Guardian Project @guardianproject@librem.one

The @NGIZero consortium, of which the #FSFE is a partner, has just unveiled the #NGI0 Commons Fund! 🏦

Are you developing any #FreeSoftware tech improving the Internet❓

This fund is for you! It will award 21.6 million euro 💶 to small and medium R&D projects developing #FreeSoftware technologies.

Learn more here:

https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20240117-01.html

#SoftwareFreedom

Persistent surveillance sold as a cure for loneliness (alienation, isolation, etc) is, IMO, one of the central marketing narratives of the surveillance business model.

But it's rarely put as plainly as this!

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sam-altman-openai-protected-by-silicon-valley-friends-f3efcf68?st=fqvjf26wqvek9fx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

AI or not, being monitored and managed by algorithms at work can be harmful.

It can lead to:
🦅 excessive collection of personal data
👎 discrimination
😩 harms to mental health

New rules are needed for these new threats. Transparency, accountability, fairness and mutual respect are key.

But companies can, and should, engage with workers and their representatives to put in place better practices already without waiting to be told to do so.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/07/artificial-intelligence-surveillance-workers

Happy New Year from the @ReproBuilds
folks! Here's a somewhat belated report from what we got up to during December.

https://reproducible-builds.org/reports/2023-12/

cc. @debian @conservancy @zacchiro etc.

The US #Supremecourt has declined #Twitter's legal challenge to publicly disclose national security subpoenas. 👨‍⚖️

At Tuta, we pride ourselves on #privacy and #transparency. Our warrant #canary is live and regularly updated. This is one reason among many that keeping your data securely #encrypted within the EU has major privacy advantages over the US. 📣

You can check out our transparency report and live warrant canary here:
👉 https://tuta.com/blog/transparency-report

We are looking back on an intense but successful 2023 & starting the new year full of motivation. 🚀 This important work for fundamental rights in the digital age is only possible with broad support from civil society, and for that we say: Thank you! https://epicenter.works/en/content/from-austria-to-the-un-an-intense-year-2023

Did you know Privacy Badger replaces embedded tweets, video/audio players, and comments sections with "click to activate" placeholders?

Although potentially useful, these "widgets" often track your browsing. The tracking happens regardless of whether you interact with the widget. If you see a widget, the widget sees you back.

Privacy Badger blocks the widgets to protect your privacy, and replaces them with placeholders to put you in control.

Learn more at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/01/privacy-badger-puts-you-control-widgets

Build your phone app on your phone https://f-droid.org/en/2024/01/11/twif.html

We invite you to our webinar on security audits tomorrow, Thursday January 11, at 13.00 CET.
Radically Open Security / @ros 's Melanie Rieback and Andrea Jegher will explain and demonstrate how security audits work.
ROS is the world’s first not-for-profit computer security consultancy company. As an NGI0 partner it offers security audits to all projects within the #NextGenerationInternet initiative.
The webinar is open to all and no need to register.
https://nlnet.nl/events/20240111/index.html

Hey! We've been thinking a lot about what's next for the postmarketOS project,
we have a lot of ideas, but we can't do it without your help. We've decided to
join OpenCollective, this makes it possible for us to be financially supported
by and beholden to you - our community.

If you like postmarketOS and want to help us continue on our quest of true
ownership, we would highly appreciate your donations!

More info here 👇

https://postmarketos.org/blog/2023/12/14/pmos-on-oc/

🎉 Best News Of The Year! 🎉

Google confirms they will disable uBlock Origin in Chrome in 2024: Finally everyone understands it's time to quit Google. 😎

Here are our favorite browser alternatives:
➡️ https://tuta.com/blog/best-private-browsers

Which one did you pick?

🦊 Firefox
🦆 DuckDuckGo
🕵️ Tor Browser
Mullvad
Pale Moon
Puffin
GNU IceCat
WaterFox
Brave
Hyphanet

Dropbox was caught enabling "Third-party AI" as an opt-out default to all user accounts.
Meanwhile users were deeply uninformed of the changes..

This is our new world: If your privacy matters, keep your data yours!

Our friends @arstechnica explore the debacle:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/dropbox-spooks-users-by-sending-data-to-openai-for-ai-search-features/

The jury in Epic v. Google has delivered its verdict — and it found that Google turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly.

https://www.theverge.com/23994174/epic-google-trial-jury-verdict-monopoly-google-play

Also need to address Apple’s monopoly too. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/investigation-into-apple-appstore

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/es/ip_20_1073

1.2+ million downloads and a rating of 4.2 – a good indicator for a safe app in Google's #PlayStore? One should think so – until one takes a look at its #permissions (46, including access to quite personal data) and the number of KNOWN #trackers #ExodusPrivacy reports (28!!).

Just wow. Had to add that one to my app lists, as a warning example.

https://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/office_contacts_callerid

Who Cares Who Delivers Our Notifications? https://wrily.foad.me.uk/who-cares-who-delivers-our-notifications

In addition, we strongly advise developers to encrypt their push notifications, recommending #WebPush (following RFC 8291, forget about this draft abandoned 7 years ago!) or to adopt a sync-on-push strategy (which is what Signal does).

@Mer__edith Here is one thing Signal could be doing that it is not: the Signal fork @mollyim has already implemented #UnifiedPush support, Signal can help there, or even integrate that work https://github.com/mollyim/mollysocket

@Mer__edith @unifiedpush @fdroidorg and since you mentioned the world, there are 1.4 billion mobile phone users in China without Apple or Google push. There are half a billion #Huawei users around the world who do not have access to Apple or Google push. #AppGallery devices are sold around the world, including here in Austria. Signal's stance on push really only works in North America. 2/2

@Mer__edith I respect the work that Signal has done, and Signal has been a great leader in pushing e2ee over the past 15 years. Signal can also do better on push. It is not a binary choice, other options provide much improved privacy with smaller hit on battery usage. @unifiedpush does that and falls back to Google push for devices that don't have #UnifiedPush built-in. @fdroidorg is also helping to get it integrated into #CalyxOS #LineageOS etc https://f-droid.org/2022/12/18/unifiedpush.html

1/

PSA: We've received questions about push notifications. First: push notifications for Signal NEVER contain sensitive unencrypted data & do not reveal the contents of any Signal messages or calls–not to Apple, not to Google, not to anyone but you & the people you're talking to. 1/