vpShane

in ff if you're reading this go to about:config and type privacy - why these aren't immediately obvious in the Settings is beyond me

It's as simple as that: No thanks, then I slide the slider on WireGuard and then I have an encrypted tunnel that all of my devices can communicate with each other, use a DNS through the tunnel with domains blocked and I can control what phones home and what doesn't. I'm not concerned with foreign governments, snoopy neighbors, war driving, or anything.

I can't solve all the problems but there are no what ifs on my end, *What if" -> No.

I'm not a number in some algorithm or malicious because I route my data securely, I'm a human being.

Instead of blocking or limiting features to whitelist users with approved behavioral patterns and limit / block those that don't -- such as loading a page and immediately commenting or doing things that normal humans don't do, they block IP addresses and ASNs.

I just close the browser tab and remind myself not to waste my time caring, there'll be other platforms.

My router is setup for WireGaurd and it'll never be disabled.

Shame on SoundCloud

?

Unencrypted data transmission just isn't a thing I'm interested in with it being 2025.

I would prefer https.

Installing it, scrolling down was constant sponsor ads being blocked, reels of women from bot accounts that steal influencers' videos and repost them, new-age spirituality memes 'Let go of what does not serve you' and 'Return to Source to find your real self' - quotes from philosophers who never said the quote, 'How to hack' tutorial images -- all removed from fbpurity

I'd have to scroll for a minute before getting anything from the local community groups, the shelter's posts, and rarely did I see somebody else's post, and usually it was talking about Trump or politics or 'are we in a simulation?' but for the most part it's all brain rot.

Toxic, deceptive brain rot. There's no use trying to get others to exit the psychological magnet that has them hooked and doom scrolling and posting non-stop with their views.

The botfarms would plague every local community group and most people activity were calling out the bots. Bots swaying the comments on posts' comment sections for local news, people getting LIVID in the comments over trolls/bots.

Businesses being FB exclusive only with no Google presence, no maps presence.

Delete it, trust me, you'll be happier. There is no 'purity'

Billionaire Drools That “Citizens Will Be on Their Best Behavior” Under Constant AI Surveillance

https://futurism.com/the-byte/billionaire-constant-ai-survei...

Is the kind of mindset behind this guy.

You're right, it isn't. It's a foreign one (allagedly) and they used the tools telecoms and agencies use to monitor data, sms, call logs with IMEI/IMS mapping. Those, do belong to government agencies.

> You also brought up ECH, DoH, DoT, Android's fake cell tower detection, and Android's NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES permission that also demonstrate a strong industry-wide push to limit mass surveillance, contributing to my argument that GGP's assertion that nothing has changed is incorrect.

This sounds more like you want to be correct; data brokers and mass surveillance are at an all time high, with platform providers requiring biometrics, ID uploads, data being sold, re-sold, re-sprinkled.

Android devices that can not utilize the latest Android OS (16+) to my knowledge can not access these features, by default DoH, DoT are not enabled by default. Whether the device itself can show if a fake cell tower is being used is only one step. The telecom and infrastructure companies that provide 5g have more tech layered on top of it that is indeed vulnerable, salt typhoon sat dormant in major telecom and internet backbone devices for over a year before being discovered.

We don't know whos cyber campaigns or who's involved in surveillance. I'll often get customers sharing the same stories where they call their ISPs and the ISP operator will list all the websites the customer viewed in casual conversation over the phone; which is scary.

> No, it doesn't. Just because someone proposes something doesn't mean the EU wants it, especially when the EU completely removes that proposal from the table.

Yes, it does. Many countries are in favor of it in the EU and even if it fails, they keep proposing it until it'll pass.

The U.N. just signed a multi-nation treaty with 72 countries, including Russia, China, and Iran to swap data with other intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the data its collected as its joint mission to, on paper look like a good thing but broaden surveillance and share that data among countries. https://vp.net/l/en-US/blog/72-Nations-Create-Global-Surveil...

The U.S. isn't involved with that, but here in the U.S. states are just now proposing VPN bans and requiring logging for major AI providers.

Most things are walled gardens.

The claims that it's getting better need all of us to put in a lot more work. Security, privacy, data integrity all go hand in hand.

Those SSIDs have among them, tracking that tracks MAC addresses, which can also be scanned out of the air using basic tools like aircrack-ng

A simple 'Share Your Location with this website' popup on a browser is more than enough to geo-locate you and provides enough information to geo-locate others on the same network.

It getting better is just not true. I wish that were the case, but it's going to take a lot of work for all of us.

https still uses unencrypted client hello's (ECH) across the vast majority of the internet, showing which domain the client is visiting in plaintext for multi-site servers to do SNI. DNS is still plaintext on most consumer routers/models provided by ISPs, stingray technology exists in the wild and is widely used to mimic cell towers. E2EE is not popular in consumer applications, even Telegram isn't E2EE and the main ones that claim they are like X's new Chat they have the keys on; Matrix having E2EE still shows meta data in plain text, room names in plain text.

While iMessages, RCS, Signal are mostly mainstream, most people are unaware of the need for E2EE. RCS is its own set of issues.

Pegasus, Cellbright, I can go on and on with the spyware companies that can just send a text message and infect devices with 0click exploits.

We can have E2EE but if they can just see the screen or hook in to the messaging app's memory doesn't mean much.

Pick up your cell phone, is it connected to Wifi? Can it see other Wifis? Apps track those nearby SSIDs and report to major databases to have accurate geo-location data down to the spot we stand.

Don't get me started on Ad-Tech.

The EU wants to install backdoors on everybody's devices and get rid of encryption entirely.

Zero Trust Technologies are a fun thing to read in to, especially the need for them.

I remember when CS Pro Mod was being made between the transition of CS 1.6, Source, the 1.6 community didn't want to move over to Source, before GO/CS2 came around.

Cool to see what's basically Quake1/doom style but this is a far fetch away from counter-strike. Although if netcode could be imagined and implemented I don't see why making a lower tier Counter-Strike wouldn't be doable. I'd play it if it were the quake style old-graphics version of CS that allowed for skill gaps.

Great article, love the nostalgic feeling.

I'm not saying the options are favorable for everybody, I'm saying the options are there if it becomes locked in to 1-3 companies.

I'm not sure about how the regulation of things would work, but prompt injections and whatever other attacks we haven't seen yet where agents can be hijacked and made to do things sounds pretty scary.

It's a race towards AGI at this point. Not sure if that can be achieved as language != consciousness IMO

Probably has something to do with having an all black background on desktop / IRC, terminals, steam since 1996/1997->now

Even MSN Gaming Zone where I started was 'dark moded'

-make client load something

-client doesn't load it

-add.fingerprint.point(client,'doesnltloadthings',1)

-detect if client does something only a certain browser does

-client does it

-add.fingerprint.point(client,'doesthisbrowsderthing',1)

-window was resized/moved, send a websocket snitch to the backend

- keep a consistent web socket open, or fetch a backend-api call for updates on X events - more calls are made, means user is probably scrolling, inject more things/different things.

I see some js obfuscators out there where I look at the js file and it's all mumbo jumbo.

It is indeed a privacy nightmare, where whatever we do feeds the algorithms to aide in making other people do things.

But it's also used in network security, organizations etc. Staff/employees will use the system a certain way, if something enters it without the behaviors, it's detectable. I assume that's what you mean in anti-fraud.

Sad part is we don't know what the data is ever used for, and it's often bought and sold and the cycle repeats.

You're telling me we don't have sci-fi energy harnessing capability to capture the nuclear energy itself and convert it to electricity?

It's 2025!

There's good in things, will it be used for good when somebody links their brain to their own super-AI? Probably not, but for medical purposes it makes more than enough sense.

To understand alzheimers, dementia, the good for it all is limitless. Do I want privacy invaded? God no, but we know what it's coming to. With Neuralink and Elon's squad of young-and-upcomings that leave things like xAI keys on git commits, HIPAA data even if protected means nothing if somebody (some random) can just connect in, take it, and then sell it.

For me, and it's just my opinion is that the risks outweigh consumer good, and it's for sure got 'evil super villain hooked to an AI' written all over it.

You CREATED something, and I like to think that creating things that I love and enjoy and that others can love and enjoy makes creating things worth it.

There's ethical ways to do things: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/court-authorized-ope...

I'm not saying I agree with it but we're all engineers, the internet and everything built on it was engineered, to put up with script kiddies and hacked computers and not-so-tech-savvy internet citizens using their devices and installing Infatica, and other malware/proxy services on their devices because it came within the agreement for installing some free app where their kids could 'pop bubbles' on their parents phones or some free desktop app included it; then distinguishing their IP addresses and IP-scores as they blend in with their regular human traffic makes it hard to block it. Ain't nobody got time for whack-a-mole internet, families and businesses will need to secure their networks.

Honestly I'd be ok with an up-to-date live list of all known infected IP addresses and their last timestamp for what, and who detected them as a bot/malicious IP address so I could just use some simple ipsets and iptables, or make a simple script to disallow things like posting, interactions while still allowing them to see content on websites would be ideal. Add a little banner 'you're infected, or somebody on your network is infected, this is how to fix it and practice best security, and more info on the subject'

These services switched from DDoS/attacks to renting out their hacked network spaces. They don't need to be making bank at our expense.