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Show HN: Simple Video Resizer for iOS. No ads/tracking/in-app purchases
6 months ago
- iOS app to resize videos for saving space or uploading to sites with size limits
- Initially developed in UIKit due to lack of stock iOS options
- Later adapted using an LLM with SwiftUI for faster development
- No ads, in-app purchases, tracking, or data collection
Denmark reportedly withdraws Chat Control proposal following controversy
6 months ago
- Denmark withdraws its push for an EU law requiring mandatory scanning of electronic messages, including encrypted platforms.
- The proposal, known as Chat Control, aimed to combat child sex abuse materials (CSAM) but faced backlash.
- Germany's refusal to support the proposal led Denmark to abandon the effort.
- Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard announced support for voluntary CSAM detection instead.
- The current voluntary scanning model expires in April, raising concerns about losing a tool against child abuse.
- Signal Foundation's president opposed the measure, threatening to leave the EU market if it passed, citing mass surveillance concerns.
Rivian's onboard cameras save owner from a false accusation by police
6 months ago
- Police in Colorado’s Columbine Valley falsely accused a woman of being a 'porch pirate' based on Flock camera data.
- The accused, Chrisanna Elser, used her Rivian truck's onboard cameras to prove her innocence.
- The police officer, Jamie Milliman, aggressively confronted Elser without proper evidence and declined her offer to provide exonerating footage.
- Flock's surveillance technology has raised privacy concerns among organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU.
- Elser was eventually cleared after weeks of effort, but received no apology for the wrongful accusation.
- The incident highlights issues with police reliance on surveillance technology and the presumption of innocence.
- The story underscores the dystopian potential of unchecked surveillance and police power.
Chat Control proposal fails again after public opposition
6 months ago
- The EU Council withdrew the controversial Chat Control proposal again due to public opposition.
- Chat Control would have mandated scanning of encrypted messages, raising privacy concerns.
- Privacy advocates and technical experts argue the proposal misunderstands encryption technology.
- The proposal has been repeatedly reintroduced with minor changes despite consistent opposition.
- Client-side scanning, a key part of Chat Control, fundamentally weakens encryption security.
- Security experts warn that scanning systems can be exploited by malicious actors.
- Public pressure and coalition-building have been effective in opposing the proposal.
- Policymakers need alternative solutions for online safety that don’t compromise encryption.
- The fight against Chat Control is ongoing, as the proposal may resurface in the future.
Policy, privacy and post-quantum: anonymous credentials for everyone
6 months ago
- The way we interact with the Internet is evolving, with AI agents performing tasks like ordering pizza or planning vacations.
- AI agents are powered by massive models in datacenters, leading to shifts in web traffic patterns and security challenges.
- Existing security tools may be too coarse-grained, risking blocking legitimate users alongside malicious ones.
- Anonymous credentials (AC) are proposed as a privacy-preserving solution for managing AI agent traffic without identifying users.
- Cloudflare is developing a simple AI agent to demonstrate ordering pizza, highlighting the potential and challenges of agentic AI.
- The post discusses the limitations of current tools like Privacy Pass and introduces Anonymous Credit Tokens (ACT) and Anonymous Rate-limited Credential (ARC) as more flexible solutions.
- Anonymous credentials offer features like late origin-binding and multi-show capabilities, improving upon blind signatures and VOPRFs.
- Performance comparisons show that anonymous credentials can reduce communication costs and server load compared to traditional methods.
- A demo using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) illustrates how anonymous credentials can be integrated into real-world applications like ordering pizza.
- Cloudflare is actively working on deploying these solutions and encourages participation from the community in standardizing these protocols.
Why should I accept all cookies?
6 months ago
- The author recounts upgrading their company's internal software in 2013, addressing security vulnerabilities, particularly moving away from plain text passwords.
- Despite appearing secure, the system had a fundamental flaw: an attacker could easily access the entire user table, revealing that their security measures were largely performative.
- The author draws a parallel between their company's security theater and a 9-year-old boy who bypassed TSA security measures, highlighting the illusion of security in both scenarios.
- Modern cookie consent banners are criticized as another form of security theater, often designed with dark patterns to nudge users toward accepting all cookies rather than rejecting them.
- The author points out the lack of tangible benefits for users who accept non-essential cookies, framing the interaction as a rigged game favoring corporate surveillance.
- Options like 'Reject All' are often buried under tedious customization menus, making 'Accept All' the path of least resistance.
- The author shares personal tactics to bypass cookie banners, such as using browser developer tools to delete the banner elements entirely.
- The current implementation of cookie consent is described as privacy theater, complying with regulations like GDPR in letter but not in spirit.
- The author concludes by emphasizing the lack of user incentives in cookie tracking and suggests using tools like uBlock to avoid the banners altogether.
S.T.O.P. Sue NYPD for 'Domain Awareness' Surveillance System
6 months ago
- ECBAWM and S.T.O.P. filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the NYPD's Domain Awareness System (DAS).
- The DAS is a surveillance system that aggregates data from cameras, license plate readers, and other spyware without warrants.
- Plaintiffs Pamela Wridt and Robert Sauve allege the DAS violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
- The lawsuit claims the DAS turns every street and home into a site of government monitoring.
- Plaintiffs report emotional and physical harm due to constant surveillance, including worsened health conditions.
- The lawsuit coincides with S.T.O.P.'s report 'Dragnet City,' detailing the DAS's privacy violations.
- The NYPD has spent over $400 million on the DAS, with much of the spending previously hidden from the public.
- The lawsuit highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on communities of color and immigrants.
The Legal Case Against Ring's Face Recognition Feature
6 months ago
- Amazon Ring plans to introduce 'Familiar Faces,' a face recognition feature for home surveillance cameras.
- The feature scans faces of all people approaching the camera, including those who haven't consented, raising privacy concerns.
- Biometric privacy laws in many states require affirmative consent before face recognition can be used.
- Amazon states the feature will be off by default and unavailable in jurisdictions with strict biometric privacy laws like Illinois, Texas, and Portland, Oregon.
- Biometric data, such as faceprints, are highly sensitive and pose risks like mass surveillance, data breaches, and discrimination.
- Ring's partnership with police increases the potential for mass surveillance and misuse of the technology.
- Amazon processes and stores biometric data on its servers, claiming robust security measures are in place.
- Face recognition technology has higher error rates for certain groups, such as dark-skinned women.
- Amazon faces legal risks in states with strict biometric privacy laws, as seen in past lawsuits against similar features by Google and Facebook.
- Many states now have comprehensive privacy laws requiring opt-in consent for biometric data collection, but enforcement varies.
Dillo, a multi-platform graphical web browser
6 months ago
- Dillo is a fast, lightweight, multi-platform graphical web browser.
- Focuses on personal security and privacy.
- Built with the FLTK 1.3 GUI toolkit.
- Installation guide available for setup.
- Repository contains original code with minor patches; contributions welcome.
- Related forks include dillo-plus, dilloNG, D+ browser, and Mobilized Dillo.
- Warning: dillo.org is no longer under Dillo developers' control as of December 2023.
- Old website archived on GitHub Pages and Wayback Machine (May 2022).
Flock haters cross political divides to remove error-prone cameras
6 months ago
- Flock Safety faces criticism for its network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) over privacy and security concerns.
- Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi call for a federal investigation into Flock's alleged mishandling of personal data.
- Concerns include potential cybersecurity failures and the risk of exposing harvested data in a breach.
- Some communities are removing Flock cameras due to fears of invasive tracking by law enforcement.
- Examples include Texas using ALPRs for wellness checks and ICE accessing Flock data for immigration-related searches.
- Opposition campaigns in seven states have successfully removed Flock cameras, citing privacy violations and wrongful detentions.
Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud
6 months ago
- OpenPCC is an open-source framework for provably private AI inference.
- Inspired by Apple’s Private Cloud Compute but fully open, auditable, and deployable on your own infrastructure.
- Ensures privacy with encrypted streaming, hardware attestation, and unlinkable requests.
- Designed to be a transparent, community-governed standard for AI data privacy.
- Includes code for an OpenPCC compliant Go client and a C library for Python and JavaScript clients.
- Provides in-memory services for development testing.
- Example code snippet for making a PCC request using Go.
- Dev commands are run using the Go tool 'mage'.
FBI tries to unmask owner of archive.is
6 months ago
- Archive.today, a mysterious website similar to the Wayback Machine, is under FBI scrutiny.
- A court order has been issued to provider Tucows to hand over user data related to Archive.today.
- Archive.today is known for bypassing paywalls and operating without adhering to common rules or laws.
- The service has faced minor issues in the past but has largely operated without serious threats until now.
- The FBI's interest may stem from copyright issues, unclear financing, or the operators' possible Russian origins.
- Evidence suggests Archive.today uses a botnet with changing IP addresses to avoid anti-scraping measures.
Gmail AI gets more intrusive
6 months ago
- Gmail automatically writes emails for users, requiring manual deletion of the generated text.
- Demonstrating this feature is difficult without exposing personal information.
- The feature is criticized as being overly intrusive and desperate.
- Last update provided: 11/7/25; 12:03:41 PM.
- Subscription prompt to access the full archive.
Mullvad: Shutting down our search proxy Leta
6 months ago
- Leta search proxy will be shut down on November 27, 2025.
- Leta provided privacy benefits by pooling and caching search requests for users.
- The search industry is evolving, making Leta less useful over time.
- Similar privacy can be achieved using a VPN and a privacy-focused browser.
- Development efforts will focus on advancing VPN and browser privacy technologies.
Oddest ChatGPT leaks yet: Cringey chat logs found in Google Analytics tool
6 months ago
- Extremely personal and sensitive ChatGPT conversations were leaking into Google Search Console (GSC).
- Odd queries, sometimes over 300 characters long, appeared in GSC, showing user inputs from private chatbot conversations.
- Jason Packer and Slobodan Manić investigated and found evidence suggesting OpenAI scrapes Google Search with user prompts.
- OpenAI acknowledged the issue and resolved a glitch affecting search query routing but did not confirm scraping Google.
- Packer expressed satisfaction with the quick resolution but doubts remain about whether the issue is fully resolved.
Immigration agents have new technology to identify and track people
6 months ago
- ICE is acquiring new surveillance tools including facial recognition and iris scanning apps to identify and monitor individuals.
- The Trump administration aims to increase deportations to a million a year, leveraging these technologies.
- Democratic senators and privacy advocates raise concerns about the lack of oversight and potential violations of privacy and constitutional rights.
- A video shows Border Patrol agents using facial recognition technology on minors, sparking further controversy.
- ICE's Mobile Fortify app can access extensive personal data, including citizenship status, and stores photos for 15 years.
- DHS proposes expanding biometric data collection from noncitizens and their relatives, including facial images and DNA.
- ICE revived a contract with Paragon Solutions, known for spyware like Graphite, which can monitor phones without user interaction.
- Privacy experts warn that these technologies erode anonymity and could be weaponized against dissenters.
- ICE and DHS defend the use of technology as necessary for law enforcement, citing crime prevention.
- Public comment on DHS's proposed biometric data rule is open until early January.
Decentralized Internet and Privacy Devroom at FOSDEM 2026
6 months ago
- Announcement of the Decentralized Internet and Privacy Devroom at FOSDEM 2026.
- Focus on reviving P2P and private communication to counter surveillance and centralization.
- Talks welcome on decentralization, privacy, secure devices, and alternative Internet solutions.
- FOSDEM is a free, community-driven event with over 8000 attendees.
- Devroom runs on February 1, 2026, at ULB, Brussels.
- Topics include ad-hoc networks, cryptography, decentralized platforms, and privacy tools.
- Talks are 25-30 min (50 min for deep dives), in English, and recorded.
- Submission deadline: December 7, 2025; selected talks announced by December 15.
- Contact via Matrix or email for more information.
Firefox Forcing LLM Features
6 months ago
- Mozilla has been enabling LLM & AI features in Firefox by default without user consent.
- Users report high CPU & RAM usage due to these AI features.
- Mozilla's ToS wording raised concerns about user data tied to AI features.
- Disabling AI features requires manual configuration via `about:config` or `prefs.js`.
- Several Firefox forks remove these AI features, but non-technical users may switch browsers.
- Firefox holds a small market share (2.17%) compared to Chrome (71.77%).
- A GitHub repository provides scripts to disable AI features in Firefox profiles.
Judge orders police to release Flock camera data, raising privacy questions
6 months ago
- A Skagit County judge ruled that data from automated license plate readers (ALPRs) used by Washington police must be made public under the state's Public Records Act.
- The decision came after a tattoo artist, Jose Rodriguez, sought access to Flock camera data, leading to a lawsuit by the cities of Sedro Woolley and Stanwood.
- Flock cameras indiscriminately photograph all passing vehicles and occupants, raising privacy concerns, as revealed by records obtained by Rodriguez.
- Judge Elizabeth Yost Neidzwski found the surveillance scope 'so broad and indiscriminate' that the data qualifies as public records, despite privacy objections.
- The case highlights concerns about government overreach and potential misuse of surveillance data, including unauthorized access by federal agents.
- Sedro Woolley and Stanwood have deactivated their Flock camera systems following the ruling, while attorneys evaluate next steps.
Consider a Burner Phone for Your Holiday Travel This Year
6 months ago
- US border agents are increasing searches of travelers' personal devices, including copying or analyzing phone contents.
- Nearly 15,000 device searches occurred between April and June, with over 1,000 using advanced tools.
- A burner phone is recommended for privacy, allowing travelers to stay connected without exposing personal data.
- Burner phones are cheap, prepaid, and disposable, making them untraceable and appealing for privacy-conscious users.
- They can be used for various purposes, including avoiding spam, two-factor authentication, or roaming charges.
- Burner phones differ from prepaid smartphones as they require no personal information and are designed for short-term use.
- Available at major retailers, convenience stores, and gas stations, burner phones cost between $10 and $50.
- Burner SIMs offer an alternative to buying a new phone, providing prepaid service without a contract.
- Apps like Google Fi and Burner offer secondary numbers but may not provide complete anonymity.

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#privacy

Show HN: Simple Video Resizer for iOS. No ads/tracking/in-app purchases

Denmark reportedly withdraws Chat Control proposal following controversy

Rivian's onboard cameras save owner from a false accusation by police

Chat Control proposal fails again after public opposition

Policy, privacy and post-quantum: anonymous credentials for everyone

Why should I accept all cookies?

S.T.O.P. Sue NYPD for 'Domain Awareness' Surveillance System

The Legal Case Against Ring's Face Recognition Feature

Dillo, a multi-platform graphical web browser

Flock haters cross political divides to remove error-prone cameras

Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud

FBI tries to unmask owner of archive.is

Gmail AI gets more intrusive

Mullvad: Shutting down our search proxy Leta

Oddest ChatGPT leaks yet: Cringey chat logs found in Google Analytics tool

Immigration agents have new technology to identify and track people

Decentralized Internet and Privacy Devroom at FOSDEM 2026

Firefox Forcing LLM Features

Judge orders police to release Flock camera data, raising privacy questions

Consider a Burner Phone for Your Holiday Travel This Year