There are two common misconceptions on Mastodon about Mastodon. The first one is that Mastodon is the only free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything. Once Mastodon users are over this, they still think Mastodon is the best free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything.

I've seen Mastodon being advertised by users as a Fediverse alternative to literally everything, including Reddit (because, like, you can communicate, right?) and even YouTube (because, like, you can upload videos, right?).

But again, let me be honest: The only thing that Mastodon can hope to be an alternative to is 𝕏. Because it's a Twitter clone. A purist Twitter clone whose developers intentionally reject feature requests because the requested features don't fit into their image of purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging. They want to keep Mastodon a slightly more glorified SMS than 𝕏.

Mastodon isn't even the only microblogging server application in the Fediverse. It isn't even the best at that. 80-90% of Mastodon's users don't and probably will never realise that Mastodon is an intentionally crippled resource hog. Many believe that Mastodon is the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking.

By the way, even the Mastodon developers claim that Mastodon is fully featured. I've had a Mastodon dev try hard to convince me that Mastodon is fully featured although I've told him that I'm on Hubzilla. He essentially tried to tell me that Mastodon has every last feature that Hubzilla has plus even more on top.

In reality, Mastodon isn't the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking. It isn't even a social network. It's social media, just like 𝕏 is social media. It's designed for pumping out content and being followed because it's designed as a Twitter-like microblogging application. And it isn't even the best at microblogging.

Almost everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Mastodon has to be the best. After all, it's the biggest. It's what everyone chose.

No.

Mastodon is the biggest because everyone who wants to leave 𝕏 or Threads or Bluesky is railroaded to Mastodon. It's the biggest because all the newbies are only told about Mastodon. It's the biggest because none of the newbies even learn upon on-boarding that other 𝕏 alternatives exist in the Fediverse, that anything else exists in the Fediverse other than Mastodon. It's the biggest because mainstream media, tech media and even Fediverse activists only ever talk about Mastodon, Mastodon, Mastodon. (Granted, it's also the biggest because it's the only one with an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Even though that app sucks.)

All these Mastodon users who claim that Mastodon is the best choice don't realise that they themselves did, in fact, not choose Mastodon. They didn't know they had a choice. All they were told about was Mastodon. Seriously, if they'd had a choice, they'd probably be on Sharkey now and not on Mastodon.

I've read what people had to say who moved from Friendica to Misskey. Or to now defunct Calckey/Firefish. Or to Sharkey. Or to Akkoma. All these are microblogging server applications in the Fediverse. But none of them are intentionally crippled to stay close to Twitter, at least not to such a degree as Mastodon.

It was nothing short of eye-opening to them. Only by daily-driving something else than Mastodon did they realise what the non-Mastodon Fediverse can be like. And how crippled Mastodon actually is. That Mastodon is far from being the absolute pinnacle in decentralised social media.

They no longer had only 500 characters. They had thousands of characters. They would have had thousands of characters on every server running that software without having to ask around which one has more than 500 characters. It felt like a restraint being removed which they had never considered a restraint, at least not that much of it.

They saw text formatting which they considered technologically absolutely impossible in the Fediverse when they were on Mastodon. In fact, they had considered text formatting entirely impossible while on Mastodon until they had come across the first message from outside with text formatting. Actual text formatting, not Unicode trickery. Now they suddenly saw a lot of the stuff that Mastodon's HTML sanitiser removes. And they themselves could use it!

If they were on one of the *keys, they no longer had a timeline of single-message piecemeal. For the first time ever, they experienced what it's like to have something else than single-message piecemeal. Namely entire conversations right in front of them, right away. Without having to dig for them first.

They had features which they had always wished the Fediverse may introduce. They never knew that the Fediverse does have these features, only Mastodon doesn't. They had features that were completely unimagiable to them in the Fediverse.

There are users who have moved from Mastodon to something "minimalist" and lightweight like snac or GoToSocial, often on self-hosted, single-user, private servers. Even they suddenly had features they didn't have on Mastodon. Mind you, while not missing a single Mastodon feature (except maybe for a built-in Web UI).

And that's just the microblogging side of the Fediverse. None of this is actual social networking. You know, what Facebook does.

First of all, if it's about following and being followed, it's social media. A social network doesn't have followers. In case you don't know, Facebook doesn't have followers. It has "friends". Bidirectional connections. Not 𝕏/Mastodon-like mutuals which are two connections, one in each direction, but one connection that goes both ways.

Besides, there are even more important social networking features missing from the microblogging side of the Fediverse.

Where are the contact suggestions? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on how many contacts you have in common with them? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on what profile information you have in common with them?

Oh, right, the latter is impossible because Mastodon doesn't have profile fields with defined purposes. In fact, where are these? Every good social network has them! But Mastodon only gives you four all-purpose profile fields (just like Mastodon only gives you four of everything, four file attachments, four options in polls...).

Where is the list of unread posts, unread comments and other unnoticed actions? How are you to make sure you really catch everything your friends do? Because you can't do that if all you have is a timeline to scroll through until you no longer see new stuff. If you manage to scroll down that far. And only absolute newbies can do that on Mastodon because they hardly follow anyone.

Where are groups? Seriously, I've lost count of how many times Mastodon users said "the Fediverse" must introduce something like Facebook Groups. The huge majority of Mastodon users is fully convinced that the Fediverse does not have groups in any shape or form because Mastodon doesn't have them.

Where are all these things? In the Fediverse, no less? Where are they?

I'll tell you where they are.

Friendica. Hubzilla. (streams). Forte.

The actual social networking side of the Fediverse (although Hubzilla is more like a social CMS or a "social Swiss army knife" that you can also use as a Facebook-like social networking application). I mean, I've already explained that Friendica was created in 2010 as a Facebook alternative. Not a faithful Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook.

Mike Macgirvin took over from Facebook what social networks really need. And Farmville isn't that, and spying on your users and passing that data on to the NSA and selling it to the highest bidder isn't that, so he didn't take over that. He didn't want to build a clone that also adopts the bad sides just to be as close to the original as possible.

He took over the detailed profiles with profile fields with dedicated purposes. He took over profile privacy settings. In general, he took over a lot of privacy features. He took over advanced user discovery and connection suggestions. He took over bidirectional connections, only without that silly name "friends". He took over groups with moderation, only that a group on Friendica is just another account with a special automated reposter. He took over enclosed threaded conversations with one post at the top and otherwise only comments. He took over a "timeline" of full conversations as the default. He took over the event calendar. And so forth.

Instead, he added useful stuff on top. He gave Friendica all the posting features to make it fully capable of long-form blogging with all bells and whistles. No character limit (except for in the database, but I think that was over 65,000 back in the day already). All HTML text formatting features (only that Friendica only used BBcode back then; now it can optionally also use Markdown). A post/thread title. Summaries. Embedded images and other media with no limit in number. He even added a spoiler tag like in forums that can hide parts of a message.

He took care of privacy beyond what Facebook had to offer. He introduced a permissions system. Friendica got multiple profile per account, only one of which is public, so that you can show different sides of yourself to different connections.

Now, if you want to embed images or other media in your messages, you have to store them somewhere. And not everyone could be expected to set up a little file space somewhere. So he built a file space into Friendica, one that can even be used as a Dropbox alternative, all the way to restricted access to certain directories.

Mike also added a content warning system that automatically generates content warnings on the reader's side, based on a keyword list. If you need something behind content warnings, add the keywords to the list, and you'll have the respective content warnings, but the next user receiving the self-same post or comment does not have these content warnings if they don't need them.

One important part of what makes Friendica Friendica is being able to connect to a whole lot of stuff. For example, Friendica could federate with StatusNet via the OStatus protocol from the get-go; this is also how it immediately federated with Mastodon when the latter was launched. Mastodon generates an RSS feed, something that many users don't know. Friendica not only generates an Atom feed, but it can subscribe to feeds. Friendica can "federate" with e-mail. Over time, more and more connection features were added, including Tumblr, Twitter (!), Facebook (only for a few years before Facebook crippled it) and a WordPress cross-poster.

Lastly, he made it possible for third parties to add extra features by implementing an add-on system.

I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is the best Facebook alternative possible to use Friendica for a year. Not only dip one toe in to the water, but use it as their one and only daily driver for everything they've used Mastodon for. Not scratching the surface and using it like Twitter while ignoring any and all features the Twitter they remember didn't have, but going all in. In fact, I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is perfect and fully-featured to do the same.

And then there's Hubzilla. It came to exist by Mike forking Friendica in 2011, then forking that fork the same year, then rewriting that fork of a fork in 2012, then repurposing, rebranding, repositioning and greatly expanding it in 2015. Long story.

Hubzilla adds even more stuff on top. Most importantly, it introduced nomadic identity (https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity) in 2012.

Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, became the first decentralised social software that uncoupled the identity from the login. This was necessary for nomadic identity, but it also introduced the option to have multiple independent identities, basically what's an account elsewhere, on the same account, the same login. This makes sense, given the many different roles and purposes a Hubzilla channel can have. The big advantage over having multiple separate accounts is that you can switch between the channels on your account without logging out and back in.

Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, got an even more advanced and fine-grained permissions system. Hubzilla has 17 individual permissions on three levels, channel level, contact level, content level. At channel level, each one has seven or eight permission options to choose from, depending on whether or not it makes sense to give a permission to everyone on the Internet.

Mike added optional features to Hubzilla that were previously unseen on social anything, features that you'd rather expect from a CMS and maybe not even from that. Non-federating long-form articles. Planning cards that are based on these articles. Wikis that can be formatted with BBcode or Markdown. Webpages that can be formatted with BBcode, Markdown or HTML, that can include dynamic content from elsewhere on the channel, and that can add extra content to the channel pages.

Hubzilla can even act as groupware. It has a CalDAV calendar server; the event calendar can double as a crude UI for the CalDAV calendars. It has an optional CardDAV addressbook server. Its built-in file storage can be accessed via WebDAV, so you theoretically even have some cloud file space you can mount as a network drive. Rather recently, there was even a way found to tie Collabora Office into Hubzilla.

If you should ever read about Bonfire: Bonfire is Hubzilla ordered from Wish.com. Whatever Bonfire promises to have or to introduce has been available as a rock-solid stable feature on Hubzilla for over a decade. Bonfire only gets away with what it's trying to do because nobody knows Hubzilla.

I think it's safe to say that those who "chose" Mastodon didn't choose it over the rest of the Fediverse because it's better. They "chose" it because they didn't even know they have a choice.

As for your post, the technology for redeveloping socialising is there. And it certainly isn't Mastodon, and it never will be Mastodon. Mastodon can't be that due to its design philosophy, due to it being a Twitter clone, due to its own developers intentionally crippling it.

If you want to move on from 1-way interaction, you have to move on from 1-way connections. Move on from Twitter followers to Facebook friends.

You have to offer better options for the users than shouting into the void, attaching a bunch of hashtags and hoping that some of their followers or someone who is following one of the hashtags happens to be bothered to scroll down their timeline far enough.

You have to make sure that people don't miss content due to basic design and philosophy decisions. You have to make sure that people don't miss content because they simply never know that this content is there in the first place, because they can't scroll down far enough their timelines until they reach that content. You need something else than a timeline of single messages to scroll down with the user not having an idea just how far down that timeline goes. You have to tell the user how much unread content there is, what it is, where it is, and take the user directly to that unread content.

You have to stop presenting content to users as a long list of single posts and more single posts with only tiny details telling them that these posts are, in fact, part of a longer conversation which they don't see. Where they have to click or tap themselves through various UI pages to see that post in its context. Users must see the whole conversation Right. Off. The bat.

You need groups. Not kluged onto something that had no group support whatsoever two seconds earlier, not intentionally crippled, not crippled by the technology they're built upon, not intentionally re-invented to be incompatible with whatever already exists (and this is how Mastodon would do them). But fully functional, on an appropriate base, interoperable, user-moderated, optionally private, optionally hiding from directories.

If you want to go "social", you really have to go social. You have to go Facebook, not Twitter.

Users must find other users based on common interests. Or users living close to them. Or users with lots of contacts in common with them. Not by being on the same local/regional server of the same server about a certain topic. Not by searching for hashtags in the main profile text. But by examining specialised profile fields and the contacts.

Users must have such users suggested to them as new connections. Users must have such users at the top of their directory. This is how Facebook does it. And this is one thing that Facebook has always done right.

Again, Mastodon will never offer any of this. But that doesn't mean that you'll have to compromise and lower your expectations. Because you don't have to. There are server applications in the Fediverse, fully federated with Mastodon, that offer literally all of that. They exist right now. And some of them have existed for longer than Mastodon.

If you need something better than today's Mastodon, stop wishing for a better Mastodon. Instead, use something that's better and more appropriate for the job than Mastodon right now. For it exists right now.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #500Characters #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastodonFediverse #NotOnlyMastodon #FediverseIsNotMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Privacy #Permission #Permissions #Groups #FediverseGroups #FediGroups #NomadicIdentity #MastodonCentricity #MastodonNormativity

Internet-connected kitchen appliances that offer recipe and grocery features collect meal preparation habits and dietary patterns retained on vendor servers.

#privacy #IoT #tracking #indigoprivacy

#Google will now let you sign in to your account with a #selfie video

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/google-will-now-let-you-sign-in-to-your-account-with-a-selfie-video/

#privacy

Leaked Document Shows the #Surveillance Tech at #ICE’s Fingertips

https://www.404media.co/leaked-document-shows-the-surveillance-tech-at-ices-fingertips/

#privacy #politics

#Encryption and Globalization 15 Years Later: End-to-End Encryption and the Third Round of the "#GoingDark" Debate

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6959699

#privacy #cybersecurity

This week in privacy:

- A US appeals court said border agents can search your phone with no warrant.
- A researcher found Shark robot vacuums can be turned into spy cameras (still unpatched).
- Google rolled out face-video sign-in - new biometric data to store.
- The EFF found most health wearables lack basic privacy protections.

The bright spot: California launched DROP, a free tool to bulk-delete you from data brokers.

#privacy #indigoprivacy

This week in privacy:

- A US appeals court said border agents can search your phone with no warrant.
- A researcher found Shark robot vacuums can be turned into spy cameras (still unpatched).
- Google rolled out face-video sign-in - new biometric data to store.
- The EFF found most health wearables lack basic privacy protections.

The bright spot: California launched DROP, a free tool to bulk-delete you from data brokers.

#privacy #indigoprivacy

#Tails 7.10

https://tails.net/news/version_7.10/

#privacy #anonymity #cybersecurity #FOSS #Linux

Need a password manager for your team?

TeamPass is a free, open-source password manager built for teams and organizations. Securely share credentials, manage role-based permissions, integrate with LDAP/Active Directory, and self-host everything on your own infrastructure.

More details: https://digitalescapetools.com/tools/tool.html?id=teampass

#OpenSource #PasswordManager #SelfHosting #CyberSecurity #Privacy #DevOps #FOSS

Alt...

Screenshot of the TeamPass 3 project page describing it as an on-premise collaborative password manager. The page highlights GitHub badges showing approximately 1.8k stars, GPL-3.0 license, 1.9 million Docker pulls, the latest release, a passing build status, and code intelligence support.

A US appeals court (the Fourth Circuit) ruled border agents can manually search travelers' phones with no warrant and no individualized suspicion, treating it as 'routine' like inspecting luggage. The EFF argues a manual scroll reveals 'the sum of an individual's private life' just like a forensic search and should require a warrant. Entering the US? Reduce what's on your device and power it off first. #privacy #EFF #borders #indigoprivacy

The Fourth Circuit Says #Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required

#privacy #law

Understanding and controlling Location Services in Windows 11 is crucial for privacy. Our new guide breaks down how to enable or disable these features, giving you granular control over your device's location data. Empower yourself with knowledge. #Windows #Privacy #Tech #Tutorial https://geekrewind.com/how-to-enable-or-disable-location-services-in-windows-11/

I got a notice I could get 2 years of identity monitoring from Kroll due to a breach with U of MN. I see that Kroll is a pretty large firm, but I also found a lot of people online with negative comments about Kroll and saying just locking/freezing your credit monitoring is the best thing you can do. I've already done that a long time ago. Any thoughts on Kroll or the usefulness of giving them identifying data about myself through their online enrollment form? I'm leaning against it. #privacy #infosec

Meta and Google are testing selfie video verification.

Both companies are rolling out video-based identity checks to verify users and help with account recovery. While they promise stronger security, they also raise new questions about biometric privacy and how facial data is stored and used.

Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/07/meta-google-selfie-video-verification-privacy.html

#Privacy #Biometrics #Google #Meta #CyberSecurity #DigitalRights #TechNews

Every Monday: what happened in privacy this week, why it matters, and what to do about it.

#privacy #news #indigoprivacy

Every Monday: what happened in privacy this week, why it matters, and what to do about it.

#privacy #news #indigoprivacy

#SocialMedia addiction lawsuit against #Meta is dropped

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/social-media-addiction-lawsuit-against-meta-is-dropped/

#Facebook #Instagram #privacy

#SouthKorea discloses #DataBreach impacting diplomats worldwide

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/south-korea-discloses-data-breach-impacting-diplomats-worldwide/

#privacy #cybersecurity #politics

How #OpenAI’s human mistake led to the #AI-powered hack on #HuggingFace

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/how-an-openais-human-mistake-led-to-the-ai-powered-hack-on-hugging-face/

#cybersecurity #DataBreach #privacy

Thanks a lot to our dears users that leave such lovely words in Google Play reviews.

You give us that magic energy and motivation to keep going!
💜✨🤗

Are you installing the app from Google Play but have not given a review yet??? it would help us a lot to gain more visibility and relevance between so many apps in the Google Play store, so please, if you can, leave us a review here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.arcanechat

#android #arcanechat #OpenSource #europe #european #privacy #security #family

Google now support account recovery with AI and your face. What could possibly go wrong? Google having my face is not just bad enough but chances are high that selfie video may not work in edge cases or network down etc.

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/selfie-video-sign-in/

#privacy #security #DoNotwant

Alt...

The tweet from Google offical account reads: Forgot your password? Lost your phone? Can’t get into your account? You can now use a selfie video to log into your Google Account. The new feature is easy to use and lets you sign in — even if you forget your password or don’t have your usual phone or laptop — with a quick selfie. There is a short video showing how to use a selfie video to log into your Google Account and link to https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/selfie-video-sign-in/

@elsua54 I see you have good thoughts but also it's for the developers to share their troubles and considerations a bit more to literally share the burden out to people (both as physical work & solutions and also using the mass for thoughts and then team-focus on it when a genuis idea / offer come from the suggestions).

e.g. #GrapheneOS replies seem a bit more personal while updating technically (they are invested and all-out into personal #privacy #anonymity to protect from corps).
@GrapheneOS

Vendor management systems retain contractor and gig worker identity and performance data that is shared across client companies in the same industry.

#privacy #databrokers #employment #indigoprivacy

"They monitor your actions from your very own electronics."

source: ITS TIME FOR THE WORDS WRITTEN IN THE LITTLE BOOK TO BE REVEALED - Godshealer7/YouTube

@JulianOliver
@k0a1a

#privacy #conspiracy #prophecy #Jesus

"Tails 7.10 launches with shutdown data-loss prevention & Celluloid as default video player"

"This update introduces the use of the standardGNOMEshutdown procedure. Tails 7.10has been released, continuing the project's focus on privacy protection and resistance to surveillance and censorship."

https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/7/tails-7-10-launches-with-shutdown-data-loss-prevention-and-celluloid-as-default-video-player/

#Privacy

What Happened When #Flock Came to My Town

https://www.404media.co/what-happened-when-flock-came-to-my-town/

#privacy #surveillance #ALPR

#SimpleX Public Names — a Name Nobody Can Take From You

https://simplex.chat/blog/20260722-simplex-public-names.html

#privacy #cybersecurity

🚨 U.S. folks. There is one day left to comment on the FCC proposed rule to eradicate anonymity on all phone lines!

If they pass this rule government ID, physical address, and alternative phone number will be required for every new phone line. Anonymous phone lines and burner phones will cease to exist. That means no connected privacy via cellular at protests.

** Please add your comment! **

For the first field (proceedings) use these two:

17-59 and 02-278

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express

#Privacy #InfoSec #OpSec #FCC #Anonymity #Phones #Protest

For our fellow tech enthusiasts: securing your Windows 11 device is paramount. Our new guide explains how to manage Device Encryption, a built-in feature that scrambles your data for protection. Essential knowledge for safeguarding your digital life. #Windows #Security #Privacy #Tech https://geekrewind.com/how-to-turn-on-or-off-device-encryption-on-windows-11/

#Flock ‘Objects to Our Removing Their Equipment’: Emails Reveal Why a Town Put Bags Over Its Flock Cameras

https://www.404media.co/flock-objects-to-our-removing-their-equipment-emails-reveal-why-a-town-put-bags-over-its-flock-cameras/

#ALPR #surveillance #privacy

#Adobe #Chrome extension flaw let sites access private #WhatsApp chats

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/adobe-chrome-extension-flaw-let-sites-access-private-whatsapp-chats/

#privacy #cybersecurity #HermeticReader

You Opened a #CreditCard. #ICE Now Knows Where You Live

https://www.404media.co/you-opened-a-credit-card-ice-now-knows-where-you-live/

#privacy #politics #PersonalFinance

How a Stranger Used One Text Message to Steal My Entire Digital Life

https://time.com/article/2026/07/07/how-a-stranger-used-one-text-message-to-steal-my-entire-digital-life/

#IdentityTheft #privacy #cybersecurity

Google and Meta both shipped facial recognition this week, days apart, for two different stated reasons — account recovery, catching AI catfish. Same instinct underneath: give us your face.

https://blog.ppb1701.com/everyone-knows-your-face

#bigtech #google #meta #privacy #biometrics #faceid #surveillance #userhostile #blog

How to disable location history on #Google, #Apple, and more

https://proton.me/blog/how-to-disable-location-history

#privacy #guide

States Want #ICE Agents to Show Their Faces. The #Trump Administration Is Blocking Them

https://www.wired.com/story/states-want-ice-agents-to-show-their-faces-the-trump-administration-is-blocking-them/

#privacy #politics

FastBackgroundCheck.com compiles your name, address, and relatives into a searchable background report. Opt-out is free: go to fastbackgroundcheck.com/optout, enter your name and email, click the link they email you, and fill the form. Allow ~3 days. Use an email alias, not your real address. Their own notice admits public data can reappear, so re-check. #databrokers #optout #privacy #indigoprivacy

#ChickFilA discloses #DataBreach after credential stuffing attacks

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/chick-fil-a-discloses-data-breach-after-credential-stuffing-attacks/

#cybersecurity #privacy #FastFood

Leaked document shows the surveillance tech at ICE’s fingertips in the U.S.

@404mediaco reports: https://flip.it/lGcEP2

#ICE #Privacy #Technology

#France becomes first #EU country to ban #SocialMedia access for under-15s

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/21/france-ban-social-media-access-under-15s

#SocialMediaBan #privacy #politics #Europe #AgeVerification #cybersecurity

#LG to Ban Residential Proxies from #SmartTV Apps

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/07/lg-to-ban-residential-proxies-from-smart-tv-apps/

#cybersecurity #IoT #privacy

when they touch the privacy topic at the family dinner

#ArcaneChat #privacy #security #encryption #anonymity #family #digitalindependence #Europe #European #android #openSource

@Tutanota

It should have a red blinking recording LED light just like recent Nothing Phones.

#privacy #nosurveillance #Nothing

Privacy protip, go into your phone settings and disable automatic time zone changing. It's not much, but it's an extra piece of info that websites (unless you're using some form of Firefox with resist fingerprinting on), apps and apparently anyone who gets their hands on your iPhone data and extracts internal logs/databases (see https://infosec.exchange/@abrignoni/116971177864869568) can use to track your movements to an extent. In Europe, that means crossing any border, even if your timezone doesn't actually change, because of how the tzdata files are set up (for the same reason, it won't stop your phone from automatically switching between summer and winter, that's absolutely fine)!

#privacy #android #ios

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116968826554216628

"When it comes to making a new, good internet, there's plenty of room for labor law, civil rights legislation, antitrust, and other legal regimes. But privacy has the biggest constituency, gets us the most bang for the buck, and has the fewest harmful side-effects. It's a policy we can all agree on, even if we don't agree on much else. It's a coalition in potentia that would be unstoppable in reality." - @pluralistic

#privacy #surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #tech #BigTech

Mary Holstege boosted

Cory Doctorow » 🌐 2026-07-23
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Data brokers are a cancer. There's a direct line from the collection, retention and processing of our data to deepfake porn and phishing scams; racial discrimination in hiring and ICE roundups of migrants; targeted election interference and identity theft:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/23/drop-a-dime/#privacy-theater

1/

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A hedge maze; out of its center rises the bear from the California state flag. Various human figures struggle to escape it. At the maze's entrance stands an agonized figure, reaching towards it.

Banks have reported cash over $10,000 to FinCEN since 1970 — a threshold never adjusted for inflation. It would be near $80,000 in today's money, so routine transactions now flood a database federal investigators mine at will.

#privacy #fintech #indigoprivacy

Enhance your Windows 11 experience by managing your screen saver. Learn the straightforward process to enable or disable this feature, adding a layer of privacy and visual interest to your idle sessions. #Windows #Tech #Privacy #Guide https://geekrewind.com/how-to-turn-on-screen-saver-in-windows-11/

How many ways can we spell out fascist totalitarian dictatorship before American normies realize it’s happening?

https://www.404media.co/leaked-document-shows-the-surveillance-tech-at-ices-fingertips

There needs to be more ICE doxxing. These people need to be exposed and publicly berated. They should lose their friends and be ostracized by their families.

A dictatorship can’t function unless it has subservient lackeys. If we reduce the pool of candidates through shame and humiliation, it reduces the harm that can be done.

#ICE #ICEOut #Surveillance #Privacy #Technology

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More details: https://digitalescapetools.com/tools/tool.html?id=pictshare

#OpenSource #SelfHosting #Privacy #FileSharing #FOSS #PrivacyTools #DigitalEscapeTools

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Screenshot of PictShare, a self-hosted file sharing platform, highlighting support for hosting images, GIFs, MP4 videos, and text bins. Below the banner is an example shared image displayed through a direct PictShare link.

“Some notable entries in the document include:

- Accurint: a LexisNexis tool for locating people that contains all sorts of personal data like addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and more
Chameleon: a tool which provides “Anonymized means to conduct online investigations, web research, and undercover work”

- Locate X: a tool that lets ICE search a massive database of location data harvested from smartphones. Made by Babel Street, the tool uses data sourced through ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones or the advertising ecosystem. 404 Media previously reported how the tool could be used to track phones at abortion clinics after privacy advocates gained access to the technology. “It allows investigators to draw a digital fence around an address or area, pinpoint mobile devices that were within that area from mobile data sources,” the document reads

- Cobwebs: a social media tracking tool. 404 Media previously reported Cobwebs also includes Webloc, which can monitor phone locations in entire neighbourhoods

- ISO ClaimSearch: a database that contains property and casualty insurance claims and medical bills. The database is nearly all encompassing and contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills”

https://www.404media.co/leaked-document-shows-the-surveillance-tech-at-ices-fingertips/

#USA #ICE #Immigration #Surveillance #Privacy

#OpenAI says #HuggingFace was breached by its pre-release models

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/openai-says-hugging-face-was-breached-by-its-pre-release-models/

#cybersecurity #DataBreach #AI #privacy

People will say you have no expectation of privacy in public, and that is true, but it's not what we're actually talking about.

For the VAST majority of human history, we had no expectation of being *recorded*.

It's only the last few decades that that was even possible.

Our laws need to catch up.

#privacy #politics #data

For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark

https://www.wired.com/story/for-taylor-swift-madison-square-gardens-controversial-cameras-briefly-went-dark/

#surveillance #ai #cybersecurity #privacy

#Anubis #ransomware claims #CocaCola #Fairlife attack, threatens data leak

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/anubis-ransomware-claims-coca-cola-fairlife-attack-threatens-data-leak/

#privacy #cybersecurity

#Trump Admin [finally] Drops [illegal] Subpoena Demanding #List of #Jews From #Penn

For more than a year, the Trump admin pressed the #university for records about #antisemitism complaints & a list of campus groups involved with #Judaism.

#law #AcademicFreedom #privacy #FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/us/eeoc-subpoena-penn-jewish-list.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

What Does #OliveGarden’s Never-Ending Pasta Have to Do With #Voting Rights?

https://www.404media.co/olive-garden-never-ending-pasta-id-save-act/

#privacy #politics

https://itsfoss.com/news/collabora-online-26-04/

Collabora Online is celebrating 10 years of being a great, Open-Source, privacy first competitive alternative to MS Office and Google Workspace

#Collabora #Office #OpenSource #Privacy

Introducing Native Containers in #Firefox153

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-containers-preview/

#Firefox #FOSS #Mozilla #privacy #security

How to stop getting #spam emails

https://adguard.com/en/blog/how-to-stop-getting-spam-emails.html

#email #privacy

What does #Google know about you? The chilling truth

https://proton.me/blog/what-does-google-know-about-me

#privacy

After #TikTok, #Snap settles #SocialMedia addiction case

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/after-tiktok-snap-settles-social-media-addiction-case/

#privacy

#AI #music generator #Suno breach affects 55M users, per Have I Been Pwned

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/ai-music-generator-suno-breach-affects-55m-users-per-have-i-been-pwned/

#cybersecurity #privacy #DataBreach #HIBP

An Explosion of #Surveillance Towers is Coming to U.S. Borders, Costing Over $1 Billion

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/explosion-surveillance-towers-coming-us-borders-costing-over-1-billion

#border #DHS #privacy #politics