Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Fuck that, I'll mail my taxes in if I have to. They tried to bring that shit into the IRS login process a couple of years ago and they wanted a full scan of my driver's license, front and back, and then a "video selfie" taken with a webcam. When the site tried to turn on my webcam I closed it and ended the entire process. I don't even remember what I was logging into their site to get, but I said fuck it and didn't get it and it was fine. I'd rather pay H&R block $75 to file online to avoid a government face-login.
I still mail paper for my taxes - partly because of shit like this and also as a fuck-you for the IRS to change their ways and adopt a better system (eg, the European system where you basically check a box if the amount you owe looks correct - they already know how much you paid so why all the mental gymnastics and instruction reading?).
it's not the irs' fault the "system" is as it is. they're limited to what congressional actions (laws and budget) allow.
i also still file through the mail because with no assets or investments and a low income, they're simple af to do. it rarely changes year-to-year except the figures from the tables.
I still file by mail because if somebody were to do something with my taxes in transit, it's a federal crime vs e-filing where everybody whose network it passes through gets a copy, legally.
If your tax preparation software is doing things right, SSL should ensure that networks along the way can't open up your taxes and take a look.
I should have said, "visible by all the 'partners'".
Speaking of which, apparently the IRS is testing a free online tax calculator
that does not sound very useful. we already have free fillable forms. It needs to automatically get the information from the forms we just data entry into our taxes.
That's definitely not how it works in all European countries. We have the same shit system where you have to calculate taxes yourself even if they already know most of the numbers.
And if it's wrong you need to correct it or get fined.
Perhaps one of the Nordic countries (don’t recall which ones). Anywho - sounded like a much better way to go for all parties.
That sounds like the digital notary process.
Counter point: if you don’t do it, someone else might do it for you, stealing your identity, filing fake returns or unemployment etc.
I'm not worried about that, considering that it's a small chance vs the large chance that the government will abuse any data they collect.
They already have most of it. You can never protect yourself against the government you reside under in this way.
Regardless of what they already have, I still plan to avoid providing anything further that I can control. More images improve facial recognition accuracy, and they may only have old pictures of me from my driver's license. Providing a "video selfie" is like the AIDS penis anal rape level of privacy invasion and I won't do it.
Biometrics are a terrible security feature IMO. MAYBE if used in conjunction with other things like a username and password, but never on its own.
I mean any single factor authentication is terrible. Two factor is always preferred.
Something I know, something I have, something I am.
I think biometrics are being misused, they can be helpful and useful for access control, but not so much for privacy.
A thumb print + badge scan as factors for entering a restricted area, makes sense, but the goal is not privacy there (arguably it's the opposite)
I'm just waiting until they role out facial recognition in order to catch people who are becoming terrorists though thought crime.
Can device facial recognition be defeated by wearing a paper mask over my face with the device owner's face, like a TF2 Spy?
If there's a IR sensor on the phone, the facial recognition system won't be fooled by a photo. You need to create a near perfect 3D model of that person's face to have a chance of fooling it.
If there's an IR sensor that can see the facial map, perhaps, but the heat of a face changes so significantly that an IR match requirement might lead to too many false negatives to be useful. Penetration testers have already worked out a way to create fingerprint keys years ago so we can assume law enforcement has those now, as well as industrial spies and professional fraudsters.
But to be fair, law enforcement's been using a shotgun approach to phones with very few that they have not been able to search when they wanted to, so if they're that easy for police to crack, they're easy for industrial spies and professional racketeers.
Man idk. On the one hand I want to live in the utopia where this is a huge benefit and massively convenient. On the other hand we don't live in a utopia and every year feels more dystopian than the last.
As some sort of authentication? No thanks. I don't want someone to know my biometrics and link my account to my identity in that platform via a data breach. I'd rather use passkeys.
Lol. Yes of course.
I make no comment on surveillance or this type of “advancement” but just came here to say that history has proven time and time and time and time again, and again, that statements made about how your data is protected by the utmost cutting edge security system have been bald faced lies. T-Mobile hacked almost 5x in the past 4 years. They also offer business network security solutions to companies. They all claim the same. Yet… hacked 5x in 4 years. They are just one of many.
My last employ wasn’t any different. Promised enterprise class security and yeah, we did not have that. Not even close, my home network was more secure lol.