Questions tagged [privacy]
The attribute of a system that prevents the release of data to unauthorized individuals. The ability or expectation of an individual or group to reveal information about themselves selectively or not at all.
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Microphone and screen recording [closed]
Why does a green recording symbol appear at the top of my phone as if I am recording a video and I won't even be using my phone? Also my screen records itself and my conversations and stores the ...
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of the cookies created by OTHER websites, which ones would the browser allow a website to access?
I know that sites can share some information between each other by sharing cookies amongst themselves. They have to be in some kind of agreement with each other I assume? Or can any random site read ...
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Firefox containers vs profiles, how contained are they?
A "privacy by compartmentalization" measure I used to implement in my day to day surfing was to separate each part into Firefox profiles. (Work, Study, Finance...)
Recently I learned about ...
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Can someone explain Differential Privacy to me?
I have recently been reading more carefully into differential privacy. There are some things that I have been very confused about.
My initial understanding is that the purpose of differential privacy ...
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Is form data as is being inputted always safe?
When filling out forms in the browser is the client side input secure against JS and other attack vectors?
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Why do apps such as the DuckDuckGo browser or Signal seem to try to protect my own data from me?
This is a general pattern that occurs in various security- and privacy-conscious applications...
The DuckDuckGo browser, for example, won't let me show my browsing history. It does seem to store it, ...
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What information is shared by an audio bluetooth connection?
I paired my Android phone with a rental car recently and, when prompted, told my phone not to share my contacts and messages. So I was only sharing my audio (or so I thought). But at one point I saw ...
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What is the exact privacy advantage in disabling Spotlight Indexing?
What is the exact privacy advantage in disabling Spotlight Indexing?
Some privacy experts recommends disabling Spotlight on macOS for improved privacy
sudo mdutil -i off && sudo mdutil -E
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Ways Google identifies browser activity done in incognito mode? [duplicate]
I saw Google are being sued for tracking you in incognito mode and was curious as to how they identify the 'you' if you're not logged in to a Google account. Or are they logging the activity but not ...
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How does "on.quad9.net" know whether a user is using quad9? [closed]
To be able to know if a user is using quad9 by browsing https://on.quad9.net/, I was expecting the same technique as DNS leak test to be used (see How does dnsleaktest.com find my DNS provider).
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How did he find my full real name based on my Steam or FACEIT Profile? [closed]
Yesterday, I was playing a counterstrike game on FACEIT, when all of sudden one of my teammates started bullying me for my bad plays. It was standard trash-talking for a bit, but then all of a sudden, ...
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How can I ensure that sensitive data on a Windows computer is not transmitted externally by any software?
How can I securely handle sensitive information on my computer given the pervasive threat of malicious software and cyber-attacks?
I am concerned that my computer, connected to the internet, is ...
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Could a Google Chrome extension read my password?
I am concerned about the security of my passwords while using Google Chrome extensions. Specifically, I'd like to know if it's possible for a Chrome extension to read passwords that I enter on ...
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Does the Samsung keyboard for Android phones send user input anywhere?
I've heard of this rumor (here, for example) but no clear investigation/confirmation.
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How to deal with monitoring software on a personal PC used for work?
My husband currently uses his personal computer for virtual work. The agency he works for insists that all employees install monitoring software that can see everything on the computer. I have heard ...
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If I have my school account logged in on my device. Will they be able to see and know what im doing [duplicate]
I haven't used their network or anything like that or neither have I logged in to my real account on a school computer but I do have my school account logged in to my devices e.g. my phone and my ...
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Tabnabbing, adblocking and web browser security
My question regards tabnabbing and how to block it. I will first describe my understanding of the subject, but I'm no expert, so this introduction is meant for you to correct me if applicable.
Here is ...
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Can My University See What I Browse On My Laptop?
I'm a bit paranoid, but I want to know if my university can see what I'm browsing while being on their proxy server:
Can they see what I search for, like on Google? (what websites I visit)
Can they ...
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Is having my college's VPN client on my personal laptop safe in terms of privacy?
I was asked by the college to install Sophos SSL VPN Client on my personal laptop to connect to the college network from home (to carry out tasks like course registration, etc.). I had already ...
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How can email-tracking services track emails in Google
Some email-tracking services use tracking pixels to detect whether an email was opened. The idea is to add an HTML img tag with an src attribute that links to a 1x1 or 0x0 pixel image to the email ...
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MDM & "Work Profile" Implications on Android 14
What are the privacy implications of using an MDM "work profile" on your own Android 14 device? First, an MDM app such as MaaS360 must create the work profile while running in the personal ...
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Are Thunderbird email accounts kept private between them?
I have my personal accounts that I have setup on Thunderbird. I have also setup my work account which uses GMail via OAuth2. My question is, do these accounts share data of any kind between them or ...
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Is there a foundational threat model for families/domestic users?
I am aware through hearsay of the threats exposed by certain digital assets. For example, not only should a password be kept secret, but it should not be re-used. Having the scenario unpacked for me, ...
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Deploying a site with zero-knowledge?
Any methodologies of secret or private dev-ops as a service?
The use-case I was thinking of is for example, a productized service like on Fiverr, eg. Seller will deploy your site onto TOR network and ...
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User-Controlled Encryption in web app. How to Implement Encrypted Content Sharing Among Friends?
I'm working on idea for a project the goal is to allow a user to share their encrypted content with friends while ensuring the server and none friends maintains zero knowledge of the actual content.
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What is the risk of leaking iphone "serial numbers"?
Should I worry if my "serial number" is leaked? What could an attacker do with it? Social Hacking? Real Hacking?
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How to ensure privacy of my codebase while keeping data on client premises?
I have created a data science model pipeline in Python which ingests some data (user transactions) and then runs some models to generate a report. The models that I have created are proprietary and so ...
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Sometimes a weird suspicious notification sound is played on my PC [duplicate]
I bought a second hand HP Compaq 8100 Elite SFF PC several years ago with Windows 7 home basic preinstalled on it.
Occasionally a weird suspicious notification sound is played once for a session on it ...
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Are banking and finance apps safe on an Android phone with cracked apps?
I want to install a few banking apps for my bank accounts. I also have modded or cracked games/applications installed on my phone, but my phone is not rooted. Will adding a banking app increase the ...
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What are the risks of SSO and logins in general in relation to privacy?
I recently started using the Brave browser for a little more privacy.
However, I still don't understand much about the risks surrounding SSO and cookies.
As an example, I am logged in to YouTube.com ...
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How much info can employers find out about an employee publicly?
We all know that digital footprint is traceable and possibly left forever. When being hired by a new company whether as an employee or contractor, certain things like name, email, phone number, ...
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Does Signal store mobile phone numbers server-side in plain text?
Does Signal (the company) keep or ever have mobile phone numbers in plaintext (on any form of server-side storage)?
I searched the web and couldn't find an official statement/documentation/answer/code/...
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GPS metadata in uploaded pictures: vulnerability or not?
If a web application (like an internet forum, social media, etc.) does not remove GPS metadata (EXIF) from uploaded pictures, is it considered a security vulnerability or not? Why? And would it be ...
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Should the use of the HTTP 'ETag' header be avoided for security and privacy concerns?
I'm looking into the risks associated with the use of the HTTP 'Etag' header and found the following relevant information already.
Information Disclosure (inodes)
This article titled: "...
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Pros & cons of including requesting IP address in password reset emails?
It has crossed my mind to include the requesting IP address in password reset emails. The intention being that if someone is receiving unexpected reset emails, this allows them to do a basic level of ...
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Could a laptop fingerprint sensor be used as a webcam? [closed]
I have a Chromebook that normally only recognizes the actual webcam. However, I opened up a random webcam site and it was allowing me to use a second camera for some reason. When I enabled it, I ...
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How could a security control introduce a privacy issue?
I'm reading the CISSP official study guide and quote
In addition to verifying the reliability of security controls, an assessment should consider whether security controls affect privacy. Some ...
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How does Google Chrome's "Warn you if passwords are exposed in a data breach" feature work?
This feature is enabled by default. It says the usernames and passwords would be encrypted before sending to google. But google would know the encryption keys it used and to compare it with leaked ...
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Any tool that can prevent ISP from knowing which websites we visit? beside tor?
Any tool that can prevent ISP from knowing which websites we visit? beside tor? while https can help, but still ISP knows which domains/websites we visit. There is no way around it?
Also believe that ...
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How dangerous is sharing a WiFi network with neighbors?
Context. I am moving in to a building where neighbors share WiFi. There are several routers connected with each other, and residents connect to one of the WiFi networks. I was told it's cheaper that ...
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Can PAC Proxy read other website requests?
I'm using my university's PAC proxy file to reach academic websites and research papers. The pac file provided contains a list of sites, in which if i go over to these sites it asks me for my username ...
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Why reveal or hide folders' absolute paths in link sharing?
Try following this link to a folder in my OneDrive — it's set to "Anyone with the link can view".
Times when Microsoft Word's grammar checker has been abysmally wrong
You'll notice that ...
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Are Bluetooth and/or NFC anonymous?
Suppose I have a smartphone and I have disabled all usual de-anonymizing things (e.g., wifi probe requests). My phone sends some data over Bluetooth (or NFC) to device A, and then at a different place ...
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Can DNS providers know my IP address?
I know how domain name system (DNS) works a bit. But don't know if providers of public DNS like Google or Cloudflare can know my IP address.
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Backup GPG private key in KeePassXC
In order to keep all my secret in the same place, I would like to store my GPG private key in KeePassXC, under the "Notes" field.
Provided that the db file has very good password, is this ...
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Does Google use an IP address to identify a user? [duplicate]
I used Google Search in Chrome incognito mode without logging in to my account, so no cookies were stored. However, somehow I instantly got a bunch of ads relevant to my search on Instagram. There ...
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Does it make any difference for what an ISP might see if we use a non-standard port for HTTP and HTTPS?
Doesn't it make any difference if the sites we visit are not the standard ports like 80/443? Say we visit https://example.com:554/is-this-visible-to-isp? since domain is known to the ISP, what about ...
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How to check what information httpie transfers to their own servers
Httpie is an HTTP client used by some developers to communicate with and test REST API and other services available through HTTP.
Every time I use httpie (https://httpie.io/) in addition to the server ...
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dmarc privacy concern with microsoft reports
I run the the email for several domains and receive the domain reports on their behalf. Google is our email provider.
enterprise.protection.outlook.com, sends aggregate reports with an envelope_to ...
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Domain about to expire. Afraid that new owners will spread malware
I have a domain that is about to expire. It was used for hosting my freeware which I do not maintain anymore but can still be found on shareware directories. The application points to my domain (...
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