Notices by Em :official_verified: (em0nm4stodon@infosec.exchange), page 3

Do you know any good alternatives to Ghost for blog websites that:

1. Federates
2. Allows to collect donations
3. Don't collect more data than the minimum required to run the service

#AskFedi #Blog #Blogging #OpenSource #Fediverse

It's heartbreaking to see that there's a growing number of people who no longer feel safe in their own home or country.

Unfortunately, for people in precarious situations, digital footprints of all kind can be enough to threaten safety.

Whether you know someone who is a victim of domestic violence, a queer person living in a hostile environment, or a human rights activist located in regions adverse to their cause, Tails might be able to help.

Here's a beginner-friendly guide on how to install Tails, for yourself or for others.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/01/29/installing-and-using-tails/

#Privacy #Tails #Tor #TransSafety #DomesticViolence #LGBTQ #Democracy #HumanRights #Censorship

Age verification laws forcing platforms to restrict content access have been multiplying exponentially.

The problem is, implementing such measures necessarily requires identifying every user accessing the content, one way or another.

This is bad news for everyone.

If these regulations continue
to proliferate, this could lead to the end of pseudonymity online, and much worse.

I wrote this article last year,
but unfortunately this problem has only become worse, and it is sadly still very relevant.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/06/age-verification-wants-your-face/

#Privacy #AgeVerification #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

@codinghorror Each time I hear about LinkedIn, I'm happier I deleted my account there years ago. Let's see if I can find a job without LinkedIn for the second time. I really hope I never have to have a LinkedIn account ever again.

You might have heard of Tor already,
yet never dared to try it yourself.

Despite being around for decades,
Tor is still a tool too few people know about. Tor is essential to journalists, activists, whistleblowers, dissidents, and people in vulnerable situations everywhere.

Thanks to Tor, activists have a safe way to continue fighting for human rights and resist censorship from oppressive regimes.

Here's how Tor works,
and why you should support it.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/04/30/in-praise-of-tor/

#Privacy #Activism #Tor #DigitalRights

Miserably calculating for my taxes how much I paid in domain names last year 🫣

In privacy, we talk a lot about how to protect our own data,

But what about our responsibility to protect the data of others?

If you care about privacy rights, you must also care for the data of the people around you.

To make privacy work, we need to develop a culture that normalizes caring for everyone's data, not just our own.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/03/10/the-privacy-of-others/

#Privacy #Consent #HumanRights

When you read about Bans of Social Media for Teens and Age Verification, you must remember what it truly means:

• Official identification of every adult using social media.

• Deanonymization of every account, endangering groups that often rely on pseudonymity for safety, such as victims of domestic violence, victims of stalkers, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.

• Putting every adult at great danger of exploitation, fraud, and identity theft by forcing them to share their official ID with a for-profit third-party company with no incentive to protect it. Breaches have already happened.

• Constructing a system of mass surveillance to attach every comment on social media to a legal identity. Effectively allowing authoritarian governments to silence their critics and opposition.

• Potential for dystopian censorship and cutting off means of organization for groups of resistance to oppressive regime and organizations.

• Endangering children online by putting a clear identification beacon over every child or family with children online.

• Endangering the data of children who will inevitably try to pass as adults, and have their information collected by the third-party for-profit company.

• Diminishing the value of official identification due to the inevitable data breaches, eventually pushing the system to require even more intrusive identification techniques, such as iris scans and fingerprints.

• Installing a system of mass surveillance capable of attaching even more information to everyone's legal identity. With a potential to built list of people in certain groups, and scale-up state censorship and discrimination in unprecedented ways.

• The list goes on and on.

This isn't about protecting the children.
It never was.

Do not be duped by this excuse used to convince you to let go of your human rights. They are only trying to manipulate people lacking information.

Stay informed on the issues related to Age Verification, and push back for your rights to privacy and democracy.

The future depends on us.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism

The horror of Age Verification is
arriving in Canada 🚨🇨🇦

Contact your federal MP and the office of the Prime Minister this week to tell them you strongly oppose the privacy-destroying and inefficient measure.

The time to push back is NOW: https://globalnews.ca/news/11797286/liberal-party-adopts-motion-social-media-ban-kids/

'Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month that the idea “merits an open and considered debate in Canada,” although he does not have a settled view on it yet and said there were good points on both sides.'

Shared educational resources with them on the dangers of Age Verification: https://www.eff.org/age

We do NOT want this nightmare in Canada. Fight back for your privacy rights! ✊🔒

#AgeVerification #Privacy #DigitalRights #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #Canada #CanPoli #CndPol

If a human right is in the way of your "innovative" technology, the expected solution should be to modify your technology to respect this human right, not to reduce the protections to this human right.

Technology and innovation must be in service of humanity, not the other way around.

#HumanRights #DigitalRights #Privacy #AI

"Texting a stranger is better for reducing loneliness than an AI chatbot, study finds"

From CTV News: https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/texting-a-stranger-is-better-for-reducing-loneliness-than-an-ai-chatbot-study-finds/

"The study found that only those who texted with a fellow human reported feeling less lonely at the end of the experiment.

'We thought that interacting with AI might be as helpful as texting with a random fellow first-year student,' said the study’s author, psychology PhD candidate Ruo-Ning Li, in a media release.

'But to our surprise, only the human-to-human texting reduced loneliness over time. The chatbot, even though we designed it to be the ideal supportive friend, didn’t shift loneliness.'"

#NoAI #Loneliness

If you have missed reading my articles,
know that there were 25 new mini-articles just published that I have personally written for Privacy Guides' new Activism section.

Those are all tips to support privacy advocacy work and actions, both for individuals and organizations.

Check #PrivacyActivistToolbox for the links to see them all 🧰👀

#Privacy #Activism

@Tutanota This is unbelievable. They literally cannot take no for an answer 🙄

First they ask for your date of birth,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your full name and location,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for a copy of your passport,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your facial scan,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your fingerprints,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for your palm scan,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for a scan of your iris,
but later they claim it's not enough.

Then they ask for ...

#MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism #AgeVerification #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights

The goal isn't to protect children,
the goal is to de-anonymize every comment and action on the internet, associating it with a legal ID, by eventually requesting official identification from every adult using a computer.

Some politicians have already stated this plainly.

This leads to censorship of anyone criticizing their government.

This leads to repression of marginalized people, especially immigrants, people of color, and trans and gender diverse people.

This leads to self-censorship of any comments or actions that could be interpreted against the system. Such as speaking out against fascism and authoritarian surveillance, or defending human rights publicly.

This leads to total control of the population and its tools of communications.

This leads to the end of democracy, centralizing power even more in the hands of a few.

Do not let them do this to us.

#MassSurveillance #AgeVerification #Authoritarianism #HumanRights

Today I just bought a hardcover copy of The AI Con, written by @alex and @emilymbender.

I'm so glad I heard about this book. I can't wait to start reading it! :blobcatreading:

#Bookstodon #Tech #NoAI #DigitalRights #HumanRights

Thinking about that time someone called me a "sweet summer child" and I very much feel like calling me a "bitter winter elder" would be so much more appropriate.

@promovicz It is now, Witch Prom 🤘

The age-assurance industry shouldn't exist.

Stop age verification now, and tell your governments and service providers they cannot trust these predatory corporations.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance

Whenever you hear "ban for kids" on the internet, read in reality "ID collection by a sketchy third-party company that will definitely use it or leak it or both for every adult."

Because that's what this truly means.
Also, it doesn't even help the kids.

#AgeVerification #Privacy #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism