Digital Fingerprinting

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Yes i agree, you're right. It's not much for my convenience but for other people. I would prefer using Signal but no one uses it...

It makes sense... anyway speaking of Telegram i think that Telegram is much more used than Whatsapp by criminal groups and for illegal activities in general, often just because of its reputation, despite most chats being nonencrypted and the protocol being closed-source. They probably are less likely to collaborate with the police not because they can't but because they don't want to.

I recall the Telegram founder being arrested in France last year. I haven't followed up on the story but I think it was related to the use of Telegram by Russian soldiers. They probably want a key to the backdoor to break encryption on military comms, among the other reasons.

I remember a few cases of Apple refusing to unlock criminal's phones for law enforcement. But I haven't heard it happen in years; I assume they strong-armed Apple into compliance.

The government's use of Signal makes me a little hesitant. Idk whether to take it as an endorsement of it's privacy, or if sharing an app with politicians is too close for comfort.

 

[blig-blug]

The government's use of Signal makes me a little hesitant.

To be clear, I don't think Signal is the best alternative either, and I don't use it personally. It's centralized and requires a phone number. I just recommend it to the average user given that it's very superior and much less suspicious than other popular alternatives, so it will be a huge improvement compared to those. For particularly security minded people, I would recommend a XMPP account or one of the many peer-to-peer ones such as Briar or Simplex.

 

[Voidmatrix]

Firefox can do that too, AFAIK

Enlighten me.

One love

 

[blig-blug]

Enlighten me.

One love

How to Add Sites to the Phone's Home screen with Firefox on Android

Do you visit a few websites frequently in Firefox browser? Learn how to add the site's shortcut on your Android phone's home screen.

browserhow.com

 

[Voidmatrix]

How to Add Sites to the Phone's Home screen with Firefox on Android

Do you visit a few websites frequently in Firefox browser? Learn how to add the site's shortcut on your Android phone's home screen.

browserhow.com

The thumbnail for it ain't as cool as the other.




One love

 

[dreamer042]

@dreamer042 thanks for the detailed explanation, that's really helpful! Your setup more or less matches mine - I use LibreWolf set to the strictest possible privacy settings and have only 4 addons - ClearURLs, DarkReader (no idea how unsafe it is but I can't suffer the flashbang of opening google docs late at night in my dark room...), Decentraleyes and Temporary Containers.

It's important to reiterate that every additional extension one adds to their browser is a potential attack vector, so basically always use only what you really, really can't go without. Interestingly, I haven't felt the need to install uBlock as LibreWolf seems to be successfully blocking everything it needs to. I'm actually quite happy with that browser.

Lovely thread.

I seriously debated adding *use darkmode* and including darkreader as a quality of life addon as well, but decided it didn't really fit the general "keep it simple stupid" target of the tutorial. When I install browsers for others I just do the simple layout outlined above. When I do my browser, darkmode, darkreader, and youtubenonstop are 100% essentials. Not vetted to be safe, potentaily huge attack vectors, but I need real 100% darkmode on everything and I can't deal with "are you still listening?" every 5 tracks. It's gotta be done.

 

[blig-blug]

And, as you mention, the legal framework of the EU is close to changing anyways

It just did: EU Council Approves New “Chat Control” Mandate Pushing Mass Surveillance

Be careful out there and don't rely on trusting some corporation's promises.

 

[northape]

It just did: EU Council Approves New “Chat Control” Mandate Pushing Mass Surveillance

Be careful out there and don't rely on trusting some corporation's promises.

It is truly a sad day. A backdoor in our devices was prepared long ago, most likely. All they needed was a green light. My head is empty, and I do not know what to say…

 

[blig-blug]

It is truly a sad day. A backdoor in our devices was prepared long ago, most likely. All they needed was a green light. My head is empty, and I do not know what to say…

The scanning is on the server side, so of you use a trustworthy OS and either a peer to peer or a federated and encrypted message system it won't be exposed to dragnet surveillance.

But yes, it's not good at all, most people won't do any of that and won't even be aware that this passed.

 

[northape]

The scanning is on the server side, so of you use a trustworthy OS and either a peer to peer or a federated and encrypted message system it won't be exposed to dragnet surveillance.

I read somewhere before that they wanted a backdoor on a system level in smartphones, but I might have misunderstood.

 

[blig-blug]

I read somewhere before that they wanted a backdoor on a system level in smartphones, but I might have misunderstood.

There was indeed a proposal for mandatory client-side scanning, but that didn't pass either, and it's not included in what has been approved now.

So there are still ways for people with enough awareness to communicate privately. They keep boiling the frog though, and I suppose it eventually will be illegal.

 

[Voidmatrix]

Seems fitting to share here.

One love

 

[ommani]

and other individuals residing on the far end of the criminal spectrum.

Real recognize real

 

[rkba]

Seems fitting to share here.

One love

It fits very well!

One can change the sign that hangs on the hook, but the hook remains the same.

As long as the sign is obscuring the hook, we are blind to see it.
The trick is to remove the sign and see the hook for what it is.

Then one can remove the hook or use it to climb the wall. The Wall of Perception.

 

[northape]

Seems fitting to share here.

One love

I am actually scared of where it is all heading. By the way, Russia and neighboring countries are developing local versions of the same control systems.
It seems this is a global trend and not just limited to the West. Moving to a third-world country is becoming very alluring now.

 

[Voidmatrix]

I am actually scared of where it is all heading. By the way, Russia and neighboring countries are developing local versions of the same control systems.
It seems this is a global trend and not just limited to the West. Moving to a third-world country is becoming very alluring now.

Years ago, in China, they launched a social metric that was used by the government that rated you on everything you did.

One love

 

[Here&Now]

Years ago, in China, they launched a social metric that was used by the government that rated you on everything you did.

One love

Western leaders have been envious of China's iron-fist levels of control for a while now. If you look closely and can see between the lines, it seems obvious that they want very much to transition us into that type of system. And now their moves are becoming more apparent as we get closer. Hopefully enough people catch on and prevent it via the democratic methods we have in place, while they're still there to be used.

 

[rkba]

 

[sharp]

The digital gulag is ever encroaching. It's practically impossible to be completely anonymous online currently. An OS like Qubes using Tor is probably as close as it gets which for the average person is not even an option due to the rather steep learning curve and the need to know exactly what you're doing. As others have already explained there are steps you can take to fly under the radar to some extent but if 'they' are looking for you, 'they' will find you.

Personally, I started on this journey a number of years ago simply because I believe everybody is entitled to a private life. I completely ditched all social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram. The idea of something, an app having end to end encryption is at best a fabrication. Certain three letter agencies have backdoor's into them as well as most OS's no matter the platform. I de-googled myself too. I use Graphene on my phone, Firefox and Librewolf as browser's on phone and Linux, stay well clear of Window's and MacOS and I use a Faraday bag quite often.

A good tip is to do everything through the web browser. Use as few apps as you possibly can. Apps are absolutely notorious for tracking you and stealing your data. Data is now the most valuable commodity on Earth.

It's an ever evolving list of hurdles to overcome. VPN's are helpful but not infallible. Most that claim a 'no log policy' don't actually stand by that claim and there are reports of them readily handing over user data to the authorities. I'm sure the majority of everyday users are of little interest to them but the China model is revered now in the West and we are certainly edging closer and closer to it everyday.

The ONLY way to truely become anonymous is to get rid of any and all Internet devices. Nearly impossible in this day and age.

 

[blig-blug]

A good tip is to do everything through the web browser

Even better than this is to run everything you can locally. There are programs that are actually trustworthy and don't communicate with servers. E.g. what comes in the default repos of a good Linux distro, or F-droid apps for Android (avoid anything from the PlayStore!). When you are using a website, you're usually sending everything you do there to the website owner. So yes, avoid apps for web services and use the website directly. But don't prefer e.g. your-trustworthy-diary.site to a good, Free Software local diary program/app or just text files.

So, in summary: web service? Prefer the website. Anything else? Prefer to run it locally in trustworthy software that doesn't connect to any server.

I completely ditched all social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram

I fully agree with this, and the benefits here go way beyond privacy. Being less exposed to propaganda and manipulation machines is very beneficial on itself. Some younger people like to criticize their parents for being obsessed with watching some "news" TV propaganda channel, and then they go on to engage with much more sophisticated (and less obvious) propaganda media for hours.