privacy

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ProtonMail Now Blocks Tracking Pixels and Hides Your IP address

Andrew Orr ·

ProtonMail now blocks tracking pixels and hides your IP address, the company announced on Wednesday. The web app is mentioned so these features may not be present in the mobile apps.

By default, ProtonMail on the web now protects your privacy by: Blocking tracking pixels commonly found in newsletters and promotional emails, preventing senders from spying on your mail. Hiding your IP address from third parties so your location remains private.

Update: A ProtonMail spokesperson confirmed that this is indeed only for the web app, and expanding it to the mobile apps is part of development plans.

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Cloud Platform 'Cryptee' Now Warns You of Insecure URLs

Andrew Orr ·

The team behind Cryptee, an end-to-end encrypted platform for documents and photos, announced new features for 2022. One in particular caught my eye.

We’ve improved our URL boxes on mobile. Cryptee can now intelligently detect and warn you if your links are insecure. (i.e. using “http” instead of “https”) All insecure links are automatically highlighted yellow, and all secure links are highlighted green.

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Mozilla 'Pixel Hunt 'Study Aims to Track Facebook Tracking You

Andrew Orr ·

Mozilla is launching a study called Facebook Pixel Hunt. The goal is to track Facebook tracking around the web.

According to its own privacy policy, Facebook may collect information about you across the web even if you don’t have a Facebook account. One way Facebook performs this tracking is through a network of “pixels” that may be installed on many of the sites you visit. By joining this study, you will help Rally and The Markup investigate and report on where Facebook is tracking you and what kind of information they are collecting.

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T-Mobile Blocks iCloud Private Relay for Customers in United States

Andrew Orr ·

It appears that carriers in the U.S. and aboard aren’t happy with iCloud Private Relay. The setting, released with iOS 15, likely interferes with surveillance of customers. A report from 9To5Mac says that T-Mobile has begun blocking the feature.

The change does not appear to be network-wide just yet, but rather it appears T-Mobile is in the process of rolling it out. This means that some users might still be able to use iCloud Private Relay when connected to their cellular network – at least for now.

Very shady behavior. I haven’t been using Private Relay because it overrides my DNS. The good news is that carriers can’t prevent you from changing your DNS settings.

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Swiss Army Seeks Private Messenger 'Threema' Over WhatsApp

Andrew Orr ·

Switzerland’s army told its soldiers not to use foreign messengers such as WhatsApp, due to privacy concerns. Instead, the recommendation is to use private messenger Threema, a Swiss app.

Army spokeswoman Delphine Schwab-Allemand, in an e-mail on Wednesday confirming reports on the issue in Swiss media, seemed to soften the army’s position, saying that there was a “recommendation” that troops use Threema. It took effect on Jan. 1. She added that the army cannot and does not want to tell troops to use a particular app on their private devices.

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Over 24,000 People Sign Data Privacy Petition to Stop Facebook Extremism

Andrew Orr ·

A petition signed by over 24,000 people has been delivered to Congress from Fight for the Future, Senator Ron Wyden to encourage a federal data privacy law. The impetus? Far-right extremism on social media websites such as Facebook.

Coalition members urged lawmakers to protect against attacks like that on the Capitol last year by addressing Facebook’s data-fueled algorithmic manipulation.

When Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before Congress in October, she named algorithmic manipulation as the platform’s source of power. Algorithmic manipulation is only possible with invasive and copious personal data on individual people, harvested via mass surveillance.

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DuckDuckGo to Release Private Browser for Mac in 2022

Andrew Orr ·

On Tuesday, DuckDuckGo shared its review of achievements and improvements in 2021. Looking ahead, the company plans to release a private browser for the desktop.

Instead of forking Chromium or anything else, we’re building our desktop app around the OS-provided rendering engines (like on mobile), allowing us to strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that’s accumulated over the years in major browsers. With our clean and simple interface combined with the beloved Fire Button from our mobile app, DuckDuckGo for desktop will be ready to become your new everyday browsing app.

‘Cryptomator’ 2.0 is Here and it Integrates Into iOS Files App
Cool Stuff Found

'Cryptomator' 2.0 is Here and it Integrates Into iOS Files App

Andrew Orr ·

The team behind Cryptomator has rewritten the app in Swift, and with version 2.0 the app is completely integrated into the Files app. This means that your vaults are directly accessible from there. For example, you can now save and edit a Word document directly in an encrypted vault via the Files app. In addition, features like thumbnails, grid view, swiping through images, and drag & drop are possible with the new app. To summarize, Cryptomator gives you end-to-end encryption for your files. You can store them in Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and more. You can also store them offline in the Files app or on a hard drive.

New VPN Called ‘Exidio dVPN’ Runs on Sentinel’s Node Network
Cool Stuff Found

New VPN Called 'Exidio dVPN' Runs on Sentinel's Node Network

Andrew Orr ·

Exidio is a new decentralized VPN application that uses the Sentinel blockchain, which itself is part of the Cosmos ecosystem. “Exidio dVPN is rewriting the true definition of what it means to be a VPN. This is made possible by the Sentinel blockchain where all the global, distributed nodes are sharing their available and unused bandwidth. So as long as the Sentinel blockchain stays active, the network of nodes that offer bandwidth to the network remain active.” Exidio claims that traffic is end-to-end encrypted with proven no data logging.

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WhatsApp Users Can Enable Disappearing Messages by Default

Andrew Orr ·

WhatsApp is now letting users turn on disappearing messages for all chats by default.

Prior to Monday’s update, users had to manually enable ephemerality for each new chat with another individual. WhatsApp is additionally also giving users the option to have their messages disappear after 24 hours or 90 days, in addition to the seven-day period it originally introduced the feature with last year.

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Verizon Automatically Tracks Your Data in New Update

Andrew Orr ·

In a new program called Verizon Custom Experience, the company is automatically opting customers in to track their data. But you can opt out.

A new program innocuously titled the “Verizon Custom Experience” is sold to users as a way for the company to “personalize our communications with you, give you more relevant product and service recommendations, and develop plans, services and offers that are more appealing to you.” To accomplish this, all a Verizon subscriber needs to do is… allow the company access to all the websites you visit, apps you use, as well as see everyone you happen to call and text.

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Hundreds of Tor Servers From 'KAX17' Threaten to Deanonymize Users

Andrew Orr ·

Security researcher ‘Nusenu’ has uncovered hundreds of Tor servers belonging to an entity tracked as KAX17.

Grouping these servers under the KAX17 umbrella, Nusenu says this threat actor has constantly added servers with no contact details to the Tor network in industrial quantities, operating servers in the realm of hundreds at any given point.

KAX17’s focus on Tor entry and middle relays led Nusenu to believe that the group, which he described as “non-amateur level and persistent,” is trying to collect information on users connecting to the Tor network and attempting to map their routes inside it.

Cool Stuff Found

'Libreddit' is a New Frontend Client for Reddit Designed for Privacy

Andrew Orr ·

Libreddit is a new frontend for Reddit, written in Rust, that aims to preserve privacy. The developer shared the service on r/Privacy. “Reddit tracks a lot of data but Libreddit logs nothing and uses no JavaScript by default so client-side monitoring isn’t possible. There are 35 community-hosted instances that can be used to access Libreddit; one can spread their traffic across multiple for even more privacy. 7 of our instances are .onion hidden services so you can browse Libreddit using Tor.” Official Instance: https://libreddit.spike.codes.  If this gets too slow due to traffic, use another instance.

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Tor Project Offers Rewards for More Servers During Decline

Andrew Orr ·

The Tor Project has seen a decline in relays and bridge servers, and offers rewards for people to help increase the network.

Rewards include the likes of hoodies, t-shirts, and stickers and are meant to provide some sort of meaningful gift to those who help keep the Tor anonymity network alive and resilient to censorship.

More specifically, the rewards will be provided to those who run Tor “bridges,” which serve as entry points into the Tor network for users located in countries that block access to Tor servers.

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Musicians Call for Concert Venues to Drop Amazon Palm Scanning Technology

Andrew Orr ·

Musicians and activist groups are calling on Red Rocks Amphitheatre to stop its rollout of Amazon’s palm scanning tech.

The letter contributors are worried Amazon might send palm data to government agencies hoping to track activists and marginalized people, particularly in light of its past collaborations with police. They’re also concerned thieves might steal info from the cloud, and see AEG as inconsistent after it condemned the use of facial recognition in 2019.

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Contract Lawyers Latest Sector to Face Remote Surveillance Programs

Andrew Orr ·

As WP reports, businesses are increasingly using surveillance software to monitor what their employees do on computers. Contract lawyers are the latest group to face this.

The monitoring is a symptom of “these pervasive employer attitudes that take advantage of these technologies to continue these really vicious cycles … that treat employees as commodities,” she said. “The irony in this situation is that it’s attorneys, who traditionally advocate for employee rights or justice when they’re made aware of intrusions like these.”