Burying the lede: "AT&T engineers are creating 'unified customer identifiers,' [AT&T CEO] Stankey said. Such technology would allow marketers to identify users across multiple devices and serve them relevant advertising." #privacy https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/att-wants-to-put-ads-on-your-smartphone-in-exchange-for-5-discount/
Ouch. Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) is selling and will no longer be a co-op. Sad to lose a long standing and prominent example of cooperative structure.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mec-acquired-private-investment-firm-1.5723934
What do you think about #RadioLockdown, a directive that may prevent you to install new software on any radio equipment?
https://fsfe.org/activities/radiodirective/
There is a public consultation that closes today at midnight CEST. Have your say!
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/2042-Application-of-Article-3-3-i-and-4-of-Directive-2014-53-EU-relating-to-Reconfigurable-Radio-Systems/public-consultation
"Just because there is now a multi-billion-dollar industry based on the abject betrayal of our privacy doesn’t mean the sociopaths who built it have any right whatsoever to continue getting away with it"
Great post!
https://daringfireball.net/2020/09/online_privacy_real_world_privacy
A regular reminder to our #dev friends to keep #privacy for your users on your issues list.
- Avoid using third party systems to host fonts, scripts, etc.
- Try Google analytics alternatives like @plausible or @Matomo
- Capture as little personally identifiable information as possible (do you really need their full name, phone number, etc?)
- Purge your PII regularly
- Share info with fewer systems and notify your users
Place their privacy at least equal to your needs.
We’re proud to officially announce the Fairphone 3+ 🙌 It has improved cameras, upgraded software and even more fair materials, but here’s the twist: The exact same modules can also be used to upgrade the Fairphone 3. 🌍 📱 Read more: https://bit.ly/2D2uIpJ
Yesterday, I finally pushed my current source code implementing the Exposure Notification API to the @microg git repository.
This will allow using apps that use the Google/Apple framework for COVID-19 contact tracing on Android devices without the Google tracking it usually involves.
The current code is already functional, but still needs some improvements before it's ready for general public, but I am certain it's going to make it in the next @microg release.
"That /e/ account is a nice touch!"
Great video on the /e/ phone and, of course, it's #Nextcloud account users get!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9fFiaGv2WA
Libro.fm is an amazing alternative to Amazon's Audible: an independent audiobook platform that sells books from every major publisher at the same price as Audible - but without DRM, and with a share of every sale going to an indie bookseller of your choosing.
Virtually every audiobook title is available through Libro.fm - except for those titles that Audible demands be sold as "Audible exclusives."
1/
I'm glad to see mainstream pieces on the #privacy issues behind sharing kid pics. I treat my child's online persona like a financial trust in his name: I am a trustee charged to manage/protect it until he is old enough to take ownership. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/07/27/four-things-keep-mind-when-posting-about-your-kids-online/
Great alternatives to Google Maps that use #OpenStreetMap data:
- Qwant Maps: website, has directions. Highlights the fact that data is from #OSM, providing links to view and edit the data.
https://www.qwant.com/maps
- F4map: website, 3D views of cities.
https://demo.f4map.com/
- MAPS.ME: mobile apps with a neat vector renderer. Minimalist. Works offline. More obviously profit-oriented.
- OsmAnd: mobile apps with lots of features. Offline too. (Too?) many customisations and options available.
End-to-end encryption is what makes a digital message truly private, read only by its intended recipient: https://ssd.eff.org/en/node/50
new in-depth analysis of #GoogleApple #ContactTracing apps: "[The #Google part]... seems to call home every ~20 minutes and shares the handset IMEI, SIM serial, phone number, email address and WiFi MAC address and lots of still-to-be-decoded data with Google. (Presumably more detailed app telemetry.)" https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/pubs/contact_tracing_app_traffic.pdf
The governments and organizations that built their #COVID19 #ContactTracing apps on #Google/Apple Bluetooth tech are now waking up to the fact that Google requires sending them a constant stream of location data in order to use that API https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/technology/google-covid-tracker-app.html
Solving the Mask Shortage in Huntington Beach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3PSISAZL8
The new #postmarketOS community edition #pinephone is now for sale :D
https://postmarketos.org/blog/2020/07/15/pinephone-ce-preorder/
Not only will the ".onion available" badge show up in the web app — all blogs hosted on the Write.as domain will automatically show it, too. That means any blog visitors can easily discover your onionized blog!
Google's buying FitBit...and slurping in all the data FitBit users provided. We asked FitBit users what they thought, and we got an EARFUL https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/your-objections-google-fitbit-merger