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Cake day: Jun 17, 2023

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I’m a little gutted that I lost my Facebook account, if only because it was so old I had a username. Instead of my profile only being facebook.com/<number>, my profile was like facebook.com/tweak. People were really surprised by that.

However they blocked my account because I used 3rd party web wrapper apps and once had a poor internet connection in a remote location. It asked me to log in again, I did, then it said “you’ve done something strange” and demanded government ID. I actually complied (although I taped up most of the info, like it said I could) but it kept automatically rejecting it. I think it was because my profile used the shortened version of my name, which I go by on a day to day basis, while my ID uses the full version.

One of these days I might twist their arm with GDPR and get them to grant me access, however my local ICO has been pretty toothless under the current right wing government. I don’t really miss Facebook, but there are friends and family on there I’d like to contact, and I was a member of a particularly good meme group.


This article doesn’t just summarise the discussion on Proton’s blog post (which the article linked to), it’s looking to spread the information and increase discussion of the issue, in particular in the community of users who regularly browse their site and comments sections.

Your comment is like complaining about reposts. Yes, in the worst cases reposts can be bad and disruptive, but more often than not it’s just a genuine attempt to spread the content/story further and one that introduces it to more people than the original. This isn’t one of those worst case examples.

Articles like this are at least better than Yahoo or MSN articles that literally just copy the text of other publications (although sometimes the source article is paywalled while the copy is not).


You cannot use the new Outlook app without syncing these data with Microsoft’s servers, i.e. your usernames and passwords are sent to the company’s cloud servers. While the data is sent using TLS, the IMAP and SMTP username and password are sent to Microsoft in plain text. This could allow the company to access your emails, and share the data with third-parties.

Not only that, but sending usernames and passwords in plaintext allows for MITM attacks.


I agree, I mean it kind of sounds like they have something dodgy they’re about to put out but they’re playing silly buggers and trying to deflect the blame, else they would have released already and pointed to the lack of a store release as the stores’ problem.


Pretty sure they’re signed by Microsoft instead? At least that’s what other app stores do.

It’s all a game of shifting the point of trust around. Personally, I’d trust most small time developers more than the likes of Microsoft and Google, however I’d trust Fdroid more than unknown developers (but still go direct to the developers I do trust).


Yes, but only because it’s Google. Fdroid do exactly the same thing in their repo.

The idea behind it is sound, because otherwise you’re putting all your trust in the app developer. By having the store do some basic checks and compile the app the idea is they can guarantee no third party/bad actor has inserted malicious code.

However, this being Google, they are the bad actor.


By the way, archive.is and archive.ph are Tor unfriendly.

Not just Tor, they poison DNS queries from Cloudfare and Quad9, basically any DNS that doesn’t give them sufficient location information about the end user.


VLC don’t update on Fdroid, Fdroid compile all the apps on their repo (the one that comes with the app). Fdroid do some checks on the updated app before they compile it, so it’s always a little behind the main release.

Edit: it could also be that VLC haven’t yet released the updated app (and in particular its source), so Fdroid have nothing to work with.


Generally with small time apps, sure, but VLC are trustworthy enough to get it straight from the source. However, it’s not like VLC is an app that you need to keep up to date as soon as possible.


That’s right. Fdroid the app is just a program that accesses repositories. It’s not even the only one, Aurora has a similar version of their own called Aurora Droid.

Fdroid the repo is a repository of FOSS apps maintained by the Fdroid team with apps they’ve reviewed and compiled themselves, to provide an element of trust that you might not get from every random developer.

There’s no fool proof way of handling app trust other than developing your own understanding of the code. Otherwise you have to trust someone. Fdroid seem pretty trustworthy, more than the big corporations, and more than many unknown small time developers - however you can get app updates quicker direct from the developer, through the Fdroid app, if you’re willing to trust them.


On Windows you should be downloading from the website.


Glad I downloaded Windows and Android before they got hit.


Yep, I checked a few places, in the end ClassyShark seemed to be the best place to see everything.

I don’t doubt it’s part of AOSP, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be left in the ROM.



That’s exactly what they’re arguing here. However the US is trying to use a non-answer to avoid this, and in the past that’s worked.


are we seriously operating under the assumption that the United States government would execute him?

Legally, UK and EU courts must consider this, because sending someone to a country where they will be executed for their crimes is a breach of human rights.

By the strict reading of the law, he could be extradited for life in prison. If he was being extradited to be sentenced to death, that would be a no go.

The US are skirting and pushing the bounds of UK law here. Unfortunately, they will likely get away with it, because the English are pussies.


Fair point, I meant to change that before I posted. I think I was getting confused with Trump and the prostitutes that peed on him.


They literally dropped all the potentially credible charges they were first going for. Those women in Sweden? Long gone, as of 5 years ago. Hillary Clinton’s emails? Also dropped.

What really sucks is that the narrative has changed over years, as the facts have been forgotten. People think he’s been in league with Russia, and some even think Russia provided him with evidence against Republicans alongside the Democrat emails, and that he refused to publish the Republican stuff in support of Russia so that Russia’s man (Trump) could get in the White House.

First off, Russia wouldn’t provide Republican emails if they were trying to get a Republican inside the White House (they didn’t provide any such emails and they did promote Trump). Second, the controversy as about Wikileaks not publishing details of Russian corruption. While this is definitely controversial (and frankly something I disagree with), Wikileaks’ reasoning was simply: “Russian corruption is not news, it is to be expected”.



The relevant points:

The filing reveals some details we already knew about DuckDuckGo — for example, that it’s been profitable since 2014 and that its source of operating revenue is currently search advertising, namely search ads provided by Microsoft in the U.S. However, Google’s proposal also attempts to paint a picture of a startup that didn’t invest in search innovation but instead focused on returning investment to its shareholders.

But it contradicts this point, too, noting that a third of DuckDuckGo’s 50 employees in 2018 were working on improving the search engine, for example.

It also dismisses DuckDuckGo’s approach to privacy as one of its failures, claiming that the approach leads to “significant trade-offs to search quality,” by not utilizing data like search sessions, a signed-in experience, and more. If anything, though, these details and others the filing includes show how difficult it is for a competitor to build a search business to rival Google’s.

Neeva was generating less than a million dollars in subscription revenue at the time and was growing, but was still a small part of the search market, the filing also informs us.

The startup exited to Snowflake for approximately $184.4 million in cash, more than double the amount that had been invested, the filing states. This is slightly higher than previous reports that had pegged the number at $150 million.

There’s a bit of editorialising that’s a little too disguised in between facts, but that’s not unusual for Tech Crunch. They’re apparently trying to push against Google’s filing and the arguing that they are indeed a monopoly - not that they’re wrong, mind.


It might not violate GDPR, but there’s still copyright to it. Reddit haven’t provided consideration in exchange for the rights they claim to your comment - access to the website is offered free of charge, regardless of whether you post.

Granted, that’s a different avenue entirely, you’d have to take them to court for selling your work to train AI.


If they still have your comments on the site then you still have a claim.

If they don’t have the comments on the site, they probably do still retain the content secretly and technically you would have a claim, but it would be impossible to prove.


The solution is to realise that Apple aren’t the company for you and move away from them. Support products that fit your ethos. Don’t worry about the ones that don’t and leave them behind.


Most people not caring isn’t a concern of mine. Apple being wealthy isn’t a concern of mine. What concerns me is that the products I use flourish and develop in ways that I like. I don’t use Apple, so I don’t particularly care about them - I just watch the drama from the sidelines.

You’re not bursting my bubble in any way, but you are being a little pretentious.


Ditto! No Google needed, and Facebook apps are prohibited on my phone. I can even get banking apps working with a bit of Magisk, working in Zygisk domain with a deny list hiding it from the apps. Apparently proper SafetyNet checks aren’t that common anymore.

For browsers, I’d recommend Mull and Mulch. Mull is a privacy fork of Firefox, Mulch is a hardened version of Android System Webview (the backend browser that lots of apps use). Both come pre-installed with DivestOS.


it’s Apple the one they should complain to.

Or walk away from.


Lol that’s basically the Brave attitude, drown out the controversy with a marketing campaign and pull in more new unsuspecting users than the ones you lose.


Android was a victim of the NSO’s Pegasus because of WhatsApp, and possibly that only worked because Facebook negotiated with phone manufacturers to bundle dodgy pre-installed system apps outside the Google Play Store.

Apple’s iOS was a victim of the NSO’s Pegasus because of iMessages.

For me, that’s enough to completely steer clear of iOS altogether. I mean, the lack of customisation and control over my device was already enough, but that kind of vindicated it for me.


Lol for a moment there I thought I was going off the rails with my puffa jacket rant above, but your segway into “free market feefees” is far more unhinged.


“My actions mean nothing because everyone else won’t do it” is exactly what everyone else is thinking.

You’re making excuses. Be the change you know should happen. Don’t be a sheep.

Don’t buy puffa jackets. Seriously. They’re fucking everywhere now. Don’t do it, you don’t need it, they’re cheap and overpriced.


Because then Apple fanbois will complain and tarnish Mozilla’s/Firefox’s reputation


That is the solution though, always has been. Vote with your wallet.


TL;DR:

While there is still a trade-off between user privacy and quality of service, privacy-preserving data analytics techniques could pave the way for using data without leaking drivers’ and passengers’ personally identifiable information.

If could happen, but it won’t.



It doesn’t suit me personally, I want more extensions. In particular, I use uMatrix, as it gives a little more flexibility than uBlock Origin even in authormode. I’ve been able to bypass paywalls by targeting elements from a domain, rather than the domain itself. But also there are plenty of quality of life extensions I rely on, eg gestures.

Mullvad is very good out of the box though, I’ll give it that. And I use Mull on Android quite happily (although this does allow more extensions, pretty sure the two aren’t affiliated).


What about the latest thing they’ve snuck in, where they want to have member state governments control website certificate authentication?


Is there any way to provide randomised fingerprints in Firefox?


Now we just gotta wait for the CEO to go on a marketing campaign for new users, in an attempt to drown out the story.



Pretty much all companies are data collection companies, or they have data collection services tacked onto their software. However, in this case, Tencent is a company in China, and China is a data collection country.

Tencent is not required by law to pass all user information to CCP.

If China wants to see it, then yes they are required by law to pass information to the CCP.