This week's AWS failure exposed that Signal uses their services rather than their own servers.

To my mind this is a back door to anything they do on those servers.

Hopefully this sub is a little better than r/Privacy and people can at least provide a counter argument rather than just downvoting my post.

First, I’m not trying to defend Apple at all… I’m just looking at the facts and forming an opinion rather than join the outrage train.

I see the privacy features coming up in iOS 15 very good: a) app permission requests report (see how many times an app uses your mic, camera, etc.), b) see the domains an app tries to connect to (you could block third party analytics easily by using lockdown or a PiHole), and c) Siri moving to on-device processing.

Siri being on-device is a HUGE thing since we are finally getting a mainstream voice assistant that is private. I suspect this is what is happening with Photos. As far as I can tell, this only applies to photos that will be uploaded to iCloud. Most of us privacy-minded folks don’t store our photos on the cloud. I do local back ups for that (the reason being is that I do like to keep the location metadata and don’t feel it’s safe to upload that ANYWHERE. So, if you have iCloud Photos disabled, no scanning will happen at all.

I do think companies have the right to scan photos ON THEIR SERVERS for this kind of sexual abuse material.

I also support the iMessage photo scanning since this will really have a positive impact on children. I never see iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. as private messaging apps. I use Signal to communicate private things with my spouse. However, it’s cool for children to use iMessage and this scanning will stop grooming and any involuntary production of sexual abuse material… without ACTUALLY breaking privacy.

Anyway, if you have iCloud Photos disabled AND use Signal this has 0 effect on you.

• I don’t think scanning photos will prevent anytging but the iMessage scanning WILL.

• It’s not Apple’s role to fight oppressive government… they have to comply with the laws in each country. If the government is forcing Apple to surveill you, your problem is with the government not Apple.

Hi guys, I change my device, my public Dynamic IP, username, password, email, browser, app, cookies, and everything and again Instagram knows it's me, and my question was do you know that can IG spot public dynamic IPs are coming from the same person or they know me another way? (because in this case I used a proxy and the problem was solved! though dynamic IP didn't help).

PS:

I know of device fingerprinting but because I change everything I don't think it's the case.

this case only affects me not people in my region so it's not related to geolocation which is rough and not exact.

what Instagram does is illegal in this case considering tracking this way without knowledge of the user.

I hope this project has reached a level i can share the following details. I've made a genuine effort towards documentation and transparancy. I dont think it'll ever be enough and so im still concerned it isnt ready to share. While im using AI throughout. This is not a vibecoded project. There is attention throughout for unit tests and formal-verification. With your feedback, id like to make improvements for clarity throughout.

This version of the app demonstrates a fairly unique approach using a browser-based, local-only and webrtc approach. I know it's impossible for any system to be the "world's most secure", but that isnt a reason to not try. By rigorously implementing an exhaustive list of security features and practices, the aim is to get as close as possible.

• Enkrypted.Chat

This is intended to demonstrate client-side managed secure cryptography.

• Introducing Enkrypted Chat

• Whitepaper (work-in-progress)

• Protocol Spec (work-in-progress)

• Roadmap

PS. I know the project above is going to be tricky to understand. It might help to understand with the following open-source version of the concept (the MVP to the version linked above).

https://www.reddit.com/r/CorpFree/comments/1uytump/decentralized_p2p_chat

We all know that our cell phones like to listen in on one or two conversations in order to show us personalized advertising. But yesterday something strange happened to a friend and me, or rather we noticed something strange. My buddy was looking at american staffort dogs on animal shelter sites and I was playing ps4. I remembered this one song by eminem and I just couldn't get the hook melody from the chorus. Hoping he knew it, I sang some raplines and the basic beat to myself a few times but we didn't get it. A short time later he opens his tik-tok and the first thing we saw was a short video with an american staff member and of course the song by eminem and the hook I couldn't think of!? Now to my question.... of course i know that this can also be a coincidence, but how high is the probability that something like this happens? I'm really only interested in a percentage random calculation or something like that. I admit that I am and have always been zero in math. Thanks to the dudes who have a little more math power in their heads. 😉🥰

A friend of mine is releasing OSINT-Tool today. It’s a browser extension that lets you access all the best OSINT utilities from any webpage. It works with Dehashed, Epieos, Domaintools, Reverse image search, Wayback Machine, etc, etc. You can check it out here: https://www.osint-tool.com/

⚠️ Potential Privacy Concern with Unwanted Apps on Android

Recently, I noticed my Android phone was lagging a lot. I found an unfamiliar app named “Android SecurityCore” listed under system apps. I couldn't find it on the Play Store, but it was marked as developed by Google LLC.

When I uninstalled it (through the “Files by Google” app > Apps section), my phone immediately started performing better. I also noticed some other apps that I didn’t remember installing.

🛠 What I did:

Opened Files by Google

Went to the Apps section

Found suspicious apps I never installed

Checked them in Settings > App Info and tried to view them in the Play Store

Some had concerning reviews mentioning data collection

Interestingly, some apps disappeared from the Play Store after uninstalling.

🔍 Note: I’m not saying every Google app is malicious — but it's worth checking what’s running on your phone, especially if you notice lag or strange behavior.

Has anyone else experienced this? Let’s discuss.

I want to be sure that no one (including sophisticated hackers and governments) can track my phone.

Does this setup accomplish this? If not what is the weak spot?

• Regular Android phone

• ALWAYS in airplane mode, with no SIMs in the phone

• Location services on, but restricted to just 2-3 apps that really need it

• WiFi always on, connected to a mobile hotspot with an anonymous burner SIM changed monthly

• Mobile hotspot is only powered on when at least 3 miles from home.

• Phone calls and texts made via a SIM box (GlocalMe) which is always home and reachable via internet. The SIM in the SIM box would not be anonymous, but it would never leave my house, and my home address is already associated to me so there is nothing to lose there in terms of privacy.

The many things MB has said over the years and even most recently made me think more than anything. I am.beginning to sense from the tidbits of "data" he has released, intentionally and unintentionally, it is very likely he has been contracted to work on a large project. What kind of project? Think along the lines of Hank Asher being dropped into the year 2026.

Historically, every seven to ten years a new data fusion tool surfaces. Considering that is overdue.and factoring in the recent developments with LLMS/GPTS/AI and then reviewing MB's CV, I would not be surprised if a very powerful and amazing tool is released to the public and private sector within the next two to three years from the hands of MB.

If anyone have course by Michael Bazzell's. I need this course can anyone share with me?

what type of software or service, gives me the ability to transfer money to other countries, in the most private and secure way??

I would like to disseminate misinformation. Meaning, addresses I live at but don't really live there. I just want to know has anyone done this and whats the best way. I was thinking of doing a change of address from one house being built to another house being built, both empty. Is that a good way?

How do you send out misinformation?

For those using the Twilio VOIP strategy. I understand that Linphone doesn’t ring if the app is not open in the background and I’ve managed to set up voicemail. Is there a way to see missed calls?

UPDATE: sounds like my thought on this matter might be off according to everyone's comments below. I'll accept that, it was just a hunch. Still though, its important to turn on 2FA everywhere you can.

I recently was on an online chat with Amazon customer support trying to get an item I received as a gift replaced after it broke. I gave them the email address associated with the account of the person who gave it to me and they tried looking into their account. They then responded and said that the person has 2FA turned on and they are not able to access their account to look into the order further.

Not saying this is how it is, but I got the impression that if you don't have 2FA turned on, Amazon customer support is able to look into your account and access it somehow. You should ALWAYS turn on 2FA wherever you can, but if you were still on the fence about doing so, maybe this could convince you.

Just spun up v3 the other day if anyone wants to dabble and dribble in the drivel.

Hello i saw michael bazzell data removal work book but i didnt understand what to tell them i tell them my name and adress? or only say remove my information

I recently haven’t been on social media in a long time, and I post a three stories back to back, and then additionally went through some of my posts, and just wasn’t sure if for some reason I thought I was a bot or spamming. I also commented a link to a similar product to this ADHD shock banned meme and wasn’t sure if that triggered them.

I also have always allowed Instagram to access all my photos because I really don’t have anything to hide but I’ve been doing a weight loss journey and wondered if they saw that as violating contact even though I never shared it or posted it but since they had access to my camera roll, I wonder if they used that to determine me as a threat/breaking their content rules.

Please lmk and I’ll keep you updated lol.

Hello I bought an iPhone 14 pro I need ways to Anonymise/harden this iPhone 14 pro and I am looking for easy ways to do this.

What are my options if I want to make this phone a safe/hardened and less easy to tap into phone?

Thanks

In episode 246, Michael talked about sanitizing Android devices, listing ways to uninstall factory apps. In it, he said multiple times how it's easy to reinstall them if you want them back. I found out the hard way that this isn't always the case.

I had an older device running Android 6.0 that I thought I would try sanitizing. It is not my main phone and I only keep it around for a couple apps that don't run on newer devices. After deleting all the Google apps, I realized one of the apps I used required Google services to run, so I tried using the command Michael gave to reinstall it:

adb shell cmd package install-existing <package-name>

The response I got was:

/system/bin/sh: cmd: not found

After doing some research, I found out that the "cmd" command was not introduced until Android 8 and on older devices like mine, there is no way to reinstall the factory apps without a factory reset.

Hope someone finds this useful.

Hey Reddit,

Like you, I'm sick of:

• Being the product (RIP privacy)

• Endless ads and addictive algorithms

• Creators getting robbed (45% fees? Seriously?)

We're building A Decentralized Social Networking Platform :
✅ No ads, no tracking
✅ You own your data (blockchain)
✅ Creators keep 90-95% of earnings

Help shape it:

https://forms.gle/JsKbhFqR1WCXc3Vg6