Digital Privacy - Blog Posts

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

im sure someone already made a post about it but i came across a ublock origin add-on that blacklists around 950 AI websites and disables AI overview ☝️ so u can be free from seeing AI in your search

Tumblr added a bunch of tracking shit to share urls, so now ill teach you how to get rid of them

if you copy a url by sharing on the website, the link will look like this

getting rid of tracking in these is easy, just delete everything after the question mark and you are golden

in the case for the app, its slightly more complicated

first you have to delete at. that appears before tumblr(.)com the other tracking shit on this one has a lot more info, so please, clean app urls. after the first set of numbers, there's a / you have to delete everything after it

a clean Tumblr url should look like this

blog safely

So, Microsoft is terrible. Yes yes, the oldest claim in the world.

But specifically... I just hate how Windows 10 tries to conflate and confuse web searches with things on one's own computer. The start menu should never do anything related to web-searching, especially if it purports to try to give examples of things that are on my hard drive!

This will make old, computer-illiterate people more malware-vulnerable. You have to maintain a strong distinction between "things that are on this computer (and maybe even included in Windows)" (safe, one hopes, or you already got pwned by it, probably), and "things on the web" (scary, dangerous, not to be trusted at all).

Eroding that barrier in the UI is awful. It just FEELS like a violation every time I start typing into the start bar, and it tries to show me ANYTHING web-related. My computer is NOT just an internet-portal! It has tons of stuff on it, and when I'm interacting with the OS, I ONLY want to see things that are already on here!

If I wanted to see something online, I would go to my browser! All the online stuff should be segregated into the browser!

Specific programs can access the internet; that's fine. But my OS's functions and interface should JUST be about the things that are already on my computer.

IN LIGHT OF RECENT EVENTS:

Is Google Docs bad? Do you know of a good / safer, free, word processor? Thanks!

All Google products are bad!

There is an EXCELLENT free desktop office suite called Libre Office that you can download and install by clicking here: https://www.libreoffice.org/

If anyone reading this is a college student and thinking about purchasing microsoft home and student or an office 365 subscription please just install Libre Office instead. It is WONDERFUL.

If you’re looking to do something browser-based you should check out CryptPad, which is a zero-knowledge, encrypted online office suite with document storage and a spreadsheet maker and a complete boner for security. It allows for collaboration like gdocs does but it doesn’t track your data or store information about you because it *can’t* because all of your work is encrypted. Check out cryptpad here: https://cryptpad.fr/

And, as usual, if you want to ditch gmail check out protonmail.

not enough fireworks and champagne on the whole fuckin continent to celebrate this the way you're supposed to celebrate it

The Chrome browser exists to show you ads and track where you go so that Google can show you more ads. Please stop using Chrome. Firefox is open source, and while Mozilla is not perfect, it isn’t actively fucking evil the way Google is. It has a bazillion plugins, including various (FREE!) ad block plugins (I recommend uBlock Origins, which will even block YouTube ads – you can watch videos without interruptions again!). It will also function very effectively with a lot more tabs open than Chrome. I’ve got around 800 tabs open right now (not loaded, of course, except for maybe 2 dozen; it’s been a heavy browsing day), and my wife has between 2k and 3k at any time.

We are in the New Browser Wars. This time there’s a helluva lot of money up for grabs, because a lot of it is about running those ads. Monopolies are bad for consumers.

Just go download Firefox.

blog dedicated to categorizing and saving various posts i find helpful. main blog @venomgender ;

newly rbed posts almost definitely won't be tagged, but (in theory) they'll all be tagged within the month

tag explanations below cut:

#piracy - self explanatory. has both piracy tutorials and masterposts of pirated media

#digital privacy - posts dedicated to resources on digital privacy; has things ranging from browser extensions to google product alternatives

#cooking - cooking resources. both general how-tos and actual recipes

#trans - trans resources. more dedicated to transmasc than transfem posts just because im transmasc, but has several generalized posts as well

#art resources - self explanatory. has both tutorials and things like resource packs and stuff

#writing resources - self explanatory

#learning - learning resources, typically dedicated to masterposts about learning a specific "thing" (language, sewing basics, etc)

#media rec - media recommendations

#sewing - sewing resources. has both tutorials and sewing patterns

#tech - technology resources. stuff like removing windows 10 bloatware, switching to linux, improving pc performance

#video game resources - resources centered around making video games

#coding - coding resources. from basic language how-tos to how to make your own websites

#save - any other helpful post i see that doesnt easily fit into the above categories. typically has things that help with "adulting" but i dont like that word so im not making a tag for it.

#megathread - any post containing large amounts of links for different things. contains a variety of categories. mildly depreciated in terms of how often i actually tag things this...

#tutorial - posts that teach you things. normally will also be tagged with a more specific category. also mildly depreciated...

additionally anything tagged 'kinda' means it only sort of falls into the tagged category. i tag these things to in theory go through later and see if theres enough similar items to have them been grouped into a new one

Digital Privacy for 🇺🇸 Protests

This isn’t my normal content, but I was once a CS student, and am still obnoxiously tech-aware. I understand, to some extent, how data-harvesting works and what it’s used for. I am aware of instances where subpoenas of data from commercially available tech products have been used to convict people in court. Each of us has a large data trail following us around, and, to my knowledge, some of that data has been used in recent years against citizens who fully believed they "weren’t doing anything wrong" or that they "had nothing to hide" in cases where basic rights were ignored.

That said, if you’re planning to protest and want to minimize your chances of harassment from powers-that-be, I urge you to consider making plans to increase your digital privacy. Some of these methods are more complicated and costly than others, but I want to present them in the hopes that even one of the suggestions can improve your chances of not being unduly punished for exercising your legal right to peaceful protest.

If this is too much information for you to read, concise suggestions are available in this Boston Magazine article. (They don't have information on burner phones, though. Still, DO please read their section on locking your phone with a secure PIN.) I just want to thoroughly go through the "what" and "why."

This is not legal advice, it is not guaranteed to be accurate or comprehensive, and it furthermore represents only one person's understanding of digital security, as compiled from multiple sources over multiple years. It may not be up to date, especially if it is viewed after any length of time from its original posting. Please use this as a jumping-off point to do your own research. No matter how strongly I word something, assume it is an opinion and not a fact. Do not use any information in this guide to break or circumvent any laws or in the service of breaking or circumventing any laws.

Leave your phone at home

Pros

Costs no money*, requires little setup.

Completely eliminates being digitally tracked (as long as you're not carrying other tech gadgets).

Cons

*People who rely on phones for basic utilities may have to acquire additional analogue devices, which will cost money and time. (For instance, a (non-bluetooth enabled) wristwatch, a medical ID bracelet, a paper map, etc.)

People who have never lived in their current city without a smartphone may not have practice navigating physical spaces without GPS.

People who normally rely on digital payment methods and don't have credit/debit cards may have to make plans to carry cash instead, which may be difficult for people who don't have regular access to banking.

People who need to contact others for a ride may need to ask a stranger or a store clerk if they can borrow their phone. (Believe it or not, this was a common question asked of cashiers before the early 2000s. Many stores had no problem allowing customers to make short phone calls on the company phone, but it might be a strange request nowadays.)

Turn your phone off at protests

Pros

Costs no money, requires the least setup.

The VAST MAJORITY of tracking methods are blocked when a cell phone is turned off. (Unless you are a person-of-interest to a major player like the NSA, this is probably sufficient to stop you from being tracked.)

Cons

Same as for "leave your phone at home," but on a temporary basis.

In order for this to be a useful privacy measure, one must take great care to keep the phone off until one is physically far away from the site of the protest. This means that people who need to contact others for a ride, but don't want to do as suggested above, may need to walk a considerable distance away from the protest before turning their phone back on.

Put your phone in a "Faraday Bag"

Pros

Equally secure to not carrying your phone, theoretically.

Cons

One must find and purchase this item, making it a non-zero cost solution.

Some online listings for speciality items like this misrepresent their capabilities. It is up to the purchaser to test the item thoroughly before relying on its use. (It could be counterfeit or just poorly made, in other words.)

Once more, in order for this to be a useful privacy measure, the need to physically remove oneself from the protest before taking the phone out of the bag and returning to normal use may prove challenging for those requiring a phone to contact a ride home.

Turn on "Airplane Mode"

Pros

Costs no money, ties for requiring the least setup.

Cons

I have been informed that Apple phones do not disable Wifi when Airplane Mode is engaged. If one forgets to also disable Wifi, phones may connect to available public Wifi hotspots, which may include honeypots set up by malicious actors.

I will freely admit that I am, perhaps, overly-cautious, but I am suspicious of trusting Airplane Mode to work properly on all phones. Computers are ultimately programmed by human beings, who are certainly fallible. I think it is far wiser to simply turn one's phone off.

If one uses their phone to take photos or videos at the protest, but hasn't turned off auto-sync with cloud services (Google Photos, iCloud, etc.), those photos may be accessible by companies who can be subpoenaed to provide them to a court.

DON'T DO THIS: Turn off wireless communications, such as Wifi, GPS/location services, bluetooth, etc.

Pros

None. This is security theater.

To be clearer, this will prevent apps from tracking users, but the operating system will still know their location, etc. Apple and Google can be subpoenaed and don't have spotless records at protecting the privacy of their user-base in cases like this.

Cons

See "Pros."

Additionally, the note about photos and videos from the "Airplane Mode" section also applies.

Keep using one's phone as normal, but at least use encrypted messaging

Pros

Pictures and videos sent to others using the same encrypted messaging service (which may include protestors' faces) will be encrypted, and will be more difficult for others to obtain via digital sniffing.

Messages sent and calls made through these services will similarly be encrypted and therefore more difficult for others to intercept.

Cons

The location of the phone will be known to the user's cell service provider as well as to any data-gathering apps (including social media, etc.) they have installed. This information can be subpoenaed in court.

Additionally, the note about photos and videos from the "Airplane Mode" section also applies.

Get a burner phone

Pros

Allows a person to leave their usual phone at home, while still having the ability to call others in case of an emergency.

Cons

Costs a not-insignificant amount of money and time, and requires research and tech knowledge.

If the person with the burner phone calls another person in the case of an emergency, the recipient of that call will have a record of having received the call from that burner phone, and the burner phone will have a record of having been at the protest, if it was in use at the time. This implicates your emergency contact as an accomplice to a protestor.

Doing this properly involves a number of steps. One must feel comfortable:

Navigating, without one's primary phone, to a place where pay-as-you-go, no-contract phones are sold. For instance, Walmart carries these sorts of phones through Straight Talk Wireless.

Purchasing a phone and a card representing "minutes" in cash.

Activating the phone using a payphone or courtesy phone (these exist at some airports reliably and at some gas stations unreliably) or at an internet cafe, college, or library with courtesy computers (even more rare than payphones).

Not allowing the sales representative to make an account with your identifying information. (To my knowledge, it is possible to opt out of making an account with Straight Talk Wireless, but they will almost certainly suggest it to you if you set up via phone call. I have no experience, so I could be wrong in either case.)

Setting up the phone in a way that is consistent with privacy practices (see this Reddit post for details, although note that its author uses somewhat rough language).

Turning the burner phone off and removing the battery and/or placing it in a Faraday bag before returning home, to work, or to any other location that is tied to your identity. (The Nokia 2760 Flip, available at Walmart as of this posting, seems to allow the user to remove the battery, which I would ultimately recommend. Its utility for anything other than calls and texting seems questionable, however.)

Feel free to reblog with any additional information I've missed, or corrections for incomplete or incorrect information represented herein. I'm not an expert amongst experts; I'm just someone with a passing interest in technological security.

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