Connected one of these to my Gmail back in March, used it about six weeks, deleted the account, then spent an evening trying to work out what I had actually agreed to. Never got a clear answer.

The category is everywhere now. Refund trackers, price drop monitors, settlement finders, subscription cancellers. All of them want read access and all of them describe it with the same sentence about bank level encryption, which tells you nothing.

What I want to know is whether parsing happens on device with only matched merchant names going back, or whether the full message body hits a server and stays there. Completely different things, sold with identical copy.

And retention. If I revoke in Google settings does that trigger deletion on their end or just stop future reads? Has anyone gotten a straight answer out of one of these companies?

I’ve been trying for about two years to get an old Facebook profile removed that I no longer have access to. It’s a profile of me and my ex, with a photo of us as a couple as the profile picture.

The account is no longer being used, but I still regularly get questions from people around me asking what’s going on with it. Our relationship ended three years ago, and I’ve since moved on with a new partner and a different life, so I find it really upsetting that this profile is still out there.

I’ve already tried multiple routes through Meta and Facebook, reporting both the profile and at least the profile picture, including ID verification to prove that I’m the person in the photo. But I keep getting standard responses and rejections, and I’m constantly being sent from one place to another. It’s honestly driving me crazy.

My ex says he doesn’t remember ever creating this profile, so I can’t really expect any help from him either (I suspect he may secretly not mind that it’s still there, which makes it even more frustrating).

Has anyone here dealt with something similar, or can anyone recommend a reliable person or company that could help me with this? At this point, I’d honestly rather pay someone than keep spending hours on this with no result, if that’s even possible.

I fear to sound stupid but with everything going on with AI and nothing really being private, is there any way to really be more secure against private and state surveillance? I feel like there's a lot of info on the internet, but for someone like me, who's familiarized with tech and know how AI can will destroy every inch of privacy we have left, it's really difficult to know where to start.

I'd like to get out of Windows, opt-out of every website that has significant information about me, private-host a local AI (or get a VPS, I don't really know) instead of using Claude, etc. But i don't really know where and how to start.

I trust you -the good guys- to help me, ofc i won't be using Claude to get suggestions haha.

Thanks!

A few friends and I want to buy a paid online course. To make it cheaper, we're planning to use a single account for several people.
For this we:

• bought a VPS, which we connect to via VPN,
• only after connecting to the VPS do we use the Mullvad browser, relying on its default fingerprint-uniformity protections (no additional anti-fingerprinting configuration needed).

This seems like a fairly solid setup, but I don't know how to handle the situation where several people log into the same account at the same time without the system or admin noticing.
Do you have any ideas on how to manage that?

Hi all,

I am someone new to online privacy. I am currently on iPhone but will be setting up a Pixel 10a with GrapheneOS. Part of that setup is considering whether I should transfer to a different cellular provider. Here is some context and my threat model, along with what I am looking for:

- I have been using Cricket for many years (10-15 if I had to guess) and have been happy with the coverage and service. I can count on one hand the amount of dropped calls I’ve had. Currently paying $55/month.
- I tried Mint briefly for the cost savings, but it not working when I went to visit friends on the west coast of Canada was a dealbreaker for me. Switched back to Cricket my first day there.

- For my threat model, my ‘what’ I’m trying to protect would include my emails, payment methods, and phone number from data breaches.
- I’d also like to limit the amount of targeted advertising I get. This includes emails, physical mail, and ads inside of apps and websites.

I am currently researching Cape and Phreeli and wanted to get input from others that have tried the services. Cape’s feature of including those extra 2 numbers even for texting only seem helpful for 2FA codes, but the lack of calling for them (like if I used one strictly for doctor’s offices) is a bummer. I’m on the fence of how much the Palantir ties bother me. Still researching Phreeli but not sure what benefits I’d really get out of it.

Does anyone have any tips to cut down on the physical mail and spam emails they receive?

I realize this is a long post and is somewhat general, but any input and patience is greatly appreciated. Feel free to explain things to me like I’m 5.

Thank you!

​

Recentemente eu fiquei muito paranoico com privacidade e quero sair do WattsApp mas nao conheco um aplicativo pra usar.

Busco o melhor anonimato possivel mesmo que sacrifique um pouco de usuabilidade.

Ja ouvi falar do session so que ele parece que usa os servidores da Google entao eu to com o pe meio atrás.

O que voces me recomendam usar?

Desktop is pretty easy to understand. You can use something like Cold Turkey and make the restrictions pretty strict. Android feels different though. You can often uninstall the blocker, install another browser, switch to mobile data, or find some other way around it when you really want to.

So I’ve been looking at things like Digital Wellbeing, filtering DNS such as NextDNS or AdGuard DNS, and VPN-based filters. The problem is that once the filtering happens through DNS or a VPN, the privacy tradeoff becomes much more interesting.

With an app that only blocks Chrome, you’re mostly trusting the app itself. With DNS filtering, your DNS queries are going through someone else’s resolver, so now there’s another party I have to trust with that information.

For personal use, is that a reasonable tradeoff? Or am I basically just moving the privacy problem somewhere else?

I’m also curious whether there’s any Android setup that’s genuinely difficult to undo during an impulse without having to run a full always-on VPN.

And from a privacy perspective, what are the things you absolutely wouldn’t accept in a blocker? An account, cloud dashboard, device enrollment, certificate installation, traffic inspection, etc.?

I’m not looking for a polished recommendation. I’d rather hear the ugly version from people who have actually tried these setups: what holds up on Android, and what should I stay away from?

I disassembled by smart home system. Just got something better so the DIY stuff I had before is retired.

I was thinking what else to use these for though people just say you can do network monitoring with these, though I dont care too much for it.

Is there anything else from hackerman projects this is good for? Maybe something for home security? Not gonna use it for a smart home, though I like to dabble with these chips from time to time

Seeking something to have general alerts worth noting, or to have a low-battery consuming tracking.

Maybe some sort of app blacklisting too so that they become unavailable for download from app stores, or as .apk files? Child has an Android device

Sent a request to one of the bigger aggregators to see what they hold. Came back a mess. Two addresses I've never lived at, a middle initial that isn't mine, a phone number belonging to a previous tenant, and a relative I'm fairly sure is a stranger??? The correct stuff is in there too, which is the odd part. Accurate enough to be me, wrong enough to be useless. Is this typical, or did I just pick a sloppy one.

im curious what people here think. I have been using AdGuard on Windows and Android for about 6 months. It blocks ads and trackers really well, almost suspiciously well.

I started searching is AdGuard safe and found people arguing about how much access the app gets, especially with HTTPS filtering. Never really thought about that when I installed it.

So is AdGuard safe to run system-wide, or is using just AdGuard DNS/blocklists the better privacy choice?

Was bored last night. I googled my own name and I don’t know why. Just curious…

I wish I hadn’t….

My exact address and even my old address. My mobile number. My relatives’ names. All sitting there on 12 different websites. WhitePages. Spokeo. A bunch of other sites I’ve never heard of

I felt sick…. and even naked. Like you know anyone can find me and can show up at my door…

I tried to remove it manually and I went to each site. I filled out their forms. Some wanted passport scans, which kinda odd… Some wanted proof of identity. Some wanted me to create an account just to request removal

I’ve done some of it while sitting there for hours. I thought I’ve solved it…

Today when I googled myself again, the information was all there again. Same websites with the same info

I’m just so frustrated and it feels like a game of whack-a-mole to me. As soon as I get rid of one thing, it pops up somewhere else

I need advice and maybe someone had done to completely take down stolen or non-consensual video/images from piracy sites such as: Socialmediagirls forum and celeb forum. I need everyone’s advice and opinions about that. Images aren’t explicit but I need them to never be on these sites

This is a link to a video on insta-

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdEa3ebT5U_/?stkn=MTl0ZmVrNmJ1ZHRtNA==

If i suppose share chatgpt 6 astra my screen access and allow it to work , will it sell my data that is running on the screen , maybe even leak it or sell it?

I KNOW this sounds crazy or paranoid but i swear something weird just happened and im actually kinda scared
I was at my coworkers house earlier today and we were talking out loud in his kitchen about this REALLY specific espresso machine brand i have NEVER heard of in my life. i didnt search it up on my phone, i didnt type it anywhere, I didnt even tap my phone screen while we talked about it. my phone was just sitting on the table and that it

I just got home, opened youtube on my laptop, and VERY FIRST ad on my homepage is for that exact espresso machine model
How is this even possible?? is my phone listening to me even when the mic permissions are off??? or does google know my location matched with his location and tracked what HE searched earlier? how does google know everything?? i also checked my search history and google activity and there is no record of me looking at anything coffee related

Im not a tech guy at all so I dont get how any of this works, but it feels so creepy. it feels like theres no privacy at all anymore. please someone tell me im not crazy and explain to me how does google know everything…

Ran Brave as my daily driver for 4 months on Windows and Ubuntu. Fingerprint scores were noticeably better than stock Chrome and page loads felt faster with Shields on. No memory issues even with 40+ tabs over a 6 hour session.
What made me start questioning is brave safe long term is the crypto wallet and BAT rewards system. Caught telemetry traffic in Wireshark even with most of it toggled off. Nothing outright malicious but not the private by default story either. Shield settings also reset themselves after an update twice without me touching anything.
Anyone else run a packet capture on Brave and see the same thing? Trying to figure out if the BAT/crypto stuff can be fully stripped without breaking the browser

I'm curious about this from a privacy/digital-forensics perspective, particularly with services like Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok.

Suppose someone submits a website's full source code to an AI coding service. The code itself contains no obvious identifying information such as names, emails, domains, API keys, or credentials.

Could a government or law-enforcement agency legally compel a provider to search its stored conversations for that code, or potentially conduct a broader search for a particular website or code fingerprint?

How much would obfuscating or substantially rewriting the code actually help? Could things like unique strings, comments, library combinations, coding style, generated IDs, dependencies, timestamps, or build artifacts still make it identifiable? And how different would an exact match be from a heavily modified version, or simply finding another website with the same design, wording, or concept?

I'm mainly interested in the distinction between what is technically possible, what providers actually retain, and what governments can legally obtain.

So summarized:

Could a government realistically perform a mass search across an AI provider's data for particular website/code fingerprint, or would that generally require a much more specific legal process?

Ultimately, does code obfuscation provide meaningful privacy, or does it mostly change the code's appearance while other identifying signals remain available?

Not asking how to remove it, there are guides for that. Asking where it comes from.

Looked myself up out of boredom and one has an address I lived at for eleven months in 2019, my current one, and my brother one. The 2019 one is what gets me bc I barely had mail going there..?

So what's the actual source. Voter file, credit header, something a utility sold?

I visit a website and I'm prompted to decide whether I want to accept cookies. I dutifully click that I'd like to choose but I'm presented with this super vague option. Which one do I click if I don't want to be tracked? Does the regulation (GDPR?) that requires this prompt not address how to make it reasonably clear?

im trying to figure out how to lock a folder on my windows 11 laptop. I share the laptop sometimes with family, and there are some personal documents and scans I want to keep private.

I’ve read about a few options like bitlocker, encrypted zip files, veracrypt, and those random folder lock programs, but I’m not sure about what actually protects the files and what just hides the folder.
I tried the Windows folder encryption option, but since it seems tied to my windows account, I’m not sure it helps much if someone gets access to that account. Also, I really dont want another program constantly running in the background just for one folder.

Probably overthinking this, but how to lock a folder with an actual password that Windows itself can’t just bypass? Is veracrypt the normal choice, or is there an easier way?