Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from PCMag: A lawsuit claims that WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is a sham, and is demanding damages, but the app's parent company, Meta, calls the claims "false and absurd.
Next up will be a VPN ban. Many tech-y people will see that and think “lol yeah well that’s not going to stop *me* from using a VPN”
A VPN ban isn’t really meant stop you from using one. It means when they catch you doing so, they’ll use the fact you’re using this harmless technology itself as a *pretense* to lock you up without needing to do any “hard work” (i.e. an investigator’s job) like actually confirming whether you committed a real crime.
Don’t think you won’t be impacted just because you know how to outsmart an ISP filter! This is not a plan to protect children or stop you from consuming adult media. It is a ploy to eventually eliminate ALL freedom of expression and free access to information in the UK.
And the same goes for Chat Control and encrypted messengers, btw
Next up will be a VPN ban. Many tech-y people will see that and think “lol yeah well that’s not going to stop *me* from using a VPN”
A VPN ban isn’t really meant stop you from using one. It means when they catch you doing so, they’ll use the fact you’re using this harmless technology itself as a *pretense* to lock you up without needing to do any “hard work” (i.e. an investigator’s job) like actually confirming whether you committed a real crime.
Don’t think you won’t be impacted just because you know how to outsmart an ISP filter! This is not a plan to protect children or stop you from consuming adult media. It is a ploy to eventually eliminate ALL freedom of expression and free access to information in the UK.
And the same goes for Chat Control and encrypted messengers, btw
Many #UK Users Soon Won't Be Able to Access #Pornhub
https://www.404media.co/uk-pornhub-blocked-age-verification-vpn/
#nsfw #porn #privacy #OnlineSafetyAct #AgeVerification #IdentityVerification
A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this little device: waveshare.com/sim7600g-h-4g-do… According to its documentation, it is able to write SMS, provide mobile internet, and allow making phone calls (which is quite rare). Does anyone have any experience with this device? And if yes, does it just work with Linux applications like gnome-calls (I know that this issue gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/calls/-… exists, but it is basically inactive)?
My goal would be to replace my phone entirely. Currently, I only need my phone for Signal as a primary device as well as for basic smartphone stuff, such as SMS, mobile internet, and calls.
Your regular reminder to use the #Tor browser on a daily basis.
The more you use it, the better protected are people in repressive countries who want to use a free internet, journalists and researchers who want to protect themselves from discovery, whistleblowers, activists, and ordinary people who want to opt out of invasive third party tracking.
- photos taken with the device could be hacked, so no photos of any children, possibly expand to no photos of anything identifiable - distrust that messages definitively come from parents, they could be coming from everyone. In emergencies, call, don't text. Trust in messages like "be 5 m late, wait at the school/pickup spot" but not "there's been an emergency with grandmother, you're being picked up by mummy's friend" and not "take the bus/a taxi home instead of waiting for me"
If at all possible, install @signalapp on the phone, it's just an android under the hood.
Bekijk je favoriete video's, luister naar de muziek die je leuk vindt, upload originele content en deel alles met vrienden, familie en anderen op YouTube.
TikTok's transition to U.S. ownership involves collecting even more data about its users, including precise location and AI interactions. It's also likely that the new privacy policy will lead to you seeing more targeted ads. Here's the lowdown from @WIRED.
Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked — you can thank Windows 11's forced online accounts for that… #privacy #Windows11 #Microsoft #DataPrivacy
Signal is being downloaded in large numbers across several European countries this month. After previously topping the charts in Denmark, Signal is now number one on Finland’s Google Play.
This page provides detectors to identify the usage of content filters that manipulate the connection and content between the browser and the visited web page. Examples of such filters include Tor Browser and AdBlockers.
Either lock it down completely, or give the keys to the regime you're doing business with, but don't leave a backdoor for any opportunist on the planet to walk through.
For context, in my password manager I had tried formatting some of my entrees so that it would contain the usual username and password, but instead of creating whole new entrees for the security questions for the same account, I just added additional fields in the same entree in order to keep things a little more tidy.
I was not expecting that doing so would result in later being shaken down by Proton to pay even more money just to access the same few bytes of fucking text I had trusted them with. This is sleazy as fuck and I am dropping these idiots entirely.
I’m autistic and extremely allergic to vibes-based tooling, so … I built a thing. Maybe it’s useful to you too.
The thing: llama-conductor
llama-conductor is a router that sits between your frontend (OWUI / SillyTavern / LibreChat / etc) and your backend (llama.cpp + llama-swap, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint). Local-first (because fuck big AI), but it should talk to anything OpenAI-compatible if you point it there (note: experimental so YMMV).
I tried to make a glass-box that makes the stack behave like a deterministic system, instead of a drunk telling a story about the fish that got away.
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Hello!
As a handsome local AI enjoyer™ you’ve probably noticed one of the big flaws with LLMs:
I’m autistic and extremely allergic to vibes-based tooling, so … I built a thing. Maybe it’s useful to you too.
The thing: llama-conductor
llama-conductor is a router that sits between your frontend (OWUI / SillyTavern / LibreChat / etc) and your backend (llama.cpp + llama-swap, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint). Local-first (because fuck big AI), but it should talk to anything OpenAI-compatible if you point it there (note: experimental so YMMV).
I tried to make a glass-box that makes the stack behave like a deterministic system, instead of a drunk telling a story about the fish that got away.
TL;DR: “In God we trust. All others must bring data.”
You keep “knowledge” as dumb folders on disk. Drop docs (.txt, .md, .pdf) in them. Then:
>>attach <kb> — attaches a KB folder
>>summ new — generates SUMM_*.md files with SHA-256 provenance baked in
`>> moves the original to a sub-folder
Now, when you ask something like:
“yo, what did the Commodore C64 retail for in 1982?”
…it answers from the attached KBs only. If the fact isn’t there, it tells you - explicitly - instead of winging it. Eg:
The provided facts state the Commodore 64 launched at $595 and was reduced to $250, but do not specify a 1982 retail price. The Amiga’s pricing and timeline are also not detailed in the given facts.
Missing information includes the exact 1982 retail price for Commodore’s product line and which specific model(s) were sold then. The answer assumes the C64 is the intended product but cannot confirm this from the facts.
Confidence: medium | Source: Mixed
No vibes. No “well probably…”. Just: here’s what’s in your docs, here’s what’s missing, don't GIGO yourself into stupid.
And when you’re happy with your summaries, you can:
>>move to vault — promote those SUMMs into Qdrant for the heavy mode.
2) Mentats: proof-or-refusal mode (Vault-only)
Mentats is the “deep think” pipeline against your curated sources. It’s enforced isolation:
no chat history
no filesystem KBs
no Vodka
Vault-only grounding (Qdrant)
It runs triple-pass (thinker → critic → thinker). It’s slow on purpose. You can audit it. And if the Vault has nothing relevant? It refuses and tells you to go pound sand:
FINAL_ANSWER:
The provided facts do not contain information about the Acorn computer or its 1995 sale price.
Sources: Vault
FACTS_USED: NONE
[ZARDOZ HATH SPOKEN]
Also yes, it writes a mentats_debug.log, because of course it does. Go look at it any time you want.
The flow is basically: Attach KBs → SUMM → Move to Vault → Mentats. No mystery meat. No “trust me bro, embeddings.”
3) Vodka: deterministic memory on a potato budget
Local LLMs have two classic problems: goldfish memory + context bloat that murders your VRAM.
Vodka fixes both without extra model compute. (Yes, I used the power of JSON files to hack the planet instead of buying more VRAM from NVIDIA).
!! stores facts verbatim (JSON on disk)
?? recalls them verbatim (TTL + touch limits so memory doesn’t become landfill)
CTC (Cut The Crap) hard-caps context (last N messages + char cap) so you don’t get VRAM spikes after 400 messages
So instead of:
“Remember my server is 203.0.113.42” → “Got it!” → [100 msgs later] → “127.0.0.1 🥰”
you get:
!! my server is 203.0.113.42 ?? server ip → 203.0.113.42 (with TTL/touch metadata)
And because context stays bounded: stable KV cache, stable speed, your potato PC stops crying.
There’s more (a lot more) in the README, but I’ve already over-autism’ed this post.
TL;DR:
If you want your local LLM to shut up when it doesn’t know and show receipts when it does, come poke it:
Over the past years, repeated investigations have shown that at least 14 EU Member States have deployed spyware against journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, activists, political opponents, and others.
Despite the findings of the European Parliament’s PEGA Inquiry Committee in 2023, and the push from human rights organisations, the European Commission has so far refused to propose binding legislation to prohibit spyware. Not only that: it has done nothing. Right now, no EU-wide red lines exist against the use of spyware. This means that victims lack effective remedies, authorities face no scrutiny, and commercial spyware vendors continue to operate with near-total impunity, enriching themselves by violating human rights, and even benefiting from European public funding.
What a great talk. After six years is even more current and critical today. Everyone, especially our politicians in Europe @EUCommission - should spend 23 minutes watching this video and take action.
Re-introduction - Been on here since 2022 and should write an intro again. I'm deaf, I'm a fan of open-source projects, so this will be short and sweet.
Post random ramblings, news, techie stuff, boost mostly cat pics. I just like computers and hang around here.
Age verification laws are being introduced everywhere - including, Florida. 🔞🇺🇸
For Joseph, not knowing his own state had introduced age verification, was the final push he needed to take action and do something. So he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club @mtec
Don't miss this interview with him to find out why he started the club, its aims & goals, & why he chose Tuta Mail. 💪🔐
2025 was the year many people realized how at risk their digital privacy had become. For Joseph, it was the year to take action against this, and so he started the Miami Tech Enthusiast Club.
In a new analysis we trace Big Tech's fingerprints on the Digital Omnibus proposals - a major deregulation of EU digital laws including the GDPR and the AI Act. They are helped in this attempt by the Trump administration and the European far right.
The Swiss messenger service Threema is being acquired by the German investment company Comitis Capital. Both the company and Threema itself emphasize that the arrival of the new investor will not lead to any significant changes for the time being. The company headquarters and servers will remain in Switzerland, and the management team will stay unchanged.
A financial investor with a broad portfolio
Comitis Capital is a young private equity firm, not a technology company. It invests in various industries, including a UK-based supplier of vegan meat alternatives and a manufacturer of dog accessories.
Its business model consists of providing financial support to promising companies so that they can grow and establish themselves internationally. “Comitis now clearly sees this potential in Threema too,” says SRF digital editor Tanja Eder.
Data protection as a business model
The strong focus on data protection is considered a key strength of the messenger. Precisely becaus
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Translated from German (with DeepL):
The Swiss messenger service Threema is being acquired by the German investment company Comitis Capital. Both the company and Threema itself emphasize that the arrival of the new investor will not lead to any significant changes for the time being. The company headquarters and servers will remain in Switzerland, and the management team will stay unchanged.
A financial investor with a broad portfolio
Comitis Capital is a young private equity firm, not a technology company. It invests in various industries, including a UK-based supplier of vegan meat alternatives and a manufacturer of dog accessories.
Its business model consists of providing financial support to promising companies so that they can grow and establish themselves internationally. “Comitis now clearly sees this potential in Threema too,” says SRF digital editor Tanja Eder.
Data protection as a business model
The strong focus on data protection is considered a key strength of the messenger. Precisely because US tech companies are coming under increasing criticism and digital sovereignty is gaining in importance, Comitis sees this aspect as a clear unique selling point.
Whether this will remain the case in the long term is unclear, according to Eder. If Comitis were to conclude at some point that it would be more profitable to collect Threema customer data or sell the company, no one could prevent them from doing so.
Trust in the authorities remains an issue
In Switzerland, federal authorities and the military also use Threema for internal communication. Even though everyone involved is aware that there is no such thing as absolute security, Threema still has advantages over its competitors.
For example, Threema's source code is openly accessible. Experts in the fields of data protection, IT security, and research regularly check whether the company is keeping its promises. Government agencies can also carry out their own checks.
Hardly any alternatives on the market
Good alternatives to Threema are rare. “Apart from WhatsApp, which dominates the market, there is simply not much room for other messenger services,” notes the digital editor.
Signal is considered another secure messenger alongside Threema. However, it is operated from the US, albeit by a non-profit foundation and financed by donations. In Switzerland, Proton offers encrypted emails, but does not have its own messenger service.
“Given this limited offering, we can only hope that privacy-friendly communication services will gain in importance in the future,” says Eder.
Oh look: #discord outsourced their age verification to some vendor. You know, the #ageverification that countries like the UK want to make mandatory for basically every online service. And the vendor had a data breach exposing photos of government IDs for 70,000 people.
Do you feel safer? How many children did we protect by exposing the IDs of these 70,000 (presumably) adults? Thanks for taking one for the team, you 70,000 canaries in the #privacy coal mine.
At Discord, protecting the privacy and security of our users is a top priority. That’s why it’s important to us that we’re transparent with them about events that impact their personal information.
There may be a reason why that ol' "Facebook is listening to you talk" conspiracy theory refuses to die - and not just because Facebook's ad technology
We have no marketing budget and are trying to get as many people away from Big Tech surveillance as possible. Please share this link with friends and family, and on social media.
It contains a full link index of all our Alternatives pages, as well as links to our Big Tech Walkout programme, and a Quick Start section for those who just want to grab the top choices.
Hey @Tutanota do you know mubi.com considers tuta.com email addresses invalid? I tried to convince their customer support its their problem but they're giving me some resonse which makes no sense. Is there something y'all can do?
Watch truly great cinema. Wherever you are. From iconic, award-winning directors to emerging auteurs. Transformative films from all over the world. Stream Now. Download to watch Offline. Start your free 7 day trial now.
ID scanning is becoming a more common requirement to access bars and clubs in Australia (and worldwide). A company called ScanTek is used in over 1,000 clubs in Aus and provides tools such as biometric-matching someone's face to an ID, detecting fake IDs, flagging people and sharing data with other venues automatically
As well as verifying ages, ScanTek boasts "collect marketing information from IDs and drivers licences, which business owners can use to target specific demographics with promotions" on its website in a pitch to business owners. Though they claim to not share any of this with third parties
Australia's privacy laws are vague, don't specify what can be collected and how it must be stored, and only say that companies shouldn't keep data for longer than is "reasonable"
While New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago have all received significant attention when it comes to police use of surveillance technologies, the small city of New Orleans has for years been the laboratory for a sophisticated surveillance apparatus deployed by the city’s police department and other policing bodies.
Just last year, New Orleans was in the news as the city considered setting a new surveillance precedent in the United States. First, a privately run camera network, Project N.O.L.A., was exposed for deploying facial recognition technology, including “live use” (meaning Project N.O.L.A. was identifying people in real time as they walked through the city). All of this was done in close collaboration with the local police, despite thes
While New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago have all received significant attention when it comes to police use of surveillance technologies, the small city of New Orleans has for years been the laboratory for a sophisticated surveillance apparatus deployed by the city’s police department and other policing bodies.
Just last year, New Orleans was in the news as the city considered setting a new surveillance precedent in the United States. First, a privately run camera network, Project N.O.L.A., was exposed for deploying facial recognition technology, including “live use” (meaning Project N.O.L.A. was identifying people in real time as they walked through the city). All of this was done in close collaboration with the local police, despite these uses violating a 2022 ordinance that placed narrow limits on the use of facial recognition.
Then the city flirted with formally approving the use of live facial recognition technology, which would have been a first in the United States. If enacted, live facial recognition technology would allow police to identify individuals as they move about New Orleans in real time. All of this occurred in the months before the Trump administration deployed Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, wielding an array of surveillance technologies, to terrorize and kidnap New Orleans residents. Of course, New Orleans residents have organized and actively fought back against the police and their spying, offering lessons for organizers across the country.
Edith Romero, an organizer with Eye on Surveillance (EOS), spoke with Truthout about the history of Eye on Surveillance, Project NOLA, the use of facial recognition technology in New Orleans and why we should all be watching what’s happening there if we’re concerned about the growing surveillance state.
