lol this actually sounds like a good idea

I don’t think I can use it on my phone since it’s too old…

can’t believe there are people actually falling for this scam… this should be illegal

try running nslookup with/without VPN, also try changing your DNS (Quad9 recommended)

why does it say localhost…? I can use startpage.com just fine through my ProtonVPN (japan)

Wasn’t their whole marketing point that they’ll have nothing meaningful to give out since everything’s properly E2E encrypted? Not sure how much the compliance rate matters when the provided data is useless. (They would need to comply in order to remain legally operating…)

I seem to remember hearing NetGuard doesn’t work properly for some configuration and that it doesn’t support IPv6 properly (?) Or maybe it was something VPN/Wireguard related… My memory is a bit vague

AFAIK TrackerControl was also based on NetGuard.

Does DDG provide protection system wide? If it’s only the browser I believe Firefox with uBO or Cromite would be better?

I usually use AdAway for this. When installing a new app, use PCAPdroid and AdAway’s logger to find tracker servers apps connect to that isn’t blocked by AdAway’s default lists and block them manually. (And don’t enable internet connection at all unless it’s really necessary, using AFWall)

Debloating apps using LuckyPatcher before all this is also useful, like there’s no reason to have bytedance sdk running. Though it’s arguable that LuckyPatcher itself isn’t really trustworthy, so I usually have it disabled (by Android; using adb or using something like the ‘Blocker’ app) and enable it only when I need it.

it seems like rethinkdns is the best non-root firewall now. adaway+afwall if rooted.

maybe an android phone with usb-c to hdmi? would be very easy to use for non techie family members too.

i root with magisk and use afwall and adaway to block stuff. maybe not the most secure but it’s pretty private, at least i know there’s no weird network connection happening without me knowing.

it all depends on your threat model, but IMO your idea is decent. personally i’d rather have another lineageos phone for calls, since the iPhone’s phone app sucks (no call recording) and it being connected to the internet means it can be tracked by apple. also it’s impossible to install any apps on iOS without an apple account. (unless you jailbreak, which is a pretty different story. your iphone 7 can be jailbroken with checkra1n which is good tho)

reinstall lineageos, if it has gapps i consider it compromised

on some places everyone including the active seeders have utorrent 2.2.1 (or something similar) so you’ll be missing out sadly.

go w10 iot ltsc 21h2

seems very sus

relevant - Is Windows a virus?: http://danny.oz.au/danny/humour/windows.html

started debloating my windows install and installing custom roms since i had a shit pc and phone, then got to know linux and naturally got privacy conscious

lol. maybe use a porn site that yt-dlp supports or contribute by making an extractor

using disroot for a few years now, they’re very reliable.

i see no reason to use that over normal ubo. even in china i believe you can get ubo…?

i thought simplex was completely decentralized p2p. can’t it simply be forked?

pretty good, the built in adblock isn’t much sophisticated tho. fenix with ublock origin is superior unless you really need chromium.

webview is the one embedded with your os, it could be outdated etc. it’s just not better than running a hardened chromium browser like cromite then.

isn’t firefox focus a webview wrapper?

fyi there is also redreader, no idea if you can still register from it tho

which client are you using? the element client on androud and desktop/web seems to be pretty glitchy.

I tried using Jami with a very technical friend. The android version kinda seemed to work, though a little glitchy. The desktop linux/windows version was complete garbage, completely unusable.

How is it better than Jami? Genuinely asking.

I believe Wireguard/OpenVPN/etc profile availability is more important than Google Play Store.

Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendation!

I’m trying to move a friend groupchat away from discord and there are users on all those platforms.

Are you hosting your own server? How’s it working with multi devices one one account (phone and desktop usually)? I’ve experimented with prosody a bit and it seemed like only one machine was able to receive message at one time, so the phone and computer quickly got out of sync.

Sorry for asking too many questions, it’s hard to find these things easily.

may i ask what clients you use for xmpp? conversations.im is the obvious best choice on android but not sure on ios, macos, linux, windows etc

pluma is good. i used it until switching to vim/emacs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluma_(text_editor)

imo tbh anything with lineageos is good enough. no gapps, microg if needed, and afwall/adaway(if that’s impossible, rethinkdns).

if you haven’t installed their games there’s nothing they can do.

I run an older android version, no google apps, rooted, and use AFWall/AdAway. I’m sure it’s not as secure with root and older software but I can mostly trust it to not send weird network packets etc.

btw my work website also checks if i’m active/focused on a tab or if I clicked off it, this addon spoofs it well https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/always-visible/

I’d love it if it actually worked… it doesn’t.

It’s extremely buggy. I’d rather use IRC, but the features it lacks isn’t ok for most people these days.

For me it’s Discord, I can’t find a good enough self hosted alternative with all the features me and my friends want.