Well, the short answer is yes. I saw this article the other day and thought I would share it those who might want to read it.
6 Likes
Thanks for sharing the link, made me think of
As i read it.
2 Likes
Thanks for sharing, Howard. Feels a bit like a never ending battle when it comes to privacy these days, especially in this age of age/identity verification. I was about to buy a domain on Porkbun today but backed out when it wanted an photo of my government ID. I can change my password if thereās a data breach, but I canāt get a new face!
4 Likes
Funnily enough; I tried again today with a fresh account and this time used a proton.me email instead of a passmail.net alias. Also switched my VPN to match my billing location. And this time, no ID upload required.
3 Likes
I seem to get along OK turning a blind eye to everything except my banking security.
I know it is possible for someone to steal my ID and impersonate me, but why would they bother?
We have to get used to everything we do on the internet being public. Private things belong somewhere else.
One of the best security ploys is to change your OS frequently. If you provide no continuity, it interrupts any tracking. Try using ssh in a multiboot environmentā¦ you will soon see what I mean.
5 Likes
Aha, I think I land a bit differently on this. I think privacy online is massively important for journalists, whistle-blowers, or even just accessing uncensored content. Itās less about security for me, albeit thatās important too, and more ideological.
In this effort, I try and reduce/obscure my sticky fingerprints as much as possible 
2 Likes
So do I, but I will not hamstring myself .
I computed for most of my life in an academic environment, where everything was open. I miss that.
4 Likes
Immediately shows the uselessness of the whole thing, at least for what itās supposed to have been instated. Probably the more fringe ideas are closer to the truth, that it is just a way to control the population. Bye bye privacy. ā¦one of the reasons actually to have switched completely to Linux: when I saw that my wifeās data on her windows laptop was not accessible after I turned off onedrive. So all the (confidential) documents she had scanned and saved in her own documents folder on her bought computer is actually on servers Microsoft controls! And US laws could have it opened for their agencies, when they deem it necessary. (Thatās history now because I turned it off, but I am not so naive that these files ever disappear.)
It is a more stringent battle then it ever was, to protect your own privacy. Please do not start with āIf you do nothing wrongā¦ā BS, pardon my French. Especially people in the USA by now can relate to how fast the government its intentions and what is āillegalā can change. Just study some history and imagine what the Nazis could have done with the data they could now haveā¦
Good to be among people who are aware
6 Likes
That is an argument for encrypting sensitive material at the file level rather than encrypting whole drives. Encrypting is a real nuisance to implement ā¦ I only use it selectively..
When you get to things like journalists and whistle blowers, encrypting emails or any other form of traffic becomes essential. Traffic is harder to protect than your own machine.
5 Likes
I kind of agree with you. I do have a couple browser extensions installed in Firefox to and try to stop trackers and cut down on Ads that are added to my screen. I see losing some privacy as the cost of being on the internet.
5 Likes
Yeah, itās finding the balance, isnāt it? The rabbit-hole is never-ending.
Iām quite happy with my current set-up; FOSS wherever possible, hardened browsers, no-logs VPNs, self-hosting sear rather than using googleā¦ next step will be a FOSS phone.
3 Likes
Think there is a demandƩ already but we are waiting for a good one to come watching and waiting
1 Like
Iād love a Linux-based phone, but seems like there isnāt really anything out there beyond PinePhoneā¦ De-Googleād Android seems like the most mainstream option atm.
Currently debating between a FairPhone on e/os vs a Pixel with Graphene. Graphene seems to get a better write-up, but my spouse has had a few Pixels and theyāve been pretty crap - never seen one last more than two years. Obviously anecdotal, but Iām not impressed. Maybe the Motorola offering will be the one?
Just had one come in to my workshop but not had chance to play with it except for switching on, part of a recovery collection, once I sort out the computers then will get a better look, basically to use as an emergency spare for holidays.
1 Like
ā¦āFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Googleāā¦that right there tells me they have no idea about privacy if they are hooked up with anything google. I had to laugh when I read this in the main article.
3 Likes
Hunting for an Xperia 10 to install Sailfish OS on.
One after the other though, first I have to decide whether I keep my mid end laptop with a nice OLED, or get another Dell 7490, I tend to the latter. So personally I still you a laptop moreā¦
1 Like
That is a strange phone.?
1 Like
Very specifically the 10 3 or 4 or 5, is indeed findable. But fewer than might think. And bootloader may be locked too. I also thought it would be peanuts, but itās trickier than it seems to get the right one. Indeed not impossible, the one you showed is even much older.
2 Likes
A Sony Xperia model was one of the few you could run Sailfish O/S on - i.e. non Androidā¦ Not sure which model exactly. And - you could only get Sailfish OS if you were in certain European countries, and Brazil (?)ā¦
Sailfish was developed by some of the developers porting Linux to Nokia phones in Finlandā¦ Memo I think the Nokia thing was calledā¦ But then Nokia sold out to Microsoft and then foldedā¦
4 Likes