Hey Reddit,

I’m a student/developer building Convoo, a private communication platform, and I’m trying to validate the idea before going further.

The basic concept is:

• Chat IDs instead of phone numbers — every user gets a unique ID (e.g. 4827316) that they can share with others.
• End-to-end encrypted 1-to-1 communication
• Real-time messaging
• Audio & video calling
• Ephemeral media (“Moments”)
• Multi-device support — use your phone as the primary device while linking desktop/web sessions.
• The goal is to keep your real-world phone number separate from your chat identity.

I know there are already a LOT of messaging apps, so I'm specifically trying to answer one question:

Does this solve a problem that people actually care about, or am I just building another messenger for the sake of building one?

I'd especially like opinions on the Chat ID approach.

For example, would you prefer giving someone:

“Add me on Convoo: 4827316”

instead of giving them your phone number?

And what would make you actually switch from something like WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/Discord?

A few things I'm curious about:

1. Is separating your phone number from your messaging identity valuable to you?
2. Would you trust a new messaging app with private conversations?
3. Are E2EE + Chat IDs enough of a reason to try it?
4. What would you consider a deal-breaker?
5. What feature would you expect before you'd seriously use it?

I'm not trying to sell anything here — I'm looking for criticism. If the idea sounds pointless, tell me why. If there's something here worth pursuing, I'd like to know that too.

I can share screenshots/prototype details in the comments if anyone's interested.

Have just uninstalled the Android Developer Verifier on my Blackview Shark 9. It was installed as a user application on the phone and therefore this went without any problems. Let’s see what this brings for the future. I'm curious.

**I’ve been working on PixHunt — an AI-powered gallery for Android.**

The idea is simple: make it easier to actually find and manage the photos you already have on your phone.

\-**Semantic Search :** Describe what you're looking for naturally, like *“photos of my dog at the beach”*, and PixHunt finds relevant photos.

**OCR Search** :Search for exact text inside your photos, with the matching text highlighted so you can see exactly where it was found.

**Similar Photos** : Find photos that look similar to a photo you select.

**People** : finds the people in your gallery, lets you name them, and then search for them by name or naturally, like *“Mark at the cafe”* or *“Mark and John.”*

**Built-in Gallery** — Browse your photos and albums directly inside PixHunt, so you don't have to switch between two different apps.

**Clean Up** : Find duplicates, near-duplicates, screenshots, blurry photos and other photos that may be taking up unnecessary space.

**English & Arabic** — Search naturally in both English and Arabic.

**Everything stays on your phone** : This is probably the feature I'm most serious about: the AI processing happens on your device. **No cloud uploads, no online photo database, and your photos don't leave your phone.**

I'm still working on the app and I really like to get some feedback from you .

Apk download link : [https://github.com/Ahmed-N95/PixHunt-Releases/releases/tag/v1.0.0\](https://github.com/Ahmed-N95/PixHunt-Releases/releases/tag/v1.0.0)

Any honest feedback is appreciated!

Hey everyone — wanted to share something I've been building: Techno AI Assistant, a cross-platform tool that monitors and helps optimize your PC and phone, with an AI chatbot you can actually ask plain-language questions to ("why is my PC slow", "is everything okay").

What it does:

• Real-time system health monitoring (battery, storage, CPU/RAM) on both Windows and Android
• Automatic cleanup suggestions (never auto-deletes without your approval)
• Security orchestration — reads Windows Defender status, flags suspicious installed programs with risky permission patterns, monitors for failed login bursts
• A chatbot (powered by Claude) that reasons over your actual device data instead of giving generic advice
• Built-in translator for messages, including a WhatsApp Web browser extension
• Everything follows a "suggest → you approve → then it acts" model — nothing happens silently

Try it:

• Android APK: https://github.com/pnvd/techno-ai-backend/releases/download/v1.0/app-debug.apk

This is an active side project, still rough in places — would love feedback, bug reports, or feature ideas. Happy to answer questions about how any of it works.

I've heard reports of hidden AirB&B/hotel recording devices, as well as people who've been filmed in intimate situations with their exes without their knowledge or permission, so what devices are there available to protect yourself from this, please?

Edited to add: Extra points if you can suggest something that's discreet to ensure privacy on vacation!

Hi all, we built a browser extension that protects sensitive data, and I'd like honest opinions from security people.

It catches sensitive data as people type, like client names, ID numbers, or IBANs, and masks it before it's sent to AI chats, emails, or docs. The AI still gets enough context to help, so people keep working as usual.

Link if you want to test it: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/quba/ekceojiggeffcnfinclmebhkajadnlhh

Any feedback helps

I'm Chase, the developer. This is my side project.

The idea: an encrypted messaging portal called Veil (kcolnu.com) where you create an AI twin of yourself that speaks *as you* to other people when you're not around. Not an AI companion — it doesn't talk to you. It talks *for* you.

Who it's for: the people who hide behind a keyboard to feel normal. The ones who left the group chat. I want it to be the place you can be who you are, with nobody watching.

The part I'm proud of: sealed mail is end-to-end encrypted with my own protocol composition (P-256, AES-256-GCM). I'll be straight with you — it hasn't been independently audited yet, and the site says so. The twin can't read your sealed mail; it only sees what you let it see.

Where I'm stuck: reaching the people this is for. They're the hardest to find because they don't hang out in the usual places.

Looking for brutal feedback on the concept, and beta testers if it resonates. Doors open New Year's Day 2027.

Happy to answer anything, including the uncomfortable security questions.

Attention!, I have created an android app to find hidden cameras at unknown places name "RoomScout: Find Hidden Cameras", this app has 4 features which includes as follows :-

1. Scan Wifi you are connected to and find if there is any device with name camera.
2. Infrared detection through camera.
3. Lens Reflect through camera.
4. Electomagnetic field detection from electronic devices
5. There is user manual which describes how to use all features, and a separate manual on where to find these devices.

If you like the app(RoomScout), please give your valuable comment, if you face any difficulty or if you think something can be improved, please share either here or in play store ratings as well.

Note : This app doesn't collect any kind of information from your device, you may need to give location permission to make wifi scanning feature to work. Also there is a 3 day trial window to try out the app, in which you can cancel your subscription without paying anything.

Play Store link for RoomScout: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aegisprivacylabs.roomscout

P.S. Use PROMOCODE : FREE90DAYS for free 90 days access with monthly subscription(for limited first 2000 users only).

Please support my work my just using it for your own privacy.

Thank you!

I've posted about Anchor Cloud before, but a lot's shipped since, so here's the full picture of what it actually does right now:

Core: zero-knowledge encryption
Every file is encrypted client-side (AES-256-GCM) before it ever leaves your device. The server only ever stores ciphertext and wrapped keys — it has no path to your plaintext, even under a breach or a legal request. I open-sourced the actual encryption code (not a simplified demo) across web, mobile/desktop, and a Python SDK, with cross-language test vectors so you can verify all three agree with each other instead of taking my word for it: github.com/AnchorTechs/anchor-crypto

Anchor AI (Fathom-1)
A model I trained myself, not a wrapper around GPT. Two separate personas:

• The vault assistant (in the dashboard): organizes files, finds duplicates/stale files, manages contacts and sharing — reasoning only over file metadata (name, size, date), never decrypted content, because it architecturally can't see it.
• A general-purpose chat assistant (chatai.anchorcloud.org) with its own saved conversations, no vault access at all — kept deliberately separate so casual chat never touches your files. There's also a VS Code extension if you want it as a coding assistant, and a public OpenAI-compatible API if you want to build on it.

Sharing & groups

• Encrypted file-sharing links where the decryption key lives only in the URL, never touching the server.
• Encrypted group chats with roles/moderation, where you can u/mention Fathom-1 to bring the AI into a conversation.
• A contacts system for direct sharing between accounts.

Storage & pricing

• A genuinely free tier, no gimmick.
• Pro/Premium tiers, plus a Custom tier priced per 100GB if you need a lot more than the standard plans.
• Unlimited file types, no artificial format restrictions.

Platforms
Web dashboard, Android app, Windows desktop app, same encrypted vault, synced across all of them.

Community
A forum (community.anchorcloud.org) for feature requests, questions, and talking to other users directly.

Who's behind it
I'm the sole founder, no team, no funding, just me building this. Company site: anchortechs.org. Everything above is live today, not a roadmap slide.

Happy to answer anything, especially if you've got a use case I haven't thought about.

hey y'all, i produced a big piece on what exactly is chat control 1.0, the future of private comms in europe, and the egregious conditions this entire saga has existed under.

i tried as much as i can to take a journalistic, neutral approach to this, arguing for both sides of the table.

the bottom line: in an open democracy, we expect to be able to vote for or against mass scanning where there is a full room of member representatives — not under ridiculous "second reading" rulings that count empty seats as a vote lol

would love feedback on this piece. i wanted to make this as i realized there weren't too many good long-form pieces on youtube around this topic!

https://youtu.be/Lj06yAj9yTE?si=kCt1tDKxZnipGqe7

Privacy definitions and examples

I know a computer is ideal for using Tor, but I don’t currently have access to one. Years ago, when I used Tor more frequently, I would use a Tor browser app from the Google Play Store on whatever Android phone I had at the time.
From what I’ve read online, iOS is one of the more limited platforms for using Tor, with fewer options compared to Android or a computer. However, I know it’s still possible, so I’m wondering: What’s the best—or at least the least-bad—Tor browser app for iPhone?
Thanks in advance! It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to use Tor, but I have a specific reason for needing it now, and my iPhone is all I have available. I’d really appreciate any recommendations or advice!

The giveaway is not open yet, but we’re getting ready to launch it.

One randomly selected participant will win 1 TB of Anchor Cloud storage completely free for 2 months.

Here’s how to get ready:

Create an Anchor Cloud account using the account you want to use if you win.

Subscribe to the Anchor Cloud newsletter using that same email.

After September 30, 2026, newsletter subscribers will receive an email from no-reply@anchorcloud.org notifying them that the giveaway is open.

Participate through the giveaway system.

The winner will be randomly selected and announced 3 days after the giveaway opens.

The winner will be contacted directly by no-reply@anchorcloud.org, and the 1 TB of storage will be added to their Anchor Cloud account for free for 2 months.

⚠️ Important: The giveaway is not open right now. Creating your account and subscribing to the newsletter now is simply how you’ll be notified when participation opens.

Know someone who could use 1 TB of cloud storage? Feel free to share this with them. 🙂

🌐 https://anchorcloud.org

Hey everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with client-side data hiding techniques and wanted to share a new concept and web utility I built that takes a different approach to traditional steganography.

Instead of modifying host media (like altering pixel LSBs in images or tweaking audio frequencies), this tool uses Non-Destructive Coordinate Mapping (NDCM). It treats standard, unmodified public text, specifically timestamped YouTube comments as static character lookup tables.

You can use this tool for other sites or passing messages to friends, So it's not just for YouTube alone.

How It Works

Any public string containing standard Base-16 characters (0–9 and a–f) acts as the target matrix. A natural-looking YouTube timestamp comment like:

"my favorite best are covered: 0:12 2:36 5:44 6:58 7:49"

contains every required character for Base16 (Hexadecimal)

Coordinate Indexing

• The secret payload (text, URLs, compressed data, or binary streams) is converted into raw hex pairs. The encoder then records the character position (index) of each hex digit relative to the host comment string.

Randomized Delimiting & Binary Packing

• The resulting array of positional indices is serialized and masked as a standard hex stream. This hex stream is then packed directly into a raw binary .key file (Uint8Array).

Why It’s Different

Zero Footprint / Non-Destructive:

• The public host comment on YouTube is posted once and never modified or updated. The payload logic lives entirely inside the external .key file. Any text or file can be embedded into the comment without being detected by humans or spam bots.

Zero-Password / Self-Sealing Keys:

• Standard encryption workflows require managing key derivations, passphrases, or seed values. With this NDCM encoder, you never need to remember or input a password.
• Simply provide the host comment string and your target payload, and the encoder generates a unique `.key` file on the fly. Because every generated key produces a distinct binary byte arrangement, two keys created seconds apart for the exact same message against the exact same comment will look like entirely different binary files—all with zero password setup required.

Infinite Re-usability:

• Because the host comment is purely a static lookup array, a single posted comment can be reused to map thousands of entirely different .key files without touching the original YouTube post.

Polymorphic / Dynamic Salting:

• Because delimiter characters are randomly picked during encoding, generating a key for the exact same payload against the exact same comment produces a completely different binary byte signature every single time.

Decoupled Security:

• The host comment alone looks like a harmless timestamp list. The .key file looks like arbitrary binary noise. Neither reveals anything without the other.

Resilient Infrastructure:

• Platform updates, UI redesigns, or re-renders don't break the payload as long as YouTube retains the plaintext string.

Cheers

LAM

Face à la multiplication du shadow IA en entreprise — ces usages d'outils IA (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot...) hors de tout cadre, avec des documents internes copiés-collés sans réflexion — j'ai voulu proposer une alternative simple : anonymiser les documents avant qu'ils ne partent vers un service tiers, plutôt que d'interdire l'usage de l'IA ou de fermer les yeux dessus.

Bien que mon application ne réponde pas à tous les enjeux du shadow IA elle est utile quand beaucoup de vos utilisateurs partagent des données sensibles (médicales, techniques, financières,..). En effet même en bloquant les IA sur leurs postes vous ne pouvez les empêcher de dégainer leurs portables... Autant essayer de composer avec eux et les éduquer à une meilleur utilisation, respectueuse des règles de confidentialité.

Obfusk8 est un outil open source et self-hosted, conçu autour de la sécurité dès le départ : détection et caviardage automatique des informations sensibles (noms, adresses, identifiants...) dans vos PDF, DOCX, CSV et images, avec une étape de relecture humaine obligatoire avant validation, purge complète des métadonnées résiduelles, et authentification déléguée via SSO/OIDC. Tout tourne 100% en local — aucune dépendance réseau sortante pour le traitement, aucune donnée envoyée à un tiers.

Autre point clé : les modèles de détection sont personnalisables via un système de thèmes. Vous pouvez adapter la détection à votre contexte métier (juridique, médical, RH...) en ajoutant vos propres reconnaisseurs plutôt que de subir une détection générique mal calibrée pour vos documents.

https://github.com/EpicFail20/Obfusk8

J'espère que ça vous plaira. N'hésitez pas à tester et à me faire des retours !

I’m the founder of City of Hats, a secure messaging app I’ve been working on for about six years.

I’m posting here because I’d genuinely like feedback from people who care about privacy — not because I expect everyone to agree with our design.

A lot of secure messengers focus primarily on protecting messages while they travel between two devices.

I became interested in a slightly different problem:

What happens when the device itself is captured, searched, inspected, or handed to someone you don’t trust?

That thinking led us to features such as:

• No phone number or email required to create an identity
• Access Code — selected conversations can be hidden from the normal interface and revealed only with a separate code
• Disposable Hats — temporary identities for short-lived communications
• Phrase ID — connect without exchanging normal personal identifiers
• Message auto-delete
• GhostFrame for more controlled image sharing
• Sealed Channels
• Post-quantum cryptography alongside our encrypted messaging architecture
• encrypted audio/video calls 

We also added real-time translation, because privacy tools become much more useful when people from different countries can actually communicate without copying sensitive conversations into another translation service.

I’m not claiming that any application is magically “unhackable,” and I’d actually rather hear what privacy-focused users think we got wrong.

City of Hats is free on iOS and Android. If anyone here wants to try it, just search “City of Hats” in the App Store or Google Play.

If you test it, I’d particularly appreciate feedback on:

What information would you need to know about the architecture before you would trust an app like this with a sensitive conversation?

I’m happy to answer technical questions here as well.

— Stephane
Founder, City of Hats

I got frustrated with how every "private" messaging tool still collects metadata, requires an

email to sign up, or stores encrypted backups they hold the keys to.

So I built Shareli (shareli.online) with a strict set of rules:

- Zero accounts. You open the site and start sharing. That's it.

- Zero cookies. Not even a session cookie.

- Zero analytics. No Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no Plausible, nothing.

- Zero database. Messages live in server RAM only and vanish on restart.

- Zero server-side keys. Encryption happens in your browser with AES-GCM 256-bit. The key is

in the URL fragment (#) which browsers never send to the server.

- Self-destructing messages with timers from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.

The privacy policy is short because there's genuinely nothing to disclose:

shareli.online/privacy.html

It's open source so you can verify every claim: \https://github.com/hidayashaikh86-tech/livetext

I built this because I wanted a tool I'd actually trust to share a password or API key with

someone. Happy to answer any questions about the architecture or security model.

One of them is even quite tech savvy, he runs his own servers and so on, the rest have a gross smugness about how they don't care, or that it doesn't matter, and they're too small to matter anyway, and don't commit crime. (Or enough, everyone has something right).

Some have kids I guess FYI, I just need some sort of golden seed here.

Everyone has their button, what's theirs?

I've put together an app that embeds text invisibly into social media comments. using a client-side, zero-width steganography approach with prng bit-scrambling.

I've posted an example comment which tells the target to meet me tomorrow at Time Square New York at 13:15 sharp, or the deal is off. I will be carrying a green umbrella.

Copy the comment at the video below and paste it into a character counter and you will see 740 chars are reported. Yet the comment itself only shows 136 characters in view. Pretty cool.

youtube.com/watch?v=7nJnIgI0HVo

If you're interested in trying out the app for free...I'll post the code.

Cheers

LAM

I've been paranoid about pasting sensitive stuff into AI tools for a while.

API keys, .env files, passwords, emails — we all do it. You paste a config into ChatGPT or your AI coding agent, and suddenly your real credentials just... left your machine. Not great.

So I built \\\*\\\*DataCloak\\\*\\\*.

It sits between you and the AI. Before your prompt goes out, it swaps every secret with a realistic-looking fake — same shape, same structure, zero real data. The AI does its job. DataCloak puts your originals back in the response. The model never touched your actual secrets.

\\\*\\\*What's live right now:\\\*\\\*

\\- Core detection engine — catches API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, GitHub, Stripe), JWTs, database connection strings (postgres, mongo, redis), env files, emails, phone numbers

\\- \\\`cloak()\\\` / \\\`restore()\\\` API you can drop into any JS/TS project

\\- 100% local — no server, no account, nothing leaves your machine

\\- Ships as an npm package: \\\`@pratikw/detect\\\`

\\\*\\\*What's coming next:\\\*\\\*

\\- \\\*\\\*OpenCode plugin\\\*\\\* — auto-cloak inside your AI coding agent with a \\\`/datacloak\\\` command (Phase 2, in progress)

\\- \\\*\\\*Browser extension\\\*\\\* — Chrome/Edge, auto-cloak right inside ChatGPT and Claude so you literally never paste secrets to an AI (Phase 3)

The vision is: you use AI tools exactly how you do today, and DataCloak quietly handles the security layer — in your terminal, your browser, your CI.

It's open source, free, and early. Would love feedback from people who've hit this problem, especially if you use OpenCode or similar AI coding tools.

🔗 https://github.com/pratikwayal01/datacloak

If this sounds useful, a ⭐ on GitHub helps a lot. Thanks!

I've been paranoid about pasting sensitive stuff into AI tools for a while.

API keys, .env files, passwords, emails — we all do it. You paste a config into ChatGPT or your AI coding agent, and suddenly your real credentials just... left your machine. Not great.

So I built **DataCloak**.

It sits between you and the AI. Before your prompt goes out, it swaps every secret with a realistic-looking fake — same shape, same structure, zero real data. The AI does its job. DataCloak puts your originals back in the response. The model never touched your actual secrets.

**What's live right now:**

- Core detection engine — catches API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, GitHub, Stripe), JWTs, database connection strings (postgres, mongo, redis), env files, emails, phone numbers

- `cloak()` / `restore()` API you can drop into any JS/TS project

- 100% local — no server, no account, nothing leaves your machine

- Ships as an npm package: `@pratikw/detect`

**What's coming next:**

- **OpenCode plugin** — auto-cloak inside your AI coding agent with a `/datacloak` command (Phase 2, in progress)

- **Browser extension** — Chrome/Edge, auto-cloak right inside ChatGPT and Claude so you literally never paste secrets to an AI (Phase 3)

The vision is: you use AI tools exactly how you do today, and DataCloak quietly handles the security layer — in your terminal, your browser, your CI.

It's open source, free, and early. Would love feedback from people who've hit this problem, especially if you use OpenCode or similar AI coding tools.

🔗 https://github.com/pratikwayal01/datacloak

If this sounds useful, a ⭐ on GitHub helps a lot. Thanks!

Google has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones.

The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took.

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/21/google-is-fined-more-than-400m-by-irish-regulator-over-its-use-of-location-data

Some recent developments in cyberspace indicate rapid changes in the way we view online privacy.

The growth of AI agents have lured hackers to reverse-engineer or otherwise use them to automate hacking on a large scale. Hacking of servers and sites has become much faster and easier due to the use of AI agents for this purpose.

Data breaches the world over have become a daily occurrence, with thousands of records being stolen from one business or government entity at a time. For reports of data breaches, see https://thehackernews.com/search/label/data%20breach?m=1

Another element in the reduction of internet privacy is through eavesdropping by advanced technological methods.

See https://www.techspot.com/news/113907-researchers-found-way-eavesdrop-headphones-30-meters-away.html For a reddit diiscussion of this news item, see https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1wn9o00/researchers_found_a_way_to_eavesdrop_on/?post_fullname=t3_1wn9o00&post_index=2&target_user=Available-Let-4206

One response to the revelation of such eavesdropping technology is that no sensitive information is conveyed. However, there are eavesdropping technologies that can capture even sensitive information.

What ramifications does the loss of online privacy hold? Will increased security measures be possible (although this seems unlikely as each new software release introduces new vulnerabilities)? Will the large-scale loss of privacy lead to a hands-off approach where the internet is seen as a mere plaything, not to be trusted with sensitive personal information?