cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1401393/xcancel-service-is-suspended-until-further-notice

Hacker News.

Source: Xcancel.

It is so difficult to find modern electronics without telemetry and ads. Smartphones, laptops, TVs, home routers, security cameras, cars, game consoles, e-readers, projectors, 3D printers, fitness trackers, speakers, and even some printers. Why can’t customers be free from this data collection and advertising? It’s not that we don’t care about it. There simply aren’t many alternatives, and the few that do exist are either more expensive or offer fewer features. Seriously, we need a list of products we can buy without worrying about telemetry or advertising.

The following list is updated at https://lemmy.ml/post/52706206

• Framework Laptop
• Anything else that doesn’t come with ads and telemetry built in?

I know Apple isn't great and I've been using Procreate on an iPad for drawing but are there any other options that don't require me buying a computer? Ideally I could get a drawing tablet with a screen similar to the iPad.

Well I have a SteamDeck so maybe I could connect a tablet to it.

today I created a burner google account. these days google requires an Android phone in order to even create an account so I used an old phone to scan the QR code ( I am pretty sure this lets google grab all of the metadata of the mobile phone ). after about 1 hour creating the account. google's automated system disabled the account however I appealed and got the account back. before someone asks I need google because of where I live.

this made me wonder what if google mandates age verification? if there were age verification google would immediately notice that I am creating another account ( burner account ) which it won't like. burner account won't be created in the first place!

we already have too much surveillance and this makes it worse. my mobile number is already tied to my read government identity. I DO NOT want my online account to be tied to my read identify too! it is sad, it really is

As a taxpayer, I'm very thankful this patriot's working to protect our investment!

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/56282917

Please let me know if this should be posted somewhere else, and remove it if it does not go here.

Sometimes a camera just needs a sock.

The Flock Sock is a slip on cover designed to help protect a Flock camera from the harmful radiation of the sun. Your city spent their very own hard earned tax dollars scattering these cameras everywhere to keep you safe, all it cost you was a little privacy. The very least you can do is help protect these valuable civil servants from getting a bad sunburn.

Like what do you do to care for privacy after a security breach has happened?

This is obviously in relation to that Nexus breach. How can you find out if your own data was a part of that?

And if you have been "pwned" what should you do besides a credit freeze?

Your tele-screen is watching you back…

Opting out of ad tracking : The least user friendly menu I've seen!

#Orange , the french #ISP offers you a free #TV box with your internet plan! The catch?

Of course, it's filled with #ads .

I mean, it's free, you're the product etc, so I get it but I still go to the settings to disable targetted ads, which is on by default OF COURSE, but there's a nifty "Deny all" (Tout refuser) button!

But after clicking it, it does NOT disable everything, as most of their advertising partners are set to "Mixed consent" (where "Legitimate interest" data is still on!). That's not confusing at all!

So to disable them, you have to go one by one on each of their partners, scroll down, enable and disable the tracking checkbox to disable it. Peak example of unfriendly #uxdesign !

Multiply that with the ~100 partners they have, and I spent a solid 15 minutes just scrolling through menus to disable #tracking .

At least I guess you CAN do it if you're motivated enough?

@privacy @technologie
#privacy

Are wi-fi hotspots/repeaters a good way to mitigate privacy issues from routers?

Routers from what I understand have a few way to monitor people around, like radio-based sonar, logging and informing of every device that connects to it, etc.

If wanting to ensure some more #privacy, would it be a good option to keep the router as far as possible from the common areas of the house, so what I can "see" is blurry at best, while using repeaters like old phones on vanilla AOSP and SBC devices?

That's not my area so maybe I'm going way off in my assumptions, but I'd think that these repeaters wouldn't bridge sonar functions, they wouldn't report on devices connected through them, their systems wouldn't be a black box unlike the router itself, data packets sent from devices with VPN would remain encrypted while they go through the repeaters and router's route, and with ethernet cables could allow for an specially long distance.

So... Would it be an interesting option?

🇪🇺 European Citizen's Initiative against ID age verification online

Just yesterday, Stop Killing the Internet, from the people at @StopKillingGames, launched an ECI against ID age verification! This is great but it needs 1 million signatures !

So, if you live in #europe, please sign it! If you don't, or even if you do, still share it around so more people know about it and can sign it!

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/066/public/#/screen/home

Reaching the signature threshold will not mean that ID age verification will immediately become illegal, but the subject will be brought to the @EUCommission and they'll have to do SOMETHING about it. This is already a huge step in the right direction!

:boost_requested: Please boost and share this post to spread the word! Thank you!

@privacy

#stopkillingtheinternet #ageverification #privacy

Flock Safety became the protested brand. Axon Enterprise now sells Outpost and Lightpost readers that livestream and feed Axon Fusus; Fleet cameras scan plates from patrol cars. Motorola Solutions bought VaaS for $445 million in 2019 and kept Vigilant Solutions and Digital Recognition Network. The vendor changes, the mass surveillance network remains.

Cameras are not the only issue with surveillance systems like these. These devices can also log Audio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID and other signals your devices broadcast. Then they fuse data collected without warrants with commercial data-broker records and "AI", to create a comprehensive database of everyone surveiled, who everyone is, what that are doing, and what they "will do".

These are not just cameras or license plate readers, this is a surveillance network. It's a violation of privacy and the 4th amendment, and we should not let this happen.

What the heck, is this a new "feature"? Does this also happen on other android flavours like AOSP or GrapheneOS?

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/technology/p/1373402/class-action-lawsuit-alleges-flock-enables-law-enforcement-personnel-to-misuse-vehicle-l

Flock has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that its nationwide vehicle surveillance system allows law enforcement personnel to access information from automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras to surveil and stalk individuals for personal purposes.

“Notwithstanding their doing nothing to warrant law enforcement surveillance, they nevertheless are aggressively and pervasively surveilled,” the lawsuit states.

The Flock class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States whose license plate data was collected by Flock using an automated license plate recognition system operated by Flock since January 1, 2024.

You should know that you can request your home be blurred from Google Street View.

[If] you prefer your home, vehicle or full body not be shown, you can request it to be blurred. Only the home owner or tenant is eligible to request a house blur.

the blur is permanent. We also ensure that the newly blurred Street View image is excluded from generative AI prompting from that point onward, honouring your privacy choice.