To answer your question about Android apps, there is an application called Waydroid that can run on Linux phones. This essentially emulates Android and you can install apps on there. Some Play Store apps require access to Google Play Services, and even though MicroG tries to emulate it without being as privacy invasive, it is not perfect and some apps won’t run well or even at all.

I only use it for a few things that do not have any way to access through a web browser.

Whatever map that uses Eurasia rather than pretend Europe is it’s own continent is fine by me

Depends how pedantic you want to be. A large portion of Russian land is in Asia.

My MAGA family member sent me an instagram post of a screenshot of a Mayo Clinic article headline that said measles prevents some forms of cancer, so we should just let it run wild.

Ignore the fact that the natural form of measles has the risk of causing too many complications and long term negative health effects to be considered effective, and the cancer prevention research is on genetically modified strain specific to fighting cancer cells. Naturally, the instagram post did not link to the full article.

Who is the Judas that took him out, though?

I actually do not alienate, but I do criticize when necessary.

I have a close relative who took the red pill and is all in on the manosphere. Sometimes he sends me, and I’m not even kidding, 30 messages in a day about all the manosphere content he watches; but we still hang out and talk. I don’t comment on everything he sends me if it is something we have already debated over. If it is something different or something I find to be egregious, I do call him out on it.

To be fair, some days are harder than others to hear his bullshit, and I take a break and mute his messages for a while. I feel overall I still value him as a person and it is important to interact with him. However, I can also empathize with those that want nothing to do with someone who holds those opinions.

Or maybe if there were less young boys listening to Andrew Tate there wouldn’t be that attitude towards men?

I am a paid user of Tuta and I have never seen any ads. Where did you see them and what kind of ads?

The water is tested and 99% of the time it is probably safe to drink. But who knows how much of it you will drink before it is discovered (and then even longer to reveal) that there was an issue with the water.

Where I live has heavy agriculture and oil industry presence. People here are concerned over pesticides and random chemicals randomly seeping into the water system.

LoFiGirl definitely needs to chill, she is working 24/7/365

Yeah, what is the key verifier thing? It’s not like it’s Windows and needs a purchased license key, right?

That sucks about your friend. I can relate.

Scammers hacked my elderly mother on her windows laptop. They tricked her with an ad saying there was a problem with her computer, and they had her install remote access software. She mentioned seeing the terminal so I assumed they installed (at least) a keylogger. Luckily, they either ran out of time, or their con took two days, but they said they were going to call my mom the next day and have her log in to the bank to make sure her computer was still working.

So, I wiped her computer and installed Linux Mint with auto updates set up. She only had one simple question about logging in to google chrome and that’s been it for the last month. She has just been using it no problem.

Side note: The next day the scammers had the nerve to call my mom and ask her why her computer was turned off.

more than likely it was the two emails in the gmail app

There’s just the slightest tinge of brown at the top, therefore it is ruined by being too well done

A friend of mine in college pirated a japanese show which included the ads. The first episode seemed to have subs with legitimate translations. The rest of the season the subtitle author had fun and changed them to make fun of the ads. It was pretty funny.

There were no quizzes though…

I appreciate this post. I think you are right that those of us who value privacy and try to take steps to minimize eventually having those moments of having to step back and reassess our threat model.

Every now and then I ask myself why I resist the duopoly of Apple and Google, and the answer is because I value a third option. Like you mentioned in your post it may seem bleak now, but it might not always be this way. And if we ever do reach a more privacy conscious society, it was because all of us in the privacy community kept the flame going by supporting and using that more privacy focused third option.

I remember it for the same reason. Pretty cool that the project is still going

You rang?

The best way to fight is to prevent it from happening in the first place. I would recommend carrying an air horn or whistle and use the noise to scare it off.