Cross posted from https://thelemmy.club/post/53948272

FISA is a sweeping surveillance authority that allows the warrantless surveillance of Americans in the name of national security. It was originally created to stop intelligence agencies from spying on people in the US without oversight. But over time, the guardrails came off. And the man who helped build some of those guardrails at the FBI now says the system has gone badly wrong. In this video, we trace the full history of FISA, from the abuses that created it, to the safeguards that once held it in check, to how it became the legal foundation for one of the most powerful warrantless surveillance systems in America.

The FISA Process Got Corrupted What is FISA The Lead-Up What FISA Did Building the Safeguards Dismantling the Safeguards The Current Fight This Machine Does Not Care Who Inherits It

FISA is a weapon we keep handing forward, trusting that whoever picks it up next will be as restrained as the last person who held it. When you're told to just trust the system, you're not being asked to trust the careful, decent person who built it. You're being asked to trust everyone who will ever hold it after him. Every administration. The politician you'd never vote for. The official who already thinks people like you are the enemy.

The question was never whether we can trust the people in charge today. It's why we built something this dangerous to hand to anyone at all.

Cross posted from https://lemmy.ca/post/68973627

Imagine if a company could figure out exactly how desperate you are for a job...

Then use AI to offer you the lowest salary they think you'll accept.

That's the idea behind wage surveillance.

Companies are collecting more data than ever before, from AI interviews and online activity to your location and personal information, all in an effort to make hiring cheaper. The less they think you'll push back, the less they have to pay.

In this video, we're talking about wage surveillance, AI interviews, personalized salary offers, why you should stop oversharing during the hiring process, and how companies are using your own data against you.

Hey dear smart community, I don't use any Google products or services over 3 years now. Always had android and used fdroid. No apps for banking ( cash lover). Osmand for maps. Extremely happy to find this app for socializing with like minded people. Now I feel time has come to upgrade privacy and security and custom ROM phone. I am considering if getting pixel8 and installing GOS. The only issue is,that I have 0 (ZERO) knowledge about how to do it. I have looked many videos and read on websites how to do it,but I am so afraid that I will not be able. I don't know if that is right to ask for assistance from people here,but I don't feel like I am capable of doing so. Plus,I have samsung which I would like to prepare and give my friend to use. Unfortunately, that person in immersed to Google world ( internet banking apps ect). Do you think LineageOS could give more protection and same smooth usage of phone ? I will appreciate any suggestions how to custom ROM phones. Best wishes to all.

Story about low priced Anko branded competitor to Meta smart glasses. The story author calls out that despite Meta's attempts to prevent recording if the LED is covered, it is easy to get around the block. I think it's good for mainstream press to say it, so more ppl realize. They also call out that human moderators at Meta review their smart glasses footage. Inc videos of people having sex or using the toilet.

IDK if public backlash will nix the market for these, or if opposition will dry up and in 10 more years they will be mainstream tech like smartphones are today. I could see it going either way TBH.

It scares me that one of those timelines leads to a hellscape worse than the one we already have.

Hello guys and gals, it's me Mutahar again! This time we take a look at a very serious bill that's just become law in one of the biggest states. Our computers and the systems that power them will be subject to age verification and the slow erosion of anonymity becomes solidified. How do we counter this? Let's find out! Thanks for watching! Like, Comment and Subscribe for more videos!

Looking for a cheap and reputable inbox from a company with a decent privacy policy. Don't mind paying, but it's gotta be less than 30 USD a year; I do not need anything but the ability to send and receive emails for accounts and correspondence.

Hi, I've been using the DDG browser and search on and off for a bit. Specifically trying to contain more controversial stuff like politics into it. .

I just searched on the DDG browser with the DDG search, "2026 midterm primary results" hoping to find the 5 states that had primaries last night. The top horizontal scrolling results were all Michigan. Then the fucking AI bot that I thought I turned off. Then finally the real results...except the real results were 100% local to my state. My states primaries were months ago. There is no rewsonvehy my search should have yielded anything local to my state, and certainly not the entire first page.

Can someone shed a light onto why it would have done this? It feels invasive, at least with Google I can pretend that they know my location because I told them. But DDG? Nah, shits weird.

Hey, is anyone associated Defcon '26 in here? I read with fascination about this year's badge, and I want one. I'm not able to attend, and TBH it would be wasted on me - it's not my field, or even my particular area of interest - but the technology in the badge looks fantastic and widely useful. Maybe Huang will sell the boards with the chip in the future, but have the Defcon organizers thought about making the detachable part of the badge available to the general public? The badges are configurable to represent special groups - VIPs, speakers, attendees ... maybe sell a badge for non-attendee collectors?

It's a long shot, but I thought it was worth asking the question.

My search for a defcon community came up empty, and I know privacy isn't exactly apropos for my Q but I guess the overlap is pretty large.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/68754751

There was a time I chose Firefox over the Chromium browser without a second thought. But nowadays, installing and opening Firefox seems like a time-consuming, very bloated experience.

Too many unnecessary features, promotions, sponsored links, and widgets are filled on the homepage. Firefox no longer allows deleting default search engines like google, perplexity, etc but can disable it. What kind of privacy feature is that? Also, all the data collection options are ticked by default. Users are needed to manually tweak it their own. Update after update instead of improving they make all the settings more complex, and there is a lot to set up after a fresh installation.

When I compare modern Firefox with 4–5 years behind Firefox, I feel like I am using browsers like Vivaldi or Opera instead of Firefox. Once we praised Firefox for its ram management in Linux but nowadays, it's bloat causes using more ram and not a lightweight option anymore. Seriously, Firefox must consider releasing a browser like Brave Origin (Firefox Origin or something).

Isn't anybody else frustrated with the new Firefox changes? If yes, what practical solutions exist? Debloat using any script or install any forks (no forks seem to be good; some are outdated, some are too much hardened, some are just not for daily browsing, etc.).

I'm just looking for a browser like Ungoogled Chromium but for Firefox (Unmozilla Firefox).

Are you prepared for the day the #internet splits?

On the clearnet you will be

1. Unable to watch porn.

2. Required to give your real name and ID in order to use social media.

3. Arrested for "mean tweets", "anti-government views", "liking subversive memes", etc

4. Only be allowed to use approved applications from Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc

On #Tor and #I2P you can still be free.

What you can do to prepare

1. Set your downlink speed to 10-15mbps to acclimatize yourself

2. Encourage app developers to host their applications on Onion and Eepsite domains. (Git repos, fdroid repos, linux distro repos, etc)

3. Run all applications that support SOCKS5 over the Tor SOCKS port (9050) (#Fdroid, #Signal, #SimpleX, #AntennaPod, etc)

4. Use bookmarks or password manager notes to have the URLs of your commonly used programs, services, and repos (#Monero, #XMRBazaar, #Pitch, #Dread, etc.)

5. Get used to text messages instead of audio or video calls. (Audio and video use UDP and generally give your real IP to either a central STUN server or the other peer. (it may be possible to force audio and video calls over TCP exclusively, but the latency would be high and therefore make the call unenjoyable.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50166453

Most "Smart" TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), essentially taking snapshots every 10+ms of what you watch and hear, then forwarding & selling that data to companies for ads, etc. I now feel it's only a matter of time before this "feature" finds its way to our ever "smarter" PC monitors.

LG with the help of Windows is already installing adware when the right Device ID is detected.

☑️ To disable ACR on TV: https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/how-to-disable-acr-tv/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50169738

All about the safety of the kids¹ they said, All about the safety of users² they said, All about the safety of the citizens³ they said, All about the money, control & power⁴ they left unsaid.

¹ https://mastodon.social/@madeindex/116959510981643276 ² https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/google-plans-to-exempt-sanctioned-nations-from-android-developer-verification/ ³ https://mastodon.social/@madeindex/113301303081128298 ⁴ https://www.gadgetreview.com/reddit-user-uncovers-who-is-behind-metas-2b-lobbying-for-invasive-age-verification-tech https://mastodon.social/@madeindex/116503944072899687

Hi all

I'm using DNS over TLS with Quad9 as my DNS provider.
This works great in most circumstances, but when I want to connect to a public wifi, like at school or in the library, it's not possible to open the Captive portal page, and I can't use the network.

Is there some way to easily make this work? Maybe exclude these networks from private DNS?
Or a way to easily switch between network configurations?

I'm using systemd resolved, but configured with a private dns via my NixOs configuration.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50166453

Most "Smart" TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), essentially taking snapshots every 10+ms of what you watch and hear, then forwarding & selling that data to companies for ads, etc. I now feel it's only a matter of time before this "feature" finds its way to our ever "smarter" PC monitors.

LG with the help of Windows is already installing adware when the right Device ID is detected.

☑️ To disable ACR on TV: https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/how-to-disable-acr-tv/

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12376741

I will be leaving next month.

I see TSA-approved locks.

I don't want to alert trigger-happy guards or whatever.

I will delete all my third-party apps too.

I will also probably just reboot my tablet completely.

Same with my laptop.

Probably my phone too.

Saving my passwords somewhere else too.

I have some other ways to be private that I won't reveal openly unless you want to DM, idk

But honestly, with this new cyclospora going around, I just want to survive the next three or four weeks.

What do you suggest?

I know, after blocking this subdomain youtube watch history won't be tracked (saved) even if user is turned on it in data and privacy section of google account setting.

So, doesn't save watch history also mean youtube doesn't count views of users who block this subdomain ?

Forgive me if this is yesterday's news to some of you, but I just found this amazing replacement for the proprietary Japanese keyboard simeji: sumire

That's all.

Also, if anybody here happens to already use it and know whether it's possible to adjust this somewhat ugly disproportionate toolbar, please advise!