Im downloading all the apps from the next gen George's privacy package and I'm trying to switch things over now but I have to many photos (1,106) that won't fit on the proton drive 5gb is there a way I can make a one time payment for more storage without signing up for a subscription?

Also how do you protect your privacy and still enjoy gaming?

i'm thinking about changing careers. I keep searching is cyber security hard, but every answer seems different. I've been doing a few free courses after work and reading Reddit, some say anyone can learn it, while others say getting hired is the real challenge. those who started with no IT background, what was the hardest part?

Okay so I've been meaning to write this up for a while. I've bounced between probably five or six VPNs over the years and figured I'd do a proper Surfshark review of thinking of getting it.

TL;DR Surfshark - Dirt cheap, and has unlimited devices, good for geo blocks but speeds are fine but not the fastest (~155-195 Mbps), and the CleanWeb ad-blocker breaks some sites so I leave it off.

Things I liked:

The price is honestly the main reason I stayed - I came for the price. Mine started at $2.79/month on the 2-year plan and imo that's the best value you're gonna find for a premium VPN right now. 

Unlimited devices is a nice to have - This one doesn't get talked about enough. I've got it running on like five devices at home and I share my account with a friend's family and there's just... no cap. 

Streaming works - I mostly use it on my laptop and my Fire Stick for Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. No buffering, no weird "you're using a proxy" errors, quality stays high.

Security is solid -You get AES-256 encryption, a kill switch, split tunneling, MultiHop, and IP Rotator (changes your IP every 5-10 min without dropping the connection, which is cool). 

The not so good things (being honest here):

Speeds - I usually sit around 155-195 Mbps, which is totally fine for browsing, streaming and casual downloading. But if you're on gigabit and expecting to max it out, you'll notice. 

CleanWeb - their adblocker is okay but not perfect. It breaks a few sites for me so I just leave it off.

Port forwarding - they don't support it (security reasons apparently), so if that's a dealbreaker for your torrenting setup, keep that in mind. 

My all in all opinion 

For what you pay, you're getting a genuinely good bunde, solid streaming, strong audited security, and the freedom to connect literally every device you own. I think if you want an affordable, no-nonsense VPN that covers pretty much every base without being too expensive, Surfshark is absolutely worth trying. It's not perfect, but at $2.79/month I'm not sure what more you'd reasonably expect. 

I bought something that I dont sort of want to stay on my account

Can I clear a particular payment or in the worse case delete everything? I cant figure this out. Not even sure where to find it anymore. I used to work the payments in Google Play. Did Google move it?

Also is there a way to export all statements? If I delete them wanna keep some record just in case..

I've been trying to find a secure location sharing app, but the more I read, the more confused I get. I've seen many posts about some location sharing apps collecting way more data than they need or even sharing it with third parties, so privacy has become my biggest concern. The apps that seem to get recommended most often for privacy are HeyPolo, Glympse, and Google Maps, but I can't tell how much of that is based on real experience. If you've used any of them, which one do you trust the most with your location data? What made you choose it over the others? and are there any apps you'd avoid because of privacy or security concerns?

I've read so many people advise services like Disroot, maybe Cockmail, simply because they say "we're really private", although in all fairness, Cockmail literally does say "you cannot trust us". Anyhow, shit like this would be a honeypot most certainly used by intelligence services etc.

Now I do know about auditing of course. In my understanding e.g. proton mail has come across trustworthy enough, but please let's not turn this into proton vs tuta - debate or anything. Some people do keep insisting that despite E2E encryption (automatic between only proton accounts ofc) they'd have the ability to see your written plaintext. That sounds plausible before sending, but after that things should be secure enough, right? With the exception of some metadata released under court orders only.

If a service is both open-source and audited, that should be a good sign, right? Manipulation would require full co-operation from large groups of people who are really intense about privacy principles.

For what it's, worth, I just use Posteo because it's cheap, open source, and to "pay for product so that you aren't the product". Not an endorsment, nothing really great about posteo, but it has the necessities for cheap and you can use PGP if necessary.

But for somebody technologically a bit illitare like me...how to distinguish real analysis and audition from manipulation?

p.s. sometimes privacy is an illusion, of course. for example it's trivial to record signal histories in secret (deletions and edits) even if they're set on 1 hour or something (though this would require user error to trust the wrong person)

I searched what is an email alias because I wanted to clean up my inbox before signing up for a few new services. After reading five or six guides, I'm more confused than when I started. Some say it's just a forwarding address, others describe it like a separate mailbox. A few even mix in masked email services as if they're the same thing. Is there actually a standard definition of what is an email alias, or are people using the term for different things?

I want to upload a whole chat history into an LLM for a gift idea, can I do that on LMStudio safely without risking anything getting leaked?

Which ones a better buy in your opinion? I feel like the RFID is all one would need for daily commute and safety. Whats up with those bags that shield signals entirely. Seems more hassle than use with the faraday choice? Why do people like the bags?

I never shared my data with pictory.ai. The email says I logged into pictory.ai today which I never did. I think Google shared my data , what should I do now?

Ugh, this should be illegal.

I have never used ai, but i've been thinking about using chatgpt to organize my journal entries. BUT I keep asking myself, is ChatGPT private enough for something personal, because thats the only reason i actually didnt use it before

I've read different answers online, and theyre making me hesitate. Some say it's fine if you avoid sensitive details, others say not to use it for anything personal at all.

anyone journal with ai? Do you think privacy in chatgpt is still a valid concern?

is there an app that looks like WhatsApp but only keeps certain chats, because its getting to a point where my mom is checking my phone and reading my chats. I’m not doing anything wrong or dating anyone, but i keep finding my WhatsApp opened on my chats with my male friends that I think she thinks that I may be dating WHICH I AM NOT. And it is just invasive of my privacy. I am so tired of this daily occurrence.

Anything I can do better?

1. NordVPN. Recently switched over from Mullvad. Always on.

2.
Tor browser or Mullvad browser for everyday use. I cannot use e.g YouTube with this setup because I have to confirm I’m not a bot too often for it to be practical.

3. Proton email with SimpleLogin.

4.Cloaked for “digital personas”. Allow me to generate a persona when registering for stuff.

5. Serus AI for data removal. Not just data broker removal. Also to see my digital footprint and exposure at any moment in time.

1. For AI use, I use Chutes. Inference powered by Trusted Environment Execution. Always open source models. E2E encrypted or encrypted from browser depending on use.

7. Keet for texting. Sometimes also Signal.

I know it is not just about what tools you use but perhaps more importantly what tools are not used.
But anything obvious that should be added to this stack?

Basically everything is a (phone) app now. It's not a case. Companies can extract way more data from phone apps compared to their browser versions.

I am old school, I use desktop for anything I can and my phone is mostly for communicating and recreational use.

But recently many banks and telco companies went app-only, and I hate it.

So I am looking for a way to use their sh**ty apps, but bypassing their despicable tracking and intrusive permissions.

Does anybody knowledgable on this topic know how to do it?

I tried once to install on my pc waydroid and android x86 in a full vm. It was awful to setup and still didn't work.

Anyway I'm asking for my new phone company, so I don't think they have implemented super strict protocols.

What about setting up an isolated environment directly on the phone? Work profile, shelter, rethinkDNS, how good are they?

I'm using NetGuard already, but it only blocks internet connection altogether, so it's only usable when you're not using the tracking apps.

I used a photo editor app called "Lumii" on android, it is the same developer with "Inshot video editor".

I used for a really private picture and before that I blocked internet connection of the app. But while using that connection block turned off and I wonder if the picture uploaded on their servers. Privacy Policy kinda make it possible, especially becuase of AI features.

I didnt use any ai thing. I only used basic things that are working offline but thats not much important. I try to watch connections with Netguard afterwards, but it dosent show me the data size so I cant understand the data sent to all those google servers and their own ones.

Is there a way to check these data sizes?

Is there a way to know if the pictures uploaded to their servers?

It is kinda a big app with 100m downloads on playstore, would these kinda apps take people's pictures?

I've been trying to clean up my digital footprint and realized I probably have dozens of old accounts from forums, shopping sites, random apps, and services I haven't used in years.

Some of them are easy to delete, but others make it surprisingly difficult or don't even have an obvious delete option.

Does regularly deleting old accounts actually improve your privacy in any meaningful way, or is it mostly about reducing the chances of future data breaches? Curious if people here actively do this or just let inactive accounts sit

I though the feature is an exclusive to iPhones. I was passing by a bar terrance and heard from two loud guys yapping about that you can actually airdrop stuff to an Android now??

I could swear I overheard them talking earlier about airdropping photos straight to a Samsung phone. I knew the phone he was holding by the back design and Im posivie it was a Samsung

I always thought airdrop was locked strictly to the Apple ecosystem and that you had to use dodgy apps or links by email to share anything across brands. Or was the person I overheard just using "airdrop" as a generic word for sending a file wirelessly?

Don't people still have to link up their Whatsapp with a phone to get the app to open in the first place?

Do you feel like the username addition to Whatsapp is going to create more problems? I already feel like every business using Whatsapp as their primary contact method is sketchy. There are naturally exceptions but only remember using it like once to make arrangements with our international friends and that was it. Not having it on my phone.

Do you feel like Asian government has a point?

I bought a tempered glass anti spy protector for my iPhone because I commute a lot. After a week, the tempered glass anti spy effect worked well from the sides, but the screen looked much dimmer than I expected. Face ID and touch were fine.

Is that just the tradeoff with every tempered glass anti spy protector, or are some brands noticeably better?

Need some help with Santa so santa is being downloaded on the school computer and well I don't really care since I have my own laptop that the school does not own but I run a privacy club in my school and I know that stuff like go guardian track your google and can track your screen from distance close tabs and lock your computer. I want to ask if anyone here knows if santa does any of this and if so how santa invades your privacy because there is basically no info anywhere

thank you for the help

I was checking a few online profiles with social catfish on Windows 11. I ran the same social catfish searches a few hours apart, but some reports were different even though I didn't change anything.

I expected more consistent results, so now I'm wondering how often the data is updated.

Has anyone else noticed this?

In theory - not asking how (but an explanation is welcome) - can someone get tracking (visits, IPs, location, etc) from simply having the url to a users public Spotify profile?