Airvpn doesn’t require any personal information. I mean… I guess it asked for a name or whatever, but it doesn’t verify any of it. I certainly didn’t give it anything legitimate, and I paid with mixed crypto so it certainly has as little personal information on me as would be possible with a vpn.

What gives ivpn, mullvad and nym the advantage for the personal info section?

That and the need of an android or iphone in order to create an account… ;[

Who you are specifically (name etc) and the same amount of information on everyone you have talked to on signal and when you talked. Basically everything except for the actual content of the messages.

This is disturbing that this comment is down voted to -11, at the time of my reading, on a service that is specifically designed for people who value privacy. Is it because of some government bot, or are enough people really that emotionally attached to this product that despite the clear logic they are reacting in discomfort?

I don’t know which option is more disturbing.

I get that a lot of people don’t really value privacy that much, and are only interested in making a half hearted attempt. That is fine. But why the gross amount of denial? Why not just be honest that they think it is good enough for them, and not worth changing.

Just the fact that signal can, and we can assume, does share all the other data outside of the actual message content is a big deal.

You’re just not going to go to the extra effort of requiring a phone number and storing that information if your business model isn’t dependent on selling that information to parties who would want it. That takes a lot more effort than just giving out username/password pairs.

And given their scale and length of time they have been around, it is guaranteed that they have been complying for some time.

It is so ironic that we run into so much cognitive dissonance on this issue. It is so weird that people have such an emotional attachment to this product.

I don’t know about lavabit specifically, but typically encrypted emails are encrypted on your client computer and decrypted on the recipient’s computer. It is conceptually the same thing as an “end to end encrypted chat app”… just in email form.

It wouldn’t work very well if it wasn’t.

Anonymity is a very big part of privacy and always has been. That is why you don’t write your name on your voting ballot.

Been saying this for many many years and always get blank stares in response. All the more annoying when its for use in groups that are all about privacy and they only want to use telegram.

However, it does make me happy to finally see someone else say it. So, thanks for that.

I have experience with airvpn on linux. They have a couple different client options as well as being able to config files for both openvpn and wireguard. All of which I have used and haven’t had any notable challenges using.

I’m celebrating!

As a linux phone guy this is good news. Any more pushing towards a more solid linux phone environment is a big plus.

Completely automatic should be one of the options. Not just ‘reminders’ and ‘don’t check’. I know that I used to use it several years ago.

Thank you!! That is exactly what I was looking for.

That is a big help. I was stuck on the idea that that option wasn’t available when making a new doc and didn’t think to look under the change mode menu.

Yep. Even have this problem with people who agree that it is a bad idea and that google/etc is tracking them. I struggle to admit it, but I think many people are just sheep. Or probably lemmings. I think the last few years have shown that many people really will walk off that cliff if they think “everyone” else is, even if they know the cliff is there and the bottom is way way down there. It looks like they can’t help themselves.

Curious about what wasn’t working with matrix? and how XMPP is comparing? I haven’t used XMPP in like over a decade. Is it still about the same? Better? I don’t think I was that aware of its group abilities. Mostly used it with one friend back in the N900 days where it was built in. How does the excryption compare? about the same if you choose the right option? You got a favorite linux client?

(I know I am pestering you with too many questions, feel free to ignore)

Not haunted by legacy identifiers like phone numbers,

That is a very solid point that all too few people consider. (I’m looking at you telegram!)

I think that as a photo editor, GIMP is the best option for open source. But as a print designer the lack of being able to work in CMYK and 1 bit images is a big problem.

Fortunately Krita does the CMYK thing extremely well, but it also lacks the ability to handle 1 bit images.

Wondering if anyone out there has discovered a lesser known open source app that works with 1 bit images well? Maybe something made for old school pixel art?

It seems strange to me, since even a more modern format like png supports 1 bit.

To be fair… that is more of a MS Paint kind of tool. I’ve been using Photoshop professionally for over 3 decades and I don’t think I have ever used it. It took me a bit just to find it just now. Don’t think I’ve ever used the rectangle tool either. A vector editing program like inkscape/illustrator or scribus/indesign are better tools for that kind of thing.

With that said. GIMP does have an ellipse selection tool, and that is something that I use often enough. And if you really wanted to draw a circle in a pixel pusher program you could just use that tool, invert it and delete on a separate layer.

I found this to be the most interesting part:

You might think this sounds like it violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause. Well, so does the American Civil Liberties Union. Norfolk, Virginia Judge Jamilah LeCruise also agrees, and in 2024 she ruled that plate-reader data obtained without a search warrant couldn’t be used against a defendant in a robbery case.

Last time I read about this issue was before this happened. Finally the ball is bouncing back a little. Hope to see more of it.