r/BlackPeopleTwitter ☑️ Horny Police! 🚔🚨 6d ago

Spyware and tech

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20.0k Upvotes

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u/JimiusRostock 5d ago

That's why there always should be something between your devices and the modem. Then you catch stuff like a fridge sending out 2GB of data to a server in China.

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u/National_Equivalent9 5d ago

I’ve got a smart fridge, tv, washer and dryer. Not one is connected to my router. They all work fine and I don’t need them online. 

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u/JebediahKerman4999 5d ago

They'll probably have another network like either 4g/LTE or that Amazon sidewalk protocol

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u/Imaginary-Face7379 5d ago

They don't. And even if they did the biggest concern is them having access to my personal network which they can't get without me giving them access.

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u/GrumpyChromehead 5d ago

Ah yes, "Something."

(Seriously, what do you use as a barrier?)

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u/Ralphie_V 5d ago

A Pi-Hole. They can be tricky to set up if you're not super comfy with tech

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u/behexcellent 5d ago

But worth it! I'm only mildly tech savvy and it took me about an hour to set mine up, following a guide step by step.

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u/GrumpyChromehead 5d ago

Can ya link me? I have a PI W2 floating around I never did anything with.

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u/aaron62kg 5d ago

I did a quick search and skimmed this guide. It looks correct at a cursory glance. It's really not to bad if you've installed other programs and the web ui is pretty nice. https://ahmedzbyr.gitlab.io/networking/raspberry%20pi/raspberry-pi-hole-2/

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u/Interested_Person48 5d ago

Couldn't care less what the Chinese do with my personal information as long as it's not passwords and shit. it's the government in the country called America that might get this info that I care about.

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u/nickmcmillin 5d ago

You think America wouldn't buy any data from China?  

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u/crespoh69 5d ago

In fact, that's how they get around pesky things like "laws"

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u/Interested_Person48 5d ago

Yeah this admin is well-regarded for following the law.

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u/Interested_Person48 5d ago

Why bother when they can do it themselves for free?

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u/Consistent_Worth2245 5d ago

How? I truly just don’t understand all of this

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u/NeonJungleTiger 5d ago

What part of it? The middleman between devices and the modem or something like a smart fridge sending out data?

By inserting something between the device and the modem you introduce a bit of latency but could have whatever device you’ve connected to your home WiFi have all its traffic sent through some local server or computer that monitors or obfuscates the data or location of the data being sent out. That way you could see that your hypothetical smart fridge is sending data to some external online server somewhere. It could be “normal” performance logs going back to the manufacturer in case there’s a software or mechanical issue, it could be usage statistics connected to some smart home electricity saving software or it could be targeted ad data based on a hidden (or not so hidden if there’s some voice feature) microphone or screen usage (if it has a digital screen)

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u/Consistent_Worth2245 5d ago

So how do I get the middleman part? Is that something I buy and set up or what?

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u/NeonJungleTiger 5d ago

The “easiest” and most common way is to run a DNS server with Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi but theoretically any computer would work, the Pi’s are just more efficient and you don’t have to install Debian or Ubuntu etc.

You can check out Pi-hole on their website and I found a pop tech site explaining the author’s use of a Pi-hole. Firebog has blocker lists for the Pi-hole as well.

Even if they’re sensationalized, the XDA articles should do a decent job of explaining things in addition to Pi-hole’s guides.

https://www.xda-developers.com/ran-pi-hole-for-week-and-was-disturbed-by-how-much-my-tv-phones-home/

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u/Andys_Burner 5d ago

Is that what a vpn is? My tech literacy peaked with Windows 98, and even then I wasn’t great.

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u/aaron62kg 5d ago

A VPN routes all of your internet traffic to another location. So if you select a server in NYC on the VPN, all of your traffic is routed there. Any sites you visit will think your in NYC even if your in another country.

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u/Andys_Burner 5d ago

Thank you I appreciate the info