@Sal@mander.xyz
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Sal

@Sal@mander.xyz

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Privacy Concerns on Lemmy: A Call for More User Control (github.com)

I’ve been grappling with a concern that I believe many of us share: the lack of privacy controls on Lemmy. As it stands, our profiles are public, and all our posts and comments are visible to anyone who cares to look. I don’t even care about privacy all that much, but this level of transparency feels to me akin to sharing my...

Sal,
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Do you see a random nickname from a stranger, or a nickname of an account that was previously logged into using the same computer?

What is an open account sharing channel?

Sal,
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I think we might see one or more “trusted fediverse” groups emerge in the next few years, with instance admins making commitments to security controls, moderation, code of conduct, etc.

There is now at least one system in place for admins to vouch for other instances being non-malicious, and to report suspected instances. It is called the fediseer: gui.fediseer.com

Sal,
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I will also pay close attention and see if I can catch that happening.

Sal, (edited )
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Thanks. I noticed and reset the server a few minutes ago.

Something has been off recently. The CPU is spiking and the RAM gets used up, which crashes the pict-rs container. The pict-rs won’t reconnect until I reset the lemmy Docker container.

I doubled the RAM and added one core, but that was not enough to stop this problem, which means that whatever is causing these spikes is unconstrained. I need to look more deeply into Docker memory management to see if I can limit RAM usage such that the crash can be avoided while remaining functional.

Sal, (edited )
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Yes, sorry. It is a problem that started over the weekend. I thought I had patched it by doubling the server’s RAM and adding a core, but that was not enough. Some process is causing the RAM use to spike and the image backend is crashing because of that.

Sal,
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Thanks. I have looked into it a bit more and I think that it is the postgres database grabbing all the memory it can. I have set a hard limit for the postgres container. Hopefully this resolves the problem!

Sal,
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You can set up a personalized RSS feed with Feeder. It will take a bit of effort to set up, but you can create a feed that is very well tailored to your interests. You can get news feeds but also subscribe to other kinds of content, like scientific publications and financial statements.

I have an issue with how SIM cards are handled in most countries

Almost all countries require official authentication to activate a SIM card. This seems to me as a huge privacy problem, if the country can track sim cards across cell towers and connect them to a person. It seems like a dystopian system, that we litterely can not hide from our governments without turning off our smartphones. It...

Sal,
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I have the Tianje MF903 (nl.aliexpress.com/item/32719535459.html), which I bought early 2022.

But just now I have done a search and I see many more pocket wifi routers now. Unfortunately I can’t tell you if they work well, or if it is also possible to change their IMEI easily. The one I have is functional, but it doesn’t have a very long battery life.

Sal,
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Almost all countries require official authentication to activate a SIM card.

Fortunately not in the Netherlands. I don’t think that’s the case in the rest of the EU. I can use free sim cards as much as I want!

When communicating with cell towers, a phone will also broadcast its unique IMEI identifier. So, even if you swap the SIM card every day, your IMEI is still being broadcast the same.

Changing the IMEI of a phone in the EU is illegal, unless the manufacturer consents: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/31/section/1

So… I have a Chinese 4G mobile router, and the manufacturer gives me the permission to change the IMEI as it is an integrated feature of the device. I use that for my data. The data codes I purchase small quantities in bulk with cash, and I can access the router via its ip from my phone’s browser to send the SMS messages to activate the data codes as needed. Since WiFi connections are abundant around here I keep these codes for emergencies. I can go a few months some time without activating data codes. I mostly use them when traveling internationally.

Sal,
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I think that it works, but for it to work you need to enable Google Play services. From what I understand, this is done in a sandboxed manner simulating a fake identity, so it is possible to do this while isolating Google from your phone to an extent. But I think that WhatsApp is in itself problematic and one of the direct offenders that I want to avoid, regardless of its reliance on Google Play services, and so I have not gone through this effort myself.

Sal,
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I am not sure as I did not test this one. Maybe you can go in person and get a worker to get you access to the kiosk through your account to print the card. It is one of those massive chains with gyms in every corner. I think that by now they rely on their digital infrastructure and many of their workers are not trained to handle uncommon situations. At least I get that from some of my experiences, but I could be wrong, maybe if I would have called them could have helped me with this. It was just easier to get the app into my old phone, print a card, delete the app.

Sal,
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I made the switch when I got a new phone. So I kept both the old phone with android and the new phone with GrapheneOS. There was a transition period when I would bring both phones with me, just in case. Now my old phone is my “whatsapp” phone which I keep at home and turn on rarely. During the transition period I used my old phone number whenever I needed to provide my phone to use a service, but eventually I transitioned that to a VoIP. But, even then, many services will reject VoIP phone numbers, so I still make use of the old one.

I had to request a special scanner from my bank because the banking apps do not work with GrapheneOS. And I had to make sure that nothing important goes into my gmail anymore because google would request that I used my old phone 2FA in the most inconvenient moments, and also I don’t want to access google from my GrapheneOS phone.

I think that there are many annoyances that can and probably will happen if you try to jump right into GrapheneOS after having previously relied in the google/meta ecosystem. If you attempt to switch too quickly you might inadvertently lose access to your bank, and you might become suddenly unable to communicate with family and friends. My government’s online identification system requires that I use their app, which runs on google services, so I still have to use my old phone for that. And I have encountered situations in which the only reasonably convenient way to proceed is to download an app. For example, recently I registered for a gym that would then require me to use their google-store app so that I could identify myself when purchasing a physical card.

Sal,
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And the audacity to talk about metadata when Telegram accounts still require a phone number today (as they did five years ago when this post was written) is just… 🤯

Not only that, but I believe that they actively try to prevent VoIP numbers from being used to create accounts.

Sal,
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That’s a really cool looking statue!

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