#Privacy #AI #Singularity

@Tutanota

Some other simple things

8. Disable google advertising ID in phone settings

9. Install F-Droid where you can discover many FLOSS apps deliberately not published on google play

10. Switch from a fingerprint to a pin (added bonus that police in several countries can legally force your thumb onto your phone but cant legally force you to give up a pin)

11. Switch from google notification servers to something else like microg and/or set notifications to not display message content or at least not display message content when the phone is locked (Im pretty sure all that can be done from notification settings)

12. Switch from googles keyboard app to an open source alternative from f-droid (google has been fined millions before for illegally and secretly tracking geolocation it wouldnt surprise me if they do the same with keystrokes, and also mic and camera)

13. There's a bunch of other phone-home features spread across the settings but mostly under privacy category and accessibility category that you might want to turn off if you have no use for

#Google #Android #Privacy #PSA #FLOSS #FDroid #Advertising #Microg

#privacy #FossNorth

@Tutanota

Why #privacy matter

This is what civil society, in particular the #DigitalRights community, is up against now: 🇺🇸 has barred leaders of @hateaid, the Global #Disinformation Index, and the Centre for Countering Digital Hate from entering the US

Expect more restrictions, threats, and intimidation against public-interest NGOs globally
https://apnews.com/article/state-department-trump-immigration-rubio-visas-87c8a4692f3184e4f83fdd8ed5093886

#privacy #E2E #encryption

I got a $50.07 check from Mercy Hospital ( Bon Secours Mercy Health) because I logged into Mercy MyChart between March 27, 2018, and December 31, 2021 when their MyChart caused the unprivileged, unauthorized transmissions of personally identifiable information and protected health information to third parties, including Facebook and Google.

Small pittance for giving Facebook and Google some of the most private medical information about me. Lord knows what they are doing with it.

Nothing in the settlement about Google and Facebook having to deharvest that information.

#Privacy
🔗 If you reside in the state of #Ohio and are or were a patient of Bon Secours Mercy Health, and logged into Mercy MyChart between March 27, 2018, and December 31, 2021, you may be entitled to a cash payment from a Settlement.

Payments to Class Members who submitted valid claims were sent on December 17, 2025
https://mercyhealthsettlement.com/

It's not me: it's you!

No, I'm not giving you my phone number nor my email. Your mobile is chock full of apps that harvest every bit of personal data they find in it and keep them to themselves to do who knows what, sell it to the best bidder and even do things I can't imagine. You may not care about your #privacy but I do care about mine. So, you are not getting my phone number even if you want to have my contact on #Signal.

Want to stay in touch? I can give you my #XMPP address though.

404 Media: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/

#privacy #AI #surveillance #bigbrother #dystopia

Alt...

Unlike many of Flock’s cameras, which are designed to capture license plates as people drive by, Flock’s Condor cameras are pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras designed to record and track people, not vehicles. Condor cameras can be set to automatically zoom in on people’s faces as they walk through a parking lot, down a public street, or play on a playground, or they can be controlled manually, according to marketing material on Flock’s website. We watched Condor cameras zoom in on a woman walking her dog on a bike path in suburban Atlanta; a camera followed a man walking through a Macy’s parking lot in Bakersfield; surveil children swinging on a swingset at a playground; and film high-res video of people sitting at a stoplight in traffic. In one case, we were able to watch a man rollerblade down Brookhaven, Georgia’s Peachtree Creek

This story is a couple of days-old.

"At the same time, LG clarifies that the Copilot icon is not an app, but a browser-based shortcut."

PC World: LG will let TV owners remove Microsoft’s Copilot app after backlash https://www.pcworld.com/article/3018846/lg-will-let-tv-owners-remove-microsofts-copilot-app-after-backlash.html

The original story: https://www.m3.se/article/3017896/lg-later-tv-anvandare-ta-bort-den-permanenta-copilot-genvagen.html #LG #privacy #Copilot #Microsoft

The Italian Competition Authority fines Apple over 98 million euro for abuse of a dominant position https://en.agcm.it/en/media/press-releases/2025/12/A561

More:

MacRumors: Apple Hit With Supersized Fine in Italy Over an iPhone Privacy Feature https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/22/italy-fines-apple-over-app-tracking-transparency/ @macrumors #Apple #privacy #tracking

@Tutanota I've mentioned this before but SimpleX is more private secure and anonymous that signal threema and session.

SimpleX is decentralised meaning taking down a single group of servers or org wouldnt destroy the simplex network, people can run completely anonymous simplex servers over tor, this puts simplex ahead of Signal and Threema

SimpleX has quantum resistant encryption which puts it ahead of Threema and Session, the UK military[1] and NATO[2] both consider quantum computers to be a threat now because of store now decrypt later attacks

SimpleX has no user identifiers not even random strings, its essentially like having a "burner phone for every contact". Two or more compromised contacts could corroborate your messages by linking them to your signal username or your session id, but with simplex your contacts can't prove your identity even between eachother. This fact puts SimpleX above Signal Threema and Session

These technical details about the simplex protocol can all be found on the project website including the whitepaper[3]

[1]
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/whitepaper/preparing-for-quantum-safe-cryptography

[2]
https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2021/06/03/quantum-technologies-in-defence-security/index.html

[3]
http://isdb4l77sjqoy2qq7ipum6x3at6hyn3jmxfx4zdhc72ufbmuq4ilwkqd.onion/

#SimpleX #Threema #Signal #Session #PSA #Privacy #Security #Anonymity #NATO #UnitedKingdom #Tor #QuantumResistantEncryption

@obscuravpn
I mean, is it possible to generate my keypair locally and upload it to @mullvadnet, or how is it securely handled?

#privacy #security #VPN

💬Readers added context they thought people might want to know…

“Europe is hurtling toward digital vassalage. Under Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, EU laws to tackle tech giants have been either not applied or delayed, for fear of offending Donald Trump. Now leaked documents reveal that the European Commission plans to gut a central part of Europe’s digital rulebook. This will hurt Europe’s innovators and hand the future of Europe’s tech sovereignty to US firms.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/12/eu-gdpr-data-law-us-tech-giants-digital

#EU #privacy #GDPR #BigTech #hoHoHo https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/115762325563043978

IFTAS boosted

European Commission » 🌐 2025-12-22
@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu

Santa can keep the toys…

What we really want for Christmas: people before algorithms.

Alt...

Blue textured background with white starburst snowflake shapes scattered across it. Centered white text reads: “All I want for Christmas is no more addictive algorithms.” The European Commission logo appears in the bottom right corner.

Day 4. Reykjavík. Final episode. Talking tabs, Big Tech, privacy, and browsers with locals and tourists.

Plus one questionable food choice. Episode 4 is out 🚗

https://youtu.be/rBsWK-SRVuU

#Vivaldi #Iceland #Tech #Privacy #browser

Abusive Data Harvesting. Someone I know told me they had an awful #Data #Privacy interaction with Blue Cross and Blue Shield this week setting up their new Medicare plan.

She was setting up their new account and verifying their identity. Blue Cross asked several multiple choice questions with historical data. You know the kind. "Which car in the past have your owned." "Pick the town you once lived in" "Where did you once work."

The one that got them in the throat was, "Which person did you used to reside with and their current city and state."

It was her ex from over 40 years ago who she hasn't seen since then and tried hard to recover from because the relationship was extremely physically and mentally abusive and ended with a restraining order against the ex. The ex ended up going to jail.

They pull all this data and merge and link it with everybody. Who knows what they have and the sources these data harvesters use.

It really disturbed this person and brought up a lot of #PTSD, esp around Christmas time. #DomesticViolence

@eff

Exactly!

#Privacy policies are all well and good. Certainly if a site or service has a bad privacy policy stay far away,

But that's the *best case*

You should always consider the worst case as well. Misconfigurations happen, bugs happen, and even the best secured sites can have data breaches. Everything a site has *could* get leaked.

The best privacy policy is not to have private information.

🎄🎁 Christmas Giveaway: Tuta is giving away a 🇩🇪 German-made Volla Phone by @volla

The Quintus, worth €719, is a Google-free smartphone built for freedom, simplicity & security. 🔒

✨ VollaOS (with multi-boot option) or Ubuntu Touch
📱 6.7” AMOLED display
📸 50 MP triple camera
💾 8 GB RAM | 256 GB storage
🚀 Powerful Mediatek Dimensity 7050 8-core processor

⚡ For a chance to win, just comment what is most important for you on a #deGoogle phone? ⚡

#Privacy #DigitalFreedom #Giveaway #VollaPhone

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Christmas Giveaway: Win a Volla Phone! with image of the phone.

This holiday season, make a donation to a privacy organization ❄️ @torproject @eff @privacyint @noybeu @edri @EngageMedia @fight @openrightsgroup @calyxinstitute

https://theprivacycloud.substack.com/p/support-privacy-this-holiday-season

#privacy #donate

Been living in @Vivaldi full-time for a little over 2 years now, and I still don’t miss Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. As a Vivaldi ambassador and a security nerd, the built-in tracker/ad blocking plus per-site controls are exactly the kind of “privacy by default” I want in a browser.

I wrote up how I set up Vivaldi’s blocklists when moving people over from the big browsers: mapping common uBlock/AdGuard setups, choosing the right sources, and keeping sites usable without turning protection off globally.

🔗 https://www.kylereddoch.me/blog/moving-from-chrome-edge-or-firefox-to-vivaldis-built-in-blocklists/

#Vivaldi #Privacy #Infosec #BrowserSecurity #FediTech

@glynmoody

Sorry, but the arguments in this article reads just like yet another typically British monologue why single-glazed sash windows and separate hot/cold water taps are superior to the “continental” modernities 😄

First, please have a look at the list of “documents approved for voting in the UK” with 21 (!) different types of documents, whereas only some variants of some are approved (Oyster 60+ card) and others are not (any Oyster):

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need

This only exists only because of the persistent refusal of consecutive UK governments to introduce a single national id document, something that had been working in EU for decades.

Then have a look at another list - “Acceptable proof of address documents” which lists 10 types of documents, usually containing highly sensitive information such as your “mortgage statements” which in the UK you have to provide to any bank, employment agency, rental agency, property agency and a dozen of other companies:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/horizon-shortfall-scheme-appeals-proving-your-identity/list-of-acceptable-proof-of-address-documents-for-countersignatories

These, of course, need to verify your identity… but can’t because there’s no single national id so they resort to this kind of improvised risk-based methods, then keeping your sensitive documents God knows where and for how long. Because, you know, “it must be a paper copy” 😄

Now back to TechDirt:

Digital ID systems expand the number of entities that may access personal information and consequently use it to track and surveil.

Speaking of “threat to privacy” here, in the context of the massive privacy violations now codified in the British law because of lack of national id is complete reversal of truth. In reality, the only reason why national id has been for decades opposed is the lobbying of private companies who outsource processing of these massive financial data troves for their profit, selling “identity verification” service to the government and then selling you your own aggregated data in the form of “credit scores” etc. Just check all the “identity verification provided by E” at government pages.

And no, you can’t opt out unless you decide to live under a bridge.

#DigitalId #UnitedKingdom #privacy

Hey guys, we at Tuta got the The Butterfly archetype! ❤️ And - who is surprised? - our most used hashtag was #privacy 🔒

Share privacy and make everyone join the movement in 2026!
#NewYearsResolution #GoPrivate

https://mastodon.social/@Tutanota/wrapstodon/2025/3a59bc317f60a0e7

#Wrapstodon2025

Here are the four paragraphs of conclusion from that clickbaity piece ("Is Signal safe?") by @protonprivacy about @signalapp that is doing rounds.

1. "Signal remains widely regarded as the gold standard for secure private messaging for very good reasons. The Signal Protocol is extremely secure, and unlike most other apps that use the Signal Protocol, Signal collects almost no metadata from the Signal app."

1/🧵

#Signal #Privacy #InfoSec

A Chinese whistleblower now living in the U.S. is being hunted by Beijing with help from American tech.

@AssociatedPress reports: https://flip.it/qmQ-L6

#Tech #Technology #China #BigTech #Privacy

Signal’s reputation for secure messaging rests on strong E2EE using the open-source Signal Protocol 🔐

The app collects minimal metadata, but concerns remain around SGX reliance, AWS hosting, and past CDN-based deanonymization research 🛰️
Useful, but not flawless, for privacy-focused users ⚖️

@signalapp

🔗 https://proton.me/blog/is-signal-safe

#TechNews #Privacy #Security #Encryption #Messaging #FOSS #Cybersecurity #DataProtection #OpenSource #Safety #Metadata #Apps #DigitalRights #Tech #SecurityNews #Signal

Or more likely, first: Feds "Here are the photos of all the immigrants and activists we'd like to target. Let's have Ring give us their last known locations... Oh look, we found Jose the Gardener! He LOOKS illegal, he's brown! He rang on the doorbell of Mrs. Smith to let them know he was done mowing her lawn! Let's go trash his apartment and zip tie and kidnap all the people in there!"

#privacy #ring

"The latest disclosures, released this week by Markey, indicate that Ring’s new facial recognition feature, “Familiar Faces,” launched this week despite what Markey calls “reckless” failures to safeguard the biometric data of people who are unknowingly scanned."

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202512/ring-faces-new-scrutiny-as-lawmaker-warns-of-biometric-surveillance-crisis

#privacy #surveillance #cybersecurity #ring

Sorry, we have no idea 🤷‍♀️

#Privacy #Spotify #Data #SpotifyWrapped #Vivaldi #Browser

Alt...

Spotify Wrapped, but it's Vivaldi.

🚨 World's first social media ban begins: Australian & under‑16? Your social media account is now locked. 🚨

What's next? From Dec 27 #AgeVerification checks for search engines like #Google.

BUT - Once your data is in the system, what's stopping it from being used for surveillance?

And what happened to #Privacy? 🧐

#DigitalID #Australia

YouTube already has it ➡️ https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-turn-off-youtube-ai-age-verification

Alt...

Notice from YouTube: You must be 16+ to sign in to YouTube in Australia.

@briankrebs Anyone try this to Force Remove Copilot, Recall and More in Windows 11 ? 🤔

https://github.com/zoicware/RemoveWindowsAI

#windows #Copilot #privacy

@eff ...and here is a list of the most diverse offers to show the (non-existent) privacy on the web:
https://chaos.social/@kubikpixel/115677010880628487

#web #unique #privacy #webprivacy #internet #tracking

@lauren

Not legal. I must be able to pay my taxes via check.

Or, do they want to give free internet to everyone?

I still do not want to create an account when not needed.

#Privacy

A hidden microphone in a Chinese nanoKVM, and assorted other security issues

https://telefoncek.si/2025/02/2025-02-10-hidden-microphone-on-nanokvm/

#cybersecurity #privacy

Another interesting app I've been playing with on Android is Netguard. A simple way to block internet access per application.

It lets you block system apps as well as downloaded ones, either via wifi or data. I've blocked Chrome and the Google app and all the extraneous Google stuff like Play and Books, with no issues so far.

https://netguard.me

#Privacy #Android

The Guardian: Home Office admits facial recognition tech issue with black and Asian subjects

Calls for review after technology found to return more false positives for ‘some demographic groups’ on certain settings

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/05/home-office-facial-recognition-tech-issue-black-asian-subjects

#surveillance #bigbrother #privacy #policing #facialrecognition #bias

Age verification is the new trend to de-anonymize the web. 😡

🚨Starting Dec 10, #YouTube #Australia will ask for your age.

The Big Tech already started rolling out an AI-powered age estimation system. Adults are being marked as minors & are forced to submit IDs before regaining full access to decades-old accounts.

Learn how to avoid YouTube's #AI #AgeVerification: https://tuta.com/blog/how-to-turn-off-youtube-ai-age-verification

#anonymity #privacy

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Screenshot of a Reddit post in the YouTube Subreddit titled: "How do I get past age verification without giving YouTube my id?" with a screenshot of a Google pop up asking how they would like to verify their age.

@autonomysolidarity Aujourd'hui, un amendement à la loi sur la police a été adopté à #Berlin. Il autorise à peu près tout ce qui est possible en matière de surveillance numérique : scanners comportementaux, recherche faciale, analyse de données de type Palantir, trojan d'État....'.

https://netzpolitik.org/2025/neues-polizeigesetz-berlin-wirft-die-freiheit-weg/

#Netzpolitik #Surveillance #Allemagne #Palantir #Reconnaissance faciale #Protection des données #Données #Privacy