There are lots of reasons to want to shut off your car’s data collection. The Mozilla Foundation has called modern cars “surveillance machines on wheels” and ranked them worse than any other product category last year, with all 25 car brands they reviewed failing to offer adequate privacy protections.

With sensors, microphones, and cameras, cars collect way more data than needed to operate the vehicle. They also share and sell that information to third parties, something many Americans don’t realize they’re opting into when they buy these cars. Companies are quick to flaunt their privacy policies, but those amount to pages upon pages of legalese that leave even professionals stumped about what exactly car companies collect and where that information might go.

So what can they collect?

“Pretty much everything,” said Misha Rykov, a research associate at the Mozilla Foundation, who worked on the car-privacy report. “Sex-life data, biometric data, demographic, race, sexual orientation, gender — everything.” . . .

The only way that Whatsapp let you back up your chats is using by linking a Google account, but I'm not sure is there's some workaround like a third parties apps that let you back up your chats.

I know that using a third parties apps to this purpose is unsafe, but I'm just giving an example.

How many times I can change IMEI without harm to device via AT command? For example if I will change IMEI 3 times a day (sometimes) and 7 times (most commonly) a week (1 per day) via AT command won’t it harm device?

I need extra lawyer of security as I will go to dictatorship country for 1 week as reporter n. This is extremely critical.

Please ask the highest level of your engineer team.

P.S: I am using Mudi v2 with blue-merle

I wish I could donate to each individual instance but they are too many, and I can't donate to all the ones I use because they are also too many, and I would also like to donate to LibRedirect but I don't know if I should donate to each individual instance I use or to LibRedirect...

So, this may be G-custom OS specific, or Android generally.

I was looking through the security settings, and when going to Settings-Security-More-Encryption and Credentials, I see that there are a plethora of CA Root certs installed. I recognize some (Digicert, Comodo, etc), but there are a lot that are just numbers and letters, and some from Beijing China, etc.

I don't recall ever installing ANY certs, so I suppose these are all preinstalled (they show under the System tab, not the User tab.)

Can they be installed by regular apps?

I disabled any that weren't recognizable like Amazon, Google, Digicert, and Comodo.

Are these dozens of other Certs necessary, and are they safe to be on my device? Are they preinstalled with G-Custom OS, or did they somehow sneak into my system settings?

I have too much to do a factory reset at this point and it would only be a last resort.

I also have Mullvad, Proton, and a personal WG vps on my phone, would those add certs to the "storage"?

I know I named brands in here but I'm not promoting anything, I don't want to break something making changes, that's all.

Thanks in advance.

Fuck Reddit. I use Redlib for browsing :)

https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib

As the title says! My choice, for now, is Leta, directly from Mullvad. I really like because there are no ads by deafult, which is particular important since those ads usually lead to malware.

Otherwise, i like mojeek (same reason).

They both have a strong privacy policy and search results are good enough for me.

Leta: https://leta.mullvad.net/faq

Mojeek: https://www.mojeek.com/about/privacy :)

This is a good news!

Recently discovered the following two addresses in my DNS-filter, 26.26.26.1 and 26.26.26.2. How can I confirm that these belong to? These are both public-ip addresses but seems to be owned by the US Military?

If I look at https://www.abuseipdb.com/check/26.26.26.2, it says it belongs to:

• ISP: DoD Network Information Center
• Type: Military
• Country: US.

What does this mean? As far as I've researched, its got something to do with Socks protocol? This Github repo I found seems to be using it too, but why is it used? If anyone knows, id very much appreciate your help.

https://github.com/PeterCxy/SocksDroid/blob/master/app/src/main/groovy/net/typeblog/socks/SocksVpnService.groovy

Curious how none of the coverage of this purchase mention that the app isn't open-source, which makes all of their claims of "end-to-end encryption" worthless

WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires multiservice messaging app Beeper for $125M

By Sarah Perez (@sarahpereztc) 2024-04-09

WordPress.com owner Automattic is acquiring Beeper, the company behind the iMessage-on-Android solution that was referenced by the Department of Justice in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The deal, which was for \$125 million according to sources close to the matter, is Automattic's second acquisition of a cross-platform messaging solution after buying Texts.com last October.

| [!Screenshot of the Beeper app](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/09/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-multi-service-messaging-app-beeper-for-125m/) | |:--:| | Image Credits: Beepercaption |

That acquisition made Texts.com founder Kishan Bagaria Automattic's new head of Messaging, a role that will now be held by Beeper founder Eric Migicovsky, previously the founder of the Pebble smartwatch and a Y Combinator partner.

Reached for comment, Automattic said it has started the process of onboarding the Beeper team and is "excited about the progress made" so far but couldn't yet share more about its organizational updates, or what Bagaria's new title would be. However, we're told he is staying to work on Beeper as well.

| [!Screenshot of the Beeper app](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/09/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-multi-service-messaging-app-beeper-for-125m/) | |:--:| | Image Credits: Beepercaption |

Beeper and Texts.com's teams of 25 and 15, respectively, will join together to take the best of each company's product and merge it into one platform, according to Migicovsky.

"\[Texts.com\] built an amazing app that's more desktop-centric and iOS-centric," he said. "So we'll be folding the best parts of those into our app. But going forward, the Beeper brand will apply to all of the messaging efforts at Automattic," he said, adding, "Kishan ... I've known him for years now --- there's not too many other people in the world that are doing what we do --- and it was great to be able to combine forces with them."

The deal, which closed on April 1, represents a big bet from Automattic: that the future of messaging will be open source and will work across services, instead of being tied up in proprietary platforms, like Meta's WhatsApp or Apple's iMessage. In fact, Migicovsky says, the eventual plan after shifting people to the Beeper cross-platform app for managing their messages is to move them to Beeper's own chat protocol --- an open source protocol called Matrix --- under the hood.

| [!Screenshot of the Beeper app](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/09/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-multi-service-messaging-app-beeper-for-125m/) | |:--:| | Image Credits: Beepercaption |

Automattic had previously made a strategic investment of \$4.6 million), another company building on Matrix, and it contributes annually to Matrix.org.

Matrix, a sort of "spiritual successor" to XMPP, as Migicovsky describes it, offers an open source, end-to-end encrypted client and server communications system, where servers can federate with one another, similar to open source Twitter/X alternative Mastodon. However, instead of focusing on social networking, like Mastodon, it focuses on messaging.

Migicovsky said the acquisition came about because running Beeper costs quite a bit of money and it was either time to raise more funding or find a buyer. To date, Beeper had raised \$16 million in outside funding, including an \$8 million Series A from Initialized. Other investors include YC, Samsung Next and Liquid2 Ventures, and angels Garry Tan, Kevin Mahaffey and Niv Dror, and the group SV Angel.

"I've known Matt \[Mullenweg, Automattic founder and CEO\] for years now," Migicovsky said, adding that the WordPress.com founder had shown commitment to open source technology, like Beeper, where about half its product is already open source. "We were looking to find a partner that could financially support this. One of the reasons why there are no other people building this type of app is it costs a surprisingly large amount of money to build a damn good chat app," Migicovsky noted.

As for Beeper's products, the company has now briefed the DOJ on what happened when Apple blocked its newer app, Beeper Mini, which aimed to bring iMessage to Android. That solution is no longer being updated as a result of Apple's moves.

| [!Screenshot of the Beeper website](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/09/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-multi-service-messaging-app-beeper-for-125m/) | |:--:| | Image Credits: Beepercaption |

Beeper on Android launches to all

The company is instead releasing an updated version of its core app, Beeper, on Android. Unlike Beeper Mini, which focuses only on iMessage, the main app connects with 14 services, including Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Instagram DM, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Discord, Google Messages and others. Android is its biggest platform by users, as 70% are on Google's smartphone OS.

In this rewritten version of Beeper, the company is starting to roll out fully end-to-end encrypted messages across Signal. That will be soon followed by WhatsApp, Messenger and Google Messages.

Because of Apple's restrictions, iMessage only works if you have an iPhone in the mix, Migicovsky says, and will not be a focus for Beeper, given the complications it saw with Apple's shutdown of Beeper Mini. However, Beeper is hopeful regulations could change things, pointing to the DOJ lawsuit and FCC investigation. In the meantime, Beeper supports RCS, which solves iMessage to Android problems like low-res images and videos, lack of typing indicators and encryption.

With the launch out of beta, the new app includes a new icon, updated design, instant chat opens and sends, the ability to add and modify chat networks directly on Android (no desktop app needed), local caching of all chats on the device and full message search.

The 10,000 Android beta testers already on Beeper will need to download the new app manually from Google Play --- it won't automatically update.

| [!Screenshot of the Beeper website](https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/09/wordpress-com-owner-automattic-acquires-multi-service-messaging-app-beeper-for-125m/) | |:--:| | Image Credits: Beepercaption |

In addition, the 466,000 or so people on Beeper's waitlist will now be able to try the product. They'll join over 115,000 users who have already downloaded the app, which is now used by tens of thousands daily. The app runs on Android, iPhone, iPad, ChromeOS, macOS, Windows and Linux.

The team expects to have feature parity across platforms in a matter of months as they overhaul the iOS and desktop apps.

In time, they plan to add other services to Beeper as well, including Google Voice, Snapchat and Microsoft Teams. Beeper also offers a widget API so developers can build on top of Beeper. Plus, since Matrix is an open standard, developers will be able to build alternative clients for Beeper, as well.

The app will generate revenue via a premium subscription, where the final price may be a couple of dollars per month, but pricing decisions haven't yet been fully nailed down. Beeper is currently free to use.

Like Automattic, Beeper's team is remotely distributed, with employees in Brazil, the U.K., Germany and the U.S. At present, Texts.com will continue to operate as the teams begin to integrate the two messaging apps.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/17506000

> I am not satisfied with Linux's security and have been researching alternative open source OS for privacy and security > So far only thing that's ready to use is GrapheneOS (Based on Android) but that's not available on desktop (Though when Android release Desktop mode it may become viable) > >Qubes OS is wrapper around underlying operating systems, so it doesn’t really fix for example Linux’s security holes it just kinda sandbox/virtualize them > > OpenBSD is more secure than Linux on a base level but lack mitigations and patches that are added to linux overtime and it's security practices while good for it's time is outdated now > > RedoxOS (Written in Rust) got some nice ideas but sticks to same outdated practices and doesn't break the wheel too much, and security doesn't seems to be main focus of OS > > Haiku and Serenity are outright worse than Linux, especially Haiku as it's single user only > > Serenity adopted Pledge and Unveil from OpenBSD but otherwise lacks basic security features > > All new security paradigms seems to be happening in microkernels and these are the ones that caught my eyes > > None of these are ready to be used as daily driver OS but in future (hopefully) it may change > > Genode seems to be far ahead of game than everything else > > Ironclad Written in ADA > > Atmosphere And Mesosphere Open Source Re-implementation of Nintendo Switch's Horizon OS, I didn't expected this to be security-oriented but seems like Nintendo has done a very solid job > > Then there are Managarm, HelenOS, Theseus but I couldn't figure out how secure they are > > Finally there is Kicksecure from creators of Whonix, Kicksecure is a linux distro that plans to fix Linux's security problems > > if you know of any other OS please share it here

Seems like discord is asking people to verify their accounts with phone numbers nowadays. I guess I won't be using it anymore? :🤷

This is not for me but for family and friends who are mostly oblivious to privacy issues. I can generally steer them towards more privacy orientated software but not for anti-virus/malware. I know prevention is better than cure and altering behaviour to avoid them to start with is the best defence but I cannot for the life of me understand how some family end up with so damn much malware on their PCs. They're not going to change their behaviour any time soon, if ever. So antivirus it is.

Apart from ClamAV, is there any anti-malware software that respects privacy? Paid is fine (since most are already paying anyway).