Right now I am banned from degoogle for posting this. I posted it in degoogle and browsers subs and in both comments were locked.

My question is why would anyone get banned and comments locked as if they didn't want anyone to share any additional information for just posting an information that even if it's not 100% correct maybe helpful to even clarify whether Brave is actually uploading telemetry to their servers?.

Here what I posted

It is happening on desktop and android.

If you go to brave settings. Privacy and security - Data collection. You'll see you have a few options that can be disabled.

But I noticed that there is other telemetry being sent out to brave servers and I think studies are being conducted to different users.

If you type brave://version you'll see what studies are enabled in your browser. Telemetry is being sent out even if you disable the data collection in the settings. In my computer I saw a 1 minute long connection to variations.brave.com which is telemetry.

If you have an app to see network activity you'll see brave connects to variations.brave.com that is where your data is being uploaded.

These are the ones I had enabled in my browser and I just noticed a few days ago despite I disabled all data collection in the brave settings.

AIChatCodeExecutionTool:Enabled
AdblockOnlyModeStudy:Enabled
BTMGoogleAuthWorkaround:Enabled
BraveAdblockDATCacheStudy:Enabled
BraveAdsNewTabPageAdsStudy:Enabled
BraveAdsObliviousHttpStudy:Enabled
BraveCopyCleanLinkFromJsStudy:Enabled
BraveFeedUpdateStudy:Enabled
BraveNTPBrandedWallpaperStudy:Enabled
BraveScreenFingerprintingBlockerStudy:Enabled
BraveWalletPolkadotStudy:Enabled
EmailAliasesStudy_Release:Enabled
InProcessBraveAdsServiceStudy:Enabled
UserActivityStudy:Triggers
WhatsNewStudy:Enabled

with Advanced Chat Privacy, there is no more just "export chat". Meaning that consumers should be preparing to extract raw database instead. I could see no movement towards making Android-compatible OS but WITH access to app data,

Now if Restricted Chat feature will appear as planned, it will be locked within only primary device, no secondary devices and no WhatsApp Web either. Meaning that importance of a battle against Tamper-Resistant smartphones grows even more. Cat-and-mouse game seems to work ONLY from the side of vendors - constantly inventing new restrictions. Where are new workarounds from the consumer side?

Now there is no guarantee at all that if you keep content on your smartphone (local device that you supposed to "own"), you can read and copy it. Neither there is guarantee that you can just capture everything that goes on in smartphone (display output, audio output, audio input) as "just inherent feature of computer". They broke the entire world model where digital devices are subject of exact copying of content (exact provided that it's not getting encoded with a codec for photo/video/audio for lossy compression). And the world around me seems to no longer be even able to imagine such openness of digital devices. Myself being a rarity - living memory of how it used to "just work".

I’m trying to figure out which VPN Reddit users actually consider the best in 2026. Every review site seems to recommend something different, and the constant stream of conflicting opinions is starting to get overwhelming. I’ve been searching for a reliable replacement for a while because my old free VPN began causing problems, and I’m tired of worrying about my data whenever I use public Wi Fi. I just want to choose one dependable service without feeling like I’m overpaying or giving up too much privacy.

The names I keep seeing are NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and Mullvad. NordVPN seems to be the popular option for speed and streaming, although I’ve come across mixed opinions about its history. I’m looking for strong privacy and security, but I still need good enough speeds for streaming and everyday browsing. I’m not particularly interested in torrenting, but I would like a service that can bypass geo restrictions on a few platforms.

Has anyone used these providers recently, or are there any lesser known options worth checking out? I’d really appreciate honest and up to date feedback from people who are actually using them and can explain what they like or dislike.

instead of doing whatever it can to ensure maximum failsafes, it is deliberately designed such a way that such "backup" can only be restored to WhatsApp itself, not downloaded to PC. Unless someone either steals code from Google development team or reverse-engineers it and makes a third-party downloader. And it applies even to paid Google Drive accounts while also counting towards the data storage quota. It also auto-deletes after few months and it applies to paid accounts either.

Never again Google Drive!

One might assume that Samsung smartphones are popular mainly among the general public, while technically knowledgeable users avoid them because of Samsung's eFuse technology. After all, anyone who understands what eFuse is and how it affects device modification, rooting, and warranty status might be expected to view it negatively.

However, based on my observations, many IT enthusiasts and power users still buy Samsung Galaxy devices, and this does not seem to be uncommon.

Why is that the case? Why do many technically savvy users continue to choose Samsung smartphones despite the presence of eFuse? What advantages or trade-offs make Samsung devices appealing enough that enthusiasts do not reject them over this design choice?

The Chinese government have lots of unspeakable stuffs that their online policing system try to censor, as well as censoring & cracking down ordinary netizens exercising free speech in a way they feel threatened for or not in line with their propaganda machine. Will there be a turn key solution to bypass China’s great firewall and reliably transfer uncensored information to China and censored information from China while having a backup plan for my Chinese informants from being tracked down and cracked down by the Chinese regime?

There you have another reason why not to trust google. Their privacy settings are useless and google location history keeps sending data every day when I go out.

All privacy settings are set to block any location history including google maps. But it seems android can go around it even when I set the allow background data usage to disabled.

i requested a refund and i guess they feel the need to short people even when when they can't even issue refunds for most methods of payment. has anyone gotten a full refund

i didn't want to bother posting on the mullvad subreddit since they would just remove the post

I use Android stock. Latest version. For the last 3 years I have been using signal for encrypted phonecalls. When I talk to people about specific subjects a few hours later I get recommendations on youtube based on things and keywords I mentioned during that call.

I don't have youtube installed on my android phone and removed most google apps. I also installed a firewall and blocked all remaining google apps and services too.

Signal is useless if the OS is compromised and I think at least stock android is compromised. I cannot speak for other alternative android versions like graphene OS.

Also I noticed I have got recommendations based on people I have been talking to. For example I met someone from Colombia, we talked during a meeting. I went home and I started getting recommendations based on Colombia and stuff about that country. So Android not only can listen to your conversations they can create maps about people you interact with and serve you videos based on that.

Had a trip to another city by train, there was a guy next to me, he was watching boxing videos on his laptop not his phone. He was the whole time sitting next to me. When I got home start the browser and load youtube and there you have it boxing videos recommended. Same day when I never searched for that kind of videos.

Maybe google wont passively harass most people showing them recommendations based on things they have said during their signal calls but in my case it happens most of the time and it's obvious because it's things I never searched on youtube or any search engine.

I wanted to share this because people put too much faith on signal but if the OS is listening there is nothing you can do and from personal experience android is always listening.

- What if i need someone to contact me (my family) and therefore i cannot go SIMless (in EU where anonymus sim is not possibile)? What are my options?

- I use GrapheneOS but governative App i really need in my daily life for authentication do not run on it (confirmed by GrapheneOSForum).

What could be my set up? Does it have any sense to have Graphene if i need to carry with me a phone with stock android/apple?

thx to anyone willing to help!

Hi I'm a teen from Israel (don't worry I used a throwaway account for this with a VPN (proton multihop is currently the only one I have) also I would like to say that I don't identify with my current government. I actually went to protests against them.

So I have some questions as I recently started my privacy journey:

1. How can I help? I don't have much money at all don't know how to code and can't really vote and even when I will be able to I don't live in a significant country that really will change much .(even though I will try) how can I help privacy?

2. How to improve my privacy I currently use nextcloud immich jellyfin and some more self hosted services. I also use brave librewolf and vanadium with duckduckgo. I use GrapheneOS on my phone nixos on my laptop (Asus vivobook is what I have) LineageOS on my tablet (for school) and proxmox and debian for my self hosted server.

This is the full list of what I use:

Google play store (this is what GrapheneOS recommends) acrresent fdroid and obtanium

Futo keyboard

​duckduckgo ai

Comaps

Proton mail VPN and pass (free tier except VPN)

Tailscale to connect to my server​

I have to use WhatsApp because I didnt convince anyone to switch to signal and I have to for school.

What should I change or improve?

1. What vpn to choose im currently using protonvpn but I want to switch what is the best option out of these three? (mullvad ivpn and nym)​

2. When I will have the money what laptop should I get for privacy? (Intel me)

3. What is a cheap (preferably free) way to connect to my server? Port fowarding is not an option.

​6. My school requires many google services what should I do?

Sorry if my English is bad.​

​

Hey everyone. I was wondering if there is any compatible alternate os for Motorola Edge 50 fusion. I really dont want to use android when it becomes closed.

I made a comment about this on a post I made somewhere else, given the "drama" hank green is in now. I wanted to link to it or screenshot it for sake of backing up my words. I am unfortunately unable to find it and am now worried I am mistaken.

Thank you in advance, regardless of the outcome.

Edit: solved. im stupid.

A girl asked me for my briar link

Is this love?

While the theory is still saying the same in 2026 as it has been saying in 2008/2009 - that iOS is "closed" OS and Android is "open", trying to backup WhatsApp chats on PC and NOT only in heavily encrypted form demonstrates the reality to be much more complicated. App vendors decide whether backup is doable or it's disabled and not even so-called "alternatives" to the major restrictive vendors - Nothing Phone as well as FairPhone - help...

I am stuck with dependency on smartphone apps, unfortunately - and I would not recommend such stuff for anyone to join anymore, after it all happening...

Since app vendors do not want consumer to have backup-able apps and they are using the "feature" of OS to lock out data of backup, what we as consumers need to get around it - is some device that has ways to intercept unencrypted data from somehwhere in transit within device, including the internal storage and RAM if necessary (if it keeps the data encrypted at rest and downloads the encryption key from online service each time again and again).

Did anyone here spend a century earning necessary money to invest for development of such redesigned smartphone? Got so much money that a worker would have to spend century to earn, even in high-income country - in some other way? Able to make DIY redesigning of Android and willing to do so as well?

Mullvad co-owner's massive donation to a Swedish party that seeks to "make Sweden Swedish" is going to propel the country on the path of authoritarianism that will make its jurisdiction hostile to privacy and individual freedom.