#privacy

I was watching a video yesterday which had a sponsor for deleteme which claims to go through data brokers to delete your info. I thought that might be a good idea, especially for those with radical politics. However it’s fairly expensive (~200$) and also I mistrust sponsored links by default. Have you used them? Have you used something else? What do you recommend people do to deal with the hundreds of data brokers which harvest your info? The point is not to disappear entirely, but pershaps to make it less easy for an employer, payment processor or whatever to blackllist you based on GenAI assessments etc.

cross-posted from: lemmus.org/post/20954019 Reddit. Source: Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing, question by Senator Ron Wyden. Clip by Headquarters News.

🚀 This image highlights my love for the Mastodon network! The moment you publish important information for humanity, you become inconvenient for corporations. I've already been blocked 2 times on Twitter, 2 times on X, twice on Facebook, once on a Mastodon server, and 3 times on Instagram. It all starts when I, as a Ukrainian, post about things that concern me — for example, about forced mobilization of men in Ukraine — and suddenly bots hired by the authorities flood in with mass complaints against my account. Because it's an inconvenient truth that doesn't allow them to steal more money 😅 I was also blocked during COVID when I provided evidence that humanity was being deceived. Facebook and Instagram were the first to block my accounts. Why? Because Bill Gates and others wanted to make their billions, and many people like me were silenced — everyone who asked uncomfortable questions. That's why I, as a software developer, support everything decentralized. We create our own solutions and improve existing major projects. One of our recent initiatives is to completely rewrite the Yacy search engine for our needs. This is a decentralized network that gives freedom to users. Nobody will monitor what you search for. We also support the F-Droid team, which champions the right to free and open-source software. Join us! Share this post if you stand for: ✅ Freedom of speech ✅ Freedom of action ✅ Free software ✅ Decentralization Thank you to everyone who has already joined and shared their thoughts and suggestions! #Mastodon #FreedomOfSpeech #Decentralization #FOSS #Ukraine #DigitalFreedom #OpenSource #Privacy #FDroid #Yacy

FBI director Kash Patel earlier today confirms the FBI is buying location data and histories that can be used for tracking people. #USPol #Privacy The FBI does not need a warrant to purchase commercially available data we haphazardly, or otherwise, share with companies, websites, and apps. Video below shared by US Senator Ron Wyden on social media

The teacher opens an app on their phone, holds it up, and takes several photos of the room. Within seconds, the images travel to a cloud server, where a facial-recognition algorithm detects each student’s face, extracts it, and compares it against a database of biometric profiles. The app LRCO Paraná returns a list of names. Students identified in the photos are marked present; those the system does not find are marked absent. For some students, a false absence is a bureaucratic irritation. For others, it could threaten their family’s access to welfare. In Brazil, eligibility for the Bolsa Família program depends in part on school attendance, and in Paraná such records are now largely generated by an algorithm.

Digital slavery under the mask of progress: Why VIR.GROUP chooses the path of resistance. We realized the main enemy of innovation is not bugs in code — it is the wall of bureaucracy and total control built by corporate giants. Algorithms decide what information you see and what gets erased. This is global influence on society's thinking. Corporations decide your news, your choices, your phone, your truth. They don't want smart, free users. They want obedient consumers. VIR.GROUP announces a new phase. We work for people, not politicians, elites, or corporate profit. Our position: — Against digital slavery — Against manipulation — For freedom of choice Soon we will announce solutions that fundamentally change human-technology interaction. Tools for those who choose to be free. Freedom is not a feature. It is a right. https://vir.group/ #Digital #Freedom #Privacy #Humanity #Tech#VIRGROUP #Manifesto

Cross posted from: feddit.uk/post/45797826 In a sensational turn of events in the fight against Chat Control, a majority in the European Parliament voted today to end the untargeted mass scanning of private communications. In doing so, the Parliament firmly rejected the error-prone and unconstitutional surveillance practices of recent years. Pressure is now mounting on EU governments to respect the MEPs’ vote and bury untargeted mass surveillance in Europe once and for all. Amendment 5, tabled by Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová (Greens/EFA group) and adopted by a narrow margin, demands that any scanning of private communications must be strictly limited to individual users or groups of users suspected by a competent judicial authority of being linked to child sexual abuse. This aligns with the European Parliament’s 2023 mandate on the permanent Chat Control regulation (CSAR). Based on today’s mandate, trilogue negotiations between the EU Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the EU are set to begin as early as tomorrow. Negotiations are taking place under extreme time pressure, as the current interim regulation authorizing Chat Control expires on April 6. The EU Commission and the vast majority of the EU Council—except for Italy—have so far categorically rejected any restrictions on untargeted mass scanning. Digital freedom fighter Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party) commented on the historic vote: “Today is a sensational victory for the countless citizens who made calls and sent emails to save their digital privacy of correspondence. Digital privacy is alive! Just as with our physical mail, the warrantless screening of our digital communications must remain taboo. EU governments must finally realize that true child protection requires secure apps (‘Security by Design’), the removal of illegal material at the source, and targeted investigations against suspects with a judicial warrant—not overreaching, pointless mass surveillance.” The Hard Facts: Why Chat Control has failed spectacularly Continue reading here - patrick-breyer.de/…/historic-chat-control-vote-in…

I’m a privacy focused individual, I run GrapheneOS on my phone & self-host as much of my tech stacks to avoid sharing info with. I’m looking for recommendations of smartwatches that align with the ideals of this community. What watch do you use? What do you recommend?

…by physically removing a port (who would do that) or using the software?

I was checking a friend network over Tor and I was curious about the country that would show in his logs so I checked where my exit node was from… It got me thinking, it’s well known most exit nodes are in the hands of governments, so people deep in OpSec using Tor network, do they check if the exit node they are using is not in a 14 Eyes country (or other places depending on their threat model)? And if this is a practice, do you believe countries controlling exit nodes for intel and surveillance might actually be connecting their nodes to servers in other unsuspecting countries, VPN-like, just to not reveal that node is actually feeding data to their country?

Are conservatives & libertarians really ok with the surveillance state they voted for? I suppose as long as “those people” are being targeted. #surveillance #SurveillanceState #privacy #GovernmentDataPractices #uspol #ice #dhs #ThomsonReuters #WriteYourRep https://www.startribune.com/ice-crackdown-thomson-reuters-eagan-license-plate-data-westlaw-clear/601583754