I've been using Tutanota for a while now. Been interested in people's opinions about Tutanota and Protonmail.

I currently use Brave and am curious about the pros and cons of both since I see many people recommend Firefox.

The House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill 30-0.

“This bill is the latest sign of bipartisan support in Congress to tackle the government’s warrantless purchase of American’s personal data, such as location information and internet records, in circumvention of the Fourth Amendment and statutory protections,” Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of EPIC wrote in a statement.

“We’re seeing some incredible leadership on the hill and off the hill,” said Sean Vitka, policy counsel for Demand Progress. “The House has made it clear they want to close the data broker loophole, full stop,” he said.

UPDATE : The House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill unanimously, 30-0!. It still has to pass the full House, and then the Senate, so please still contact your legislators!

The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act closes the legal loophole that allows data brokers to sell Americans’ personal information to law enforcement and intelligence agencies without any court oversight.

The House Judiciary Committee has a markup session on the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act tomorrow (July 19), and if all goes well, the committee will advance a (potentially-amended) version of the bill ... a huge step forward! The bill has bipartisan support, but intelligence agencies and law enforcement don't like it, and they have a lot of leverage in Congress.

So if you're in the US, please contact your Congresspeople and ask them to support the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. Here's three easy ways -- pick whichever one works for you:

• On the web : Free Press has a page with a web form that makes it easy.

• Using SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram : use https://resist.bot/ to send a message like Please co-sponsor and pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act to close the privacy loophole that lets government agencies purchase location-tracking data without a warrant .

• By phone Call the House switchboard at 202-225-3121. Tell them your name and address, and that you want to send a message to your Representatives to support HR 4639, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, and close the privacy loophole that lets government agencies purchase location-tracking data without a warrant.

I see so many posts where a discussion about the best options for privacy/security related software are dominated by comments about how some entity always felt shady, they can't be trusted and so on. How having optional things like crypto is the epitome of evil practices, even though it may have nothing to do with how the product actually fares in terms of what matters in the context.

Latest example is this thread and its top comment. (I know, the content of the article doesn't even have anything to do with the browser.)

I'm tired of it. It doesn't help.

We live in a society... that is rooted in capitalism. Development and support of any product needs to be sustainable. If in some cases crypto helps, so be it, as long as it doesn't have an effect on the premise for using the product and is optional who cares?

If there are real concerns about someone promoting privacy when evidence shows otherwise I'm all ears. But it needs to be substantiated.

I don't care about specific products, I don't care about crypto. I do care about an informed discussion.

/rant

What I love to see is websites/resources like this one or this one with tangible information, but I rarely do see them in these discussions. (Although I have to admit I can't verify the information presented.)

I've been wanting to move on from gmail for a while now, thought about self hosting but I'm afraid I won't have the time or ability to keep it running well for a long period of time. Which service would you guys recommend? I'm not an avid email user, I basically just sign up to websites and send support emails once in a while.

Hi all, I'm pretty new to the fediverse and have tried learning about the way it works. I have tried finding some information in vain, so I have ended up mostly reasoning about it by drawing parallels with other non federated systems but I feel it's not accurate.

I am trying to understand three things:

1. What information does the instance(s) have on their users?
2. What information can users get on other users?
3. What information can the infrastructure providers get on users of the fediverse?

To answer (1), I am guessing the admins of the instances have access to the typical metadata relating to the device from which a user accesses (IP address, device info, app/browser).

Regarding (2), it's not as clear. As of yet, it seems it is only possible to look at posts and comments and creation date. It doesn't seem possible to get a list of subscribed communities nor email address used for registration (when applicable).

Now I wonder if the instances do have all lists of subscribed communities? I'm guessing yes. What about private messages, are they end to end encrypted and inaccessible to the fediverse?

And finally, what access do the internet infrastructure providers have access to? All the same information as the instance admins/mods? More? Less?

Thank you for helping me weed through this new environment and learn about the fediverse.

Also, if you have some best practices on how to mindfully navigate in the fediverse with privacy in mind, please share, I would be grateful.

Video related.

There. Is. Not. A. Single. Browser. That. Values. Your. Privacy.

Is there any open source and privacy-respecting Android keyboard for Chinese input? I want to avoid proprietary keyboards such as Gboard and Samsung Keyboard. Unfortunately, the open source Android keyboards that I found only support alphabetic input:

• OpenBoard
• AnySoftKeyboard
• Simple Keyboard

For Chinese input I would like pinyin input for both traditional characters and simplified characters. Handwriting input would be nice to have but it is not essential.

What’s your prefer two-factor authentication app for iOS?

I'm looking for an app that offers the best combination of platform compatibility (preferably available on Mac OS, iPad OS, and iOS), security, usability, and reliability.

It would be great if the app is open source and has a backup feature as well.

I came across a recent Wirecutter article from The New York Timesthat recommends Cisco DUO Mobile as the top choice, followed by Authy and Google Authenticator.

I would greatly appreciate your insights and security perspectives.

Thank you!

Two weeks ago I posted about Proxigram, a new way to use Instagram while retaining your privacy https://lemmy.world/post/925726 one of the features listed to be added in the future was RSS feeds and now, it's available!

I know most of us use RSS feeds to get updates from different sources to get the content we actually care and to have more control over what you see. This is why adding RSS feed to Proxigram was something important.

When using Proxigram to get the feed of an account you will be able to see the content inside the post and not just the cover of the post.

To get the feed of a profile, just add /rss at the end:

• /{username}/rss

This feed is for posts only at the moment, one of the features that are planned to be added to Proxigram are stories, when stories are ready to use, it will have a RSS feed too!

Something like:

• /{username}/stories/rss
• /{username}/rss?stories=1

~~That being said, at the moment there is not a public instance of the project, so you will only able to use it by self-hosting the project by manual installation, I know, but this will change since adding docker is in the priority list.~~

Wiki page of instances

You can help the project if you are interested by hosting a public instance, sharing the project or helping in the development to add new features and/or fixing bugs. That will be really helpful and appreciated.

Repository: https://codeberg.org/ThePenguinDev/Proxigram

Thanks for reading! :D

Reposted from mastodon. Original: https://mstdn.social/@hkrn/110718519498528454.

As I said on mastodon... Its dangerous to buy cameras from any random company. Not only are they a security risk since they get exposed to the internet, but they even upload the videos to external servers sometimes.

Its way more secure to use your own system. Maybe using sbcs or smth.

Is this a joke?

What you think about the protocol and it's future? Currently it's mostly inhabited by BTC fans but the idea itself seems much better than what Mastodon/Lemmy is doing

#Nostr: https://nostr.com

Is this a good idea for privacy?

Considering my threat model is just preventing my ISP to know which websites I am visiting and to prevent my government (India) from tracking me, do I need to use a VPN?

Currently, I am using a trusted VPN provider with a permanent kill switch and am never off of the VPN. Today, I was reading IVPN's homepage and it says, "A VPN can be effective at encrypting your DNS requests so your ISP or mobile network provider cannot monitor or log the domains you visit." But as far as I know, DNS over HTTPS does encrypt the DNS requests. Right?

I regularly clean my cookies, use hardened browsers, etc. So is a VPN really necessary for me? Or shall I just shift to using Quad9's DoH or something?

Edit - I am using the router provided by the ISP and I cannot change it because I am behind CGNAT. I can use a separate device and install PfSense or OpenWRT or something on it and use that as a firewall. Any suggestions there?

We're happy to announce the release of BusKill v0.7.0!

Most importantly, this release allows you to arm the BusKill GUI app such that it shuts-down your computer when the BusKill cable's connection to the computer is severed.

What is BusKill?

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

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

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys -- thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

Upgrading

You can upgrade your BusKill app to the latest version either by

1. Clicking "Update" in the app or
2. Downloading it from GitHub

Changes

This update includes many bug fixes and new features, including:

1. Adds support for 'soft-shutdown' trigger to GUI
2. Adds a new buskill.ini config file
3. Adds a new "Settings" screen in GUI
4. Merges kivy & buskill config files into one standardized location
5. Fixes in-app updates on MacOS
6. Fixes lockscreen trigger on Linux Mint Cinnamon
7. Fixes background blue/red disarm/arm color to propagate to all screens
8. Fixes --run-trigger to be executed inside usb_handler child process and communicate to root_child through the parent process

You can find our changelog here:

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/stable/changelog.html

Documentation Improvements

We've also made many improvements to our documentation

1. Updated the Software User Guide to include how to arm the BusKill app with the soft-shutdown trigger in the GUI
2. Added a manpage
3. Better documentation on how to build your own USB-C BusKill Cable
4. Better documentation on how to test the buskill app
5. Fixes in Release Workflow
6. Added some additional related projects to our documentation

Soft-Shutdown Trigger

This release now allows you to choose between either [a] locking your screen or [b] shutting down your computer when you arm the BusKill app from the GUI. By default, the BusKill app will trigger the lockscreen. To choose the 'soft-shutdown' trigger, open the navigation drawer, go to the Settings Screen, click Trigger, and change the selected trigger from lock-screen to soft-shutdown. For more information, see our Software GUI User Guide.

• https://docs.buskill.in/buskill-app/en/v0.7.0/software_usr/cli.html

BusKill Now in Debian!

We're also happy to announce that, with the release of Debian 12, it's now possible to install BusKill in Debian with Apt!

sudo apt-get install buskill

Testers Needed!

We do our best to test the BusKill app on Linux, Windows, and MacOS. But unfortunately it's possible that our app doesn't fully function on all versions, distributions, and flavours of these three platforms.

We could really use your help testing the BusKill app, especially if you have access to a system that's not (yet) listed in our Supported Platforms.

And in this release, we specifically would like you to help us test the new soft shutdown feature. Please let us know if it does or does not work for you.

Please contact us if you'd like to help test the BusKill app :)

I mean, exactly how invasive are default operating systems? (Like Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, iOS) Do they log your keystrokes, log passwords, capture screen, upload your photos, videos, or audio? (Assuming you aren't a target of government) Is it even possible for the average person who doesn't feel comfortable messing with installing operating systems to have any privacy?

i dont like that.....

My family currently uses life360(iOS and android). But I hate their privacy policy. I'm looking for an alternative. The thing that's difficult is I can't find one that's opt in to each other. Like my parents are split so they dont want to share with each other but the rest of us do. Prefer selfhosted but anything is better that where we are at. Thanks!!