I think it helps to get out of online spaces and interact in person with people. Text is always far easier to misinterpret or to misword, you’re more likely to find allies face to face.

I agree that people need to be more accepting and slower to judge. There are a lot of anti-Trump/MAGA people out there who lack the lexicon to get across that they’re on-side and whom might make a mistake here and there - no need to flay them publically and turn them away.

I’m keen to give GrapheneOS a try when I upgrade to my next phone, it’s got some privacy enhancements that CalyxOS doesn’t (my current OS). The sandboxing is cool and every bit of obfuscation helps.

However unless your phone is on an always-on VPN with an IP isolated from your other devices, or you’re in a bulding full of other users to obfuscate your traffic somewhat, then just accessing your Google Play account via the phone will give them your public IP address and they’ll be able to tie that heuristically to your other data/accounts.

Eg scenario: you have a laptop at home, it browses and has a bunch of cookies saved, it uses your public IP. Google is all over the web, inescapable while browsing, and through browser fingerprinting has an advertising profile saved for your device even if you’re not logged into an account, this is often called a ‘shadow profile’. If it sees another device (your phone) on the same network (same internet IP) regularly accessing the same sites - those devices are likely linked in their database as ‘likely same user’, with frequency they will be merged permanently as same user. If you then log into your old Google Play account on the phone - boom, all history for that account is now linked in their database to any other profile identifiers for the shadow profile eg cookies, browser fingerprints etc. They don’t need you to log in multiple times, once is enough to confirm owership of that device & account. Opsec is a cat and mouse game and Google (and the other surveillance capitalism giants) are literally the most valuable businesses in the world because they’re good at tracking users to create personal profiles for them.

Using a Pixel 5 on Calyx OS. I was attracted to CalyxOS and Graphene as they both use a locked bootloader allowing OTA updates and keeping the boot process secure. I’d say either are good choices. I’ve been very happy with CalyxOS, only a few minor issues in the few years I’ve been on it (a tile button not working in one update, that kind of minor stuff).

This phone model is EOL now and only getting security patches, so im on the lookout for a Pixel 8 to move to (going second hand for costs). I’m planning to give GrapheneOS a try for a few weeks when I upgrade as I’ve read good things about it and will have a good yardstick to compare it to now with my time on CalyxOS.

P. S. I think the Proton CEO thing is overstated - he praised an anti-big-tech pick for the (iirc) Assistant Antitrust Attorney General (that is objectively good), and then backed it up saying he is very hopeful this person with a proven track record litigating against big tech will take on their monopolies that have been hindering players like Proton heavily over the years. His statements were always going to be taken poorly though (any Trump action being praised - even if the action was good, is a red flag because Trump is a disaster for a thousand other reasons and people are understandably on edge), and the follow-up comments should never have been done from the official Proton social media account - which is something Proton also stated, and said wouldn’t happen again. Me: OK that’s strike one. I’m not throwing them out after 9 years of very positive work for one failure, I think there’s a tendency in the privacy community to ‘let perfect be the enemy of good’ and for me at least this is an example of that.

Apparently the USA considers this legally acceptable “Proportionality” according to the wording of the Geneva Conventions, and therefore not a war crime. It is a highly bullshit interpretation according to many lawyers, but they have not been dragged to the Hague over it yet and probably never will be for many reasons. For one because nobody ever takes a swing at the USA in the ICC over anything due to political fallout, 2 because most other countriea are guilty of similar crimes and 3 because it is just too gosh darned convenient for the world power nations to be able to bomb apartments to hopefully kill one guy who they’re pretty sure is a terrorist to keep their shipping lanes open for business. I actually wonder if there is any real legal line of Proportionality that could be crossed, one terrorist in a fully-booked children’s hospital: still OK?

https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality

Personally I think any extrajudicial executions are unacceptable. If the guy is a terrorist then arrest, try and convict him. If that’s “too hard” then the answer is not to send a drone strike at an apartment building, or a wedding, or a hospital.

The thing people often dont realize is that if you do end up caving in and installing Google app services back onto your de-googled phone and logging into your old Google account - well, you’re almost back to square one. Google now ties all the identifiers of that phone/OS to your old Google account and will continue tracking it as much as possible whenever it sees those identifiers accessing anything. So I’d avoid that if your goal is de-Googling, but I understand why some need it as a stop-gap.

I thought the same initially re: sunk costs, but when I actually sat down and made a list of the apps I had on my old phone and what I used them for, I could quickly see that almost half of them were already FOSS. Then checked what alternatives are available for others and realized i could actually replace almost everything. The only premium apps I ended up “needing” were Poweramp*, and a couple others I actually forget now without finding my list. Almost everything can be replaced by using the website as a web link or web app, or using an open source alternative.

A big bonus of that process was seeing on the Aurora Store how many trackers were detected in each of the old apps while i was reviewing them and it was insane. I remember one Sudoku app I’d installed years back had like 16 trackers… Wtf. Checked FOSS options on F-Droid and found several alternatives.

*Poweramp can be bought direct from the developer, no need for Google apps, so I repurchased it via that method so I could avoid using my old account. I don’t mind buying things a second time if the devs have made the facilities available to avoid Google. I recently did the same for Symfonium.

The only ones that stung a bit to abandon was Sleep As Android which I’d paid for (I use their limited free version now and block it on the firewall to prevent ads/tracking); and Sygic (gps app) I’d paid lifetime maps for… I just use Organic Maps now, and while it’s not as fancy it navigates just fine and I use it regularly for car GPS.

Things like Shazam that there’s not really a FOSS alternative for but are free (with questionable tracking) you can install as a ‘work profile’ app via Shelter, which means it has no access to your real contacts and personal data, and can be set to auto-freeze (deletes cache and pauses app, keeps personal data). So you can use it and expose minimal data, and it can’t tie it back to a Google account to profile you as it doesn’t see one.

So far I’ve never needed a Google account on this phone, which means it’s been a clean break from Google entirely. 3 years now and very happy with the results.

I dunno why people are upset about this. I see the majority of people complaining about Dems “taking the high road” and avoiding dirty tactics like the Republicans take. “They should take the gloves off and get dirty on the low road”, “fight at their level!” I read.

Then as soon as Crockett does take one glove off and makes one borderline offensive comment the reaction is largely, “ugh, no need to be ableist”.

Guys, what the hell do you think the ‘low road’ is?

It doesn’t start at breaking the law and blocking supreme court noms, it starts at political midslinging, and the dems are getting “wow that’s going too far”. Lol. They will not escalate to a higher level of personal risk such as breaking protocols and laws (as the R’s do) if they’re knocked back at the first rung. They see the public has a preference: protocol above results.

(I’m about to get replies about how mudslinging needs to be carefully crafted to avoid any offensive terms to any group now. Be real. That is not always possible)

Joe Biden: slim to no evidence of pedophilia.

Donald Trump: hundreds of creepy videos, photos and comments about his own daughter, including that he would date her (if not his daughter) and agreeing she’s “a great piece of ass” in an interview. One of Epstein’s best friends, multiple accusations from minors of inappropriate behaviour, first-hand braggart confession of casual sexual assault, found liable for sexual abuse and assault of Jean E Carrol, accused by at least 8 other women of assauly and rape including a woman who was 13 at the time of his alleged rape of her at Mar A Lago.

MAGAts: “imma call him Pedophile Joe.”

I see the usual classy comments on such news stories from the Israeli public, calling the Gazans “Gazanimals” etc, and each comment 90%+ upvoted on the site.

The history books will have a wealth of material to work with.

It would very much surprise me if Satoshi turned out to be Russian (is that what you’re asking?). His whitepaper proposal is written in very fluent English, as are his other communications on SourceForge etc, also Russians are not known for their technological entrepreneurial aspirations - at least not for the last ~40 years.

To be honest I would not be surprised if whoever Satoshi is has died, rather than craftily holding onto the early minted blocks. Only time will tell if they ever get transacted.

Oh-no_anyway.JPG

If there’s one type of app with no shortage of options, it’s notes apps. Just look at the other responses here I’m sure there are dozens being evangelized already.

I very much doubt that this alone will push users onto Microsoft 365, like MS seems to be hoping it will.

There is speculation that a secondary goal here would be to weaken the US dollar as a defacto exchange currency standard worldwide if Bitcoin were to gain prominence.

That would be highly beneficial to certain “very good friends” of Trump like Putin whom would much prefer an unregulated currency that the US cannot impose controls over when presidents change.

I mean even that original plan would be fairly stupid. Law enforcement agencies seem to operate just fine with the current reserve of forfeited cryptocoins - I didn’t read anywhere of the FBI/CIA/etc crying out for a central bank style ‘strategic reserve’ managed by the FRB to add more layers of bureaucracy.

The only place I can find in news cycles saying it’s a great idea is a think tank entitled the Bitcoin Policy Institute who put out a report in late 2024 entitled “The case for Bitcoin as a reserve asset”. Plus all the usual crypto bros begging for it to pump their positions. Gosh, I wonder if these parties may be biased.

Carl Sagan released his book The Demon Haunted World in 1995, where he championed the scientific method and critical thought and lamented the dumbing down of (particularly US) society, so no… It’s not new.

I will add that your premise is wrong on the 60s. The leftism in the 60s was counter-culture, it was small and it was mostly confined to the youth… It was certainly not the prevailing attitude of the country. It was not unlike the leftist groups you see in the US today - small, loud, and a reaction to the heavily conservative country they find themselves in.

Lol @ thinking Elon Musk was ever ‘left’ he was never even left of center.

They do not, at least not in the way that this couple of Twitter influencers is claiming.

If you are a bounty hunter (bail bondsman) for instance you can pay a fee to get a rough location on a phone number that you provide. That does not work in this instance, there’s no service that allows you to ask, “send me the phone numbers and account ownership names of every single mobile device in this 3 mile radius during the protest”.

There is absolutely no way they have tracking data for the 30,000-odd attendees across all the various mobile providers and platforms (Apple/Google/etc) just a day or so later without state-level surveillance agencies access. And even then, the picture would be incomplete and need a LOT of work for them to make the claims they’re making about it overlapping with other groups they’re monitoring.

Its all made up.

Thanks for shining a light on it.

Just a small part of the atrocities carried out at the behest of and often with direct approval of conservatives in the US government. One of the many south American crimes the CIA will never answer for their involvement in.

The larger conflict that the CIA was heavily involved in at the time (they also trained his assassin for those interested in a direct link): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadoran_Civil_War

That’s not irony, irony is something unexpected - those two behaviors are exactly consistent and congruent with one-another.

I think aiming to sanction the US is the wrong plan, treat it like it is what it is - a country run by an autocrat, and go after the oligarchs. Same approach as taken with Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.

In terms of effectiveness. Frankly we’re (globally) only getting rid of Trump and his cronies if the American public rise up against him and oust him through whatever means that may take. Protests and extended strikes for starters - and the people will be more likely to band together with Trump than against him if the whole world starts Tariffing and sanctioning the USA like a rogue state.

On the other hand, sanction and freeze Trump & Co. assetts all over the (western) world and when he retaliates to protect his own interests its a lot harder to sell to his constituents.

How you would even legally go about that is another question though, he would have to be breaking financial international laws and the countries involved in the personal sanctions would have to be ready and willing for blowback.

Its all fantasy at this stage until he starts blatantly breaking international laws that allow his assets to be seized. Likewise with the idea of US sanctions - look at how much Israel has done and they’re not sanctioned, and it took a great deal of blatant acts of war before Russia and North Korea were sanctioned also.

This news post from OP is from news.com.au, and they’re the ones who labeled it ‘surprising news’.

So, your comment is deeply illogical to me.