Cryptographers around the world are still designing privacy-preserving contact tracing systems for combating the spread of COVID-19.

Even though some papers have been published (one using zero-knowledge proofs, another based on blockchain (sigh)), the ink is still very wet. The first framework designed by Apple and Google needs work but was surprisingly not god-awful.

That is to say: As of 2020-05-08, there is currently no implementation of privacy-preserving contact tracing available to the world. It might be coming soon, but it ain’t here yet.

But a quick search through the Google Play Store would surely lead you to believe otherwise.

What you see when you search “contact tracing” on the Google Play Store.

The first thing that leaps out is that there are two advertisements for things that are mostly irrelevant to contact tracing. Since “contact tracing” is a hot topic (and will only become increasingly hot when the real apps are ready to be deployed), it’s clear that there’s a profit incentive at work.

But with a little further study, we can see that this profit motive persists as we look down the list.
Ads and in-app purchases? That sure fits the “contact tracing” use case.You’re awfully SURE of yourself, aren’t ya?
The first one (an app named simply “Contact Tracing”) was first published in March 2020, so it was clearly created to capitalize on the pandemic.

The source code for their app (which was written in Cordova, and thus didn’t even require any effort reverse-engineering) contains a lot of references to a product named “Crypto Account Manager” by the same company.
In case anyone needs it, their contact information is apparently: Piusworks LLC. 969G Edgewater Blvd. #750. Foster City, CA 94404.
Ah yes, Cryptocurrency! That’s exactly what an Android user wanted when they search for “contact tracing”.

This is exactly the kind of disingenuous behavior you expect from the sorts of bottom-feeders that would capitalize on a pandemic for profit.

Worth noting: The CDC app at the bottom was legitimate, but their development team is clearly having a tough time.
I can relate to your struggles, CDC-employed app developers.
There’s probably a lot more to be found (if anyone wants to take the time). You might even find actual Android malware. (As far as I can tell, these apps are only trying to exploit humans, not machines, so I cannot classify them as malware.)

But what you won’t find is a privacy-preserving contact tracing app, so don’t look for it just yet.

Want to know when one is available? Follow me on Twitter for updates: @SoatokDhole.

Which Apps Aren’t Fraudulent?

The CDC app, which was originally created for Tuberculosis contact tracing, is legitimate (but not privacy-preserving in the way that cryptographers care about).

The TraceTogether app is the contact tracing app produced by the Singapore government.

The Takeaway

Just because it’s in the Google Play Store doesn’t mean it’s authentic or trustworthy. This should be common knowledge, but it never hurts to remind everyone.

That being said, I really wish Google would police its app store better.

I also wish they would forbid advertisements relating to national or global emergencies; i.e. COVID-19.

https://soatok.blog/2020/05/08/fraudulent-apps-on-the-google-play-store-covid-19-contact-tracing-edition/

#Android #contactTracing #COVID19 #Cybercrime #fraudulentApps #GooglePlay #GooglePlayStore #informationSecurity

Dhole Moments

2020-05-08 12:01:49

Cryptographers around the world are still designing privacy-preserving contact tracing systems for combating the spread of COVID-19.

Even though some papers have been published (one using zero-knowledge proofs, another based on blockchain (sigh)), the ink is still very wet. The first framework designed by Apple and Google needs work but was surprisingly not god-awful.

That is to say: As of 2020-05-08, there is currently no implementation of privacy-preserving contact tracing available to the world. It might be coming soon, but it ain’t here yet.

But a quick search through the Google Play Store would surely lead you to believe otherwise.

What you see when you search “contact tracing” on the Google Play Store.

The first thing that leaps out is that there are two advertisements for things that are mostly irrelevant to contact tracing. Since “contact tracing” is a hot topic (and will only become increasingly hot when the real apps are ready to be deployed), it’s clear that there’s a profit incentive at work.

But with a little further study, we can see that this profit motive persists as we look down the list.
Ads and in-app purchases? That sure fits the “contact tracing” use case.You’re awfully SURE of yourself, aren’t ya?
The first one (an app named simply “Contact Tracing”) was first published in March 2020, so it was clearly created to capitalize on the pandemic.

The source code for their app (which was written in Cordova, and thus didn’t even require any effort reverse-engineering) contains a lot of references to a product named “Crypto Account Manager” by the same company.
In case anyone needs it, their contact information is apparently: Piusworks LLC. 969G Edgewater Blvd. #750. Foster City, CA 94404.
Ah yes, Cryptocurrency! That’s exactly what an Android user wanted when they search for “contact tracing”.

This is exactly the kind of disingenuous behavior you expect from the sorts of bottom-feeders that would capitalize on a pandemic for profit.

Worth noting: The CDC app at the bottom was legitimate, but their development team is clearly having a tough time.
I can relate to your struggles, CDC-employed app developers.
There’s probably a lot more to be found (if anyone wants to take the time). You might even find actual Android malware. (As far as I can tell, these apps are only trying to exploit humans, not machines, so I cannot classify them as malware.)

But what you won’t find is a privacy-preserving contact tracing app, so don’t look for it just yet.

Want to know when one is available? Follow me on Twitter for updates: @SoatokDhole.

Which Apps Aren’t Fraudulent?

The CDC app, which was originally created for Tuberculosis contact tracing, is legitimate (but not privacy-preserving in the way that cryptographers care about).

The TraceTogether app is the contact tracing app produced by the Singapore government.

The Takeaway

Just because it’s in the Google Play Store doesn’t mean it’s authentic or trustworthy. This should be common knowledge, but it never hurts to remind everyone.

That being said, I really wish Google would police its app store better.

I also wish they would forbid advertisements relating to national or global emergencies; i.e. COVID-19.

https://soatok.blog/2020/05/08/fraudulent-apps-on-the-google-play-store-covid-19-contact-tracing-edition/

#Android #contactTracing #COVID19 #Cybercrime #fraudulentApps #GooglePlay #GooglePlayStore #informationSecurity

Mein persönlicher Datenschutz

Mir liegt Datenschutz zwar sehr am Herzen, aber ich lebe ihn nicht widerspruchsfrei:

~ Ich habe ein Google-Konto, das ich auch nutze - als zusätzliches Email-Konto und Android für mein Smartphone.
~ Allein mit meinem Blog gebe ich sehr viel Persönliches von mir preis. Das würde sich auch nicht ändern, wenn ich mein Blog selbst hosten würde, weil die Beiträge in beiden Fällen öffentlich wären. Nichtsdestotrotz achte ich dort sehr sorgfältig auf den persönlichen Datenschutz der Menschen, über die ich schreibe. Ausgenommen sind die Personen, die ohnehin in der Öffentlichkeit stehen.
~ Facebook & Co. meide ich mit Ausnahme von WhatsApp. Dort habe ich derzeit jedoch nur wenige unregelmäßige Kontakte im einstelligen Bereich.
~ Zur Nutzung von Google auf dem Desktop und auf dem Smartphone (Android) gibt es zwar Alternativen. Aber für deren Einrichtung fehlen mir Geduld und Wissen.

Und wie sollte ich meine persönlichen Daten gegenüber Behörden - z.B. Jobcenter und Sozialamt - schützen? Das ist absolut unmöglich. Gegenüber diesen Behörden kann ich mich weder auf Datenschutz noch auf Privatsphäre berufen, weil ich dann keine Leistungen bekäme und auf die Straße "umziehen" müsste. Ich finde diesen fehlenden Datenschutz am Gefährlichsten, weil mir die Behörden meine Existenzgrundlage entziehen können. Und ohne Geld bzw. mit viel zu wenig Geld nutzt mir der Datenschutz im Internet rein gar nichts.

Zudem bin ich in meinem Blog, in meinen sozialen Netzwerken und in Kommentaren mit meinem Klarnamen unterwegs. Für manche mag das Dummheit sein, für mich ist es Authentizität - ich stehe zu dem, was ich sage und schreibe.

#gerhardsgedankenbuch #datenschutz #google #facebook #behörden #android #blog #whatsapp #kontakte #privatsphäre #existenzgrundlage #klarnamen #kommentare #authentizität #authentisch

Im Moment befindet sich das nächste Update noch in der Testphase. Hier schon einmal eine Liste mit den vorläufigen Änderungen:

Tracking-URL-Popup

Tracking-URLs werden sehr konservativ erkannt und es erscheint ein Warndialog. Da auch die meisten Suchen als Tracking-URL eingestuft werden, empfiehlt es sich, die Profileinstellungen entsprechend anzupassen. Standardmäßig werden die Warndialoge für sichere Internetseiten deaktiviert sein. Das nötige Wissen, wie man die Trackingurls erkennt, stellt Google freundlicherweise auf einer eigenen Internetseite zur Verfügung. Eigentlich ist die Seite zwar dafür gedacht, solche URLs zu erstellen und nicht zu verhindern. Wie dem auch sei, danke an Google an dieser Stelle.😉

Weitere Änderungen

• behoben: Kontextmenu in der Tabübersicht
• behoben: Absturz, wenn der Render-Prozess verloren geht
• fix: http-Warndialog
• behoben: Download-dialog mit zu langem Dateinamen
• behoben: Tab-layout im Menü (Querformat)
• aktualisiert: Übersetzungen

Benannt wird diese Version nach Richard Stallman, der sowohl als Gründer der freien Software-Bewegung und des GNU-Projektes gilt. Deswegen hier noch einmal die vier Freiheiten von freier Software im Allgemeinen und FOSS Browser im Speziellen:

Freiheit 0: Die Freiheit, das Programm auszuführen, wie man möchte, für jeden Zweck.
Freiheit 1: Die Freiheit, die Funktionsweise des Programms zu untersuchen und eigenen Bedürfnissen der Datenverarbeitung anzupassen.
Freiheit 2: Die Freiheit, das Programm weiterzuverbreiten und damit seinen Mitmenschen zu helfen.
Freiheit 3: Die Freiheit, das Programm zu verbessern und diese Verbesserungen der Öffentlichkeit freizugeben, damit die gesamte Gemeinschaft davon profitiert.

Weitere Infos auf der Projektseite.

#FOSSBrowser #FOSS #FLOSS #freesoftware #TeamDatenschutz #Android #Datenschutz #noGoogle #tracking #freieSoftware #Browser #degoogle #google

In my quest to get rid of GAFAM and decrease as much the tracking I’m subject to, I’m only at the start.

Social Media Alternatives

By the end of 2021, fed up with infinite news feeds, I’ve removed my Facebook, Twitter and SensCritique accounts with almost no alternatives. I needed to declutter and focus on my family, so I also reduced the influx of information by stopping RSS feeds, Newsletter subscriptions, by pausing notifications of most apps like WhatsApp, and of course I’ve stopped watching TV Shows & Movies, news… Those initiatives were also motivated by family augmentation as I became father in 2021 🙂

Anyway I had to pursue efforts !

Recently I’ve also removed Pinterest and I’ve set up Pixelfed (self hosted) to replace IG (Instagram). I’ve also joined a Mastodon instance as a replacement for Twitter. The good thing with Mastodon and federated networks is you can be on any instance and follow users from other instances. From my Pixelfed (IG-like) I’m subscribed to my Mastodon page (Twitter Like) and I’m also followed by my WordPress page thanks to the ActivityPub plugin I’ve setup on this blog. I’ve migrated my secrets from Bitwarden to Vaultwarden (self-hosted), my code from Github to Gitea (self-hosted), my WordPress and Shaarli from OVH to Cloudron running on Contabo VPS. I’ve also started using Nextcloud and Collabora as replacements for my “Office” suite (Google Docs, Google Sheets, …) but I’m not yet sold to the UI.

Self-Hosting Tools

The goal is to try to use as much self-hosted tools as I can. It’s not easy to find good alternatives especially if you care about usability, data portability, privacy, and connect with other users …

I’m struggling to get rid of YT (Youtube) and YT Kids. There are plenty of alternatives to YT, but not so much with both a kid-friendly UX and possibilities to filter content.

Challenges in Replacing YouTube

The problem is not to find a privacy respecting alternative tool to YT : It’s easy to find and host content on Peertube but not so much to find a good instance with interesting content.

The problem is most of the popular and interesting content is on YT. There are alternatives frontends like Invidious, SkyTube (Android), Clipious (an Android client for Invidious instances). But Invidious does not yet support filtering of videos, which make it an unsafe place for kids. At least SkyTube allows for filtering channels and that’s what I’m gonna try with my kid, but the UX is lacking behind YT and that makes it quite difficult for my little one to navigate alone in the app and pick a video.

Future Goals and Challenges

Important next steps for me are to get rid fully of any Google software, that includes Gmail (this will be a though one), Youtube, Contacts, Calendar, Google Drive, Google Keep, Google Maps, etc. and to stop using software that depends on tech giants or trackers. Not easy. Just try surfing the web using Big Tech Detective extension. Even search engines or browsers that claim to respect your privacy are tracking you or rely on GAFAM infrastructure or trackers.

For instance, when trying to use DuckDuck Go search engine with the Big Tech Detective extension on :

Exodus on Android shows that most of the “privacy” friendly browsers on Android are full of trackers : DuckDuck Go, Ghostery, Firefox, Opera, Tor Browser… Only Brave on mobile didn’t contain tracker, according to Exodus. The spyware watchdog catalog will provide additional data about some of the mentioned browsers while also claiming Brave is to be considered as spyware.

Fortunately there exist search engines alternatives, such as Mojeek (which uses its own index) and SearX.

While looking at my expenses and optimizing my budget, I’ve removed my Medium subscription, Pluralsight, and OpenAI subscription, and started to cancel hosting plans as I’ll host most of what I need on my VPS. Next challenges would be to get rid of Netflix, Meta/WhatsApp, Amazon (Prime, Kindle…), Apple, Spotify, Dropbox (to Nextcloud?), ChatGPT (I’ve yet to find a comparable alternative)by looking for alternatives or privacy friendly frontends for what cannot be easily replaced. But they do not make it easy. By trying to get rid of Netflix, I’ve noticed that as the “main” profile of our family shared account, it’s impossible to delete my data. I can only create a new Netflix account and transfer the family profiles to that one. At the end, I’d like also to replace my OnePlus One with a dumb phone or a fair phone. I had a look at privacy friendly OSes we can setup on Android but the compatibility with OnePlus 10 Pro is still work in progress. Anyway if you are interested, take some inspiration here. I also want to fix this blog by taking inspiration from Small Web and Slow Web philosophies. , works for future browsers or at least relies on libre JavaScript (see also LibreJS) or no JavaScript at all.

And also to convince my loved one to try free and open source software on her devices (Apple 🙂 ). Lot of friends and family are using Whatsapp while I’m sold to Signal or alternatives. This one will be difficult to bypass. I aim at least to automatically backup all WhatsApp files to my Nextcloud.

Every small improvement towards more privacy, data portability, open-source, data ownership, freedom, will be worth it and I’ll share my findings with you 🙂

Web (browser) extensions I recommend

• LibRedirect a web extension that redirects YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and other websites to their alternative privacy friendly frontends. You can find my settings here.
• Privacy Redirect a simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives.
• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials includes tracker blocking, cookie protection, DuckDuckGo private search, email protection, HTTPS upgrading, and much more. I use it to generate temporary email addresses when my email is requested.
• Ultrablock blocks ads, trackers and third party cookies.
• Privacy Badger blocks invisible trackers.

Web (browser) extensions I’m Trying

• JShelter An anti-malware Web browser extension to mitigate potential threats from JavaScript, including fingerprinting, tracking, and data collection! But it causes some crappy websites to malfunction 😉
• Big Tech Detective helps you track tech giants. If fully activated, you won’t be able to browse certain websites and even some supposed privacy friendly tools, such as Duck Duck Go Search engine which behind the scene rely on Microsoft infrastructure and hard partnerships with Microsoft.

Android apps I recommend

• Exodus an app that audits Android apps for trackers.
• F-Droid a installable catalog of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform.
• Aegis Authenticator : a free, secure and open source app to manage your 2-step verification tokens for your online services.

WordPress plugins I recommend

• ActivityPub With this installed your WordPress blog itself functions as a federated profile, allowing to reach a wider audience.

Tools I recommend

• Kill the Newsletter Convert email newsletters to RSS feeds.
• Bitwarden which is a password manager. I’m hosting Vaultwarden which implements the same API. Bitwarden client is available on any popular platform.
• Invidious to be used as frontend alternative to YouTube. Same content as YouTube. No ads, no trackers.

Some reading I recommend

• https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/ watchdog of popular apps with trackers.

Self hosting providers

• I recommend Contabo (no sponsor here), that I’ve hand picked among many alternatives, while choosing a good VPS offering at good prices. Only downside is their administration panel UX, but other than that, it was cheap. And they buy green energy to run their servers. The alternatives I had compared Contabo with were OVH (way too expensive) and Hetzner (cheap but unfortunately their VPS hardware lacks AVX support thus is not compatible with Cloudron requirements). Contabo in the end beats VPS offerings of Hetzner and OVH at that price, with more storage and CPU for me !

Self hosted apps

• If you own a dedicated server / VPS, try Cloudron, it’s such an easy way to self host your apps and take control of your data ! I’m currently using it with Nextcloud, WordPress, and all apps mentioned below below :
• Wallabag as read-it later app.
• Miniflux minimalist and opinionated feed reader.
• Vaultwarden unofficial Bitwarden compatible server.
• Changedetection.io free open source website change detection, website watcher.
• PrivateBin minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data.
• Invoice Ninja Invoices, Expenses and Tasks built with Laravel, Flutter and React
• Gitea a self-hosted Git hosting service that offers code hosting, code review, team collaboration, package management and CI/CD features. It is compatible with GitHub Actions, Docker, various databases and tools, and supports multiple languages and architectures.
• Pixelfed a replacement for Instagram as it used to be (without all the ads, and crap).
• Shaarli personal, minimalist, super-fast, database free, bookmarking service. Useful for sharing links or keep them safe and private.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope these insights and recommendations help you in your journey towards a more private and self-reliant digital life. As always, I’m eager to hear your experiences and suggestions. Let’s make our digital space a bit more ours!

https://morgan.zoemp.be/charting-my-journey-away-from-big-tech-embracing-privacy-and-self-hosting-solutions/

#alternatives #android #cloudron #decentralization #degooglify #fediverse #libre #openSource #privacy #security #selfHosting

Morgan

2023-12-20 16:19:46

A couple of weeks back, I was getting my ass kicked at chess. It was a blast, even as I blundered into defeat.

Here’s the thing: in some games, like life, the right focus at the right time can flip the board. It’s about spotting chances and seizing them. Remark : If interested in the “perfect timing” topic, do read about the power of when.

Being focused on specific goals can help make the difference in the long term. Also being aware of the opportunities and reality.

Last year? A financial nightmare. But I hustled, optimizing my budget. Running my own company, I could shuffle some expenses around – a neat trick.

I axed unnecessary subscriptions – online courses, publishing platforms, various IT tools. Sometimes, the best alternative isn’t a new provider; it’s you. Betting on my skills, I cut costs and upped my privacy game. That’s a win in my book.

Now, this blog and my digital life sit on a fresh, cost-effective infrastructure. More privacy, less cash bleed.

My new obsession? Privacy and open source. Ditching GAFAM and seeing where that road takes me. It’s about discipline and the right tools.

Next year’s mission: maintain this focus and help others grab back control of their budgets and privacy.

Catch you in 2024.

https://morgan.zoemp.be/personal-insights-on-finance-and-digital-privacy/

#budget #goals #openSource #opportunities #privacy #strategy #wellbeing

WHEN: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing | Daniel H. Pink

Daniel H. Pink, the #1 bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human, unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing to help you flourish at work, at school, and at home.

^{Outthink (Daniel H. Pink)}

Thanks to Automattic, the strongly open source company behind WordPress, another great product Pocket Casts goes open source! Awesome!

This is a great alternative to my current favourite podcast app, AntennaPod which is available on F-Droid.

Users: FOSS Matters

Quoting Chief TWiT leo@twit.social:

Now that we're learning this lesson that centralized silos are brittle and operate in the interest of the owners not the users...

...please note the move toward centralizing podcasts into apps from Amazon/Audible, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube, TikTok etc.

If you like podcasts, use an RSS-based podcast player. Support the open ecosystem...

My favourite podcast: The Self-Hosted Show (direct Pocket-Casts link to it).

Developers: Progress Needed

FOSS Apps live in FOSS App Stores

The Pocket Casts app is currently published only in the proprietary Google and Apple app stores [1]. I have voted for their “Add to F-Droid” issue and hope that they will agree to do so and that some nice folks will contribute to help make that happen. (Of course there is no analogous option for Apple users, as Apple locks all their users in their walled garden.)

FOSS Apps live in FOSS Forges

The source code and development process of Pocket Casts is currently hosted on the proprietary Microsoft Github, sadly, like Millions of Free Software developers forgot why it matters to own their tools. In my strong opinion, to better serve FOSS as a whole they would GiveUpGithub and move to a FOSS software forge provider such as Codeberg.org and/or host a FOSS code forge at their own domain.

[1] As a techie you could also download it from the release assets section of their app source repository, but for general users that doesn't count.

More: #awesomeFOSS #degoogled #android

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

julian

2022-11-19 15:43:34

FOSS Apps Live in FOSS App Stores!

Don't lock a FOSS Android app in Google's proprietary store!

Many of us are looking to FOSS solutions in order to keep our digital lives under our own control. We don't accept that any Big Tech company should hold the keys to a vast swathe of our digital life. So on our smart phones we may choose to use a FOSS version of Android. That means one that uses the open source parts of Android but avoids the proprietary Google lock-in parts. These so-called “deGoogled” Android-compatible operating systems include LineageOS, Murena /e/-OS, CalyxOS, GrapheneOS and more. Users of non-Google phones can find various “back door” ways to obtain apps from Google's play-by-our-rules-store, but that's completely the wrong way. FOSS apps should be available through FOSS app stores such as F-Droid.

F-Droid is not only an app store, it's also a protocol or “app store kit” that allows anyone to publish their own F-Droid-compatible app store. (I set up one up just to publish one camera app for myself and friends.) Each app publisher can choose whether to publish their app in the F-Droid store following its rules and conditions, or publish on their own store where they can set their own rules and conditions. Each user can decide which F-Droid-compatible stores they want to use, according to their own assessment of the publisher's reputation.

Read more about F-Droid:

• “Why curation and decentralization is better than millions of apps”

These fine FOSS people do it right

• FUTO Circles a.k.a. Circuli, matrix-based private social media — published in their own f-droid repo [1]

These fine FOSS people need a nudge

• Pocket Casts — issue filed: “Add to F-Droid” (I've up-voted it)

TODO: add lots more examples

These Fine People Understand

• EU Pilot Project: Public Apps in F-Droid

Read More

• FOSDEM '23 talk Sat 15:00 Reckoning with new app store changes: Is now our chance? — Recent legal and policy developments around app stores and what they mean for free software
• FOSDEM '23 talk Sat 16:00 EU alternative to app stores — Guardian Project tooted: “At #FOSDEM, @marcel_kolaja will present the #EU pilot project to look into open-sourcing the EU's apps and publishing them outside of #BigTech including on @[url=https://mastodon.technology/users/fdroidorg]fdroidorg[/url]. @[url=https://social.librem.one/users/eighthave]Hans-Christoph Steiner[/url] will join, talking about how F-Droid will help pull the EU towards #FreeSoftware. Join us!”

---

[1] An f-droid repo link is not a web page. To use it, you open your f-droid app's “repositories” settings and add the link there.

Related: – FOSS Apps Live in FOSS Forges– Your FOSS Project Deserves its Own Domain

More: #degoogled #awesomeFOSS #selfHosted #GiveUpGithub #DitchDiscord

---

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

---

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

GrapheneOS: the private and secure mobile OS

GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.

^GrapheneOS

Organic Maps is a great open source app for casual every-day navigation. It has an easy-to-read map display, navigation directions with voice, search for places, save favourite places and add new places, and not a lot else. The usability is decent and it looks good.

It's become my default mapping app, and it makes me ever so happy to have such a good open-source solution.

How good is it?

The mapping is based on OpenStreetMap, and the quality is pretty decent in my area. It's just 2d mapping with a few variations. It zooms and pans smoothly on my OnePlus 6 phone.

The navigation supports driving, walking, cycling, and in some places public transport. The suggested routes are reasonable but not always the best choice, for various reasons, and are best treated as a suggestion or reminder rather than trustworthy advice. It re-calculates if you go a different way.

There is no information on delays and traffic jams, presumably because there is not yet a good, comprehensive, free-as-in-freedom service for providing such information. Personally I find this doesn't bother me too much. On some routes and at some times I know there is a chance of delays and when there are, there is often not much better I can do than stick it out anyway. Of course that's not always the case.

The search for addresses and place names is fast and reasonably detailed, including names of some buildings and businesses, while understandably not as slick and comprehensive as Google's search. For example a result I think should be at the top of the list because it's near by and has the exact words I searched for, sometimes shows up a long way down the list.

Organic Maps can work off-line, when you have no data signal. When you first look at an area it downloads the mapping. After that, within the downloaded areas, you can use Organic Maps completely off-line, including the navigation features. When you look at a new area that you haven't downloaded yet (or have deleted), you initially see just the largest roads and towns, and if you zoom in it asks whether you want to download the detailed mapping for that area. (You have to be online to download it, of course.)

Where does it fit in the FOSS map apps space?

Organic Maps was released as an open source Android app in 2021 by the founders of MapsWithMe (maps.me).

Before that, the only other open source alternative I found worthy of mentioning was OsmAnd, which is powerful with lots of features and add-ons, but significantly less friendly and more complicated to use.

Give Organic Maps a try!

#awesomeFOSS #degoogled #android

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

“What's it to be: Android or iPhone?”

Actually, NO! There is another way.

Time I Learned: there are freedom-respecting phones.

I'll tell you which one you need.

(For the literal minded: It's just a title. I don't really think Christmas is about buying gadgets. This article is about freedom in technology.)

What's the problem?

What's so bad about choosing either Google or Apple?

Many of us today are increasingly concerned about the vendor lock-in, advertising and data mining perpetrated by Apple and Google. They are so pervasive that it's hard at first to see all the avenues of social human interaction and creativity in which we could be harnessing the power of our computers and our electronic connection to others, all these avenues from which Big Tech have cut us off, as they steer us through their own product pathways according to their own commercial objectives.

In short, we are carrying around general purpose computers but we are artificially locked in to using their power only within the vendor's own playground. Read: The General Purpose Computer in Your Pocket. Those mega-corporations ensure everything we do is steered toward making their advertisers and shareholders richer: attention grabbing, commercial subscriptions, ads and so on. Not towards what's best and nicest for us as people.

We've been subjected so completely to their way that it's hard to imagine any other way. Hard to see that the nuggets of convenience we'd have to give up would be as nothing compared to the adventures we'd gain by switching. We can't see the wood for the trees.

Yet, the alternatives are here. We don't have to accept it's a choice between a rock and a hard place.

What we can do instead is choose tech that unlocks the power of these personal computers we carry around, and lets us use them for purposes that make no profits but enhance our own social lives. Gentle technology. Small Tech as opposed to Big Tech.

Once we make the leap and begin exploring the previously untapped possibilities, we begin to appreciate what it feels like to be released from Big Tech's constraints. It's not a stretch to say those companies had pressed us into their servitude, and now we can be free. That's what I'm feeling, and I want us all to have that opportunity.

Which Freedom-respecting Phone?

The one that stands out as best suited for ordinary people is built upon a deGoogled version of Android:

• Murena /e/OS smartphones
  
  • deGoogled, Android-compatible phone
  • with deGoogled “cloud” suite: email, docs, storage, etc. (free or €2~20 /month)
  • choice of phone models (€300~600) including Fairphone

  
  

Being freedom-software (open source), the maker guarantees your freedom to use the tools they provide or change to others. What does that mean in practice? For example, if you don't like the terms and conditions of the Murena cloud software suite, you can use a different one provided by someone else, be it an independent commercial provider, or run by your school or club, or at your best techie friend's home. And then you don't even need a Murena account.

How is this degree of freedom possible? First, with the slogan “my data is my data”, Murena is committed to these principles. It was founded by Gaël Duval, the creator of Mandrake Linux. Second, in contrast to Google's Android which merely contains some open-source software components, this technology stack is designed around open source principles. Their cloud service is not only based on Nextcloud, but is designed to be compatible and interoperable with similar services run by lots of other providers and individuals. Together, and in stark contrast to the Big G and the Big A, these mean there is neither a practical lock-in nor a legal lock-in.

How to get one?

• The no-fuss solution: buy one
• The techie friend option: ask the friend to set it for you on a second-hand phone.

“But I'm Not Average”: Other Freedom Phones

If you are not the average person, or if you want to learn more about the alternatives, read on.

I recommend Murena for the average person because their offering is so inclusive: the phone hardware, the cloud services, the freedom to take or leave parts of the system and adapt it to your needs, compatibility with most smart phone apps, and working in a way that is broadly familiar to a lot of people already. I hope we will soon see other providers like them offering a no-fuss all-included solution too.

These alternatives will appeal more to techies and to people with particular preferences or needs, and the ability to spend a bit more effort instead of buying an all-in package. With most of these, you or a techie friend will need to do one or more of: install the operating system software on a suitable phone, setting up any “cloud” services you want, or using apps that are currently less mainstream.

That said, these are quality and important alternatives.

Purism in particular is an outstanding company dedicated to making freedom and privacy centred devices. If their Librem phone isn't for you, check out their laptop, server, security key.

• Purism's Librem 5
  
  • Linux-based phone OS
  • convergence with Linux desktop: run desktop apps on the phone, or plug into a monitor and use as a desktop computer
  • company dedicated to software and hardware freedom and privacy at all levels, and working with wider FOSS community

  
  

Shiftphones in Germany sells modular repairable phones (and laptops, headphones, etc.). While their current SHIFT6mq comes with a Google Android pre-installed, the interesting thing is they offer an easy and built-in way to install an “upgrade” to a degoogled android version. Much easier than degoogling any other phone.

• Shiftphone SHIFT6mq detailed Review including thorough instructions on degoogling it, and suggestions for additional settings and apps.

Iodé is a small company in France selling phones pre-installed with deGoogled Android, with extra privacy features.

• Iodé's new or refurbished phones
  
  • deGoogled, Android-compatible phone
  • choice of phone models (€210~730) including Fairphone

  
  

For techies, there are more deGoogled Android distributions that you can download and install yourself on a suitable phone:

• LineageOS or LineageOS for microG
• CalyxOS
• GrapheneOS

The phone operating systems from the vendors mentioned, all being based on freedom software, can be self-installed too:

• install Murena /e/OS
• install Iodé
• install Purism's PureOS

(Where are the iOS-based freedom phones? That's not going to happen: Apple locks its users into its own walled garden completely. See The Neighborhood and The Nursing Home.)

What Does Julian Use?

Personally, for myself and family I am currently using LineageOS-for-MicroG. I chose that option because I am a techie, experimenting with the various options on a budget, so I tended towards those I can install myself on a wide range of old and new phones. And because it is quite close to mainstream Android so a majority of mainstream apps run on it. And because my less techie family members needed the reassurance of being able to continue using their familiar Google apps to begin with, and only gradually migrating to freedom-software, one app at a time when they are ready, from Chrome to Firefox for example.

I have experimented with others. I really admire what Murena is doing, and have self-installed /e/OS on an older phone. I am considering switching over to it on my main phone. I would want to set up my own compatible cloud service rather than using Murena's, because I will not compromise on using my own domain name as the key to my own data services. I believe Murena and other companies offering “your own data” services should for this reason always offer “bring your own domain”. For now, the situation is that Murena's service is open source with the source code repository ecloud-selfhosting in “beta” status. (It is to be congratulated also that they host their software forge on their own domain rather than using the anti-freedom github.)

This article is part of my Open Source Gadgets series.

#fossGadgets #android #degoogled #lineageOS #eOS

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

Feedback:

• email me: julian@foad.me.uk
• matrix me: @julian:foad.me.uk

Donations gratefully accepted

Julian Foad

2021-01-08 12:13:36

How do people identify you online?

• some-name on WhatsApp.com / Facebook.com / Twitter.com / etc.?
• some-name@gmail.com / @hotmail.com / @outlook.com / @icloud.com / etc.?

Whether we call these our id’s, addresses, accounts or handles, most of our identifiers look like these. The bad news is these identifiers are not ours. They don’t belong to us. We are just borrowing some-name from some.company .

If they so choose, some.company can block our account, or start charging for it, or give it to someone else, or change how “our” account works, or start posting adverts on it. They can mine “our” identifier for marketable metadata about ourself and our contacts, or censor what we can and can’t use it for, or sell the management of it to another company, or delete the data we stored there, or do anything else they choose. It’s neither legally nor practically ours. It’s one of their business assets, and they owe us no loyalty whatsoever. If the service is “free” then we and our attention are the product being sold to their real customers such as advertisers.

[1]Most of us are trusting people expecting to live in a stable world. We trust it will just continue to work, for free, for as long as we want it. Especially if we’re the president of the United States of America [2]. Oh, how the world proves us wrong.

Owning One’s Identity

There is a better way.

By owning our identity, we can set our own rules when a silo’s ToS do not suit us. For one example among many, some of us might want to talk to our children. If I am using WhatsApp, signing up my children is forbidden. I am not allowed to use the same silo to talk to my children that I use with my adult family and friends. But when we run our own matrix server for our family, then we can give our children their own accounts, under our supervision, and exchange messages and photos and make calls with them.

There are two sides to owning our online identity (or identities). We need to have both legal ownership — to be allowed to use it — and practical ownership — to be able to use it.

• Legally owning our identity means we must use identifiers such as myname@myname.org where the domain name part (myname.org) is registered to us personally, rather than borrow a name that is issued by some.company and therefore remains under their control.
• Practically owning our identity means we must have the ability to communicate without requiring both ourselves and our contacts to be customers products of some.company. Our communications technologies need to be “open” in the sense of freedom-respecting and universal, like email is, in contrast to the “silos” or “walled gardens” like WhatsApp, Twitter and all the rest whose users can’t talk to anybody outside them.

Legally owning our identifier means retaining the rights to that identifier, even when we change providers of any services. In practice today we are talking about identifiers based on DNS domain names. Years ago, domain names like example.com were the preserve of companies, universities and governments, but nowadays anyone can register one for around £10 to £30 a year. A domain name remains ours for as long as we pay the domain registration fee. The domain name registrars are strictly regulated, giving us about the highest level of guarantee we could achieve in today’s world. (In principle of course they could be overruled or changed by governments, as could anything.)

Practically owning our email is quite straight forward, because email is based on standards that are non-proprietary and universal. (Companies like Google have tried to put their own hooks and claws into the process but they have not gone quite so far as to make gmail incompatible with standard email, thank goodness.) Because of this, we can independently register our own domain, choose our own email address at our domain, and rent an email service from an independent email service provider (such as Fastmail) and attach it to our email address(es). We can even copy our email history onto it, set up forwarding from the old email account to the new one, and so on. And the important part about “ownership” is if this rented service should ever become unavailable or unsuitable, we don’t lose our email address, and we can rent an equivalent service from some other company, transfer the address, and so keep on using our own same email address without our contacts even noticing the transition.

Practically owning our social media and instant messaging had been not impossible but mostly impractical until, at last, around 2020 there has been massive development and uptake of freedom-respecting and universal options, and their names are now becoming well known. The ones I want to call out are:

• Matrix (universal instant messaging)
• the Fediverse (ensemble of federated social media including Mastodon, Plemora and many others)

---

Footnotes:

[1] Even if we were to pay rental for one of these silo services, that would not change much: they tend to offer no real service level obligation, and can still stop it or change it or do pretty much as they wished in all other regards.

[2] I wrote this article at the start of 2021, after President Trump’s Twitter account had been “permanently suspended” (cnn.com, nypost.com).

[3]John Battelle wrote about the same problem in 2012: Who Controls Our Data? A Puzzle.

https://blog.foad.me.uk/2021/01/08/is-your-online-identity-yours/

Trump permanently suspended from Twitter after Capitol siege

Twitter on Friday took the unprecedented step of banning President Trump’s world-famous account from the platform “permanently” — less than two weeks before he leaves office. “After close review of…

^{Ebony Bowden (New York Post)}

Kupiłem kilka dni temu nowy telefon z Androidem. Xiaomi Redmi 9C NFC (3GB/64GB) w okazyjnej cenie na promocji w sieciówce (199zł).

Powiem Wam, że obecny #android to jest jeden wielki słup reklamowy. Bez #debloat apek Xiaomi i Google się nie da. Nawet w "starej poczciwej" apce Muzyka są reklamy. W Wiadomościach google. W sprawdzaczu plików APK. W tapetach... Wszędzie...

Ludzie, Wy tak żyjecie?

Absolutnie polecam Universal Android Debloater #UAD
https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
dla "zwykłych użytkowników" i wywalenie tego szajsu przez ADB albo LADB.

Bez tego się nie da pracować...

Moja stara Xperia służyła mi wiele lat i zatrzymałem się na starszej wersji androida. Nie miałem pojęcia, że te nowe to taka masakra!

Będzie więcej teraz o #Android. Zanim przejdę na #LineageOs posprawdzam co amerykańskie i chińskie korpo z Wami wyprawiają, a nuż coś się poradzi ;)

Simple Mobile Tools

A group of simple, open source Android apps without ads and unnecessary permissions, with customizable colors.

Download: https://www.simplemobiletools.com/
Fdroid: https://mstdn.social/@foss_android/110294812040092916

#Foss #Android #OpenSource #Privacy #Dialer #Gallery #filemanager #messages #Camera #Contacts #flashlight #notes #Music #musicplayer #Calendar #Keyboard #gboard #OSS #Calculator #clock #Draw #art #SimpleTools #SimpleContacts #SimpleGalleryPro #foss_android #Google #Launcher #App #SimpleTools

FOSS Android :verified_twtr:

2023-05-01 18:21:11

7. Simple Calendar Pro: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.calendar.pro/
8. Simple SMS Messenger: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.smsmessenger/
9. Simple Notes Pro: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.notes.pro/
10. Simple Flashlight: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.flashlight/
11. Simple Clock: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.clock/
12. Simple Music Player: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.musicplayer/

#SimpleTools #FDroid

Simple Calendar Pro | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Calendar widget 2023. Appointment scheduler & planner. Business work calendar

^{www.f-droid.org}

Hmm, moim zdaniem to nie jest dobry pomysł, to przyciąganie na siłę wszystkich nowych osób zakładających profil przez apkę #Android na instancję mastodon.social

Ciężko teraz dogrzebać się do serwera działającego w ojczystym języku, a mastodon.social puchnie. Dopiero co się z niego przeniosłem na pol.social, bo ciężko było używać przez lagi, opóźnienia i błędy 500 w przeglądarce.

Chyba że pan Gargron chce zniechęcić ludzi do #Mastodon pokazując jak powoli działa?🤔

Ech, zamiast #decentralizacja, kolejna wielka instancja. Przykład #matrix.org chyba poszedł na marne...

Więcej -> https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/110236405361940166

#MastodonMigration #ExiTT

Aral Balkan

2023-04-21 10:47:36

Dear @Gargron,

Please reevaluate your decision to incentivise centralisation on mastodon.social in the official app.

This is the sort of design a VC-funded startup would implement, not a non-profit acting in the interests of a healthy commons.

I’m sure you don’t want mastodon.social to become mini-Twitter and you don’t want to become mini-Musk.

That’s not how we win this.

More instances, not larger instances is the key.

https://mastodon.ar.al/@feditips@mstdn.social/110233282943673558

#decentralisation #fediverse #staySmall