My take from this Cybernews article about an Android toolkit to trick KYC verification significantly differs from theirs!

Them: "...the existence of such tools puts users and organizations at imminent risk." "Not a tool for the masses"

Me: "Where can I find this amazing Privacy tool?" "A tool the masses everywhere need access to ASAP"

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1358182/survey-56-of-ai-enthusiasts-and-a-third-of-all-users-tell-chatbots-things-they-keep-from

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1358432/nitter-project-received-cease-and-desist

Cease and desist

On 24 August 2026 cease and desist letters have been sent by X Corp. demanding a permanent takedown of Nitter instances and the project's repository.

nitter.net is offline and development has stopped for the time being. I'm seeking legal advice and won't be commenting further on the specifics for now.

Thank you to everyone who used, hosted, packaged, donated and contributed to Nitter over the past seven years.

— zedeus, 25 August 2026

Photo source: Official website/instance— Archive.

More info: GitHub issue 1442.

A hot potato: As cookies become a less reliable way to track people online, AliExpress may be showing how far companies will go to fill that gap. Researchers found code on the site's homepage that ran silent audio processes in the browser. Tied to Alibaba's security systems, the scripts tap a device's own audio hardware to generate a signal and measure the tiny, device-specific ways it comes back – producing something close to a fingerprint that doesn't need a single cookie to work. It's the kind of tracking a user would likely never notice.

The issue only surfaced after a developer had trouble using multipoint Bluetooth headphones while an AliExpress tab was open: the headphones wouldn't switch properly from the computer to a phone. Once the tab was closed, the problem disappeared.

Digging into the site's code, the developer found it was using the Web Audio API to build audio-processing graphs set to zero volume. The process produced no audible sound, but it still connected to the computer's audio system, keeping the audio path active in the background, which appears to be what interfered with the headphones' ability to switch devices.

This wasn't the kind of audio activity tied to a normal media player. Because the processing graph ran at zero gain and connected directly to the system's audio output, muting the browser tab did nothing to stop it: the browser kept processing the signal even though there was nothing to hear

So, his team set up a bunch of tech to interfere with the company’s event and even managed to capture Flock attendee chatter on microphones they forgot to switch off.

Jordan then flew his drone and captured images of politicians, police, and senators in attendance.

But the actions against Discord are particularly concerning because of how quickly the case is moving towards demanding that the company either breaks its encryption or builds tools to bypass it, and provides a way to identify its users – ostensibly to check their age.

The incident that started with the death of the 13-year-old girl and the subsequent order to stop live video features has now escalated to a full-blown "war" on Discord's encryption and privacy.

Imagine with all the data that discord collects its still not enough and they're going after voice and video e2ee

Apparently "grand juries declining an indictment is extremely rare... The grand jury only hears from the prosecution, there is no defense involved. Only a majority of the grand jury has to sign off, not unanimous like in an actual trial."

I've been hearing that Reddit is requiring an account now. But there's still a workaround. Use old.reddit.com + Tor Browser in the "Safest" security setting (aka Javascript disabled). This is the most private way to browse Reddit, and somehow, it still works. If it's not working, try clicking the menu and click "New Tor circuit for this site".

Unfortunately, as of just a few days ago, all the Stack Exchange sites now needs Javascript to view, because they use Cloudflare (and the workaround I was using stopped working). So I have to keep switching between Javascript enabled or disabled, depending on if I want to view a Reddit or StackExchange post. Annoying.

Edit: Redlib is also a great way to access Reddit anonymously. And even if Reddit ends up blocking the Tor workaround, I'm confident that Redlib will continue to work.

Edit2: ok looks like old.reddit.com isn't working anymore, you have to use the onion link. Still working as of 2026-08-22 8:00 UTC. Or just use RedLib.

Interesting channel I found. Reads privacy policies of various popular services and then visualizes what info they collect, share, sell.

Oddly entertaining and useful lol

Highlight timestamp in this particular video : 12:13

Aaron Rodgers reportedly provided a donation to his former New Jersey township for the purchase of controversial police security cameras.

(Research credit belongs to FOIAball: https://www.foiaball.com/p/aaron-rodgers-secretly-bought-police-alpr-cameras)

The post isn't directly on the privacy but touches on the tangent of the topic. The focus is on the meaning of communities, what the walled gardens usually means and what we as individual could do to improve it. In a general sense it's a birds eye view on the topic.

Maybe can be worth a reading.

All feedback is welcomed.

Edit: Edited to also include the topics of discussion on the post.

This website allows Shopify stores to get the visitor email without consent and start spamming them by adding them to the spam list without opt-in

The article is an interview to the CEO of such a privacy-raping service and it looks so proud of this monster

Hi everyone,

Between Google Play Integrity API lockdowns, Apple App Attest, and upcoming eID/age-verification mandates, alternative and privacy-focused operating systems (like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and Linux on mobile) are being systematically locked out of banking, public portals, and everyday apps.

Rather than watching vendor lock-in get worse, I am organizing a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working title: "My Device, My OS" to push binding EU legislation for Device Neutrality and Open Attestation.

What we aim to achieve:

• Mandate Open Attestation Standards: Require services operating in the EU to support open, vendor-neutral hardware attestation rather than relying exclusively on proprietary gatekeeper APIs (Google/Apple).
• Ban Device/OS Discrimination: Prevent public services, digital ID wallets, and essential commercial apps from arbitrarily blocking users solely for running independent or de-Googled operating systems.
• Protect Hardware Sovereignty: Enshrine the legal right of consumers to install and run the operating system of their choice without losing access to the digital single market.

Join the Matrix room to discuss, collaborate on the draft, and coordinate next steps:
👉 #my-device-my-os:pollorebozado.com

Feedback, technical insights, and EU organizers are all welcome!

By @gerardPolloRebozado@chachara.club

French President Emmanuel Macron has been the global leader in promoting a ban on social media for kids, consistently welcoming countries that propose such measures with a “thanks for joining the movement” tweet. That includes Canada, which received its congratulatory tweet after a ban was included in Bill C-34. As I argued last month, however, I believe the Canadian ban is vulnerable to constitutional challenge on at least two fronts: freedom of expression, since blocking an entire cohort of Canadians from accessing information and expressing themselves on social media infringes Section 2(b) of the Charter, and privacy, since enforcing the ban will require millions of Canadians to verify their age to use social media services with the promised safeguards nowhere in place when the ban takes effect. Last week, France became the first major jurisdiction to have such a ban reviewed by its highest constitutional court, and it proceeded to strike down the law on substantially the same two constitutional concerns.

The French Parliament adopted a social media ban for kids under 15 on July 21st, with the law scheduled to take effect in September. But France’s system of constitutional review led the ban to be reviewed by the constitutional court, resulting in it being assessed and rejected before ever taking effect. Macron responded to the ruling by instructing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to rework the legislation to address the court’s concerns, with the government now targeting spring 2027 for a revised law.