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Facebook fined for forcing users to agree to personalised ads

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @phenomlab What keyboard do you use on your current phone right now?

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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew I’m using the stock Samsung keyboard from OneUI

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @phenomlab Right on! I think I am liking the keyboard I mentioned above. Don’t like the look of it when you turn the phone sideways thought, but I have to look and see if there is a way to change that when you turn the phone sideways.

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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew I honestly don’t use the phone sideways so no issue as such for me 😀

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

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  • JACundefined

    @Madchatthew said in Facebook fined for forcing users to agree to personalised ads:

    I also decided to go with signal. And to get family to change to it isn’t so easy. My mom did, but my brother is taking his sweet ole time. He said he installed it but he hasn’t signed up for it yet. So we will see.

    I recently made the switch to signal like yourself.

    Thought this may be of interest to you especially getting the family to move over.

    https://www.makeuseof.com/signal-rolls-out-video-call-links/

    phenomlabundefined Madchatthewundefined 2 Replies
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  • phenomlabundefined

    @JAC @Madchatthew this is probably also useful - essentially, my views on usage

    1. Privacy Concerns
      Data Sharing with Meta (Facebook): WhatsApp shares some user data with its parent company, Meta, which uses this information for targeted advertising across its platform. Although the messages are end-to-end encrypted, metadata like who you talk to, how often, and for how long can still be used to build a profile.
      Policy Changes: WhatsApp’s privacy policy has been updated multiple times, sparking concerns that future changes might further encroach on user privacy.
    2. End-to-End Encryption Limitations
      Metadata Collection: While messages are encrypted, WhatsApp still collects metadata on user activity. This can potentially allow for profiling and activity tracking, albeit in a non-content-specific way.
      Backups: Messages backed up to cloud services (like Google Drive or iCloud) aren’t end-to-end encrypted by WhatsApp, meaning they are vulnerable to third-party access or hacking.
    3. Lack of Customization and Features
      Feature Limitations: Competing apps such as Telegram and Signal offer more customization, like unique themes, larger group capacities, and more advanced media sharing.
      Restrictions on Group Size: WhatsApp group limits are smaller compared to alternatives like Telegram, which can host much larger communities.
    4. Platform Monopolization and Dependency
      Heavy Market Influence: WhatsApp’s widespread usage can create a dependency on Meta’s ecosystem, reducing users’ exposure to more privacy-oriented platforms.
      Reduced Competition: This dominance limits market space for alternative messaging services, leading to fewer options and less innovation outside the Meta ecosystem.
    5. Security Concerns
      Potential Vulnerabilities: Despite robust security measures, WhatsApp has experienced vulnerabilities and hacking incidents, which can be unsettling for security-focused users.
      Third-Party Integration Risks: WhatsApp’s growing integration with other Meta services raises concerns that security vulnerabilities from one platform could impact another.
    6. Data Sovereignty
      Control Over Data: WhatsApp users don’t have full control over their data and cannot self-host as they could with other messaging solutions like Matrix or XMPP-based services.
    7. Lack of Cross-Platform Support
      Device Limitations: WhatsApp has been slower to roll out multi-device support compared to competitors, limiting access across devices. Although it has now been expanded, it’s still limited compared to other apps like Telegram.
      Alternative Messaging Apps
      Signal: Highly regarded for its focus on privacy and transparency; it’s open-source and designed with minimal metadata collection.
      Telegram: Known for its features, such as large groups and extensive media options, although it’s not as privacy-focused as Signal.
      Matrix/Element: Decentralized, self-hostable, and offers excellent data control.

    Ultimately, whether to keep using WhatsApp depends on your priorities for security, privacy, and functionality.

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @JAC Nice, that would be nice to have video calls encrypted.

    @phenomlab nice thanks for that post.

    Update - so far my wife is basically no i don’t want to install that and change apps if everyone else has to change to that app too. So it seems she pretty much doesn’t care about privacy.

    My mom is the only one that has installed it and used it LOL - But her and my dad are all about privacy and such. It doesn’t do much good though if others don’t join it.

    I do wish that signal would add sms and if someone switches to signal then it would use the secure feature. But that would probably go against what they are all about.

    phenomlabundefined 2 Replies
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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew said in Facebook fined for forcing users to agree to personalised ads:

    But her and my dad are all about privacy and such. It doesn’t do much good though if others don’t join it.

    But even that statement itself is like a breath of fresh air. Typically the generation before are the most difficult to educate but it seems your parents are a step ahead of everyone else.

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

    JACundefined 1 Reply
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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew said in Facebook fined for forcing users to agree to personalised ads:

    I do wish that signal would add sms and if someone switches to signal then it would use the secure feature. But that would probably go against what they are all about.

    Yes, same here. Perhaps one day…

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

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  • JACundefined

    @phenomlab 100%.

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    @DownPW 🙂 most of this really depends on your desired security model. In all cases with firewalls, less is always more, although it’s never as clear cut as that, and there are always bespoke ports you’ll need to open periodically.

    Heztner’s DDoS protection is superior, and I know they have invested a lot of time, effort, and money into making it extremely effective. However, if you consider that the largest ever DDoS attack hit Cloudflare at 71m rps (and they were able to deflect it), and each attack can last anywhere between 8-24 hours which really depends on how determined the attacker(s) is/are, you can never be fully prepared - nor can you trace it’s true origin.

    DDoS attacks by their nature (Distributed Denial of Service) are conducted by large numbers of devices whom have become part of a “bot army” - and in most cases, the owners of these devices are blissfully unaware that they have been attacked and are under command and control from a nefarious resource. Given that the attacks originate from multiple sources, this allows the real attacker to observe from a distance whilst concealing their own identity and origin in the process.

    If you consider the desired effect of DDoS, it is not an attempt to access ports that are typically closed, but to flood (and eventually overwhelm) the target (such as a website) with millions of requests per second in an attempt to force it offline. Victims of DDoS attacks are often financial services for example, with either extortion or financial gain being the primary objective - in other words, pay for the originator to stop the attack.

    It’s even possible to get DDoS as a service these days - with a credit card, a few clicks of a mouse and a target IP, you can have your own proxy campaign running in minutes which typically involves “booters” or “stressers” - see below for more

    https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/ddos-as-a-service-attacks-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work

    @DownPW said in Setting for high load and prevent DDoS (sysctl, iptables, crowdsec or other):

    in short if you have any advice to give to secure the best.

    It’s not just about DDos or firewalls. There are a number of vulnerabilities on all systems that if not patched, will expose that same system to exploit. One of my favourite online testers which does a lot more than most basic ones is below

    https://www.immuniweb.com/websec/

    I’d start with the findings reported here and use that to branch outwards.

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    phenomlabundefined

    @DownPW great response - and salent points well made.

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    Here’s a very useful video that will walk you through the privacy features of Android - mostly around the ones you should disable to get the most out of the experience

  • Mike Jonesundefined

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    phenomlabundefined

    @mike-jones Hi Mike,

    There are multiple answers to this, so I’m going to provide some of the most important ones here

    JS is a client side library, so you shouldn’t rely on it solely for validation. Any values collected by JS will need to be passed back to the PHP backend for processing, and will need to be fully sanitised first to ensure that your database is not exposed to SQL injection. In order to pass back those values into PHP, you’ll need to use something like

    <script> var myvalue = $('#id').val(); $(document).ready(function() { $.ajax({ type: "POST", url: "https://myserver/myfile.php?id=" + myvalue, success: function() { $("#targetdiv").load('myfile.php?id=myvalue #targetdiv', function() {}); }, //error: ajaxError }); return false; }); </script>

    Then collect that with PHP via a POST / GET request such as

    <?php $myvalue= $_GET['id']; echo "The value is " . $myvalue; ?>

    Of course, the above is a basic example, but is fully functional. Here, the risk level is low in the sense that you are not attempting to manipulate data, but simply request it. However, this in itself would still be vulnerable to SQL injection attack if the request is not sent as OOP (Object Orientated Programming). Here’s an example of how to get the data safely

    <?php function getid($theid) { global $db; $stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT *FROM data where id = ?"); $stmt->execute([$theid]); while ($result= $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){ $name = $result['name']; $address = $result['address']; $zip = $result['zip']; } return array( 'name' => $name, 'address' => $address, 'zip' => $zip ); } ?>

    Essentially, using the OOP method, we send placeholders rather than actual values. The job of the function is to check the request and automatically sanitise it to ensure we only return what is being asked for, and nothing else. This prevents typical injections such as “AND 1=1” which of course would land up returning everything which isn’t what you want at all for security reasons.

    When calling the function, you’d simply use

    <?php echo getid($myvalue); ?>

    @mike-jones said in Securing javascript -> PHP mysql calls on Website:

    i am pretty sure the user could just use the path to the php file and just type a web address into the search bar

    This is correct, although with no parameters, no data would be returned. You can actually prevent the PHP script from being called directly using something like

    <?php if(!defined('MyConst')) { die('Direct access not permitted'); } ?>

    then on the pages that you need to include it

    <?php define('MyConst', TRUE); ?>

    Obviously, access requests coming directly are not going via your chosen route, therefore, the connection will die because MyConst does not equal TRUE

    @mike-jones said in Securing javascript -> PHP mysql calls on Website:

    Would it be enough to just check if the number are a number 1-100 and if the drop down is one of the 5 specific words and then just not run the rest of the code if it doesn’t fit one of those perameters?

    In my view, no, as this will expose the PHP file to SQL injection attack without any server side checking.

    Hope this is of some use to start with. Happy to elaborate if you’d like.

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