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if only they knew how not-so-techy I really am…

Of all the privacy-related changes I’ve made, Signal is the only thing I’ve managed to get anyone else to use.

It was a matter of saying “I don’t use WhatsApp anymore” and that was that. Some friends didn’t make the switch, but they know where to find me.

Quitting Facebook lead people to believe that I was in need of help, though. They thought I was crazy. Still, today, people ask me why they can’t tag me on FB or why I unfriended them. When I tell them I stopped using FB they’re shocked and say things like, “but you’re such a techy computer nerd guy.”

Quitting Google was confusing for others too.

Anki is a great one. Less invasive than others.

As mentioned, this is a Qualcomm thing. Not exactly spyware, but probably not necessary either.

https://www.qualcomm.com/site/privacy/services

Qualcomm Location Service (formerly “IZat Location Services” or “IZat”) is technology offered by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in the U.S., QT Technologies Ireland Limited in countries within the European Economic Area, and Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (Korea) YH in the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea). Qualcomm Location Service may enable your device to determine its location more quickly and accurately – even when your device is unable to get a strong GPS signal.

Something like the UAD could disable it, or you could use Tracker Control to block it, or straight up use adb to disable it… But, it will run even if disabled.

The package is com.qualcomm.location so,

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.qualcomm.location

will disable it, but it will always come back…

Of course you can haha. They just keep most of the devices locked down because employees aren’t so skilled with computers and tend to mess things up.

I already got in big trouble for that about 6 or 7 years ago. I was teaching a class and one of the IT folks happened by and looked in the window. 10 minutes later my phone was ringing and emails were flying in. No dual booting, Linux in a VM if I want and they need to install it.

I use 3 things on that computer: Notepad++ (I had to ask them to install it because we’re not allowed to d ha ourselves), Firefox, and MuPDF (also needed to ask permission for that one). Now, I can’t complain too much because they gifted the teachers the previous laptops, so I’m assuming they’ll do the same again and it will be mine.

I never turn my work laptop on at home. I don’t even have any bookmarks saved in the browser. I have a .txt file synced using Syncthing that I treat as a perpetual notepad where I keep my links. I don’t think I’ve even turned my work laptop on at home or charged it at home this year.

Of course, these are things I can get away with since I’m a professor. But still, I have received emails asking if I need training on how to use my computer because I have barely used it. They really, really wanted me to use Outlook instead of the webapp for some reason. I never did. But, they were so insistent. Recently we lost the ability to change wallpaper, default browsers and quick launch icons.

Work computers: almost a neat perk.

Editor? Nope. Just several different viewers.

This sounds great;

Reveals how technology has become the new frontier in solving homicides, illustrating the surprising ways that cell phone data, smart watches, fitness trackers, GPS devices, geolocation coordinates, doorbell and traffic cameras, gaming devices, surveillance video, internet searches, apps, and social media messages can be the critical clues in murder investigations.

Okay, some of it might be fear mongering and I’m sure someone will say it is teaching people how to get away with crime… But it sounds like a neat show.

Yup. Overkill. But, thankfully extension removal is just a click away. More users should ask questions like this.

Sometimes you cannot, because that’s jus how the app is made.

All those system things you might as well ignore unless you root your phone or learn some adb-fu (it isn’t hard but the first time doing causes sweaty palms).

Hypatia is interesting, but you might not need to have it running permanently.

If your Samsung is fresh off the shelf, there is likely some bloatware on it. Apps that canot be deleted.

If you are very serious about being a little more private and a little more secure, you could do some of the following.

• factory reset your device and then use adb (or the Universal Android Debloater https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater) to remove the recommended Google and OEM apps.
  • factory reset optional
• you won’t be able to remove trackers, and some of them are just there for bug reporting. Being aware of them is good. There are several apps that can prevent the trackers from reporting (Tracker Controller, host blockers like InviZible Pro, etc.)
• practice good habits: 2FA (Aegis) and password management (Bitwarden), avoid using biometric data when you can, E2EE, etc.
• change email providers (maybe)

Take it slow though. There is a reason why they call this a rabbit hole and it can be daunting to figure it all out.

Similar to what you want but not open source (I think) is Magic Earth which uses OSM I believe…

https://www.magicearth.com/

Never used this but it is mentioned from time to time.

They are posting from Mastodon

If there were something fishy about a Linux file manager, I’m sure someone would have raised the alarms…

As for Ubuntu, I’m sure there are videos and articles about that very topic stemming from its popularity. I don’t use Ubuntu, but for desktop usage I see more people recommend Fedora (which I also don’t use) and lots of hate for Snaps.

If you are serious about privacy, you’ll come to find varying opinions on whether or not Linux is privacy respecting. Overall, it is a start. Beyond the base install you’d want to get into containers and immutable distributions which I have no experience with.

2019 isn’t terribly old. Just installing Linux serve as a panacea for all of your security woes.

You’ll probably want to (or not want to, depending on who you ask) use UEFI. You’ll want to harden and containerise and use firewalls and so on… Depends on your threat model.

But, the fundamental question is that you can install Linux and as long as you keep it up to date, a large number of vulnerabilities will be covered. Just not all.

If you don’t have a Google account (my situation) it is great.

After you switch, don’t forget to install extra icons

https://aegis-icons.github.io/

or

https://github.com/alexbakker/aegis-simple-icons

I am partial to Markor

I use it everyday in combination with Syncthing to stay organised.

I’ve lived here since 2006 and I haven’t met a single person that participated in any of the riots, which are offshoots of sanctioned strikes and do not represent France as a whole. I’ve had some students that strike for the environment or maybe do walkouts.

The closest I came to one was a strike about police violence and I happened to be in a café and had to evacuate because of year gas. In that instance, it turned out the person they were striking for lied.

So, I can’t say why they want to destroy stuff.