut down on that, since most of what ISPs sell comes from DNS requests. That being said, they can still tell what sites you visit if you don’t use a VPN/Tor, but they’re less likely to care unless you’re doing something illegal.

In terms of your obfuscation plan, I’m not sure that’d do much; if anything, it’d make you stand out more. A bunch of random traffic, even tweaked to fit your browsing habits, probably would look suspicious on their end and it wouldn’t actually hide or disguise anything.

So ideally, you’re just going to want to figure something out to set up some sort of VPN at some point. Switching DNS providers might be a bit of help in reducing sale of your traffic data, however. My recommendation is Quad9 but any privacy-friendly provider is fine.


I’m skeptical of any supposed privacy advocate that refuses to recommend Brave. It’s no Tor Browser but in my own experience and tests, it consistently wins over just about everything else outside of Tor Browser.

Anyways, it recently added a forgetful browsing feature. What I do is have that toggled on by default, turning it off on individual sites that I want to keep logged in. Ultimately, this is better for privacy AND security, since it’d limit the damage of a token stealer.

Another option might be Librewolf if you absolutely can’t handle a Chromium-based browser (I also take issue with that approach but that’s a different topic for a different day). Firefox but more private than default. Waterfox is also an okay option nowadays, since they’re now independent from the hostile takeover that they dealt with for a while.

Overall, for my own setup, I use Brave for ~70% of my browsing, with the remaining 30% split between hardened Firefox (with BetterFox) at 20%, Librewolf at 8% and Mullvad at 2%. I only use Tor Browser once in a blue moon for sensitive subjects that could financially impact me, like medical sites, insurance research and so forth.



I just use Jerboa, functional and simple. I use Tusky for Mastodon for the same reason.


Smart for many reasons as people listed here. Your fourth amendment rights to your phone also go out the window when you use biometrics like fingerprint. PIN/password is protected, fingerprint/face scan is not. Backwards world we’re in, huh?


I wonder where that energy was in the 852nd month of “two weeks to flatten the curve”. 🤔