Mass surveillance, Security and Privacy online

Table of Contents

TODO

  1. Why Self-host? https://romanzipp.com/blog/why-a-homelab-why-self-host?lid=2889n9p9vrpb
  2. How Citizen Surveillance Ate San Francisco
  3. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Quietly Kills Rule to Shield Americans From Data Brokers
  4. Here’s What Your Browser Is Telling Everyone About You
  5. How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate
  6. The FTC Warns Big Tech Companies Not to Apply the Digital Services Act
  7. ‘SIM Farms’ Are a Spam Plague. A Giant One in New York Threatened US Infrastructure, Feds Say
  8. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/zzo9dr/eli5_can_google_search_engine_still_collect/
  9. https://www.security.org/vpn/browsing-history/
  10. https://protonvpn.com/blog/can-be-tracked-using-vpn
  11. Social Security Data Is Openly Being Shared With DHS to Target Immigrants
  12. Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data
  13. This Is the Platform Google Claims Is Behind a ‘Staggering’ Scam Text Operation https://www.wired.com/story/lighthouse-google-lawsuit-scam-text-messages/

Mass surveillance, Security and Privacy online

  1. Apple declared war on your privacy
  2. Tech tool offers police mass surveillance on a budget
  3. The Birth of Spy Tech: From the Detectifone to a Bugged Martini
  4. The DHS has been quietly harvesting DNA from Americans for years
  5. The Secret History of Tor: How a Military Project Became a Lifeline for Privacy
  6. A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers
  7. Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing

Reading material

  1. The Best VPNs to Protect Yourself Online https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-vpn/

Helpful websites

  1. Erase your online footprint: https://incogni.com/
  2. Generate text in fonts or using emojis:
    1. https://tools.picsart.com/text/font-generator/
    2. https://lingojam.com/FancyTextGenerator

Why should you use a VPN?

What happens if i am logged into amazon when on VPN?

If you’re logged into Amazon on a VPN, Amazon may flag your account for security checks (due to an unusual IP/location), block access if the VPN server is blacklisted, or provide region-specific content based on the VPN’s location. Your activity is still linked to your logged-in account, and Amazon can see what you do regardless of the VPN.

What can happen

  1. Security Checkpoint: Amazon might require you to verify your identity (e.g., via email/text) due to an unfamiliar login location/IP.
  2. Content Restrictions: Prime Video/Music might show content unavailable in the VPN’s region, or block access entirely if the IP is known to be a VPN.
  3. IP Detection: Amazon’s systems can often detect VPN use (shared IPs, traffic patterns).
  4. Normal Functionality: For shopping, your account and orders will function as usual, though pricing/availability could theoretically vary slightly by region (less common for physical goods).
  5. No Privacy from Amazon: If you are logged in, Amazon still logs your activity linked to your account, VPN or not.

If i am on vpn, if i am logged into google and search something, will google know?

Yes, Google will still know your searches and browsing activity if you are logged into your Google account, even with a VPN, as your activity is tied to your account and services like YouTube or Gmail. A VPN only hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic from your ISP, not your Google account’s recorded history.

What Google knows (despite VPN)

  1. Search/Browsing History: Directly linked to your logged-in account (Web & App Activity).
  2. Location: Can still be inferred from account history, GPS, Wi-Fi data, or cookies, even if the IP address is masked.
  3. App Usage: Google collects data from Android apps, which can bypass the VPN’s protection.

What a VPN does hide (from others)

  1. Hides your true IP address from websites (except Google, which uses your login).
  2. Encrypts your internet traffic from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and network administrators.

Tags

  1. VPN set-up: https://programming-notes.explorer436.com/posts/20240821110848-vpn_set_up/
  2. Some Android Keyboards that Respect Your Privacy https://programming-notes.explorer436.com/posts/20231107233546-my_notes_about_android/#some-android-keyboards-that-respect-your-privacy
  3. How to Disappear Online and Become Untraceable
  4. Are password managers a single point of failure?
  5. Books about Cyber Security

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