Privacy of current mainstream software A critique of modern data exploitation and a call to prioritize digital privacy.

[hourglass_catto]

Hello there Comfybox,

We probably all know that the current state of privacy can be improved. Data collection happens everywhere and is most of the time hard to avoid.

I'm sick of the idea that people profit off data collected by unknowing users.

I just had the idea to collect and/or make tools, tips and repositories to make living without being spied on easier. A centralised space.

For example: It's of course the best option not to use WhatsApp as your main messaging platform. But for some, the social contactsthey have are way too important to lose. Is it possible for these people to download an alternative client for PC/Android/iOS that alters or disrupts the collected data, preventing companies from gaining useful data, or from getting any data at all, while still using the service?

Of course, downloading random clients/apps/programs from a sketchy website isn't risk free. It's not hard to modify an already existing modified app to inject your own code.

I'm sorry if I seem paranoid. I just believe that everyone has the right to use the internet without getting their data sold to brokers unknowingly. I do have to say that there is a lack of knowledge about this matter among most people. And even if there are news articles about it, barely anyone is taking action. The makers of these apps won't be the ones highlighting these points explicitly in (or outside) the terms of service when signing up. Everyone just clicks the checkbox and goes on with their day. It almost seems like most people don't even care about their data being collected. I have even heard someone say "I don't mind if they can see what I'm doing on my phone, it's not like I'm famous or a politician, so they can't get anything useful about me." I wish people would take their privacy more seriously. And heck, if people do want to share their data, let them choose what it's allowed to be used for and by whom. I can imagine that there are companies interested in this (and some likely already exist) that are willing to compensate you for it.

Thank you for reading my little rant. Feel free to send me any useful resource on this matter. Or tell everyone about it as a reply on this post. Epic project ideas are also cool.

 

[SonarRonar]

seconding this, i think a lot of privacy and piracy go hand in hand, so FMHY is also a solid shout. i think finding privacy-focused clients are the best way to go here, since I'm probably not convincing my grandma to use Signal anytime soon.

 

[root]

I would say whatsapp and other E2E platforms are ok, the communication isn't whats compromising, it's the fact that the backup mechanism and storage in icloud/google is whats targetted. Whatsapp does have some extra encryption key thing so the backup can not be factored/accessed directly - but I would say if you disable backups and maintain control of that - it is partly ok, and sadly needed because majority of people wil not use alternative services or PGP.

Telegram, since the owner/operator was arrested in france, I'm sure has backdoors.
Signal, feels safe but I haven't really researched it much yet.

communication and privacy are a big deal, so basically IMO hygine and separation is needed.

I would say having a pixel or xiaomi android phone, is good enough that can run lineage or another operating system, yes yes xiaomi is chinese, but I would advise that over pixel for a few things:

China and Xiaomi do not necessarily work with USA, which is five eyes, even though trump administration is breaking allies trust, e.g. isreal/nato - there is no real known partnership with China.

All of Xiaomi phones are able to be unlocked bootloader wise, Pixel and many USA androids can not, especially if it's from Verizon or some prepaid companies.


While the stock xiaomi rom is loated with adware/bloat, it isn't neccessarily reporting to USA Companies, but chinese ones, which mostly do not have an interest with western users.
Xiaomi engineering roms are easily accessible, meaning you can modify baseband modem things such as IMEI, bluetooth mac address and other core things, especially with the mediatek chipset over the Qualcomm chipsets in the west. This is cchanging now since Apple/Google and Samsung are now using non qualcomm ARM Chips, but basically - qualcomm no good, mediatek is slower and not as performance as qualcomm but, that turns out is good for privacy and evading telecoms, fingerprinting, etc.

unbricking a xiaomi is also pretty easy, pixel too, but some androids really do hate it. You can also change how the phone is identified to apps and such pretty easier, this is non-achievable on a jailbreak iphone to many extent.


For laptops, I would say an older x64 intel macbook, would be great, they are luggards when compared to a modern M1-4 CPU but, you're able to do alot in terms of running atlernative operating systems on a very supported platform. Other alternatives are thinkpads, but I would say the EFI of both can be annoying.


Once the platform of choice is picked, I would modify the hosts file and run a vpn, this is, also easy to do on a android device, you can run a full time vpn that would block content like ublock for trackers, you can run firefox w/ ublock still, you can really lock it down to where you want - you can even make a easy script so you don't have to VPN, just grab the adblock lists, update HOSTS, restart the network driver and it'd kick on the block natively on the os level.

But, the only thign is usability, iphones are unfortunately popular and if you're not on imessage then lol - also having two phones just seems sometimes, one phone for whatever hxc hardcore hacker 1337 stuff you want to do, and then a normal phone/iphone for normie crap.

I've built lineage roms before, and can go on and on about this and general how android is pretty good, but its also a timesink, do you want to really push 10-20 hours a week into something that most people don't care about? I used to, alot, but, reddit and other places really do fall under "who cares" to people who are wanting privacy for the most asinine reasons, lol.