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Joined 2Y ago
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Cake day: Feb 17, 2024

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Good shout. I hadn’t thought of the hotspot option although I wanted to relegate WhatsApp to the burner phone as I just use it for kids school.


The problem is that many banks are using mobile phones 2FA devices and they don’t allow other means. I asked why I couldn’t go back to SMS as 2FA and they said that they deem it to be insecure.


Yes, I’ve been thinking about a burner phone but difficult to find pay as you go sims these days here. You end up in some form of contract. There you go … You want privacy, you have to pay for it. Wtf! We’ll soon be screwed altogether. They’ll soon ban non-stock ROMs too … Not long till this happens …


Pursuing privacy makes life difficult … that’s why people choose convenience.
A really big surprise following the creation of my secondo profile on my GrapheneOS, which i created explicitly to have a google environment where I could keep bank apps segregated. So, I removed bank apps and Google play store on main profile, created 2nd profile, installed Google play store on 2nd profile, then installed the bank app, which I successfully logged onto the first time. The second time it locked me out saying that my account was blocked. I called the bank and they said I have malware and I need to hard reset my phone and reinstall. I'm not telling them what my real setup is because they won't understand. I wonder why the bank app thinks I have malware if I only have Google play store, the bank app and WhatsApp on my second profile? Just sharing my day to day experience where I try to pursue privacy but I get screwed by the system. If you don't give up all you data, your life is made difficult. That is why people choose convenience and don't question too much. Its hassle free. How do we get out of this messed up system?
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Surely that can’t be true if you live in the EU. GDPR would screw them.


There are a couple of dependencies that I will find hard to get rid of like bank authentication. Its getting really hard to find banks that will allow 2FA via methods that don’t require the app.


Molly.im does not have a lot of documentation. Does it equally rely on a centralised server? If it does, then surely one of the downsides is that there probably isn’t a huge foundation behind it ensuring the bills are paid, etc. Or is it that Molly is piggy backing on Signal servers? And is the Signal Foundation happy to be have Molly users using its services? How long before Signal Foundation kicks Molly users off it servers?

Also I note u can download two different version: one with Google blobs and one without. What compromise do I have to make if I choose the Google version?


Its the first time i hear about Molly … Cant believe i didnt know about it


Thanks, how strange when I searched for it in fdroid it didn’t come up 🤔


Can there be privacy with Google Play Services?
Yesterday I decided to create a second profile on my Pixel 5 with GrapheneOS. The idea was that I would only keep Google Play Services (GPS) and Google Play Store (GPS2) there together with WhatsApp (need it go my kids school) and bank apps, and therefore shut down second profile for most of the time. So, I deleted GPS and GPS2 on the main profile and since then, I have Signal Messaging complaining that it requires GPS. I know I ough to probably be complaining with Signal developers, but before I go down that route I just wanted to reassure myself that this is normal behaviour. Presumably, Signal is complaining that it requires GPS only because its the only way it can notify a user that an update is available? I've done some minimal tests and it seems to be working normally, despite GPS is not installed on the main profile. I guess I could move to SimpleX and ditch Signal but that would be tough given I spent years convincing people to move to Signal 🙂
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Is there a reason for CoMaps not being on fdroid? I must be missing other app stores. For example, Accretium (a privacy appstore?) is not on fdroid.


Wow, this is impressive. I had heard about profiles but never got into the detail and never really understood the benefit. So, a cool way of using this it to have a FOSS only space under the main admin profile and the build up a second “big brother” profile where I stack some annoying apps that in a way or another I’m forced to use like banking app and what’s app. When the “big brother” profile is shut down, nobody tracks you. Would that be correct? If this is true I’m here asking myself why on earth people are not harnessing this more.


I nave ho learn how ho do these two profile things. How do u switch between them, and IS it on the fly?


Well then you still haven’t got rid of it 🙂


Well, this is the point. Eradication may ne unachievable but that doesn’t mean we have to stop breaking the chains. Its like saying Israel wants to wipe out Palestine and the rest of the world just watches (which is exactly what is happening unfortunately). We are surrounding our lives to those with power and money. As humanity, we need to find some lost dignity. We need to defend human dignity, and that comprises the right to privacy.


Sureley google pay/Apple pay IS eventi worse


Getting rid of techofascist services
I've been working in the last few years of getting rid of big tech services. PayPal and Amazon are left. I've been questioning the need for PayPal in a world of virtual credit cards. My main reason for using it was security of purchase but I feel this need is no longer there. BTW, equivalent EU service to PayPal that is equally well accepted? Feels like this one may be more difficult to satisfy.
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Interesting discussion going on here 🙂 sounds like this is pretty new and as I had suspected doesn’t seem to be well documented. If its just another Tuta, I wonder why they think they’ll be better at succeeding where others haven’t.


Just come across this. Haven't dug too deep but sounds like an interesting opportunity. I think it can only succeed if it is fully compliant with current systems. Seems to only be mobile clients. No desktop? Are big tech going to permit this to grow? It would shut down a data mining opportunity ...
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It used to be a breaze with linux, mozilla and AirVPN up till a few years ago. Now, it’s almost impossible to navigate the web, use public authority websites without having to disable VPN and all the privacy focused plugins of Mozilla. It makes you realise how invasive the internet has become. Even for people in this group that are above average aware of privacy risks, its just so hard. The internet would have to be redesigned by privacy conscious people but that will never happen as big tech would see their interests at risk and would strongly oppose. How do you get people to switch to Simple X Chat when I struggle to get them to use Signal.


Bangle.JS seems interesting and more capable than Watchy. But guess the latter’s battery lasts longer because of sink screen?


Are there open hardware wrist watches around?
I couldn't find any when I looked around a couple of years ago. Anything these days? And if none are floating on the market, are there any decent wrist watches that respect your privacy and don't send all the dam data home?
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But setting up a VPN on a VPS is not really going to do much for privacy is it? It wouldn’t take much to work out who is renting the VPS and the VPS has no incentive to hold back any info if a they were issued a search warrant.

Feels like it becoming more and more challenging living on the Internet without leaving breadcrumbs all over the place.


Although some appear to not be maintained anymore


Why is privacy a luxury
I've been noticing over la last few years that is is becoming more and more difficult to login to accounts, whether a bank account, a membership account, sometimes even browsing websites for shopping, through my VPN server. Is this just my impression or is there something going on now whereby there are services that keep list of VPN servers that are then sold to backs so that these parties can keep out anyone from trying to login via a VPN. It feels like the general consensus is VPN=malicious rather than "VPN="this guy is just trying to protect his privacy". I use AIRVPN but was wondering if there are VPN services that are more sophisticate and try to circumvent these VPN server blocks? It becoming a real pain to the point I'm wondering what it the point of paying fro a VPN is I'm finding myself having to login through my ISP IP rather than my VPN IP.
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Parties are the expression of voters. There is a general unease about immigration. To some extent I understand this. When people’s status quo is at risk defensive walls go up. In Italy they worried about the 150000 people that cross the Mediterranean each year, yet the population keeps declining in that country. There is no way to sustain growth with a declining population unless you change the economics of that country. But here to its a mess in Italy. Their debt is huge.


I was also very surprised to see Sweden back this. The Swedes have started changing dramatically since Russian invasion of Ucrain. Neutral for decades now in NATO.


Hi, anyone come across and used the Polycentric + Harbour option for managing digital ID? What do you think about it? Does it really manage IDs in a private and secure way? I came across FLUTO who seem to be great promoters of "software for the benefit of humanity" but you always wonder how much you can trust these thrid parties ... when they decide to sell your data?
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This post got me to search in FDroid and i found Chatlaunch forma Whatsapp. Anyone used it?


Mate, something like Immich or digikam (if you want local) will do a good job at this. Not perfect but perfection is utopia. I fed 40k images to Immich and it did a reasonable job in not too many hrs.


Well, this is what I thought too. Also, any other country under US influence would have handed him over to the US. See the saga that poor Assange has gone through. What worries me is that public opinion is rather silent to stories like those of Assange and Snowden. Whistle blowing should be seen as a right. If the organization I work for is ethically and morally misbehaving, I have the right to blow the whistle through the right internal channels to start with. If nobody listens, then you take it to the next level.


Wow, I was so engrained in Signal that I didn’t even realize there was something more secure. Signal is now as useable as Whatapp. I still don’t understand why people still use it. Is SimpleX usable and can I get my 80 year old mum to use it?