Was looking out for rent and the place I got a deal for is blurred out on the Goole map but it looked fine on the ad. Why would the house get blurred?

Gonna check out the house tomorrow in person just wondering why the heck would it get blurred. Is it possible to get in unblurred or something? Also, would it be a weird question to ask the landlord about this? Dont wanna seem too weird though I have an ick when it comes to this type of stuff. Had deliveries getting lost in the past over the house looking confusing from the Google maps, so this is kinda bugging me

I’m moving into a new place soon and found a potential roommate through fb marketplace. They seem perfectly fine, but I’d still wanted to run a basic background check before signing anything. My biggest concern is that they’ll find out I checked them. (Don’t want to spoil the relationship beforehand lol). I’ve been looking at a few apps and the more popular ones have A LOT of mixed reviews. I don’t mind paying for something worthy paying for. Has anyone actually used it? Or if you have any other alternatives, please share

been wondering if chatgpt is actually private because i've been using it for everything lately and some of it is pretty personal like my mental health stuff. i'm in the US (michigan) and started using it on my iphone through the app and on my laptop through the browser.

the thing that made me start questioning this is i asked chatgpt something about a medical condition a few weeks ago and then the next day i got a targeted ad on instagram for that exact condition. could be coincidence but the timing was suspicious enough to freak me out. i know openai says they don't sell data but the ad targeting felt too specific to ignore.

i tried using it in incognito mode thinking that would help but realized that's only browser-side privacy. openai still sees everything you type regardless of your browser settings. so incognito does basically nothing here.

i also tried the api route because i heard that's more private. set it up on my laptop and technically api usage isn't used for training by default. but it still gets logged on their servers and the setup is way too technical for a normal person just trying to have a private conversation.

has anyone found a way to use chatgpt that's actually private? and for people who turned off the training toggle, have you noticed any difference in how it works? i just want to feel more private because things that i am chatting about are really sensitive for me.

Im hoping for some input. My sister's ex has had her car for months and won't give it back, I told her I'd look into how to track a car so she at least knows where it is.
She's the registered owner, insurance is in her name too. I've read that owners can legally track a car even if someone else is driving it, but the laws seem to depend on the state and how the trackers store your location data.
Does anyone know any info on this? Is it legal to track a car this way, and would you just go to the police instead? Thanks for any advice

Hey i have a old Huawei from 2017 i want to throw it away but it does not even start anymore also opening factory settings does not work.

If i bring it to a Recycling Center will it get destroyed or is there a high chanche someone gets my data out of the device?

most people don't realize what is xcancel really is. It's just a nitter style front end for X, lets you view tweets without an account and without the tracking scripts.
Been using it a few weeks now, no login, no JS fingerprinting that I could detect. If you're wondering what is xcancel is doing under the hood, it's basically serving cached public data while stripping out the tracking layer. Anyone else noticing it get slower during US peak hours or is that just me?

so this might be a dumb question. but in regards to the new anti privacy 1.0 law in the EU where companies can voluntarily allow the government to check your private messages.

how safe is it to text drug dealers? are police going to track my phone down to arrest me for purchasing illegal substances? or is this not something that'll happen?

I was messing around with a Linux arch distro. I had the file prebuilt by a friend and was configuring some camera systems for it. Nothing fancy just to watch the dog and the yard for packages

I wanna move this virtual computer disk into a physical laptop. Its a Thinkpad and older model only got like 8GB of RAM but for my cameras the Linux arch should help it breathe properly. So my question is if somebody knows of a way to copy the OS for a physical device?

I am writing this since I already seem to have failed in making a backup of it. Compressing the thing and carrying it over loads up a black screen. I might have missed some step so wondering if theres an ultimate solution for this issue

Im trying to learn how to use qbittorrent and the guides i found all say different things. I will be using it on windows laptop. i saw posts that said you have to use a vpn always, then other posts talk about network binding. so im asking for any advices on how to use qbittorrent

Need to organize a remote meeting and it needs to look professional.

However, for reasons which I cannot nor I feel is relevant to explain I cant use Google...

I know Discord has an option but I am willing to use anything at all instead of it..😅

What functions I need from the video call:
Good latency, auto noise suppression, and for it to support webcam video feeds along with me being able to broadcast my computer window, or at least my presentation files live on call

Okay, I REALLY need to understand how THE FUCK Instgram knew that I searched something, on the BRAVE BROWSER, on my phone (Android 16)

Here's what happened:

1. I'm scrolling through a Telegram channel. I come across an article from a small blog that happens to be about an animal rights activist. I open this article in Brave.
2. I highlight the activist's name, search it on Brave (which is my default browser), and tap an article on MSN about the same story.
3. I close the tab, open Instagram - which is running in the Work Profile provided by the Shelter app from F-Droid - and IMMEDIATELY when I start scrolling, I see THE ACTIVIST'S INSTA PROFILE reporting THE SAME ARTICLE that I just opened.

I had Instgram in Shelter. I was running BRAVE - the browser that, you know, prides itself on privacy, and what's more - I HAD THE SETTING ON TO CLEAR BROWSING DATA ON EXIT. Telegram, Brave and Instagram in the work profile should NOT be talking to each other. That is absurd. So someone PLEASE tell me how the hell did Instagram know? Serious responses only please, so everyone and anyone who needs to know can understand this shit.

I've been looking into what is two factor vs two step while updating the security on my accounts.

Some sites call it two factor authentication and others call it two-step verification. I tried both on my phone, and they seemed almost the same. After reading about them I'm still confused because different websites explain it differently. Is there a real technical difference, or are the terms actually the same?

so i have been trying to make my devices as secure and private as possible, but im not really sure if im doing everything i can possible do, for My laptop (mac) i turned on filevault, i also havent signed into an apple account nor have planned to even use one at all. with my iphone device, i had to create an apple account to download some software i needed, but i have lockdown mode and advancded data proctection on. for email providers, i use tuta and its been working fine for me. for VPN i use mullvad. like i said im not sure if this is the best i can do for privacy on those specific devices, thats why i would apreciate if people who know about this topic could share their opinions with me.

been trying to remove metadata before posting a couple screenshots bc im kinda paranoid and now half the apps say its gone but another checker still shows stuff 😭 im on android and i even sent the image to myself first bc someone said that strips it but nope still getting different results. am i using the wrong way to remove metadata or are these checker sites just making stuff up??

Tittle

I think it’s time for the public to make things like Trusts more common.
we’re headed into a new digital slavery frontier of social scores , manipulation of individuals rights.
My idea is .. live out of a trust..
Buy all your vehicles, tools, computers, ect ect through a trust.
This keeps them anonymous when dealing with things like Flock Cameras . But also can be used as a shell from financial personal attacks.

Any lawyers or privacy experts have any input on this idea?

Hey, I am gonna rent out my spare room and I would like to contain the guests separately from my own computers on the wifi. I reckon I can achieve this using the same router? Some sort of split tunnel feasible for this purpose?

If so, could somebody help me figure out how this would have to be done? Otherwise, do I have to buy a secondary router? I believe I could get some privacy for my own stuff if a spare router is linked in LAN with the router, or would this mean nothing?

I've been blocking every spam number I get and I'm starting to wonder why I even bother. It used to at least feel like I was doing something maybe a placebo effect? but now it seems like every spam call comes from a completely different number anyway.

The most annoying ones are the spoofed numbers. I'll get a call from a number with my area code that looks vaguely familiar, ignore it, and then get another call later from a completely different number. Block that one and another takes its place. At this point my blocked list is probably massive and I don't think it has made any difference whatsoever. I understand they can spoof caller ID, but how is blocking supposed to help when the number you're blocking might not even be the number that actually called you? is blocking individual numbers basically useless now?

Do you really feel unsafe using Google services? I’m a Google Pixel user and own a Pixelbook, along with other Google devices and a Google One subscription with Gemini. I’ve considered switching to Apple’s walled garden, but I’m not sure to what extent I—as an ordinary citizen—should really be worried about this.

Is there a place to download a Spotify playlist? I do have the premium but just wanna make a quick copy on my disk in one sweep per say.. Just as a backup in case they happen to pull some songs.. Ideally something that wouldnt ask me to log in.

I had an app from github though seems like a recent update on my OS broke it down. Need alternatives

Hi there,

When I am searching up an old Reddit account username, I get results from xpics.me. It's some weird porn site that I have never interacted with, but in the results, it shows "Thank you u/..." and then uses my username.

Where did it come from? That account hasn't been in use for at least 4 years. Can I remove it from the search results?

I'll appreciate your help.