Hello, would it be wise to change the email of my Apple ID to an email that is not accessible from my iPhone? In case my phone is stolen.

I'm currently using a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, a phone released worldwide last Aug. 2020 but unfortunately, I bought it >1 year late: Dec. 2021 (I saved some money by doing so). It's no longer eligible for receiving new, major Android versions but it's still receiving consistent security updates. However, in about 5-6 months from now (following Samsung's pattern), its monthly security updates will be demoted to just being delivered quarterly instead which will last for a year: until Sept./Oct. 2025. I value privacy and security. I feel that having a less frequent delivery of security patches than before will make my phone (albeit slightly) more prone to security risks.

I'm thinking about buying a new phone: Just after the downgrade of security updates' frequency from monthly to quarterly, or After the absolute end of security updates?

From a privacy & security perspective, what are your thoughts? 🙂

I had an incident at the border many years ago (traveling from Canada to US) when trying to travel with my family. One member in particular was denied entry and the rest of us were with them and turned away as well. I have a boyfriend from the US now and want to visit him but I suspect I'm going to be flagged and questioned. I don't have anything to hide but I know they can refuse you based on any little thing so I'd prefer going with a clean phone. What is the best way to go about this? I have an old iphone that is currently synced to my main iphone. How would I use my apple ID so I can access apps but wipe out stuff off the phone and keep only what I want to without having it also wiped on my main phone?

Title…

I've been building and am about to launch a new media business. Very small and essentially doing news summaries on social media and I have no intention of controversy, quite the opposite. However, since this idea is public-facing and created due to a distrust in the media, I would like to set it up as secure and private as possible. Tools like Proton are obvious, but I live in Denmark where a lot of company data is open.

How could I protect my association with the company and the company itself from any unnecessary scrutiny? And in general, what's the best practice in remaining private while running a business or new ventures?

How to use TOR proxy on Dolphin{anty}?

I recently switched from Gmail to ProtonMail for better privacy. After a security incident a couple of weeks ago, I changed my Gmail password to something fairly complex and eventually memorized it. I hadn't considered ProtonMail by that time. When I switched, I chose a randomly generated password for ProtonMail and moved to ProtonPass as my password manager, leaving Google's behind. Now, I'm contemplating using my complex Gmail password for ProtonMail, and creating a new, random one for Gmail. My concern is about reusing a password that was once known to Google. Does this pose a substantial privacy risk for my ProtonMail account? What do y'all think?

Today my sister and I went to The Sphere in Las Vegas to see the (excellent) Postcards from Earth show. An hour before the show started, The Sphere opened, so we could stroll past a few interactive demonstrations. One of them was offering to make your own ‘free avatar’. There was a long and fast-growing line with excited folks waiting in line for a scanner like device and, in the mood for something fun, my sister and I impulsively joined the line. While in the line, I read the text on one of the displays. The last sentence said something about the Metaverse (WTF, I thought we were over this?!). Triggered by the possibility of a Facebook connection, I decided to go through the very lengthy privacy statements we had just accepted. In short: (1) they are collecting biometric data on a large scale (facial scans, probably even iris scans), (2) they make no secret that they’re selling that to any data broker who wants to buy it (explicitly including to countries with ‘less strict privacy laws’), (3) they intend to keep and sell it forever, and (4) they’re building profiles of visitors including name, age, payment details, and biometric data. Annoyed that we had already been so stupid to give them our email address, we stepped out of the line, so they at least couldn’t take our biometric data and sell it until the end of times. I know, I know, what was I thinking. So, when you plan on going to The Sphere and think that this avatar thing is fun: be warned. It’s the last stop before your identity theft.

Every time that I open a new tab or use the search function on my pixel, I see for a second that the address changes from Google to a finance-app iTunes address.

I thought I was imagining it but it happens every time. Why would this happen in any way? I don't have any apple software or devices.

It goes to https://finance-app.itunes.apple.com/

This is always really uncomfortable and distressing when unlocking a device in front of someone. Can my input be totally hidden so that only stars are entered into the text box?

Just paid the obscene price to play the game and now am being told I can't even play online unless I register a phone number to my steam account - hilarious.

Screenshot.

I've tried Google and Microsoft authenticator, but am uncomfortable because if I lose my phone I'm screwed (no way to restore authenticator on another device). Do any offer you a backup code you can print?

I'm writing a story and want a remote place to store a document and add to it from multiple devices, e.g. a computer and a phone. That said, I can't be confident in Office 365 or Google docs as for all I know, my story ideas will become part of an AI's training dataset. Is there another service I can use where I won't have to worry about this?

I bought a Total by Verizon Pixel because it was a good price. I wanted to see how well it does in the rural areas where my T-Mobile phone doesn't have signal. It does about the same; no signal.

So, I opted to stay with T-Mobile. I kept the Pixel to take photos because my cheap phone with T-Mobile is not that great. I didn't renew the service with Total by Verizon.

I went to a small 80s music concert recently, and noticed that the phone was showing name of the song that's playing on stage. Data was off. Wi-Fi was off. I can't use Google Maps unlike the T-Mobile that I have which still shows where I'm at on the map but no history.

So, what I thought was a "dead phone", is not. What else is it doing that I don't know about? Is it tracking me somehow?

The title is my main question.

• What are recommended apps for the common uses of a cell phone in 2024?

• What are the recommend settings?

• What are the least recommended apps/settings/etc?

I hope this is not violating any rules. Have a good day.

My phone is a Samsung S10, if that matters. Be well.

Hello,

Can anyone please recommend video editing software, (other than Daivinci Resolve) that would be considered safe for use on a PC desktop? ie less likely to steal and sell data.

I ask because I was thinking about CapCut because it appears pretty flexible and seems light weight and has a lot of capabilities and options, but I learned about of its ties to TikTok which turned me off.

To clarify I am making videos for social media promotions and I want to use an interim video editor until I can get back to more pro level programs, like adobe Premier.

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Thanks in advance.

I keep receiving text messages from people telling me they received my data from a database; offering me jobs, rental information, etc. I have told no one that I am a renter, so I am unsure of how these people get my data. I would LOVE to remove my information from these databases. Anyone know how?

I heard the developer sold this app to some shady company. Such a shame if it isn’t safe to use anymore, as I loved how easy it was to use and the big fact that it was open sourced. Anyone have any details with what is going on with raivo? Should I move to another authenticator? The app also hasn’t received any updates for a while so that makes it even more suspicious.

Android phone here.

My email client (with all my email addresses) is on my cellphone. The email client itself doesn't have a master password.

So if someone steals my phone, and hacks my cell phone password, and I'm using my phone number to authenticate my email, can't they quickly change my email passwords?

Note: I don't use a fingerprint ID because my phone is very quirky about it.

edit: It's insane that the average person is forced to use email as an identifier for banking or apps, yet it requires a deep dive into security knowkedge to actually protect that information. I so much miss the days of walking into a bank, showing my driver's license and doing a quick transaction.

i have subscription that watch Dark Web activity for my information.

Today i received an email saying: " Internet Surveillance". Thats freaking me out.

Is it Govt? (That i dont care, they are watching everything) or is it a private party?

any idea what does it mean

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thank you.

I've recently seen a video where a guy captures outgoing traffic with wireshark on a fresh install of windows. There's A LOT being sent to all sorts of suspicious addresses. Has anyone done this on mac os? I couldn't find a good video or website that talks about this.

Hello. Can anyone please recommend a service that could help me remove certain search results about me? I found a few online services, but I am not entirely sure they can be trusted. Apologies if this type of a question has been asked before.

I never was a terribly social person. I was always that introverted nerd, playing around on phones before everyone started using their phones, tinkering on PC by my lonesome etc.

In my effort to make up for years of lost socialization, I have decided to be more outgoing. Meet new people, try new hobbies, all around get in contact with other members of society.

Even though I never was nearly as social as some of my peers, I still have a reference of "pre-digital" socialization, which in my case would be late 2000's, early 2010's. Where people were mostly hanging out IRL and internet was mostly reserved more nerds and rage comics.

One thing I've noticed is that people are less and less outgoing. That many events are now online, and those that aren't, might as well not exist if you don't follow the right page/site.

This leads me to a conundrum - should I become less anonymous/private? Open Instagram/Facebook acc. to have a "frontend API" for other people to connect to? Make some blog where I can refer people towards, that documents my interests etc.?

The reason why I am asking is, because although in theory I could meet great like-minded privacy-conscious individuals that use only stuff like Signal, don't share data on each other online etc., I don't think that's too realistic. And besides, I don't want to miss out on great relationships because I am that weirdo "that doesn't want to be tracked" and is "paranoid".

What do you think? Pseudo-online persona, "real" but strictly compartmentalized persona (I see slip ups and crossposting/linking between private and public being the biggest problem here)? Remain a "freak" and start attending stuff like DefCon in hopes of meeting people? Or something else entirely?

Thinking about the best options. Would love to see what the Reddit community has to think.

You might have already seen the news that after 4 years, Google settlement is finally happening, and Google will delete billions of data records it collected through its private browsing mode, Incognito. This is huge but far cry from true privacy. So, I thought I would share some tips on incognito browsing that I dug up, and will hear more tips from you guys.

It’s not a secret that Google's browser is not the most private, and Firefox is a far better option for that. But Google is convenient, I personally love translation, and image search features. So I have been using it. Here I share some things I’ve been doing for years, and would love for you to add useful tips.

How to browse internet privately:

• Use separate browsers for different things. If possible, use privacy-first browsers and use incognito mode.
• Create email aliases for online shopping, non-important websites, and stuff that want to collect your data.
• Separate work and personal devices, accounts. Double-check your privacy settings on apps, browsers, social media and make them more strict.
• Reject cookies on websites.
• Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters.
• Never log in with Facebook to other websites, apps.

You also might want to erase details that are available online about you:

People search sites and data brokers' databases. These databases collect and store your details for the public to see (Whitepages is probably the best-known example). Data brokers go even further: they sell personal data for other companies to use for marketing and other purposes. You can opt-out from these sites one by one, or you can get a data removal service to do it on your behalf. I personally use Incogni at the moment.

It’s hard to achieve private browsing, but I personally think that this Google settlement is good news. Have any more tips? Please share.

I'm conducting research on the ASEAN Model Contractual Clauses for Cross-Border Data Flows, but finding comprehensive information is proving challenging. Could anyone provide insights or resources on this topic to help me better understand its implications and applications?

You might have heard that AT&T data breach just happened. This is a nasty one, because social security numbers, full names, email and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth, as well as AT&T account numbers and passcodes have been compromised. It impacts somewhat 73 million, myself included. Many people are sharing news about AT&T security breach but not many share tips. So, I thought I’d start this thread.

How to protect yourself from att breach:

• Change your passcodes. AT&T said that it had already reset the passcodes of current users, but if you’re using the same details for other logins, you might want to change them too. How will you remember them all? Probably the simplest way is to use a password manager. This comparison table created by a redditor was helpful for me in understanding it all better, and I personally use Nordpass at the moment.
• Turn on 2FA. This will protect your account even if someone else has your login details. It's a good idea to turn on 2FA on as many accounts as possible not only because of att breach but in general. I've been using the Google Authenticator app, but there are many others.
• Freeze your credit reports. I also saw a tip to freeze your credit reports at all three major agencies — Equifax, Experience, and TransUnion circling around. I haven’t done this, because I’m afraid it will mess up my credit history. Does anybody know if it comes with any consequences?

How to check for AT&T data leak

If you have been impacted by this breach, you should receive an email or letter directly from AT&T about the incident. 

I know these tips are basic cybersecurity knowledge, and I would love to hear more advice on AT&T security breach from you guys.

So my collage now forces me to accept their wifi certificate before using their wifi .

Reading some posts on here it seems like they can see my passwords and everything, which for me is an invasion of privacy.

I normally use :

ChatGPT,Claude,Google Gemeni and just the university site and moodle .

I saw some comments suggesting a virtual machine for collage , I was wondering if a new macbook user (on my macbook) would also make them unable to see my passwords and such ?

I don’t have anything to hide but the idea or the IT guy having my instagram and facebook passwords is a big NO for me .

I don’t care if they see chatgpt or claude or google but I don’t want them to have access to my google account or ChatGPT .

Is there any way to do it so they don’t see my passwords? And is a new mac user the same as a VM ?