Summary

Israeli software maker Insanet has developed a commercial product called Sherlock that can infect devices via online adverts to snoop on targets and collect data about them for the biz's clients. This is the first time details of Insanet and its surveillanceware have been made public. Sherlock is capable of drilling its way into Microsoft Windows, Google Android, and Apple iOS devices. Insanet received approval from Israel's Defense Ministry to sell Sherlock globally as a military product albeit under various tight restrictions, such as only selling to Western nations.

To market its snoopware, Insanet reportedly teamed up with Candiru, an Israel-based spyware maker that has been sanctioned in the US, to offer Sherlock along with Candiru's spyware.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Director of Activism Jason Kelley said Insanet's use of advertising technology to infect devices and spy on clients' targets makes it especially worrisome.

There are some measures netizens can take to protect themselves from Sherlock and other data-harvesting technologies.

• not loading JavaScript
• using ad blockers or privacy-aware browsers
• not clicking on advertisements
• pass consumer data privacy laws

Thought this might be helpful to others who use Mullvad Browser.

Got to the advanced preferences and set webextensions.storage.sync.enabled to true.

using mull rn, wondering if y'all recconend something different. nothing really wrong with mull, but maybe there's a better alternative. privacyguides.org reccomends brave, but a. I font like the CEO and b. I'm hesitant to use chromium

I couldn't find a post in this community about cameras so I figured I'd make one. Requirements:

• No "sign up" required to record video
• Video is stored locally
• Video is in a non-propriatary format
• Can work offline

Optional/Discussion Points:

• Can wireless connectivity be hardware disabled
• Can auto-update be disabled
• Does the device try to "phone home" if it is connected to wifi
• Disk encryption would be nice but I doubt that'll be an option for anything other than self-hosted stuff

Does anyone know about Lorex (it seems more privacy centered)?

I'm highly technical, so feel free to mention self hosted raspberry pi soltuions as well.

Can you also suggest a good opensource/affordable encryption software for hard drives?

The more tricky and clicky it is, the more shitty the people behind are. This is the lamest way (to try) to bypass rules and therefore pretty insulting to their audience. First contender: Arstechnica.com from Condé Nasty cult.

"Oh, the regulation say we must tell the users why we need cookies and provide how to opt out... mmh but we need those shit, let's find a way to stay compliant but discourage the opt-out in the most sonOfremovedWay."

Even, TheVerge and other from Vox Media sphere, which I thought were the nastiest, have changed it back to a simple consent or do not consent button.

ASstechnica likes to play the SJW, rights defensers, criticizes celebrieties or shitty on twitter but with their cookie maze consent shit containing a 100ish of advertisers (that you have to disable one bye one), they are litterally the worse BSiter ever.

So of course, I pass on but not without telling the fediverse how hypocrite this site/company is.

hero point +1 :P

Hello everyone. I have a separate profile for my proprietary apps on GOS, yet some of these apps don't work, so I'm thinking I need to enable Google Play Services.

Was wondering if this could hugely compromise my privacy, and if I could uninstall GPS later on. Thank you!

"Last November, it agreed to pay $391.5 million to settle similar complaints by 40 U.S. states. Then in January 2023, it agreed to pay a total of $29.5 million to settle two different lawsuits brought by Indiana and Washington, D.C.

Subsequently, in May 2023, the company settled with Washington state for $39.9 million for the same reasons. It's currently facing a location tracking lawsuit in the state of Texas."

Jesus Christ...

Suddenly a website popped up on chrome tried to close it & there was a pop-up closed it again; then my firefox browser was refreshed & a NEW "hibro.txt" file was created on the desktop. Opened the txt file and they were addressing me & talking about how good of a gamer I am...

SO can you please explain HOW WAS the .txt file created by the hacker & HOW THE HELL did they know I'm a player of xyz game?? COULD THEY HAVE ACCESS of my files, folders and family pictures too? PLEASE HELP and KINDLY CLARIFY MY DOUBTS!

Recently got a Galaxy 4 smart watch gifted, but I am continuously getting barraged with (repeated) permission requests and hit with restrictions on features due to not granting certain permissions.

Is there an alternative that fulfills the following requirements:

• respects my privacy by both, not storing my data on their servers and not selling my data, both health and identity data.
• works with Android, i.e. Is not restricted in use by using Android as the Galaxy 4 apparently is.

I mainly want to use the watch to track sport sessions, basically just for running.

Are there any tips on how to keep my peace of mind when dealing with smart watches? Things to keep in mind, etc?

Thanks in advance!

Title basically. I want to know what are the differences and which is the best in terms of privacy. Also, F-Droid says that Fennec tracks your activity, is it true?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4912712

Most people know at this point that when searching for a popular software package to download, you should be very careful to avoid clicking on any of the search ads that appear, as this has become an extremely common vector for distributing malware to unsuspecting users.

If you thought that you could identify these malicious ads by checking the URL below the ad to see if it directs to the legitimate site, think again! Malware advertisers have found a way to use Google's Ad platform to fake the URL shown with the ad to make it appear like a legitimate ad for the product when in fact, clicking the ad will redirect to an attacker controlled site serving malware.

Don't click on search ads or, even better, use an ad-blocker so that you never see them in the first place!

I currently use OpenBoard with gestures, and now all that I'm missing is an emoji search system. I don't like having to just scroll through emojis to find the one I want. any forks that include that? not a deal breaker, just a neat feature

I’ve been using Overcast (on IOS) for years and for the most part love it, but having explored the privacy reports in its settings, I’m wondering if there is any way to actually do something about all the trackers podcasts are using these days.

I’ve tried blocking the specific trackers with AdGuard DNS, but when I do that, the podcast refuses to play at all.

Using a VPN helps to obscure some of the gross invasively personal dynamic ads, but is pretending I’m in Amsterdam really the best I can do? Doesn’t feel like it’s actually addressing the problem :/