I’d appreciate an alternative to LinkedIn. One that’s 90% less cringe. It’d still be mid, but at least we’d be dealing with a manageable level of mediocrity. At least it’d be 90% less painful to use.

This was actually helpful. I had no idea there were so many sites claiming they could check Tea profiles, and I’d be pretty hesitant to give one of them my personal details too. The part about contacting Tea directly was useful to know. I think checking what information is out there first makes more sense than immediately paying for some random checker. It’s also a good reminder that privacy should be a priority. Once your personal information is online, it can be really difficult to know where it ends up.

abc.net.au – 21 Sep 26 ### EV brand BYD erases 'China' and 'surveillance' from its privacy policy The original policy gave the company almost unlimited powers to collect data on its Australian vehicle owners and broad discretion on how this could be disclosed. Related - Original Article: We got a cybersecurity expert to hack this BYD. It was too easy - ABC News With BYD on track to sell around 100,000 cars this year, roughly double its 2025 sales and competing with Toyota for the top position, I thought some of the recent reporting was pretty concerning. A cybersecurity expert was able to remotely access a BYD Shark 6 and control some of its features without needing a password. BYD says the footage doesn’t conclusively prove that remote hacking was possible. BYD’s original Australian privacy policy allowed data collection “in connection with suspected illegal or improper activities” through “surveillance activities”, and listed China as a destination for data transfers. After Four Corners asked questions about the policy, the references to China and “surveillance” were removed from the BYD website. This happened just 1 hour and 16 minutes before the updated policy was sent to Four Corners. BYD denies the change was related to the investigation. My understanding is that, regardless of what the updated Privacy Policy says, China’s national security laws can still require companies to cooperate with authorities if requested. China has already restricted Tesla vehicles from government buildings, military sites and cultural and exhibition centres over data security concerns. In 2025 the UK military also banned EVs with Chinese components from parking within 3.2km of certain locations. UK military personnel have apparently been told not to have conversations inside electric vehicles because of concerns about built-in microphones recording and transmitting audio, and there are dashboard stickers warning about connecting military devices to vehicles. I’m not saying BYD is necessarily worse than every other modern connected car. It may not be. What concerns me more is that Australia doesn’t have a minimum cybersecurity standard for modern vehicles. The Privacy Act was written in 1988 and was not created for modern vehicles.

Hey privacy seekers, just wanted to share something I recently went through with the Tea app. My name is Kaavi James, and I’m from Austin, Texas. I started looking into the Tea app because I wanted to know whether any information about me had been shared there. I’m married now, but before that I had a few relationships that didn’t end well. There were messy breakups and people I wasn’t on good terms with afterward. When I started hearing about Tea and concerns about personal information being exposed, I wondered if one of my exes had ever posted something about me. So I started digging. I Googled it. Read whatever I could find. Most of it wasn’t helpful. A lot of websites were just trying to sell me something. Some of them claimed they could find Tea profiles or show you information if you paid for a subscription. Big promises. But honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable giving my money or personal information to random websites I’d never heard of. While researching, I came across an Indie Hackers article by Catie Johnson called _Before You Buy Tea App Checker: Here’s What You Should Know_. It was much more useful than the random Tea checker websites I had found. The article gave me some useful tips and explained ways to check your online information without immediately paying for one of these services. That helped me understand what I could actually check myself and what I should be careful about. I didn’t want to use some questionable Tea finder just because it promised quick results. Checking things myself first seemed like the safer option. So that’s what I did. And yeah, I found something. My ex-girlfriend had actually rated me on there. One star. Can you imagine? I sat there staring at the screen for a minute. Then the thought hit me. If she rated me, did she also share my photo? My name? What else was on there? That feeling is hard to describe. It’s not just embarrassment. It’s a weird mix of anger, confusion, and just wanting it gone. So I contacted Tea app directly. I told them I wanted my information removed. It took some back and forth, but eventually they took it down. I’m not going to pretend it was instant or easy, but it got done. I’m sharing this because this experience made me take privacy a lot more seriously. Personal information can end up online in places you don’t expect, and I don’t think we should just ignore it. For me, the biggest takeaway is simple: privacy should be a priority, and we shouldn’t have to compromise on it just because our information is already online.

Always fake You can generate a fake name and DOB here strongphrase.net ### Memorable passphrases (instead of passwords) • StrongPhrase.net Create a memorable, strong passphrase to use with your password manager, computer, etc. Then store it in your password manager with the site login info

I don’t think deleting app cache would really give you much privacy benefit in that situation. The bigger thing I’d be concerned about on someone else’s Wi-Fi is the network itself and what apps are connecting to in the background. Clearing cache before going home probably wouldn’t change much. I’m also interested in the Reddit part. I’ve been looking for a simple way to browse Reddit without having an account, so if anyone has a good alternative to Stealth for Reddit, I’d like to hear about it.

Just wanted to come back and update this since I didn’t get many replies here. I was still curious about Cloaked, so I kept looking into it myself. I found this LinkedIn article where they actually tried Cloaked for 30 days and shared their experience using it. It goes into how it worked in everyday use, whether they felt it was worth the money, and some of the things they liked and didn’t like. What I found especially useful is that it also talks about alternatives and a few free options, so it’s not just about recommending Cloaked. It helped me understand the differences a lot better and answered most of the questions I had when I first made this post. Sharing it here in case anyone else is still wondering whether Cloaked is worth trying or if there are better options.

Oh so I’m just blind. Thanks

It should be, for you at the top of https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u/blibly/preferences/profile that’s where it is for me.

There used to be a setting to do this, but I don’t see it anymore. I’ve looked all over the settings menu.

Imei/Imsi and WIFI SSDI geolocatisation.

Tell him not to answer that. I bet 99% to 100% it’s a beginning of a scam. If someone really needed him to answer this question, they would call if he didn’t respond to this text after a while.

whatdoiputhere: > * mostly pirated > Illegal activities are not endorsed on this forum. No one will offer advice on circumnavigating that. I suggest you close this thread and think about how you may want to be private while downloading perfectly reasonable torrents like Linux ISOs.

Well it becomes normal when we start talking about it, just gotta become a trend setter And garten of banban is also some serious indie mascot horror slop, no love or reasonable world building there.

Providenci_Zulauf17: > 9. A Good American (2015) > Psst, this is a documentary. **More books** Fiction: en.wikipedia.org ### Cryptonomicon Cryptonomicon is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson, drawing thematic parallels between wartime secrecy and modern information control, emphasizing the role of information in political, military, and personal domains. The story is set in two different time periods. One group of characters are World War II–era Allied codebreakers and tactical-deception operatives affiliated with the British Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, and disillusioned Axis military and intel... James Bamford has analyzed NSA quite a bit: en.wikipedia.org ### The Puzzle Palace The Puzzle Palace is a book written by James Bamford and published in 1982. It is the first major, popular work devoted entirely to the history and workings of the National Security Agency (NSA), a United States intelligence organization. The title refers to a nickname for the NSA, which is headquartered in Fort Meade, Maryland. In addition to describing the role of the NSA and explaining how it was organized, the book exposed details of a massive eavesdropping operation called Operation Shamr Th... en.wikipedia.org ### Body of Secrets Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency is a book by James Bamford about the NSA and its operations. It also covers the history of espionage in the United States from uses of the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system to retrieve personnel on Arctic Ocean drift stations to Operation Northwoods, a declassified US military plan that Bamford describes as a "secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting... en.wikipedia.org ### The Shadow Factory The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America is a book on the National Security Agency by author James Bamford. Bamford's book contains a description of a processing center at NSA's Fort Gordon, Georgia facility, and Operation Highlander, with which it was associated. The staff there analyzed satellite telephone signals (like Inmarsat) from all over the Middle East. They performed various operations such as matching up phone numbers with names of organization... Assange’s book looks into the cypherpunk ideology en.wikipedia.org ### Cypherpunks (book) Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet is a 2012 book by Julian Assange, in discussion with Internet activists and cypherpunks Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann. Its primary topic is society's relationship with information security. In the book, the authors warn that the Internet has become a tool of the police state, and that the world is inadvertently heading toward a form of totalitarianism. They promote the use of cryptography to protect against state sur... Snowden stuff en.wikipedia.org ### No Place to Hide (Greenwald book) No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State is a 2014 non-fiction book by American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald. It was first published on May 13, 2014 through Metropolitan Books and details Greenwald's role in the global surveillance disclosures as revealed by the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. The documents from the Snowden archive cited in the book are freely available online. The book consists of five chapters; Conta... en.wikipedia.org ### Permanent Record (autobiography) Permanent Record is a 2019 autobiography by Edward Snowden, whose revelations sparked a global debate about surveillance. It was published on September 17, 2019 (Constitution Day), by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company. The book describes Snowden's childhood as well as his tenure at the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency and his motivations for the leaking of highly classified information in 2013 that revealed global surveillance programs. Snowden Upon... Bruce Schneier has so many books around surveillance I’ll just link this: Schneier on Security ### Books by Bruce Schneier - Schneier on Security Rewiring Democracy How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship An informative and wide-ranging exploration of how AI will alter every facet of democracy, and how to harness the technology to distribute rather than concentrate... Est. reading time: 8 minutes

One important limitation of Delta Chat right now seems to be inability to secure one’s profile with password or pin. If someone gets a copy of my profile (by exporting it when I’m away from keyboard) he can read all incoming messages without me knowing. There will be a message “Profile transferred to your second device” in the Device Messages chat but it can be removed. There is no information in the app about other connected devices and no way to log them out. I’m not sure if they plan to address this issue.

Bitwarden does not do that. Even when it does, theres an android third party client that wont, called keyguard. Hell, if that shit happens im gonna migrate to keepass. Im already moving my non browser password stuff to passage.

The main attacks of concern i think are * malicious hid/ducky attack (most oses trust the usb device as a legit keyboard, that can run a command to download malware. It can even target multiple oses. I think thats your main concern * electrical. This requires the device to have a battery or a power input, but it can output voltage that will destroy your usb receptacle or your motherboard. * autorun (no modern os is weak against that) * malware injection trough code injection thumbnails or file properties (most oses are good against that) To be honest this seems like it would be a cool “usb tester” project. A esp32-s3 with two ports can do it fine and it costs like 8usd to replace. Even less if you buy in bulk or use one of the cheaper esp32 or similar controllers or even solder an extra usb receptacle. The hardware can run a simple webserver that allows you to inspect the usb device and, if its a mass usb, to acess it over network. The only attack that would work on that device is electrical, and that is not a hard or expensive device to replace.

The weak link on a network password manager is always the client.

So what exactly is the process for adding an app to the recommendation list?

idk if someone already asked i cant sreach good bc my english is bad threat moodel: surveillance captialism/policing doxxers, home and public network, isp, i hate fingerprinting the most i love not having my ids connect to each other i want to * download videos/music/books/games (mostly pirated) (AND PLAY THEM) * moreno * chat/scroll normal websites (the ones aervage people use) * use javascript (every site wants it) * email encrypted tor browser is too slow is mullvad and vpn ok?

lol i can never tell my friend that i hate gerden of banban and i just want to play minecraft instead asking for pirvcay is even harder bc its not nomral

The plan, as I understand it, is to first finish refactoring the server, then add developer-facing features (such as an app publishing API) so that they can open up app submissions, and then they’ll work on user-facing app features.

I bought it last year and hadn’t invented time travel Doesn’t make the M4 suddenly weak though!

I remember Firefox has up-to-date fingerprinting protection as Safari since iOS 26, together with its Enhanced Tracking Protection. On Cover Your Tracks by EFF website you can see they have randomised fingerprints. I am sure if Brave is still using their own ways to randomize fingerprints or adopt Safari’s. Although Firefox is not perfect, I think they are improving and atm they are solid enough. Background audio and VPN coming later. Orion is also a good option.

Using no hard drive surely is fine but malware can also persist in firmware of your motherboard and other chipsets or in your memory. So if it dan serious malware it cannot be trusted after.

That comment I will endorse if you use the browser’s sync ecosystem, by all means use it, if you don’t, that’s why the big three stay ss recommendation Orion has the compatibility layer addon system Brave has the built in adblock and youtube distractions and night mode but anyway these are on top of Webkit that apple forces onto and even enforces (say if you use downtime) which at that point you could just use Safari with UBoL this is why I recommend these the only reason I can see people wanting to use firefox or vivaldi or whatever it may be is if you already sync your data accross devices with them which in that case Sure go ahead, Unless you start by migrating to brave on your desktop, Just use firefox or Vivaldi and sync it

then the banking app goes to the phone you will daily drive in this case GOS., OP Should check the website I provided, find their bank and see the report. If they dont they can dm me to try it if it comes down to it, I would say bring both somewhat but keep gaming and other distractions to your computer, Hopefully fedora linux of some kind or whatever. But this, OP has also not made clear if its part of the goal Honestly for me if it wasn’t for the battery swelling anxiety id be leaving my iPhone every day but yeah.

ask @ph00lt0 not me

I always wondered how iOS can expose soo many things on a locked phone while still being secure. Turns out they can’t either XD

I appreciate your replies! TheDoc: > In respect to telemetry, the companies I recommended should be exactly the same. Telemetry generally has to do with which OS you choose, so as long as you pick an OS with truly optional telemetry (such as Fedora) you should have the exact same experience. But what about the hardware that the OS is running on? What’s the point of having a super secure and locked down OS if the hardware has the ability to transmit user data back to someone online? Bluetacked: > Love my M4 Air. Best computer I’ve ever bought, and I’ve bought a lot over 25+ years. Any reason you didn’t buy the M5? It’s supposed to have new security features

Oh. Well literally perfect then LMAO. @fria For other consumer goods that I face this issue with: I will also keep this in mind

no, but I don’t use a cell phone for any serious use.

yes, but thoses forensic devices are expensives.

why not use an old laptop with no hardrive, boot from Tails and acess the USB drive. Flash the bios afterward, this is not a perfect method but that would adress common threats.

Either * Use an old laptop bought from craigslist to access the content, and destroy the laptop immediately afterwards, or * Throw it to the trash. Usable size thumb drives cost next to nothing these days (10-15 dollars for 32GB). The cost of ensuring it’s not malicious USB killer and not loaded with some Stuxnet trying to get to your system, is way too high. There’s also the attack vector of USB rubber ducky where the thumb drive pretends to be keyboard and runs scripts at superhuman speed. Those scripts can perform UAC privilege escalation on Windows trivially and on unpatched Linux by typing exploit code.

Turn on showdead in your profile.

It’s either a wrong number or pig butchering scam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPpl2ISKTg

The real question us if “you are” free tomorrow… Are you?

You can just buy the phones secondhand and you won’t be supporting the company. If you’re organizing and potentially facing Cellebrite, GrapheneOS is the only operating system that really puts up a fight. An iPhone isn’t a bad choice at all but they are much more vulnerable to forensics tools like Cellebrite than GrapheneOS is.

As usual, depends. ISP monitoring is usually a law enforcement thing rather than a “sell your browsing history” thing (at least in the UK with the mix of surveillance and privacy laws, don’t know about the US) and most of the time I don’t really care if they know I’m browsing and playing this and that. In fact maybe even want them to know so they know I’m not a threat. I switch it on as a safety net for torrenting or more private matters (that’s not to say private matters are illegal, but I’m sure we all know that here anyway) or to appear in different country when needed for streaming to to avoid online safety act ID check crap. I’m sure the powers that be know people do that too It’s best on 24/7 yeah but it gets in the way of too many things for my liking. Too many site bans and captchas for sites that I don’t care about keeping private. YMMV.

I know the issue you’re talking about, I suffered from it for a while as well, but I found a Mullvad server (more than one actually) that’s been working fine with Reddit for several months now. They’re out there, just gotta change servers and re-try.

where you see he is banned on HN? I can’t see it in the links

SilentHawk47: > Unfortunate. I was the previous owner of a Pixel with GrapheneOS and really enjoyed using it. Why cant you still use it?

CosmicReef16: > USB drive that is untrusted What exactly does untrusted mean for you? Is it are drive you found on the street? A drive ordered from Amazon? Something different?

Apparently it’s been around since at least 2017 and the creator / someone involved is banned on HN for spam / AI comments. Just what I noticed initially. It seems like a great idea!

sammathews: > Could this be some kind of scam It is _likely_ a scam setup (common): they lure you into a conversation and lead you into whatever scam they can set you up for. Get a text from a stranger nowadays? If it’s obviously a scam, report it and block it. If it’s not (like this one), just block it.

I wonder how long until Reddit requires an account just for browsing.

I am neither a parent nor a politician, but I think I would rather my child not see _violence_ than nudity.

sammathews: > Do you actually talk to people around you about privacy, This goes a long way, but can be really hard if you aren’t used to setting boundaries. It’s ok to say no to some things, and you can choose where you want to be relaxed on. It can be hard to be reactive about it in a spontaneous situstion, so I sometimes “practice” or get ahead of that by starting the conversation first.