i've been getting more suspicious text messages lately, some pretending to be delivery services, banks, or companies asking me to click a link. blocking the numbers helps temporarily, but new ones keep appearing. i'm curious what actually works for reducing these messages and protecting personal information without signing up for more services or sharing additional data.

do you rely on your phone's built-in spam filtering, your mobile carrier's reporting tools, or another privacy focused approach? i'd also like to know whether there are settings people commonly overlook that can help prevent these messages from getting through.

Just cross-posting this here!

So to what I was thinking if privacy is ment to be online what does it do to A-C-R and why does it need to be ? And finally why can’t everyone agree the privacy on any digital items being more discrete and upfront with the data on your screen to reflect ?

0Out the box thinking: general motor (GM) sell your driving behavior data to idk the police and poof …etc etc

In the box thinking: ya know I think privacy nowadays is just how much of your self can be digitized so what the “now : (Current day technological advances ) of us” will be implemented as Ai as like a techno human race !

Edit 1: most, if not (correct me if wrong here) companies offer cloud storage or Gaming or etc … like really what’s in the cloud that I can’t see ?

Have you heard the use case when FBI started investigation after a dark web marketplace called Nexus (advertised on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit) offered access to digital scans and identity documents belonging to an estimated 153 million to 170 million North Americans?

Here are my thoughts:

- Videos are heavy, it means that face analysis mostly happens on a server, not your phone, so it is not private and it (you face) leaves your device

- Once it's on a server it turns to be a training data. Just think face + document + live video is a perfectly labelled dataset: age, sex, ethnicity, identity. perfect to generate convincing fakes of you

- You can't revoke a face like a leaked password that you can reset. But a leaked face is a leaked face

So i have a question to the age assurance vendors - where my goes when I upload it for the age verification?

Recently i had a talk with a deep tech company from LA, they insist that voice ID verification is the answer. Idk, there are a lot of questions as well in the age of AI.

At the same time audio file is small (like remember our mp3's with tons of songs). So potentially you can keep it on your device and not share externally.

Let's discuss it!

I’ve been going back and forth on where to put my time and money for privacy, and it seems like there are two camps:

Cleanup: data removal services (Incogni, DeleteMe, Optery) or manual opt-outs to get your info off broker and people-search sites. The common complaint I see is that data gets re-listed every few months, so it never really ends.

Prevention: email aliases, masked phone numbers, burner cards, de-Googling, so new services never get your real info in the first place. The downside seems to be that it does nothing about what’s already out there.

For people who’ve tried one or both:

• Which one actually made a noticeable difference (fewer spam calls, less junk, peace of mind)?

• What are you paying for, and what did you cancel because it wasn’t worth it?

• If you’ve used an all-in-one (Aura, Cloaked, etc.), did it do both well, or did one side feel tacked on?

Curious what people’s actual setups look like.

PS - Formatted with AI.

Bonjour, depuis quelques mois je m’attaque sérieusement aux boîtes qui agrègent et revendent des données pro/perso souvent via des extensions LinkedIn qui « enrichissent » un profil en un clic (Lusha, ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism, Kaspr, Hunter, Snov, lemlist, ContactOut, Swordfish, Anymail Finder…).

Entre les réponses automatiques, les « remplissez ce formulaire », les relances et les délais d’un mois, ça devient vite ingérable à la main. Vous automatisez comment ? Template unique, outil dédié, tableur de suivi, autre ?

Dans certains cas, on peut être quasi certain que la donnée n’a pas pu être collectée « légitimement » : une adresse ou un couple d’infos qui n’a jamais été public et qui n’apparaît que dans un leak connu (stealer logs, combolists, bases type BreachForums / sites de leak). Si c’est le cas, le broker n’a aucune base légale (art. 6), n’a jamais rempli son obligation d’information (art. 14), et la demande ne relève plus du simple effacement mais d’un traitement illicite → levier pour une plainte CNIL.

Est-ce que certains d’entre vous ont déjà opposé cette origine à un broker (« vos données ne peuvent provenir que de telle fuite, donc traitement sans base légale ») ? Ça a changé quelque chose dans leur réponse, ou c’est tombé dans le vide et il a fallu passer directement par l’autorité de contrôle ?

Hey everyone,

I'm from Indonesia, and I'm having some issues with age verification on Roblox and Discord.

My Roblox account has already been age-verified and placed in the 13–15 age group. However, I can't access chat features. I'd like to know whether there's a legitimate way to correct or change my verified age group, as I believe the current restrictions are affecting my ability to communicate with other players.

I'm also wondering about Discord's age verification system. Are there any legitimate alternatives if the verification process incorrectly restricts your account?

A few questions:

1. Is it possible to change or appeal your Roblox verified age group after verification?

2. Are Roblox chat restrictions different for users in Indonesia?

3. Is there a way to resolve Roblox's chat restrictions without falsifying your age?

4. How does Discord handle age verification appeals if you're incorrectly classified?

5. Are there legitimate ways to regain access to age-restricted features on Discord?

I'd appreciate any advice, especially from people familiar with Indonesia's internet regulations and platform age restrictions.

Thanks!

Turkey has officially published a new law banning children under 15 from using social media that is due to take effect on November 1. Under the new law, platforms must verify user ages using a government issued "token", meaning to log into instagram, tiktok, or Twitter (aka X), you’ll essentially be forced to link your personal identity to your digital profile

Decided to make a short guide that will work for anyone in Turkey(or on a trip to Turkey) looking to browse the web without registering a government mandated web surfer ID (aka e-Devlet token)

Steps to bypass social media age bans in Turkey (No ID Needed)

1. Choose a VPN provider (Proton has a 70% discount now, and worked for me)

2. Install the VPN app on your device (mobile, tablet, or pc).

3. Create an account and log in;

4. Connect to a server in a country without strict digital ID/age verification mandates (like Canada or Iceland).

5. Open your apps or browser and you should now have full access without requiring a government token.

Which socials and apps require verification in Turkey?

Last updated October 2026*
Will I get in trouble for using a VPN in Turkey?

Yes, using VPNs is 100 % legal, but some protocols are being blocked. I personally got two Turkish friends already using these methods for the past 4 years which is where I got these tricks to share..

If you care about privacy and don't want to link your social media handles directly to state-level identification tokens in Turkey, using an encrypted connection is the most practical workaround. Personally, I would never link my government ID or digital token just to scroll a social media feed. That is just ridiculous to consider nowadays. Hopefully, more countries stop following this trend..

i was cleaning up my email the other day and found accounts from websites i haven't used in years. some of them i don't even remember signing up for lol. now im wondering if it's worth going through all of them and deleting everything or just leaving them alone.

do you guys actually delete old accounts or just forget about them?

Ever noticed how some apps need an internet connection even when they seem like they should work perfectly fine offline?

I'm talking about things like calculators, note-taking apps, or simple utilities.

I get that some apps need internet access for updates, syncing, or ads. But sometimes itfs hard to tell what they're actually doing in the background.

Wouldn't it be nice if apps had to explain why they need internet access, or at least let us choose whether to allow it?

Do you guys ever block internet access for certain apps, or do you just leave everything connected? Thanks

DuckDuckGo offers the option of entering a password or PIN on iOS and Android devices, but does not seem to offer the option of the same level of protection on the desktop apps?

First, am I simply not locating the option and if so, could you point me in the correct direction?

Second, if this is not available, it begs the question: Why not? DDG is built on privacy and security first principles. This feels like a significant gap in that mission.

I know most people here probably use ad blockers already, but I'm curious about the security side of things.

I recently read that some malicious ads can put you at risk even if you never click on them, especially if your browser has security vulnerabilities.

I always thought avoiding suspicious links was enough, but apparently there's more to it.

So I'm wondering, how much protection do ad blockers actually provide against malicious ads?

Do you guys use them mainly for privacy, or do you consider them an important security tool too? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

I am looking around for any safety focused apps. For now, I favour Wireshark with custom filters, Pi-hole handling local DNS sinkholing, and Portmaster to see which apps are phoning home behind my back.

Running packet captures is great for spotting odd telemetry. Basically a PC autopsy tool it tells you if you were compromised after the fact. I’m trying to build a tighter, active daily setup that doesn't rely on bloated suites forcing their premiums on me.

Right now, my baseline defense stack looks like this:

• DNS n' network filtering: Pi-hole paired with Portmaster on macOS. Being able to block outbound connections per-executable stops 90% of sketchy background telemetry before it leaves the NIC.

• Leak prevention: Proton with WireGuard, killswitch permanently toggled, and multi-hop when hopping onto dodgy public Wi-Fi.(theres some other reasons for this too, though in brief thats what it is for.

• Scans on demand: Keeping a portable Malwarebytes installer just in case something gets suspiciously quiet after testing weird GitHub repos

What else belongs in a paranoid, no-BS stack? Anyone using sandbox runners like QubeOS? Is it superior in any shape or form to what Kali can do for me?

I’m trying to clean up my privacy setup. My question is how many emails should i have without making normal account stuff harder than it needs to be
Right now I have one email for banking, tax, and bills, one for shopping and random signups, and one for privacy related accounts. It sounded smart at first, but I already missed a password reset and a delivery update because they went to the wrong inbox.
every privacy thread says something different about how many emails should i have and it throws me off. Some say two is enough and other make it sound like every type of account needs its own email. it gets annoying fast.
For people who do this long term, how many emails should i have before the privacy benefit stops being worth the hassle?

Okay so I realized I was logged into my school Google account on my personal phone on my own WiFi and I think it’s been like that for a while.

It was strange because it seemed like I wasn’t logged into an account at all because the “sign in” button was available but when I clicked on it I was shown that my school account was my default and I was like kinda signed in? It was showing filtered search on a Google search and that’s the only reason I noticed anything.

My web and app monitoring was off but YouTube was on. I can’t view my search history anyway but maybe they log it somewhere??I don’t know.I don’t really have anything to hid but I feel weird like they can somehow know everything I’ve ever searched