It’s exhausting how wanting basic privacy now makes you look suspicious. Block tracking? Suspicious. Use a stealth protocol? Suspicious. Refuse to give your phone number to a basic app? Access denied. Privacy isn't about hiding something illegal; it’s about human dignity and drawing a boundary. The fact that we have to actively fight a war just to exist online without being tracked is insane.

#privacy #surveillance #tech

„A Double Threat“: The EU Revives Chat Control 1.0 in the Same Week That Negotiations on Version 2.0 Are Wrapping Up

Last week, I wrote about Monday’s final meeting on the „Chat Control“ regulation. At that time, there was only one outstanding issue on the table. It was…

https://vsx.global/a-double-threat-the-eu-is-reviving-chat-control-1-0-in-the-same-week-that-negotiations-on-version-2-0-are-wrapping-up/

#infosec #privacy #opensource #digitalsovereignty

Remember when the internet was a vast web of independent sites made by actual humans? Now it’s just five corporate silos filled with tracking scripts, ad tech, and AI-generated slop. We didn't build the network to turn it into a digital strip mall where our attention and data are harvested every single second. Decentralization and privacy aren't geek hobbies anymore; they are a survival strategy.

#internet #BigTech #privacy #enshittification

The modern web is exhausting. You want to look up a simple recipe or read an article, and you're hit with 5 cookie banners, a mandatory newsletter wall, and now laws forcing you to upload your government ID just to verify your age.

We aren’t protecting anyone. We are just building a massive, interconnected identity theft machine for hackers to breach next month. Privacy shouldn't be this hard.

#privacy #internet #security #DigitalID

#Framingham #police will not renew #Flock Safety contract after months of resident opposition

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2026/06/25/framingham-police-will-not-renew-flock-safety-contract-after-months-of-resident-opposition/

#ALPR #surveillance #privacy #Boston

new ArcaneChat channel for you:

Street Art Utopia - We declare the world as our canvas!
Website: streetartutopia.com
Mastodon: @streetartutopia

here is the invite link 👇️
https://i.delta.chat/#EB87F92DC57303205E7F3ACB6DAA06D8FE761414&v=3&x=MgHEG7vN3vvZdX3fA38ATHwk&j=BuL4xJ-tKn7MUeFq4CXK04m6&s=k58srCpWmRoJvvshCf2Icg7j&a=6j2tb0xyz%40arcanechat.me&n=ChannelsBot&b=Street+Art+Utopia

#ArcaneChat #DeltaChat #chatmail #decentralization #encryption #privacy #e2ee #autonomy #digitalindependence #europe #european #photography #artist #art #streetart #streetartutopia #android #openSource #email #graffiti #activism

Alt...

an screenshot of the Street Art Utopia channel and its content/posts

Hey! Just launched Goguma, my blog about life in Korea, Linux, privacy, F1 and the sneaky tricks companies use to get more of your money. In Spanish, English and Korean.

https://goguma.blog/en

#korea #linux #f1 #privacy #indieweb #openweb #blog

Most major VPN brands are owned by the same 3 massive data-broker conglomerates.You are basically paying venture capitalists to harvest your traffic metadata and hand it over under compliance laws.It’s a corporate illusion of privacy.

I built Celestride as a lightweight, zero-knowledge alternative.No corporate bloat, no email tracking, no passwords to leak.Just hard-coded VLESS-Reality proxy routing that defies DPI.
Cut the corporate cord: https://celestride.pro

#privacy #infosec #selfhosted

⚠️ Expo (React Native framework) just shipped an `expo-age-range` module (alpha) that wraps Apple's Declared Age Range framework and Google's Play Age Signals API.

Makes it trivial for app devs to bolt on OS-level age verification

🔗 https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/age-range/

#infosec #privacy #AgeVerification #ReactNative #MobileDev

Using Loupe, we found out that Proton VPN is the only VPN that prevents internal tunnel IP fingerprinting by assigning 10.2.0.2 to all users. Other VPNs, such as Mullvad, assign a static and unique IP per session. This allows iOS apps to track user sessions across apps.

Mullvad is aware of this issue. It is described in this blog:

https://mullvad.net/en/help/why-wireguard

You can download Loupe here:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6766152470

#iOS #privacy #infosec #security #cybersecurity

Alt...

Proton VPN tunnel internal IP as shown in the Settings app

Alt...

Proton VPN tunnel internal IP as shown in Loupe

Alt...

Mullvad VPN tunnel internal IPs as shown in the Settings app

Alt...

Mullvad VPN tunnel internal IPs as shown in Loupe

Daily Digest | 29 June 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

🚨 NEWS: Flock Safety espande la sorveglianza AI negli USA e solleva nuovi allarmi privacy

Ecco i punti chiave in breve:
💡 Le telecamere Flock Safety, note come lettori automatici di targhe (ALPR), stanno proliferando rapidamente negli Stati Uniti, alimentando un acceso dibattito su privacy e sorveglia...

🚀 LINK: https://meteoraweb.com/news/flock-safety-espande-la-sorveglianza-ai-negli-usa-e-solleva-nuovi-allarmi-privacy?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=auto_share

#privacy #sorveglianzaDiMassa #telecamereAI #flockSafety #aLPR

Discord has quietly begun testing Incode as a new age verification provider, replacing its previous vendor for some users. The company says face scans are processed on-device where possible, IDs and selfies are deleted after age confirmation, and Discord only receives an age result, not your identity. But the move still raises important privacy questions around biometric verification, third-party trust, and the growing trend of mandatory age checks online, especially after the massive Persona breach linked to Discord user data back in 2025

🚨 Discord is testing **Incode** for age verification, but the real privacy story is far more complicated.

📌 On-device facial age estimation
📌 Government ID verification
📌 Credit card & Google Wallet checks
📌 TikTok comparisons explained
📌 What happens to your biometric data?
📌 The hidden behavioral profiling almost nobody is discussing

If you use Discord, read this before you verify your age.

🔗 https://thecybersecguru.com/news/discord-incode-age-verification-privacy/

#Discord #Privacy #CyberSecurity #DataPrivacy #Biometrics #IdentityVerification #Infosec #TechNews #CyberNews #OnlinePrivacy #Incode #AgeVerification #DigitalRights #CyberSecurityNews

@eff , #TEDIC and #CEJIL Challenge #Secrecy in the Use of #FaceRecognition in #Paraguay

Seeking #transparency and #accountability in Paraguay’s use of facial recognition, EFF, the Association of Technology, Education, Development, Research, Communication (TEDIC), and the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on #HumanRights against the state for arbitrarily denying access to information about its implementation and use of the technology as a tool for mass #surveillance that erodes people’s #privacy #rights.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-tedic-and-cejil-challenge-secrecy-use-face-recognition-paraguay

Public bicycle share programs collect GPS ride data linked to account identity that has been shared with city transportation agencies and third parties. #privacy #dataprivacy #indigoprivacy

No sponsored content. Just one privacy story per week that's worth reading. https://indigoprivacy.com/subscribe #privacy #indigoprivacy

No sponsored content. Just one privacy story per week that's worth reading. #privacy #indigoprivacy

The Circle: The Scariest Part Isn't Big Tech. It's Us.

When The Circle hit theaters in 2017, many people saw it as another tech thriller. Today, it feels less like science fiction and more like tomorrow's news feed.

The movie is based on Dave Eggers' bestselling novel, often called the 1984 of the digital age. Ironically, the film improves on the book in one important way. Instead of explaining every idea through endless dialogue, it lets us see them. The result is faster, smoother and much easier to watch. But it still feels more like an essay than a real story.

Mae Holland lands her dream job at The Circle, a giant tech company that looks like a mix of Google, Apple, Meta and TikTok. The campus is bright, colorful and full of smiling people. Everyone talks about changing the world. That is the first warning sign.

Modern tech companies rarely say they just want to build products or make money. They promise to make humanity better. The Circle sells exactly that dream. Soon Mae believes privacy is outdated. If you have nothing to hide, why keep secrets? She starts wearing a tiny camera that livestreams her entire life. Every second. Every conversation. Every emotion. Imagine if your entire life became one endless Twitch stream.

This world feels like a strange combination of George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Control no longer comes through fear alone. It comes through convenience, entertainment and the promise of a better future. Looking at today's AI boom, smart homes and endless social media feeds, the movie suddenly feels much less fictional than it did a few years ago.

One scene stands out. The Circle suggests that voting should happen through its own platform. If everyone already has an account, why not connect democracy directly to the app? It sounds efficient. Maybe even practical. The movie briefly asks whether democracy itself could become a product owned by a private company. That is one of its most interesting ideas.

Sadly, it never explores that question.

Instead, the ending takes the easy Hollywood route. Rather than challenging the system, it blames a few powerful executives. Once their private emails are exposed, the audience is expected to believe justice has been served. As if replacing a CEO could solve everything.

But that misses the real problem.

Systems survive because people are replaceable. Remove one tech billionaire and another one will take the job. The real issue is a business model built on collecting more data, measuring human behavior and turning attention into profit. It doesn't matter whether the CEO is friendly or arrogant. If the machine stays the same, the result stays the same.

That idea feels even more relevant today. We often argue about individual tech leaders. But should we? The real question is why any company should have that much power in the first place. Whether it is Meta, Google, Apple or the next AI giant, the structure remains the same.

The movie also lets us off the hook too easily. It is comforting to blame powerful corporations. Harder to admit that we help build this world ourselves. We accept the cookies. We install the apps. We trade privacy for convenience. We buy smart speakers, connect everything to the cloud and tell ourselves it is worth it because life becomes easier.

That may be The Circle's biggest weakness. It criticizes Silicon Valley's worldview but forgets to criticize ours. Most people are not driven by ideology. They simply choose what is new, useful and comfortable. That is how surveillance becomes normal—not because anyone forces us, but because we quietly invite it into our homes.

The movie offers only one alternative: rejecting technology completely and escaping into nature. But that feels just as unrealistic as total digital transparency. It presents two extremes while ignoring everything in between.

Despite its flaws, The Circle remains a fascinating warning. Not because it predicts the future perfectly, but because so much of its future has already become our present.

Why am I writing about such an old movie? Shouldn't we have much smarter, deeper movies about AI, surveillance and Big Tech by now? Or have we simply become so used to these technologies that we no longer notice what is happening? Has Silicon Valley slowly won us over with its own propaganda? If you know any newer movies or series that tackle these questions in a more thoughtful way, let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for the next great warning before it becomes reality.

#TheCircle #movie #film #entertainment #cinema #Hollywood #criticism #filmcritic #siliconvalley #bigtech #bigdata #bigbrother #orwell #surveillance #privacy #warning #danger #today #future #ai #technology #software #algorithm #freedom #democracy #economy #power #billionaires #finance #money #company #humanity #ethics #world #life #control

Alt...

movie poster from the circle with the face of Emma Watson

Canadian Government Recommends VPNs as it Drives Them Out of the Country

VPN services are saying they will leave Canada thanks to warrantless wiretapping. Guess what the Canadian government recommended people use.

https://www.freezenet.ca/canadian-government-recommends-vpns-as-it-drives-them-out-of-the-country/

#News #Privacy #Security #BillC22 #Canada #government #NordVPN #ProtonVPN #Signal #VPN #WarrantlessWiretapping #Windscribe

Ventoy is a free and open-source tool that lets you boot multiple operating systems from a single USB drive without reformatting.

Install Ventoy once, then simply copy ISO files to your USB drive. It supports Windows, Linux, Secure Boot, persistence, and many rescue and diagnostic tools.

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

#OpenSource #Linux #Windows #USB #SysAdmin #Privacy #Tech

Alt...

Screenshot of the Ventoy project page showing the Ventoy logo and a brief description. It explains that Ventoy is an open-source tool for creating bootable USB drives for ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), and EFI files without repeatedly formatting the USB. Users can simply copy multiple image files to the drive and choose which one to boot from a menu. The page also displays project badges including version 1.1.16, GPL-3.0 license, 78k GitHub stars, 16 million downloads, and a passing build status.

"We didn’t receive anything in the mail. I double checked to make sure that there was no emails or anything about it."

The post Woman Surprised When Flock Surveillance Tower Appears in Her Yard Without Warning appeared first on Futurism.

Alt...

Woman Surprised When Flock Surveillance Tower Appears in Her Yard Without Warning

This game could be used as a huge explainer into how surveillance capitalism works and how people are exploited on both sides of the screen.

MajorOffline: Hae Stack – MajorLinux

https://majorlinux.com/majoroffline-hae-stack/

#Gaming #HaeStack #Investigation #PointAndClick #Political #Privacy #Puzzle #Steam #SteamNextFest #Surveillance #Capitalism #Tech #YouTube

🚨 The EU's controversial "Chat Control" proposal is back.

EU governments are reportedly trying to revive rules that could allow private messages to be scanned for child sexual abuse material, reigniting the debate over encryption, privacy, and mass surveillance. The proposal remains highly controversial and has not become law.

Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/06/eu-chat-control-revival-private-messages.html

#Privacy #Encryption #CyberSecurity #EU #ChatControl #DigitalRights

The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears

The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites

"...An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law...."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/government-website-visitor-tracking-surveillance-fears

#cybersecurity #privacy #bigbrother #doge #fascism

Alt...

‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites