Privacy

Having gotten rid of my sole multimedia editing machine – a 2018 MacBook Pro – and tried but failed to implement a workflow on my computer, I set out and tried a different approach with the Google Pixel Tablet. Instead of using Google’s Android, however, I’m running GrapheneOS. This is a brief review of my experience with the De-Googled Pixel Tablet.

Going off-the-grid with an add-on for the Star Labs StarBook – and pretty much every other laptop – that adds situational awareness through various sensors and removes the need for privacy-invasive cloud services for things like GPS positioning and current temperature.

The Google Pixel 9 has just been released, making this probably the best time to snap up its predecessor, the Pixel 8 – a solid phone with years-long software support – and switch to GrapheneOS along the way!

Would you like to have ChatGPT summarize YouTube videos for you, but without OpenAI knowing the lewd content that you’re watching, or paying them an arm and a leg for it? You can, and it’s actually fairly straightforward.

In the world of file synchronization, most people are familiar with services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. These centralized cloud solutions are convenient but come with privacy concerns and potential security risks. What if I told you that to synchronize files between individual devices, you don’t need the cloud™ ?

While I’m critical towards the Signal messenger, I understand that network effects are strong and even though many people would much rather prefer a different platform, it’s not easy to get friends and family onto something better. In this brief write-up, I’ll introduce an alternative Signal client to make using Signal at least slightly less troublesome.

A brief guide on installing Gentoo Linux with Full Disk Encryption and the hardened profile, with SELinux, on the Star Labs StarBook Mk VI.

Let’s set up and run our own “private Twitter” on Nostr, a simple, open protocol that enables truly censorship-resistant publishing on the web!

According to my analytics dashboard, there’s a 70% chance you’re reading this on your phone. Maybe at home, or maybe while commuting to work, using your mobile data connection, for which you’ve probably signed up on a mobile contract. A contract for which you had to prove that you are you, likely by showing your national ID or passport. A contract for which you have to pay regularly, probably using a bank account that you also had to identify yourself for upon opening.

An overview of privacy-focused, decentralized, open source alternatives to popular non-free spyware instant messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Apple iMessage.