Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
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Visit our site: https://purplix.io

Support us on Github: https://github.com/WardPearce/Purplix.io

What is Purplix Survey?

Purplix Survey is a free & open source survey tool what can't read your questions & answers.

With traditional surveys you are one data breach, one rouge employee or one government warrant away from all your user's data being exposed. Purplix uses modern encryption techniques to keep your user's data away from any actors.

How does it work?

Questions, Descriptions & Title encryption

When you create a survey, we encrypt your title, descriptions & questions with a secret key. This key is then stored encrypted in your keychain. When you share your survey with others using a link, the key is stored in the link for your participants. This ensures that your survey questions can only be read by your participants.

Answers encryption

Every survey has its own unique key pair. The private key is securely stored in your keychain, while the public key is used by users to encrypt their answers. Only you have the means to decrypt the answers once they are submitted. When you share a survey, we include a hash of the public key in the URL to prevent main-in-the-middle attacks.

Preventing spam & multiple submissions

Survey creators can opt-in to use VPN blocking, requiring a Purplix account or IP blocking. IP blocking works by storing a hash of the IP salted with a key not stored by Purplix, minimizing the attack surface of tracking submission locations, these IP hashes are only stored for 7 days or until the survey closes. Users will always be informed when any of these features are enabled.

Fill out a survey!

https://purplix.io/s/651e32f0ab4897a99d28ea0e/CCpu5Nd8guMbuEw-jIEv10l6ICSvdCr84AtRYf9fPWk#905wt-r_OcvYfhQKhdS2Cjc1HXm7Vw6W_sm--9GkaOw

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The internet was less free and open for users around the world last year, the human rights advocacy organization Freedom House said Wednesday — a trajectory that has the potential to worsen if artificial intelligence tools are used in undemocratic ways.

The organization’s 13th annual Freedom on the Net report is a worldwide survey ranking digital rights in 70 countries, based on metrics such as the prevalence of censorship, disinformation campaigns, surveillance, punishments for online speech, and more. This iteration of the report covered June 2022 through May of this year.

Last year set multiple troubling records, including for the number of countries — 55 total — where people faced legal trouble because of their online speech. Governments in a record 41 countries restricted access to websites “hosting political, social, and religious speech.”

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Under the pretense of fortifying digital security in the United States, newly proposed legislation seeks to transform the United States Postal Service (USPS) into a hub for digital IDs. Senators Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, Republican, have put forth the bill known as the Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act. The proposed legislation opens new discourse on digital privacy and the potential for abnormal surveillance measures, sparking debate over the delicate balance between biosecurity and preserving citizens’ fundamental rights.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here [PDF].

The proposed legislation comes in response to the piecemeal approach taken towards biometric identification in America. Historically, disjointed programs have been created by different states and separate agency undertakings, giving rise to the necessity for a more coherent national strategy. The Post Office Services for Trustworthy Identity Act could mark a landmark shift, focusing on service provision rather than overarching digital ID strategy.

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Just a curiosity. Theoretically FRP (factory reset protection) can use the current login password as a way of authentication after reset. But everything on the web states that you will need a Google account to take advantage of he feature.

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Does anyone know if this enables any kind of tracking (either through WiFi device logging or network activity)? I've typically used my own networking modems and routers, I'm a little weary of a required smart device that I don't have control over.

So far I haven't been able to find much information beyond what's available from century-link

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Since it's mostly free, there has to be a catch. I may be wrong, but since it's Google, there's always a catch nowadays.

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Sick of companies grabbing and selling your address, birth date, location, online activity, dog food brand and even adult-film preferences? Oh boy, do I have some good news. A new iPhone and Android app called Permission Slip makes it super simple to order companies to delete your personal information and secrets. Trying it saved me about 76 hours of work telling Ticketmaster, United, AT&T, CVS and 35 other companies to knock it off. Did I mention Permission Slip is free? And it’s made by an organization you can trust: the nonprofit Consumer Reports. I had a few hiccups testing it, but I’m telling everyone I know to use it. This is the privacy app all those snooping companies don’t want you to know about. (A surge of interest in Permission Slip has caused technical difficulties for Consumer Reports. If you can’t get on, try again later or reach out to their support line at [email protected].) Here’s how it works: Following California in 2020, a dozen states passed laws that finally gave Americans some digital privacy rights. They empower us to tell companies to stop selling and delete our data, but the truth is they’re pretty painful to take advantage of. You have to jump through hoops, going to each and every company that might have your data to fill out forms. Until now. Permission Slip acts behind the scenes as a legally “authorized agent” — kind of like your own privacy butler. You tell the app your name, email address(es) and phone number, and it does most of the work, sending emails and filling out paperwork on your behalf after it has verified your information. Even if your state isn’t one of the ones with a privacy law, most national companies respect these sorts of data privacy requests from all Americans. After using Permission Slip, most people notice a decrease in creepy targeted ads, says Ginny Fahs, who has been working on the app for the past three years at the Innovation Lab, a division of Consumer Reports. So how do you get started? Permission Slip opens up to a series of cards you swipe through, each representing a company that collects and possibly sells your data. Tap on a company card, and up pops a summary of data the company knows and your options to take action, depending on whether you have an account. At the bottom, you usually get two options: “Do Not Sell My Data” or “Delete My Account.” Tap one and Permission Slip starts the process. Then you can do it again for a different company. Each takes just a few seconds. This works for far more than just tech companies. Permission Slip covers Starbucks, Netflix, Disney, Lowes, Panda Express, reproductive app Glow and adult website Pornhub, to name a few — and plans to keep adding more. It also includes The Washington Post. What kind of personal information are we talking about? You might be (unpleasantly) surprised. For example, Permission Slip highlights that the retailer Petco could have your name and address, demographics and locations from where you’ve used their app on your phone, not to mention every little detail of your pet. More eyebrow-raising: Adult website Pornhub collects the email, username, demographics, on-site search history, browser info and interests from people with registered accounts. What about all those data companies whose names most people don’t recognize — the ones that make money by collecting and selling your information? A second part of the app can automatically ask data brokers to delete their creepy file of personal information about you. (I hope Permission Slip adds some of the obnoxious voter data brokers ahead of us all getting blitzed with political spam and texts for the 2024 election cycle.) “The more data you have out there, the more attack surface there is for security breaches and for data to leak. So having good data hygiene is really helpful for preventing future harm,” Fahs says. There are a growing number of privacy apps on the market, but Permission Slip stands out in part for being free, not trying to upsell you on a product like a VPN, and not needing access to more data like your email inbox to work. Consumer Reports says it won’t abuse your data — not even to sell subscriptions to its magazine — and minimizes the data it collects about you while working as your agent. Through an open trial period, the app has already processed 200,000 requests. Sweating the details Permission Slip was easy for me to use, with the app sweating most of the details. But if you’re going to dive in, there are a few things to know. It’s super fast to use the app, but can take some time for your requests to be fulfilled. Companies typically have at least 15 business days to opt you out of selling your data, and 45 business days to delete your data. Permission Slip stays on top of the companies in a dashboard of all your pending and completed requests. Sometimes companies ask for additional information to process requests, and Permission Slip has human agents go through them to minimize the hassle for you. (It pays for those humans and other expenses, in part, with grants from the Omidyar Foundation and others.) Often, companies insist on reaching out to you directly — so you’ll want to keep an eye on your inbox. For example, Disney sent me an email asking to confirm my request, which was easy. [Your Instagrams are training AI. There’s little you can do about it.] The most cumbersome response I got was from reservation service OpenTable, which emailed to say that if I wanted it to not sell my data I would have to log into their website, navigate to privacy settings, and figure out which of its half-dozen settings I wanted to turn off. Permission Slip told me fewer than 10 percent of the companies in its app do something like this. When I reached out for comment, OpenTable told me its extra steps help “ensure it is not a fraudulent request” and “make it possible for diners to customize their privacy preferences (particularly relevant to those who have created a diner profile with OpenTable).” You will still need to make some important choices. Before you swipe through the app and tell every company to delete your data, know there may be good reasons you want a company to have your data. For example, if you delete your Netflix account, then you couldn’t use Netflix. There may even be companies you decide to allow to sell or share your data. For example, Permission Slip points out that opting out at Petco could affect your discounts and rewards if you use the retailer’s Pal Rewards program. “What we’re hoping to do is provide a little bit of education on the sorts of data that different companies collect and then help consumers reason with how they want to manage their data,” Fahs says. Unfortunately, Big Tech companies like Google, Meta and Amazon make it particularly hard to make use of the “do not sell” and “delete” options to protect your privacy. To start with, they say they don’t “sell” your data — instead, they keep it for themselves to make lots of money off your digital life. And deleting your account probably isn’t an option if you want to keep using Google services like Gmail. In some of these cases, Permission Slip offers step by step instructions to download your data or just delete parts of it, but the process isn’t automated. If you want to reclaim your privacy from these sorts of Big Tech companies, you can also make your way through the Help Desk’s Privacy Reset Guide. It walks you through the most important privacy settings to adjust for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Android and more. (Friends don’t let friends keep the default settings for any of these companies.) And you can help stop companies from snooping on you in the first place by using a Web browser that stops unwanted tracking, like Mozilla’s Firefox.

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Key features:

  • PDF annotation
  • S-pen/stylus support
  • Sync (preferably NOT just via Nextcloud...looking at you, Saber)
  • Handwriting recognition is a plus, but not required

As mention above, Saber fits the criteria well, but I don't use Nextcloud and that is the only sync available in that app (unless something has changed in the last couple of weeks). I have a Galaxy phone and tablet that both support S-pen and Samsung Notes is excellent, and free, but they're not exactly privacy concious, so I'm looking elsewhere. I had considered the Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian, but I'm not sure if that works on the Android version of the app.

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

To get it out of the way; Obviously, yes this chromium and most of us agree that anything Firefox-like is the way to go. This post is not a "Vivaldi is better than xyz", this is a, "give it a try" type of post. So, hear me out fellow privacists.

Edit; Yes Vivaldi is not open source, but it is source available. This topic is talked about in the interview and I encourage anyone who is discouraged to at least hear the CEO out when during the talk he had with Techlore.

I recently downloaded this Vivaldi Browser based on this rather good and open interview between Techlore and Vivaldi CEO.

So this is a browser developed in Norway, and to my surprise this was a super pleasant experience! The browser is very very fast, its super customizable and has hands down the best tab management I've ever tried (seriously wish Firefox had this). It also has some really a neat shortcut system for quick access to different actions. Furthermore they seem to care about all linux distros, with support also for ARM.

I've only used the browser for a few days, but the experience is so fluent I just had to share a post about it. The team seem really genuine and open. There are also no third party investors involved with Vivaldi. It is owned by all the employees.

So if you need or want to try a fresh browser I highly highly suggest to give Vivaldi a try: https://vivaldi.com/

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Say (an encrypted) hello to a more private internet.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/encrypted-hello/

Nothing big, but kinda interesting. I'm excited to see how this will go 👀

#privacy #mozilla #firefox @privacy

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What are your thoughts on Cloaked?

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I saw an article awhile ago that the police just straight up bought ad-network data about someone they were prosecuting without needing a warrant. Is there anyway to know what info ad networks have on me out there?

I know there are databrokers you can query to see what they have kn you, but those are all public records from I could find so far

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The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta plans to move to a "Pay for your Rights" model, where EU users will have to pay $ 168 a year (€ 160 a year) if they don't agree to give up their fundamental right to privacy on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. History has shown that Meta's regulator, the Irish DPC, is likely to agree to any way that Meta can bypass the GDPR. However, the company may also be able to use six words from a recent Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling to support its approach.

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Hey, My mother is a non-technical person, she's a sole trader. She has been using Google services for many years and is probably used to them. A few months ago, I was able to convince her to set up an online password manager and calendar (up until now, she had been saving all her passwords in a handy paper calendar).

Should I convince her to withdraw from Google services? If so, how should I do it so as not to put too much pressure on her?

Thanks for all the answers.

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This article describes how to setup keyboard shortcuts in QubesOS so that you can temporarily disarm (pause) the BusKill laptop kill cord.

This allows the user to, for example, go to the bathroom without causing their computer to shutdown or self-destruct.

Arm & Disarm BusKill in QubesOS

This is a guide that builds on part one: A Laptop Kill Cord for QubesOS (1/2). Before reading this, you should already be familiar with how to setup udev rules for BusKill on QubesOS.

  1. A Laptop Kill Cord for QubesOS (1/2)
  2. Disarm BusKill in QubesOS (2/2)

ⓘ Note: This post is adapted from its original article on Tom Hocker's blog.

What is BusKill?

What if someone literally steals your laptop while you're working with classified information inside a Whonix DispVM? They'd also be able to recover data from previous DispVMs--as Disposable VM's rootfs virtual files are not securely shredded after your DispVM is destroyed.

Are you a security researcher, journalist, or intelligence operative that works in QubesOS--exploiting Qubes' brilliant security-through-compartimentalization to keep your data safe? Do you make use of Whonix Disposable VMs for your work? Great! This post is for you.

I'm sure your QubesOS laptop has Full Disk Encryption and you're using a strong passphrase. But what if someone literally steals your laptop while you're working with classified information inside a Whonix DispVM? Not only will they get access to all of your AppVM's private data and the currently-running Whonix DispVM's data, but there's a high chance they'd be able to recover data from previous DispVMs--as Disposable VM's rootfs virtual files (volatile.img) are not securely shredded after your DispVM is destroyed by Qubes!

Let's say you're a journalist, activist, whistleblower, or a human rights worker in an oppressive regime. Or an intelligence operative behind enemy lines doing research or preparing a top-secret document behind a locked door. What do you do to protect your data, sources, or assets when the secret police suddenly batter down your door? How quickly can you actually act to shutdown your laptop and shred your RAM and/or FDE encryption keys?

BusKill Demo
Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

BusKill utilizes a magnetic trip-wire that tethers your body to your laptop. If you suddenly jump to your feet or fall off your chair (in response to the battering ram crashing through your door) or your laptop is ripped off your table by a group of armed thugs, the data bus' magnetic connection will be severed. This event causes a configurable trigger to execute.

The BusKill trigger can be anything from:

  1. locking your screen or
  2. shutting down the computer or
  3. initiating a self-destruct sequence

While our last post described how to setup such a system in QubesOS with BusKill, this post will describe how to add keyboard shortcuts to arm & disarm the dead man switch (eg so you can go to the bathroom).

Disclaimer

This guide contains experimental files, commands, and software. The information contained in this article may or may not lead to corruption or total permanent deletion of some or all of your data. We've done our best to carefully guide the user so they know the risks of each BusKill trigger, but we cannot be responsible for any data loss that has occurred as a result of following this guide.

The contents of this guide is provided openly and is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license. The software included in this guide is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 license. All content here is consistent with the limitations of liabilities outlined in its respective licenses.

We highly recommend that any experiments with the scripts included in this article are used exclusively on a disposable machine containing no valuable data.

If data loss is a concern for you, then leave now and do not proceed with following this guide. You have been warned.

Release Note

Also be aware that, due to the risks outlined above, BusKill will not be released with this "self-destruct" trigger.

If you purchase a BusKill cable, it will only ship with non-destructive triggers that lock the screen or shutdown the computer. Advanced users can follow guides to add additional destructive triggers, such as the one described in this post, but they should do so at their own risk--taking carefully into consideration all of the warnings outlined above and throughout this article.

Again, if you buy a BusKill cable, the worst that can happen is your computer will abruptly shutdown.

Assumptions

This guide necessarily makes several assumptions outlined below.

sys-usb

In this guide, we assume that your QubesOS install has a USB-Qube named 'sys-usb' for handling USB events on behalf of dom0.

If you decided to combine your USB and networking Qubes at install time, then replace all references in this guide for 'sys-usb' to 'sys-net'.

If you decided to run your 'sys-usb' VM as a DispoableVM at install time, then replace all references in this guide for 'sys-usb' its Disposable TemplateVM (eg 'fedora-36-dvm').

..And if you chose not to isolate your USB devices, then may god help you.

Udev Device Matching

BusKill in Linux uses udev to detect when the USB's cable is severed. The exact udev rule that you use in the files below will depend on the drive you choose to use in your BusKill cable.

In this guide, we identify our BusKill-specific drive with the 'ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Micromax_A74"' udev property. You should replace this property with one that matches your BusKill-specific drive.

To determine how to query your USB drive for device-specific identifiers, see Introducing BusKill: A Kill Cord for your Laptop. Note that the `udevadm monitor --environment --udev` command should be run in the 'sys-usb' Qube.

ⓘ Note: If you'd prefer to buy a BusKill cable than make your own, you can buy one fully assembled here.

QubesOS Version

This guide was written for QubesOS v4.1.

[user@dom0 ~]$ cat /etc/redhat-release Qubes release 4.1.2 (R4.1)
[user@dom0 ~]$

BusKill Files

This section will describe what files should be created and where.

Due to the design of QubesOS, it takes a bit of mental gymnastics to understand what we're doing and why. It's important to keep in mind that, in QubesOS

  1. The keyboard and UI are configured in 'dom0'
  2. USB devices (like the BusKill device) are routed to the 'sys-usb' VM
  3. dom0 has the privilege to execute scripts inside other VMs (eg 'sys-usb')
  4. By design, VMs should *not* be able to send arbitrary commands to be executed in dom0
  5. ...but via the qubes-rpc, we can permit some VMs (eg 'sys-usb') to execute a script in dom0 (though for security reasons, ideally such that no data/input is sent from the less-trusted VM to dom0 -- other than the name of the script)

Due to the constraints listed above:

  1. We'll be configuring the disarm button as keyboard shortcut in dom0
  2. We'll be saving and executing the 'buskill-disarm.sh' script in 'sys-usb' (because these scripts manipulate our udev rules)
  3. The keyboard shortcut in dom0 will actually be executing the above script in 'sys-usb'

sys-usb

If you followed our previous guide to setting-up BusKill in QubesOS, then you should already have a file in 'sys-usb' at '/rw/config/buskill.rules'. You may even have modified it to trigger a LUKS Self-Destruct on removal of your BusKill device.

Because you're now experimenting with a new setup, let's go ahead and wipe out that old file with a new one that just executes a soft-shutdown. You might need some days to get used to the new disarm procedure, and you probably don't want to suddenly loose all your data due to an accidental false-positive!

Execute the following on your 'sys-usb' Qube:

mv /rw/config/buskill.rules /rw/config/buskill.rules.bak.`date "+%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"`
cat << EOF | sudo tee /rw/config/buskill.rules
################################################################################
# File:    sys-usb:/etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules -> /rw/config/buskill.rules
# Purpose: Add buskill rules. For more info, see: https://buskill.in/qubes-os/
# Authors: Michael Altfield 
# Created: 2020-01-02
# License: GNU GPLv3
################################################################################
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Micromax_A74", RUN+="/usr/bin/qrexec-client-vm dom0 buskill.softShutdown"
EOF
sudo ln -s /rw/config/buskill.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload

Now, let's add a new udev '.rules' file. This one will always just lock your screen, and it's what will be put in-place when BusKill is "disarmed".

Execute the following on your 'sys-usb' Qube:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /rw/config/buskill.lock.rules
################################################################################
# File:    sys-usb:/etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules -> /rw/config/buskill.lock.rules
# Purpose: Just lock the screen. For more info, see: https://buskill.in/qubes-os/
# Authors: Michael Altfield 
# Created: 2023-05-10
# License: GNU GPLv3
################################################################################
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Micromax_A74", RUN+="/usr/bin/qrexec-client-vm dom0 buskill.lock"
EOF

The careful reader will see that we're not actually disarming BusKill in the same sense as our BusKill GUI app. Indeed, what we're actually going to do is swap these two files for 30 seconds.

This way, if BusKill is armed and you remove the cable, your computer shuts-down.

But if you want to disarm, the procedure becomes:

  1. Hit the "Disarm BusKill" keyboard shortcut (see below)
  2. Wait for the toast popup message indicating that BusKill is now disarmed
  3. Remove the cable within 30 seconds
  4. Your screen locks (instead of shutting down)

Personally, I can't think of a QubesOS user that would want to leave their machine unlocked when they go to the bathroom, so I figured this approach would work better than an actual disarm.

Bonus: when you return from your break, just plug-in the BusKill cable in, and it'll already be armed (reducing the risk of user error due to forgetting to arm BusKill).

Now, let's add the actual 'buskill-disarm.sh' script to disarm BusKill:

Execute the following on your 'sys-usb' Qube:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/buskill-disarm.sh
#!/bin/bash
 
################################################################################
# File:    sys-usb:/usr/local/bin/buskill-disarm.sh
# Purpose: Temp disarm BusKill. For more info, see: https://buskill.in/qubes-os/
# Authors: Tom 
# Co-Auth: Michael Altfield 
# Created: 2023-05-10
# License: GNU GPLv3
################################################################################
 
# replace the 'shutdown' trigger with the 'lock' trigger
sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules
sudo ln -s /rw/config/buskill.lock.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload
 
# let the user know that BusKill is now temporarily disarmed
notify-send -t 21000 "BusKill" "Disarmed for 30 seconds" -i changes-allow
 
# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
 
# replace the 'lock' trigger with the 'shutdown' trigger
sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules
sudo ln -s /rw/config/buskill.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/buskill.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload
notify-send -t 5000 "BusKill" "BusKill is Armed" -i changes-prevent
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/buskill-disarm.sh

dom0

If you followed our previous guide to setting-up BusKill in QubesOS, then you shouldn't need to add any files to dom0. What you do need to do is setup some keyboard shortcuts.

In the QubesOS GUI, click on the big Q "Start Menu" in the top-left of your XFCE panel to open the Applications menu. Navigate to 'System Tools' and click Keyboard

Screenshot of QubesOS with an arrow pointing to the "Q" Application Menu in the very top-left of the screen Screenshot of QubesOS Application Menu with "System Tools -> Keyboard" highlighted
Click the “Q” to open the QubesOS Application Menu Click System Tools -> Keyboard

Click the 'Application Shortcuts' Tab and then click the '+ Add' button on the bottom-left of the window.

Screenshot of QubesOS Keyboard Settings Window that shows the "Application Shortcuts" tab highlighted'alt Screenshot of QubesOS Keyboard Settings Window that shows the "+ Add" button highlightedalt
Click the “Application Shortcuts” tab to add a Keyboard Shortcut in Qubes Click the “Add” Button to add a new Keyboard Shortcut in Qubes

In the 'Command' input field, type the following

qvm-run sys-usb buskill-disarm.sh

The above command will execute a command in 'dom0' that will execute a command in 'sys-usb' that will execute the 'buskill-disarm.sh' script that we created above.

Screenshot of QubesOS Keyboard Settings Window that shows the \"OK\" button highlighted
After typing the command to be executed when the keyboard shortcut is pressed, click the "OK" button

Now click "OK" and, when prompted, type Ctrl+Shift+D (or whatever keyboard shortcut you want to bind to "Disarming BusKill").

Screenshot of QubesOS Keyboard Settings Window that shows the prompt "Press now the keyboard keys you want to use to trigger the command..."alt Screenshot of QubesOS Keyboard Settings Window that shows the selected Shortcut "Shift+Ctrl+D"
Type "Ctrl+Shift+D" or whatever keyboard shortcut you want to trigger BusKill to be disarmed for 30 seconds                                            

You should now have a keyboard shortcut binding for disarming BusKill!

Screenshot of QubesOSKeyboard Settings Window that shows the newly created keyboard shortcutfor \"Shift+Ctrl+D\" at the top of thelist

Test It!

At this point, you can test your new (temporary) BusKill Disarm functionality by:

  1. Plugging-in your BusKill cable
  2. Typing Ctrl+Shift+D
  3. Waiting for the toast popup message to appear indicating that BusKill is disarmed for 30 seconds
  4. Unplugging your BusKill cable

Your machine should lock, not shutdown.

Screenshot of QubesOS with a toast message in the top-right that says \"BusKill Disarmed for 30 Seconds\"
After hitting the keyboard shortcut to disarm BusKill, you have 30 seconds to remove the cable

After 30 seconds, return to your computer and test the normal "arm" functionality:

  1. Plug-in your BusKill cable
  2. Unlock your screen
  3. Unplug your BusKill cable

Your computer should shutdown, not lock.

Screenshot of QubesOS with a toast message in the top-right that says \"BusKill is Armed\"
30 seconds after hitting the keyboard shortcut, BusKill will arm itself

Troubleshooting

Is unplugging your USB device doing nothing? Having other issues?

See the Troubleshooting section in our original guide to using BusKill on QubesOS.

Limitations/Improvements

Security is porous. All software has bugs. Nothing is 100% secure. For more limitations to using BusKill on QubesOS, see the Limitations section in our original guide to using BusKill on QubesOS.

Buy a BusKill Cable

We look forward to continuing to improve the BusKill software and making BusKill more accessible this year. If you want to help, please consider purchasing a BusKill cable for yourself or a loved one. It helps us fund further development, and you get your own BusKill cable to keep you or your loved ones safe.

You can also buy a BusKill cable with bitcoin, monero, and other altcoins from our BusKill Store's .onion site.

Stay safe,
The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion

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I want to follow some people on tiktok, for the content they put out. I am, however, a somewhat privacy-minded person. Any suggestion on how to make TikTok less privacy-invasive? Some DNS app?

I am on Android, not rooted.

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There have been very very bad experiences with Daniel Mikay, the former (?) lead dev of GrapheneOS.

GrapheneOS is an awesome project. It doesnt suit everyone, as it only focuses on security, doesnt add many LineageOS features, ships no Appstore preinstalled and pretty much promotes hunting down your APKs from Git* releases, doesnt work with microG, ...

But its a really valuable piece of software, extremely critical for the opensource community, as its really the only degoogled and secure Android there is.

Now I am close to ditching it... again... as I am pissed off by "the community", or more these/this weird anonymous people/individual identifying as "GrapheneOS" on their self-controlled Matrix server.

Background

Not wanna cry here, but giving the scenery:

I went into their room and discussed a bit. Points where pretty much:

  • Android is a deviation of Linux with its own Kernel and way different release numbers
  • it sucks being dependend on a big Corp for their Android Desktop, as there simply is on Custom ROM creating a different one
  • Linux is awesome, as it is so free. Android immutable model could totally work with more customizability like desktops, and still be secure.

What happened? I got perma-banned for "doubling down on spreading misinformation".

Prior I went into a Private chat with this "GrapheneOS" person, and asked what exactly where the points where I spreaded misinformation. They said "Android is Linux. You have no idea what you are talking about but think you do. You cant spread misinformation in our community anymore."

After these messages and still no explanations, they left the private chat and blocked be from rejoining.

Wow. This is what a self-run server can also look like it seems.

Well, I guess I will be switching to Calyx or DivestOS soon, if I have no community to discuss in.

I would be happy if some critical voices could join the server and do some constructive discussions. Right now its a forced echo chamber.

PS: If that was you Daniel, please just take a pause. You did some great work but personally you act extremely toxic. This is not how to talk to people.

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I'm currently still using gmail unfortunately

Cock.li (airmail.cc)looks very nice but it is invite only

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