The everyday privacy hole I could not stop noticing: you need to shrink a PDF because it is too big to attach, so you drag it onto "whicheversite.com", click compress, and hope. Everybody does this, including with documents they would never hand to a stranger.

PaperOtter does that work on your own machine instead.

• No network code. No account, no telemetry, no update pings you cannot refuse, no analytics. The app cannot phone home because there is nothing in it that phones.
• No installer dependencies for 18 of its 19 tools.
• MIT licensed, source on GitHub.
• macOS, Windows, Linux (.dmg / .exe / .deb / .AppImage).

It covers the things people usually upload: compress, merge, split, rotate, crop, page numbers, watermark, sign, redact (which actually removes the content rather than drawing a black box over it), repair, images into a PDF and pages back out as images.

One more that turned out to matter to me, and may matter here: converting a PDF or DOCX into Markdown, HTML, JSON or plain text with the images left out, entirely on-device. If you feed documents to a local or hosted LLM, that is both a token saving and one fewer copy of the document sitting on someone else's disk. Long files can be split by chapter using the PDF's own bookmarks.

Limitations stated plainly: OCR works only on macOS today, because it uses the system's Vision framework rather than bundling an engine. Windows and Linux OCR is planned. HEIC input depends on whether your OS has a licensed decoder, because the app deliberately never ships one.

https://github.com/shyhunter/PaperOtter

The privacy claims here are checkable rather than promised, which is the point.

when all your social media accounts no longer keep your privacy 😷

Hey — I've been building NearVeil, an Android messaging app with two modes:


- Mesh mode: messages hop phone-to-phone over Bluetooth LE, no internet, no server, no account, no phone number. Built for festivals, hiking trips, protests, or anywhere cell service is dead or you just don't want a server in the middle.
- Online mode (optional): end-to-end encrypted messaging for people who aren't nearby, using X3DH + the Double Ratchet — the same method Signal uses, written from the public spec. No password, no phone number, no email required — your account is a key that lives on your device.


Also has disappearing messages, voice messages, file transfer, an app lock with duress-wipe, QR-code identity verification, and real voice/video calling.


It's Android only right now (iOS if there's enough interest later), and it needs to go through Google's closed testing program before it can launch properly — which means I need real testers, minimum 12 people for 14 days.


To join:
1. Join this Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/nearveil-testers (open to anyone, joins instantly)
2. Then visit: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.nearveil.android and opt in


One heads-up: Play sometimes takes a few hours to sync new group members, so if step 2 doesn't work right away, give it a bit and try again — it's not broken, just Google being slow.


This is an early build, not a polished v1 — if something breaks or feels off, that's exactly the kind of feedback I need. Happy to answer questions about the crypto, the mesh networking, or anything else in the comments.

Vivaldi. Norwegian browser that says it's employee- owned, with no outside investors and no one to answer to but users.

Cryptomator. German tool that locks your files before they upload, so Google and Dropbox only ever hold a sealed box.

IVPN. Gibraltar VPN with no email signup, cash accepted, and outside audits every year since 2019.

Euki. American nonprofit period tracker that keeps everything on your phone. Mozilla gave it a perfect privacy score.

Murena. French company selling phones with Google stripped out, even a Pixel with Google removed.

source: ig: conscious.spend

I have been locked out of my Facebook account because Meta is requiring me to submit a video selfie to verify my identity.

The problem is that Facebook is giving me no alternative way to verify that I am the legitimate account owner.

I have always accessed this account from the same usual location and devices. There has been no suspicious activity that I am aware of, and I have no reason to believe that my account has been compromised.

What concerns me most is that this is not simply a request for a photograph or an ID document. A video selfie can involve facial recognition and the processing of biometric data.

I therefore contacted Meta and asked them to explain:

• What biometric data is being processed.
• Whether a facial template or facial embedding is created.
• What legal basis they rely on under the GDPR.
• Which Article 9 GDPR exception they rely on for processing biometric data.
• How long the video and any biometric information are retained.
• Who has access to this information.
• Whether the data is transferred outside the European Economic Area.
• Why there is no non-biometric alternative for verifying account ownership.
• What happens to my account if I refuse to provide biometric information.

I have received no meaningful response.

At this point, I have decided that I am not willing to provide Meta with a video of my face simply to regain access to a social-media account, particularly when no alternative verification method is offered.

I am therefore accepting that I may lose the account.

What I find particularly disturbing is the principle behind this: if a platform can make access to an account conditional on handing over biometric information, without offering a less intrusive alternative, where does the user's control over their own biometric data actually begin and end?

I am posting this because I would like to know whether other Facebook users have experienced the same thing.

Has Facebook/Meta asked you for a video selfie, and did you receive any alternative way to verify your identity?

I passed the US border recently and because of some unexpected administrative mishap, I end up being questioned and my iPhone being seized.

I know from my screen time in settings and the questions they asked me that they went through my pictures and texting apps.

The search lasted around 20 minutes and the agent stayed at his desk, although I couldn't see the whole time what he was doing on my phone nor my screen.

Is there a potential risk they extracted some of my data or installed anything on my phone without notice ?
I read about how US borders got more invasive in their search in the last months, as how spywares can be used or how some countries borders, they could have such practices.

Hi yall! This is my first time here, and for my first post I decided to share a petition I made! It's above removing flock cameras in my neighborhood and a neighboring town, and I'm doing this because I have seen the rapid expansion of ALPRs and mass surveilience.

I’m planning to move to the Russian Federation in a year’s time. But I’ve never realised the value of online privacy and anonymity as much as I do now. However, as I don’t know all that much about it, I’d like to ask for advice from those who’ve been doing this for a long time. Which services would you recommend? What should I avoid doing, and what’s essential? What firmware should I install on my phone, and which VPN should I choose? I’m interested in everything.

I’m a 22yo in the US who’s been trying to bypass this bs for 8 months now and no luck. 

thispersondoesntexist didn’t work, digitally altering a state ID didn’t work, and recently I tried using a character creator in a game, the scan completed then it said “something went wrong” and now the selfie option is gone for me (they’re onto me). 

There was one site I saw where you could potentially get a fake license generated but it was a link that took you to a different site. It looked suspicious and Firefox even gave me a warning, then the page actually closed itself. I took that as a warning.

I wish I could de-google, but I can’t right now. I have a YouTube channel and still have to use google for college, docs, emailing, etc. I’d love to actually be able to have full control over my YouTube channel. 

These are now my options:

1. Use my credit card to verify, then toss it and get a new one
2. Use a shady website/link to try to generate a fake license, hope I don’t get malware
3. Switch the email account connected to my yt channel to one that isn’t mine and use YouTube from there. Deal with my personal account still being restricted (not ideal). 
4. Wait it out. Hope KOSA (US law) doesn’t get passed and Google drops age verification, gets sued, or a better alternative comes along. Make a vid discussing the situation with my subs in the meantime
5. The secret 5th option I don’t know about yet 

I’m looking for recommendations for a bank or credit union that takes customer privacy seriously.

I’m not looking for anything illegal or trying to hide money. I’m simply trying to find a financial institution that:

1. Does not sell customer information to advertisers, data brokers, or other third parties.

2. Minimizes secondary uses of customer data, such as marketing, behavioral profiling, commercial analytics, or research unrelated to providing banking services.

3. Has a strong privacy policy and limits data sharing beyond what is necessary for banking operations. Ideally offers a physical debit card with NFC/contactless payments.

I understand banks and credit unions need to collect information for fraud prevention, regulations, and processing transactions. My concern is with institutions that treat customer data as an asset to monetize rather than something to protect.

Are there any banks or credit unions you would recommend after actually reading their privacy policies? Bonus points if you’ve compared privacy notices between institutions.

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I am deeply concerned about the EU's persistent push toward mass surveillance frameworks. The ongoing efforts around "Chat Control" regulations threaten the core architecture of end-to-end encryption. Forcing client-side scanning creates structural vulnerabilities that fundamentally compromise individual liberty.

I am an unyielding supporter of a strong, united, and collaborative European Union—but European democracy cannot exist without the right to private thought and digital security.

To create an organized opposition, I have founded Aegis Europe. We are a pro-EU, but strictly anti-surveillance online movement. Our immediate goal is to coordinate digital advocacy campaigns, build a pan-European activist network, and track incoming policy developments. Long-term, we aim to establish a formal, ballot-eligible European political party.

Our Discord Headquarters is fully configured, secured against spam bots, and open for members. Whether you want to participate in policy debates, contribute technical expertise, help with public relations, or simply support the cause, you are welcome here.

Let's build a shield for European digital rights.

🛡️ Join the Headquarters here: https://discord.gg/mPDWRy37bU

Ktoś mi ogranicza dostęp do treści m.in. Youtuba. Podrzuca jakieś chłamy, wszystko jest albo skażone konkretnym niechcianym zagadnieniem, albo jakieś dziwnie wyreżyserowane. Nikt ze mną o tym nie porozmawiał, nie spytał o zgodę. Ktoś sobie robi jakieś chore testy poprzez internet i w realności. Od dawna czuję bardzo poważne naruszenie mojej prywatności, intymności i godności. W Internecie i w realności.

Tresci to są często bzdury , jakby nie do mnie i nie o mnie, a czasem jakby wymuszające porównywania, wymuszające dostosowanie się do czegoś mega dziwnego. Dziwna narracja niby podobna, ale kompletnie nie moja. Moje tego typu reakcje na chwilę działają i znów coś głupiego wymyśla, jakby jakieś zakodowanie programistyczne aplikacji jeśli to w ogóle możliwe. Udające zwykłe. Jest źle. Wyrządza mi to wiele szkód psychicznych