Encrypt all the things!

I have the same issue with ff. Firefox on mobile works though.

Also found a good article on de-googling ones life.

Good read if you're interested in security.

An article on de-googling that doesn't mention Google Services Framework?

Ridding yourself of google use is trivial if you ignore GSF on your phone.

I would like to do this also, but I find Gmail, Google Maps, Google Photos and Google Drive to be too invaluable. I don't use Google Search anymore though and only use Firefox on desktop and Firefox Focus on mobile - this has reduced targeted ads to zero which makes me very happy.

I went to a Dave Eggers talk last Friday (https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/pen-hg-wells-lecture-2018-dave-eggers/) all about social media and digital human rights. Very interesting to see the faces of the non-tech-savvy people I went with when he was explaining just how pervasive it is.

Luckily I all but binned Facebook about 5 years ago.

My bike wasn’t stolen officer, it was hacked

https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/halfords-amazon-alexa-bike-cybic-a4030456.html

1 Attachment

My bike wasn’t stolen officer, it was ugly

ftfy

I can't seem to upload pics to the forum when I use Firefox. Any suggestions?

You've almost certainly resolved this, but selecting the image(s) twice definitely works, as does drag and drop I think.

Brompton get hacked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1b8865GOHU

I thought this was pretty genius; real store boarded up, displaying a ransom note demanding Bitcoin in exchange for re-entry; genuine stock deliveries diverted to the fake ‘3rompton’ store, highlighting potential effects of a phishing scam; the real Brompton store flooded with imitation customers overwhelming staff, simulating a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

but selecting the image(s) twice definitely works, as does drag and drop I think.

selecting the images multiple times when using FF sometimes worked for me and oftentimes it did not, it made me want to bang my head against a wall -
did realize now that drag & drop is actually an option (and it seems to work)
: ]

Lol

So tech giant Facebook who's known for being a good guy is merging WhatsApp, Insta and FB like the said they wouldn't. What alternatives to what'sapp are there? Who uses signal? I'm off fb and never used Instagram but I'm heavily ingrained in WhatsApp. Is there a way to keep contact like WhatsApp provides? Do we need to ALL change?

^ Just read about that. Don't use FB or Instagram but light use of WhatsApp so I think it's time to get rid of it. Signal was my first thought of what to use instead. Getting everyone else to change is going to be hard though!

I expecting to be told that I am revealing all my usage,
to who knows who, but,
I am wondering about 'Line', a (South) Korean supposed equivalent,
as suggested by a Taiwanese friend.

It's a bit unclear as to what exactly they're planning. It looks like it's going to be 3 different systems but with a common interface/address book.

Not quite sure how it will be implemented given that Whatsapp is encrypted (although I believe the metadata isn't) and the other two aren't.

They are planning to make the other two encrypted in the same way. There is speculation that the FCC might attempt to split up Facebook, and it is being done to make it harder to do that since everything will become much more intergrated

What a time to be alive and in Tech.

I've used Signal for years now and never uses WhatsApp.

Ditch WhatsApp. If people want to contact you they will.

I think it's time to get rid of it. Signal was my first thought of what to use instead.

I kinda guessed this would happen when the WhatsApp guys walked, leaving lots of money on the table. I haven't followed anyone for over a year, only use messenger in one group of four friends. So I deleted my FB account and I haven't missed it. I've never used WhatsApp. I use Instagram for business only (boardgame company I own with @photoben).

Conversely I've been using Signal for ~3 years and although it's not as sharp on design it's perfectly adequate for its purpose, esp since they added giphy etc. I have heard of friends having trouble with it not notifying them on Android, but I've had no such issue on iOS or on the Desktop (Mac OS).

Sadly the success of WhatApp means I have only maybe five people I message regularly on it, but I hope this news moves that needle a little. < insert joke about having no friends>

I use Android and PC Desktop and they're generally pretty good.

The other good thing about being on Signal and not WhatsApp is a lack of bullshit distractions from chit chat. You get the filtered info directly rather than having to listen to 500 notifications about what cheese should someone bring to the birthday party.

You get the filtered info directly rather than having to listen to 500 notifications about what cheese should someone bring to the birthday party.

Are there any bears, horses, mirrors, welsh, dinosaurs, beavers or lions at the party? Because, with a little advice, you could be the funniest guy with cheese in that room...

Telegram works as a simple messaging app. Does most of whataspp does

Signal does too AND its encrypted

Telegram is also encrypted

Remember that encryption is not a simple binary thing.

Something could be encrypted but still designed in a way that you could still be snooped on without you knowing.

Whatsapp is securely designed but its defaults aren't great (the option to tell you someone's security key has changed is not enabled by default.) I think Signal and Telegram are better in this respect, but the parents at my daughter's primary school are all on Whatsapp and I don't have time to check multiple messaging apps for the multiple groups I'm on (open APIs would allow someone to write one app that can speak to all of them).

But then there's the big problem of whether the app doesn't have other back-doors, or the phone's OS is leaking your data, or the phone's hardware, etc.

It sounds like they want to use the metadata to be the source of marketing, as well as to ensure that no competitors could emerge for any one of those businesses.

This makes sense, I've been watching WhatsApp leak little things for a while now. Not in the E2E encryption, but things like the link preview embeds. The app can do that and leak the fact that it's done that within a modified advertising profile. To bond it altogether gives them a full picture without being subject to cross-business data sharing.