With whatever Google's been doing lately to android, and the general decline in custom ROMs, I'm wondering if custom ROMs are even worth the hassle anymore or if just tweaking settings and using ADB on any phone is enough these days. Thoughts and suggestions?

I'm looking to direct people to message me on Signal, Matrix, etc. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

I created a 5-week degoogling plan PDF based on the steps in my book DISENGAGE: Escape the Leash of Big Tech, Scams and Surveillance—Everyday Resistance for the Digital Underdog.

Before I finalize and post it to my site, I'd love some feedback from people who have degoogled or are in the process of doing so.

The final package will be a single PDF, and I've pasted images of the pages below. The final infographic has a link for each product. Please don't worry about formatting issues, I'll get those fixed. But in general, I'm wondering.

• Does this seem motivational/doable?

• Are the tips clear?

• Is there anything that is now incorrect? I wrote the book originally two years ago and updated it in February, so some of my suggestions may already be out of date.

• At the bottom I mention that full instructions for each step are available in DISENGAGE, which is a free book. Is that enough? Or should I instead either note which chapter/page to look at for each step, or directly include links to instructions/tools online?

• The infographic at the end...is it weird to be sideways? I created it a while ago and don't want to have to redo it to fit the orientation. I could offer that separately, OR I could redo the whole PDF to be landscape instead of portrait (which I don't love).

• I'm thinking of turning this into a group challenge (also no cost). If there's enough interest, it could be the checklist, the book, and a Signal group (maybe with a weekly call). I don't know nearly everything about the topic, but I did degoogle myself, and everyone in the group/on the call can share questions and suggestions. What do you think of this idea?

Thanks!

Hi, I'm looking for a mail client that is well suited for managing multiple identities and can easily handle routing everything over an anonymity network.

I would use Thunderbird, but I think when you take it online, it downloads from all your connected email accounts. I want to "go online" at will toward particular email addresses, in other words I do not want my upstream mail provider to be able to associate my accounts in any way, including access time, assuming there is a large enough other pool of people using the same client/anonymity network.

Are there any that are well made for this purpose? Otherwise I will use the mail frontend over Tor or something, but it would be nice to have a lightweight client-side application too so I can keep my emails downloaded and delete them from the server.

Hello, I just wanted to share my story regarding having a domain with Njalla using ProtonMail/SimpleLogin's services.

TLDR (full story below): You may not be able to send emails from your domain with ProtonMail/SimpleLogin if your domain is registered with Njalla (or any other "privacy-friendly" domain registrar).

Full-story:

I had a domain with Njalla (njal.la) for a couple of years, and at the same time, I was using this domain with ProtonMail (to send emails from my domain) and SimpleLogin (catch-all aliases with my domain). I never had any issues during the last few years until recently:

• A few months ago, beginning of 2025, I suddenly wasn't able to send emails from my domains/aliases: They were rejected ("Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender") because I was listed on Spamhaus (a service which lists domain reputation, check.spamhaus.org). I contacted Proton's support, and they advised me to reach out Spamhaus directly to resolve this issue. I was able to request a delisting of my domain "automatically" (through a form), and a few days later, my domain had been "automatically" delisted and I was thus able to send emails again.
• A month ago, my domain has suddenly been re-listed on spamhaus, again. This time, I wasn't prompted with the automatic delisting form like the first time. I had to contact through a form Spamhaus and I had to write a small text requesting to be delisted and explaining to them how I was not using my domain for spamming/scaming/bulk email sending/etc... This time, spamhaus refused to delist my domain because my domain was considered as an Internet neighbourhood with “poor reputation” that has shared (or inevitably will share) its negative reputation. (...) The domain is not eligible for removal while being associated with this neighbourhood. We recommend moving your domain to a hosting network with good reputation.. I was talking with Njalla's support and ProtonMail's support at the same time, and they basically both told me that there is nothing they could do. I was basically forced to transfer my domain to a new domain hoster provider. And not any other domain hoster, but one with a "good" reputation (when I asked if transfering to 1984 (https://1984.hosting/), a privacy-friendly domain provider, Spamhaus discouraged me to do so.

To sum it up, by having your domain with any privacy-friendly service (like Njalla, 1984, ...), there is a chance that your domain will be listed on Spamhaus, preventing you from using your domain with ProtonMail/SimpleLogin.

I find it ironic from Proton, as they even encourage using Njalla/1984 in one of their blog article: https://proton.me/blog/professional-domain-and-email. At the end, I'm a bit pissed by Spamhaus's behaviour and also ProtonMail for using such services.

Here are screenshots of my discussions with ProtonMail, Njalla and Spamhaus support if anyone is interested enough in reading the whole discussions: https://postimg.cc/gallery/phgVK4M

Just wanted to share my story to help other people know about this issue and the issues they might encounter with ProtonMail based on their DNS provider choice.

Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.

This is the process through which Meta (Facebook/Instagram) managed to link what you do in your browser (for example, visiting a news site or an online store) with your real identity (your Facebook or Instagram account), even if you never logged into your account through the browser or anything like that.

Meta accomplishes this through two invisible channels that exchange information:

(i) The Facebook or Instagram app running in the background on your phone, even when you’re not using it.

(ii) Meta’s tracking scripts (the now-pulled illegal brainchild uncovered last week), which operate inside your mobile web browser.

I know the generall guidance for private phones was Pixel with graphene OS. I was financially planing on buying a 10th gen pixel when they come out later this year to only put gos on it. However with the recent news, I am wondering if this is still the recommended best practice from this community.

I am worried that if the gos team needs to spend tonnes of ressources on maintaining basic drivers and stuff then they won't have any time to work on the privacy and security features they are best known for.

What is your oppinion?

Also does anyone have a way to dpam feedback to google? I couldn't finf a generall feedback form, but if they know that people aren't buying their hardware because of this decision, they might back down. (I really fell in love with gos researching it lately so I would hate to have to switch to something like /e/ os or calyx or something)

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/40154928

I doubt its even environmentally/economically sustainable for a whole crowd of millions to just buy burners to discard after every protest. Too much ewaste. Is there a strategy that everyone can use without generating too much ewaste?

Or a fork of Firefox like fennec

May be a stupid question, but it occurred to me that when renewing official IDs, fingerprints are registered, and of course, there's a clean shot of your face. Kinda makes me uncomfortable, since fascism seems to be on the rise pretty much everywhere. How do you guys deal with this? Necessary evil?

I'm talking about this article that I remember reading last year, but I never fully comprehend it. https://archive.md/qgBWB

Especially one of the images:

What does "BFU Extractions" mean? Does it just straight up bypass any lockscreen, even Before First Unlock?

The first time I came across that article, I just assumed if you have a strong password, your fine, now I'm not so sure, I'm starting to get a bit paranoid... 😖

How bad is Android Auto for privacy on a stock Pixel phone. What can the car and car vendor get access to.

I'm on android

So i downloaded fennec today and it seems to be pretty good, and quick aswell. But the settings are kinda confusing, for now tho!

I have already enabled ublock, Clearurls and Privacy Badger.

What other settings would you recommend to make fennec even more privacy hardened?

How can i debloat android reddit and youtube app ? The vanilla apps are constantly making bloat connections. (Atleast 8k-10k on adguard app per day).

I recently have been playing around with GPG (its pretty fun!) And decided to make a hat with my public key on it!

Its a fun conversation starter at walmart, when somebody asks what it is? It activates my tism, and i get to talk about computer science! Its also important to teach others the importants of encryption especially as of one day ago the EFF made a post talking about yet another bill trying to go after encryption.

The keen eyed among you see i have blocked out certain parts of my key, this is because i have a key for this hat exclusively and would like to see if anybody i talk to about encryption in real life bothers to email me. I know its not much but i enjoy it!

I laser etched the leather, and hand stitched it to the hat.

I know this is more kinda clothing stuff, but it just didnt feel right posting a hat with a gpg key on a fasion/clothing community.

Hope you enjoy My little project >:) hehe

This is for pedagogical purposes. Please do not cypher actually important messages with this.

Anyway I think it can bring with little ones, and adults alike, interesting conversations around :

• secrecy
• privacy
• cryptography as counter-power
• mathematics, starting with modulo
• the duration a message can stay undecipherable and thus the kind of message to share
• computational complexity, how many permutations are available

... and a lot more!

Dark Web Interdiction Act of 2025

Here is the text of a bill introduced to Congress (US), ostensibly to combat the trafficking of opioids over "The Dark Web". There's a nice definition of "The Dark Web" at section 4.

I like the part where it says people are using "The Dark Web" both within the United States and "at the international border".

Everyone talks about how evil browser fingerprinting is, and it is, but I don't get why people are only blaming the companies doing it and not putting equal blame on browsers for letting it happen.

Go to Am I Unique and look at the kind of data browsers let JavaScript access unconditionally with no user prompting. Here's a selection of ridiculous ones that pretty much no website needs:

• Your operating system (Isn't the whole damn point of the internet that it's platform independent?)
• Your CPU architecture (JS runs on the most virtual of virtual environments why the hell does it need to know what processor you have?)
• Your JS interpreter's version and build ID
• List of plugins you have installed
• List of extensions you have installed
• Your accelerometer and gyroscope (so any website can figure out what you're doing by analyzing how you move your phone, i.e. running vs walking vs driving vs standing still)
• Your magnetic field sensor AKA the phone's compass (so websites can figure out which direction you're facing)
• Your proximity sensor
• Your keyboard layout
• How your mouse moves every moment it's in the webpage window, including how far you scroll, what bit of text you hovered on or selected, both left and right clicks, etc.
• Everything you type on your keyboard when the window is active. You don't need to be typing into a text box or anything, you can set a general event listener for keystrokes like you can for the mouse.

If you're wondering how sensors are used to fingerprint you, I think it has to do with manufacturing imperfections that skew their readings in unique ways for each device, but websites could just as easily straight up record those sensors without you knowing. It's not a lot of data all things considered so you likely wouldn't notice.

Also, canvas and webGL rendering differences are each more than enough to 100% identify your browser instance. Not a bit of effort put into making their results more consistent I guess.

All of these are accessible to any website by default. Actually, there's not even a way to turn most of these off. WHY?! All of these are niche features that only a tiny fraction of websites need. Browser companies know that fingerprinting is a problem and have done nothing about it. Not even Firefox.

Why is the web, where you're by far the most likely to execute malicious code, not built on zero trust policies? Let me allow the functionality I need on a per site basis.

Fuck everything about modern websites.

"Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session."

Like what the title says. There's always a catch unless it's FOSS. So, what is the catch with them giving games for free that you can keep forever? What will the developers of the games get as a thank you?

Full text to bypass paywall:

A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected U.S. travellers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from, according to internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media. The data includes passenger names, their full flight itineraries, and financial details.

CBP, a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says it needs this data to support state and local police to track people of interest’s air travel across the country, in a purchase that has alarmed civil liberties experts.

The documents reveal for the first time in detail why at least one part of DHS purchased such information, and comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detailed its own purchase of the data. The documents also show for the first time that the data broker, called the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), tells government agencies not to mention where it sourced the flight data from.

“The big airlines—through a shady data broker that they own called ARC—are selling the government bulk access to Americans' sensitive information, revealing where they fly and the credit card they used,” Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement.

ARC is owned and operated by at least eight major U.S. airlines, other publicly released documents show. The company’s board of directors include representatives from Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and European airlines Lufthansa and Air France, and Canada’s Air Canada. More than 240 airlines depend on ARC for ticket settlement services.

Do you work at ARC or an agency that uses ARC data? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at [email protected].

ARC’s other lines of business include being the conduit between airlines and travel agencies, finding travel trends in data with other firms like Expedia, and fraud prevention, according to material on ARC’s YouTube channel and website. The sale of U.S. flyers’ travel information to the government is part of ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program (TIP).

A Statement of Work included in the newly obtained documents, which describes why an agency is buying a particular tool or capability, says CBP needs access to ARC’s TIP product “to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest’s U.S. domestic air travel ticketing information.” 404 Media obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

A screenshot of the Statement of Work. Image: 404 Media.

The new documents obtained by 404 Media also show ARC asking CBP to “not publicly identify vendor, or its employees, individually or collectively, as the source of the Reports unless the Customer is compelled to do so by a valid court order or subpoena and gives ARC immediate notice of same.”

The Statement of Work says that TIP can show a person’s paid intent to travel and tickets purchased through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories. The data from the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) will provide “visibility on a subject’s or person of interest’s domestic air travel ticketing information as well as tickets acquired through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories,” the documents say. They add this data will be “crucial” in both administrative and criminal cases.

A DHS Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) available online says that TIP data is updated daily with the previous day’s ticket sales, and contains more than one billion records spanning 39 months of past and future travel. The document says TIP can be searched by name, credit card, or airline, but ARC contains data from ARC-accredited travel agencies, such as Expedia, and not flights booked directly with an airline. “[I]f the passenger buys a ticket directly from the airline, then the search done by ICE will not show up in an ARC report,” that PIA says. The PIA notes the data impacts both U.S. and non-U.S. persons, meaning it does include information on U.S. citizens.

“While obtaining domestic airline data—like many other transaction and purchase records—generally doesn't require a warrant, there's still supposed to go through a legal process that ensures independent oversight and limits data collection to records that will support an investigation,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media in an email. “As with many other types of sensitive and revealing data, the government seems intent on using data brokers to buy their way around important guardrails and limits.”

CBP’s contract with ARC started in June 2024 and may extend to 2029, according to the documents. The CBP contract 404 Media obtained documents for was an $11,025 transaction. Last Tuesday, a public procurement database added a $6,847.50 update to that contract, which said it was exercising “Option Year 1,” meaning it was extending the contract. The documents are redacted but briefly mention CBP’s OPR, or Office of Professional Responsibility, which in part investigates corruption by CBP employees.

“CBP is committed to protecting individuals’ privacy during the execution of its mission to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity. CBP follows a robust privacy policy as we protect the homeland through the air, land and maritime environments against illegal entry, illicit activity or other threats to national sovereignty and economic security,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. CBP added that the data is only used when an OPR investigation is open and the agency needs to locate someone related to that investigation. The agency said the data can act as a good starting point to identify a relevant flight record before then getting more information through legal processes.

On May 1, ICE published details about its own ARC data purchase. In response, on May 2, 404 Media filed FOIA requests with ICE and a range of other agencies that 404 Media found had bought ARC’s services, including CBP, the Secret Service, SEC, DEA, the Air Force, U.S. Marshals Service, TSA, and ATF. 404 Media found these by searching U.S. procurement databases. Around a week later, The Lever covered the ICE contract.

A screenshot of the Statement of Work. Image: 404 Media.

Airlines contacted by 404 Media declined to comment, didn’t respond, or deferred to either ARC or DHS instead. ARC declined to comment. The company previously told The Lever that TIP “was established after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to provide certain data to law enforcement… for the purpose of national security matters” and criminal investigations.

“ARC has refused to answer oversight questions from Congress, so I have already contacted the major airlines that own ARC—like Delta, American Airlines and United—to find out why they gave the green light to sell their customers' data to the government,” Wyden’s statement added.

U.S. law enforcement agencies have repeatedly turned to private companies to buy data rather than obtain it through legal processes such as search warrants or subpoenas. That includes location data harvested from smartphones, utility data, and internet backbone data.

“Overall it strikes me as yet another alarming example of how the ‘Big Data Surveillance Complex’ is becoming the digital age version of the Military-Industrial Complex,” Laperruque says, referring to the purchase of airline data.

“It's clear the Data Broker Loophole is pushing the government back towards a pernicious ‘collect it all’ mentality, gobbling up as much sensitive data as it can about all Americans by default. A decade ago the public rejected that approach, and Congress passed surveillance reform legislation that banned domestic bulk collection. Clearly it's time for Congress to step in again, and stop the Data Broker Loophole from being used to circumvent that ban,” he added.

According to ARC’s website, the company only introduced multifactor authentication on May 15.

I'm aware that carrying a phone means that I can be tracked with cell towers and that's fine.

But is there some sort of tracking that can be done on modern dumb-phones that make relevant ads show up(on spotify/youtube) that are based on where the phone has been?

Thanks I'm a newb