this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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[–] ThunderLegend@sh.itjust.works 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I wish I had friends to use xmpp apps to text..I'm a whatsapp hostage

[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 hours ago

To be fair, I only have a few of my friends and some of my family on XMPP. I'm also guilty of having WhatsApp on my work phone for colleagues and the rest of my friends.

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

I love the mandatory Super Tux Cart anyone of us has installed but played like 4 times

[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 day ago

Quite the kinky lineup; WiFiAnal, Wetter, QuickDic... 😏

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Stop, you're gonna make me cum

[–] wolfiedafloof@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol. Last picture at the bottom third. "WiFiAnal" xD (Sorry, I'm childish)

[–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Hey, that's the only safe way to let others control your buttplug.

[–] Shape4985@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I see you have freetube. Grayjay is also a great addition as it has plug ins for lots of sites

Unfortunately FreeTube and Newpipe never worked for me. Only NewPipe works, but I have to disable my VPN.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 52 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Try CoMaps instead of Organic Maps. It's a fork because Organic Maps is starting to enshittify

[–] Omer_Ash@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I just ran the two apps side-by-side and barely found any differences other than some subtle UI changes. How exactly is it different? And how is Organic Maps being enshittified?

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I haven't been keeping up with Organic Maps updates to see if they differ but I'd assume they're basically functionally the same, except for potentially Kayak results.

https://openletter.earth/open-letter-to-organic-maps-shareholders-a0bf770c

[–] Omer_Ash@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Thanks for the link. I just made the switch to CoMaps because I'm tired of enshittification.

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[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They said it couldn't be done...

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It still can't be done 100% unless you make significant sacrifices to the usefulness of your smartphone...there's plenty of really useful (and sometimes necessary) things with no FOSS or open source alternatives.

[–] Starkon@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not to mention drivers... many driver blobs are proprietary and if you can find an open source one, there is a chance it works partially or not at all. I have a spare phone and I've been hesitating between flashing either PostmarketOS (all FOSS drivers but without the android ecosystem) or LineageOS, or maybe both if I can achieve that.

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Even if you fixed the issue with drivers...

...your modem runs it's own firmware with a lot of extremely shady behavior, and you can't touch that regardless of which OS you install. Even your SIM card can arbitrarily execute Java applets and fetch from the network without your command, but at least it's somewhat contained. Your modem though, it can do a lot without your control and people like Qualcomm have been caught doing nasty stuff with it (plus, of course, giving the US the data whenever they ask for it).

This is why people like Stallman and Snowden often talk about teaching users how to use libre software on their computers, but rather than pushing for the same with smartphones, they tell you to not touch these at all instead. They're fundamentally anti-privacy devices, built this way.

Of course I carry one, it's fairly hard to live without a phone nowadays, but we must be aware of the impossibility of fully containing the data harvesting they do.

[–] ZinQ@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago

Attack surface who dis?

[–] RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz 27 points 2 days ago

Quite impressive choice of apps, usually when I look at screenshots of privacy enthusiasts they look more or less like my own phone, and with you I share 3, maybe 4 apps only

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 7 points 1 day ago

Whoa, I have like half of these, nice!

[–] Starkon@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That is the way! Excited to flash my phone to LineageOS. Thanks for sharing the apps !

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Honest question: I see a lot of people here use their mobile phones as a computer platform. I have a general uneasiness about doing so. Not throwing any shade whatsoever, I just feel there is too much out of my control on a mobile phone, for me to trust it more than I do. My general policy is not to use my phone as a mobile computing platform even tho I have a VPN installed and use Firefox as a browser.

My local network for instance. There is one pipe in and out. I can easily see what is coming in and what's going out and I can control that with the granularity of a gnat's ass. I know what my software is doing or not doing. I can allow or disallow anything I want. On a mobile phone, I feel that the control I have on my PC is not equal to the control I have on my phone.

How have you come to terms with what you can't control on your mobile phone?

[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I definitely agree with you on this. My pet theory is that phones have been getting uncomfortably big, at least from my perspective, since the average consumer is expecting it to serve as a computing and productivity platform, while all I want is a nice little digital Swiss army knife. I'm only logged into my messaging apps and personal email, and don't expect to do any sort of "productivity" on my phone. When my friends and colleagues assume I'm logged in to this-or-that on my phone, all I can think about is how afraid I would be if I were logged in to so many things on my personal phone. It's so much harder to inspect what's going on in the background of mobile devices.

One of the compromises I've had to accept is the closed, yet exploitable nature of the baseband and firmware. Also how much more spying it could do compared to any PC if an exploit were to get through. Compiling Coreboot and neutering the Intel ME taught me a lot about who's really in control - and how much control we all lose to smartphone manufacturers and telecom companies.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

How have you come to terms with what you can't control on your mobile phone?

Threat level analysis.

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[–] AshCircuit@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That's how my GrapheneOS phone is zero proprietary apps in the main profile and then my own separate Google profile. Essentially get to carry two cell phones with one device.

[–] trilobite@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I nave ho learn how ho do these two profile things. How do u switch between them, and IS it on the fly?

[–] AshCircuit@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Pull down your notification bar twice. In other words expand it all the way. There is a small person Inside of a circle icon. That is how you can select the other profile. It's super fast and easy.

Then when you are done inside the profile. Hold the power button and select "Lock Out" and this will completely close down the second profile and put you back in the Main profile with the other completely shut down.

Downside is you wont get notifications in one area or the other from the opposing profile when it's not in use.

An alternative that is pretty secure too instead of profiles is to do the same thing in Private Space. This is found in the settings under the Security tab. This WILL get notifications to your main profile and when you shut down Private Space all apps stop completely including Play Services. But it's not as isolated as profiles

[–] trilobite@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, this is impressive. I had heard about profiles but never got into the detail and never really understood the benefit. So, a cool way of using this it to have a FOSS only space under the main admin profile and the build up a second "big brother" profile where I stack some annoying apps that in a way or another I'm forced to use like banking app and what's app. When the "big brother" profile is shut down, nobody tracks you. Would that be correct? If this is true I'm here asking myself why on earth people are not harnessing this more.

[–] AshCircuit@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yes, when you google profile is shut down.... It is completely isolated. You could install an application that is 100℅ malware and it would be completely closed down the moment you lock down that profile.

If you need what's app, I would either check your side profile a few times a day for messages OR you can stick What's App on the Private Space area of your FOSS profile so that it's Super easy to check. Private space works the same way in that when it's shut down..... The apps are 100℅ turned off including Play Services.

[–] curious_dolphin@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What does maintaining a separate profile for Google stuff buy you? I'm familiar with GrapheneOS, but haven't internalized the separate profile thing yet.

[–] AshCircuit@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

It keeps Google 100℅ seperate or vice versa.

Then when it's locked down it shuts down play services and apps to complete non functionality.

Go into system and create a new user. Set up that user exactly like you would a standard smart phone. And any apps you have on your main profile completely open source. That way it's 100℅ Google free

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[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Fucking legend! I'm going to spend the weekend exploring these apps and see what changes I can make on my phone. 👍

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