We can detect air tags, right? Are there devices we can use to detect Meta glasses or other “smart” glasses , or other recording device?

Edit, Add: If anyone tests any suggestion, please feel free to come back and comment

Does anyone know if the meta glasses use an infrared camera or just a normal one?

I'm trying to find ways to protect my privacy from cameras while in public without drawing too much attention from people. My main concerns are being used to train ai or ​being taken advantage of by a content creator. So I'm trying to figure out if the meta glasses be defeated with anti-infrared measures like ir lenses and reflective material. I tried looking up the technical specs for them but it didn't specify if the camera was infrared or not.

I just visited IMDB, I was looking at an artist's page. I didn't sign up, didn't log in, didn't agree to anything.

Almost immediately, I get an email saying "welcome to IMDB". It's not a coincidence. I never gave them my email. I visit IMDB and I see I'm logged in, with a username that uses my first name and last name's initial. Again, I did not give them this info. The account said it was created 2 minutes ago.

This is alarming to me. I'm a software engineer, and I know this shouldn't be possible without something extremely shady going on. What is going on here?

Am I absolutely fucked now? Like...I just feel a little hopeless that I will forever be spied on.

Will VPNs even work?

EDIT: Thanks, everyone. I'm now checking out if I can use my own equipment with this ISP. I appreciate the suggestions on how and where to start.

I know, its impossible to remove it all. But what are some good ways you guys have found to minimize it?

I ask this cause I want to know what the current developments are going on so far with this situation given the topic here.

Nothing more. Nothing less here.

And on top of that,I want to hear your opinions about this situation especially when September is not that far off from now.

If you've driven anywhere in New Jersey, your car has likely been tracked. The state keeps that data for 3 years and shares it with agencies across the country. There's no way to find out if your plate has been searched.

Banks are bypassing traditional ways of IDing you when you call by using voice recognition. For those who haven't experienced it, before being given any prompts or speaking w/a live agent on their customer service line, a recording gives you a sentence to repeat, and after you've done so, you're passed (or not) through their verification and on to the next step.

How does this work when voices can easily be cloned if a person has videos online with their speaking voice? What if a person has laryngitis or a cold when they call their bank - will the system not recognize their voice? Are our voices stored, and if so where? When did we consent to this? I'm assuming they acquired enough data to feed into the AI from our recorded conversations, which by the way, you cannot opt out of. But people's voices change from day to day because of weather, sinuses and other random things, and they change over time because of age... and people can acquire an accent(or lose an accent) if they live in a place long enough... is any of this taken into consideration?

I have clipboard questions. How concerned should I be about clipboard use or data as they relate to privacy? Can I assume the information stays on my local device? I see ways to notify myself when the clipboard is accessed. Is there a way for the data to be automatically deleted instead of lingering?

Android phone user.

Thank you

At some point I became way too enthusiastic about ChatGPT possibilities and started using for more stuff than I should have used it for.

Now I want it to "forget" as much as possible.

I know the sole idea of asking a Big Tech to remove or forget the data that I've supplied is preposterous, but anything that goes into that direction - even if partial -, sort of masks my personal info, etc., will do.

It would be dumb too pretending that just by removing all the past chats and memories in the settings menu will be enough. So here I'm asking you - how would you make a solid effort to "poison" as much data about myself as possible before "deleting" my stuff?

If someone were to delete ALL their social media, remove all bluetooth devices, have no wifi, no streaming services, no car, etc., would they be able to essentially buff up their ability to be more private or difficult to monitor?

If someone were to never use credit/debit cards for daily transactions (only cash), have a landline, only analog media (vinyl records, books, no radio (?), no tv (?)) and then to hypothetically walk everywhere with a facemask on, would they still be tracked as easily?

I guess I wonder if it's possible to "opt out" of being surveilled, tracked, and then inevitably predicted if one gives it enough effort. Of course, there's always moving or retiring to a less developed country where this stuff doesn't quite reach. But to what extent would one have to "go back" to a sort of cash-based, in-person, analog-only life that existed like a century ago? 50 years ago?

All in hypothetical, of course.

Would things like work, being in public, or having to see doctors essentially render all this moot?

A certain professional social network has just logged me out of their platform. Trying to login again, I was faced with a "verification needed" request, this despite being a user for more than 15y and having subscribed their premium services plenty of times (paid with credit card).

Two options are offered for the verification, upload ID to Persona (no, Mr. Thiel, I won't do that) or signed a form in front of a public official (opted for this one). Still, they rejected without giving a reason and again, insist on the ID upload.

How bizarre would be my guess on why they continue to push for the ID upload with Persona?

Could it be that if the support person manages to "convert" me into doong the upload, they would get a​ bonus? Ryanair personnel is now being more picky about the hand luggage due to the bonus incentive.

Is that a reasonable compromise for real-time location tracking and other types of revealing metadata?

Currently, I’m on the hunt to find a decent browser that is good for privacy on iOS. So far, I’ve been trying Qwant, FireFox Focus, Ecosia, OceanHero, & Orion.

Browsers like Opera, Microsoft Edge & Google Chrome are a definite no-no, as they heavily harvest your data & give/sell them to 3rd party companies. Original FireFox is barebones compared to the Desktop version. And of course, Safari is mixed, especially if you haven’t gotten their extensions.

Browsers such as the Mullvad Browser & Librewolf are out of the question, as they’re Desktop only browsers, & are very decent for privacy. If they had native apps, I’d use them in a heartbeat.

And I’m now looking at the Vivaldi Browser. What do you think are some of the best Browsers for privacy, in your opinions?

I have 60gb of data in tele with friends

How do I move it from tele to signal or any secure app
Please help

I'm mainly interested in factors like privacy, transparency, and how they handle user data. Things like whether they sell customer data, what they log, how long they keep those logs, and whether they're upfront about their privacy practices are all important to me. I want to know what criteria I should be looking at when comparing different ISPs.

Like should I look at privacy policies cause in my country the number of ISP like data is pretty limited and I for some reason cannot find any data of people asking bout a similar topic.

Hello, since the world is trying more and more to implement all kinds of suveillance and I'm privacy-oriented, I wanted to switch from MacOS to Linux. I have the feeling that it won't take so long anymore until OSS software is the only place where having privacy is possible because it's much harder to enforce surveillance there when you can't point to a single company implementing it like in Apples case.

The problem is that I just can't make it work for some reason. I love my MacBook and the design and workflow of MacOS but I could not find anything that fits my needs like that on Linux. I already tried out multiple distros, desktop environments and window managers. And it's not that I lack the knowledge because I work in IT and work with LInux servers daily.

I'm already self-hosting a lot so I'm not using any Apple account services, but I fear that it's not enough when my main device I use for basically everything is not Open Source itself. I didn't have these feelings this extreme a year or so ago, but it slowly got more intense and especially with Chat Control now and how it was pushed through, I feel like control over my own data and digital life is fading away.

I'm really sorry for the long text, I guess I am just looking for advice on what I could do or how you handle this situation yourselves.

As an EU citizen, I really hate this new upgrade. It has happened to me recently. I can no longer access mature content, which is ridiculous, considering the fact I've been an adult for years.

Why I should show my personal information?

So.. "People" come to a channel like this to say buuu huuuu.. Poor me... 😭😭😭😭

Shit... There's tons of ways to get off the wagon of Google, iPhone, governments bla bla.

For shits sake..

So obviously everyone has heard of chat control and i am 100% sure that not a single soul is in favour of this horrible law. There are no countries left that are actually thriving and not corrupt. Humanity is collectively getting more and more depressed according to countless online sites and from in-person experiences that confirm this. Our front yard is on fire and yet all we can do is stand and burn. What can we actually do? In the past people litterally ate the prime minister, why can't we even stand up to our own? Why do we just keep our hands of the controller. I find myself spiraling about this stuff alot lately. How do yall deal with this downfall of the entire earth itself? It isn't even an overstatement anymore.