Would be nice if you could include some details of what is happening when you try etc etc… Not just saying “it doesn’t work”…

Cool thanks!

Nicely written article and a good read! However I had not heard of Threema before. It looks like a promising messaging app itself, anyone use it?

Yes indeed, password managers have the option to do this, at least Protonpass and Bitwarden. While Bitwarden you need to connect a third party email service. But it’s relatively easy, especially with Protonpass as it will automatically suggest to do this when you create an account somewhere.

Yeah, I really shouldn’t. It’s just annoying, that’s all.

Neat - thanks :)

I assume that when you say “them”, you tried to visit the hompage of Pixalate? But it sounds about right actually, the app I am investigating have the following trackers implemented;

• Adjust
• AppsFlyer
• Google AdMob
• Google CrashLytics
• Google Firebase Analytics
• Yoadx

Ah I see now. I do think this will vary a lot from vendor to vendor and cookie to cookie though. The one I included was only a random one out of 198 different ones. Other cookies I’ve read through will have ad-measurements and tracking for 3000+ days too :<

Well this is good to know, and also means i have to run through my numbers again… Am currently checking all the data 198 different vendors are asking for… its an extremely tedious process :<

Made the spoiler data/cookies more readable now.

Thanks for your input, but not sure what you meant with your last sentence, could you clarify?

But if not themselves then who? There are no additional parties/companies/vendors listed within these cookies as far as I can see at least, and im pretty sure they do need to be listed? Also these companies are the tracking companies, so it would be weird if it wasnt them. As far as I understand it atleast.

Don’t mind me, I’m just a cookie who wants to store your information for 9993 years…

Ah indeed possible, I have seen some cookies with names such as “optout”, but this is not always the case. But does that mean people who DO NOT consent still get a cookie, but a different one without tracking and sorts…?

Additionally, there are vendors that claim they dont use cookies like seen here; However again when clicking on >Storage Details, it reveals two different cookies, with a cookie duration of 728 days, with a the purpose “store and/or access information on a device”. HOW IS THIS NOT A COOKIE THEN?

thanks very much for sharing ☘️

Hahaha haha I cannot believe someone made https://www.zzzuckerberg.com, that’s just freaking hilarious! Love that the brightness also decrease the further you scroll 😂

I’m only going through 10 of them, so personally it would be quicker to do it manually.

Thanks for the tip!

This is pretty close to what im looking for actually, thanks for sharing! :)

Preferably line by line. Kind of like what Github does whenever you apply a commit, it will make a red line for what is removed and a green line for what is added code. I could look into LLMs though, but was hoping to find a quick n dirty tool to do the job.

While this is a great service, it’s not a tool that allows me to enter my own downloaded privacy policies and compare against others, as far as I’ve understood it? This seems like a service that you can upload a PP too and wait for it to be processed.

In February, numerous schools in Chennai were targeted with hoax bomb threats sent via encrypted email service Proton Mail. The Indian government sought action against Proton Mail due to its misuse by malicious individuals. Swiss authorities intervened to prevent the platform from being blocked in India. Despite police efforts to trace the origin of the threats, Proton Mail’s encryption hindered investigations. The company refused to comply with Indian authorities’ requests for information, citing Swiss law. Proton Mail argued that blocking the service wouldn’t deter cybercriminals and could impede legitimate users. This incident isn’t the first time Proton Mail has faced controversy; it was previously blocked in Russia for similar reasons.

you can have it too, considering you’re on separate instances :P

Many privacy focused services have blogs where they will publish privacy related stories and news. So I suggest you look at the services that you like and or already use to see if they have blogs you can follow too.

Here are a few different ones, not all 100% privacy focused though.

• Proton
• Tuta
• DuckDuckGo
• Mozilla
• Overengineer.dev
• TorrentFreak
• Arstechnica/Tech

Have a nice day 🌻

All valid points, I was more thinking about in the cases of sharing the pictures online - with others. Something I do occasionally at least. But find it a bit tedious to make sure the metadata from those are gone.

AFAIK, just that it isn’t fully open source. It is source available however, but that’s not the same. It’s sad that they dont go through with it as Vivaldi is by far the most feature rich browser out there.

RethinkDNS is super awesome! 🙌

Thanks for this, will definitely incorporate some of this into my workflow!

1clickvpn.net

1clickvpn.net, have edited the post.

I have not drawn any conclusions, nor will this be a part of the thesis directly. I am simply looking at the code for extra insights and learning. I wanted to share what I found because I am curious and want to learn. I’m open to constructive feedback, and by all means correct me - im just here to learn.

Yeah! This VPN for instance too has their own proprietary protocol too…

Thanks for helping out! Totally should have thought of waybackmachine earlier.

Yes, a lot of these free VPNs seems to be baked with trackers too, and often built on the same infrastructure too.

Can’t talk for all masters across all Uni’s here, but at least in my country there is no strict requirement that it has to be something no one has ever looked at before, but it does need to be lesser known. While there is a lot of general research on VPNs - mostly the premium ones. There isn’t a lot of peer-reviewed research on the free ones, at least not enough - as I had this topic approved by my Uni. Also, the prior research clearly showed that this is a growing problem, at those studies were back from 2016 and 2021. I therefore saw reason to further investigate the state of the free VPN landscape now again in 2024.

Ah indeed, good find!

Hahaha right!?

Thanks for the input! The fact that it doesn’t store the files in plain md files makes it a no go for me personally.

Thats the impression I got too.

Thanks for taking the time to investigate a bit and sharing it! 🌻

I did try it ages ago, before having my own server. And at the time it was a bit early stages i think. But probably something I should revisit again now that it has had some time to age plus me getting a server for sync. Thanks!

also looks like a good option