I install new apps and sign up for new sites all the time, and I don't always know if I can trust them. There's no official test that tells you a service is safe. I usually check a few things before I install something: check what permissions it asks for and whether they make sense for what the app actually does and read reviews, but I skip the five star ones and start with the one and two star ones, because that's usually where people explain what went wrong.

What do you check before you trust a new app or website? Do you have a rule you always follow, or do you just decide based on how it feels?

i recently tried to create email without phone number for a few separate accounts. I tested Gmail, Proton Mail, and Tuta using fresh browser profiles.

Gmail almost always wanted a phone number. Proton was inconsistent. Tuta worked best, but not every time.

Is there still a reliable way to create email without phone number in 2026, or is phone verification basically unavoidable now?

Is Signal private and confidential?
Can someone find out your phone numbers if you use it?

Anyone else concerned with baby's privacy? We're all kind of numb to the regular announcements of privacy breaches from almost every company we've ever interacted with. You never know who your messages are shared with via screencapture or otherwise. Then, there came the rumors of children's school photos being circulated among the Epstein class for picking victims. Whether or not the latter is true, I've been supremely concerned with any information about my pregnancy and my child being circulated online. So I instituted a rule - I'm not texting or WhatsApping, not using Social Media to talk about my baby.

It sounds crazy and sometimes I feel like I'm doing a disservice to myself. I live 1200 miles from my family and so many of them don't even know I'm pregnant. I can't have a baby shower because the cost and the travel is prohibitively expensive, not to mention stressful to plan even without this added communication limitation.

But I just can't bring myself to trust that what I share on social media, on text and on WhatsApp, is actually secure. So, I've got my closest people on board with using Signal to talk about baby stuff, and even some people who use it exclusively to communicate with me.

I've slipped here and there, and there are of course people who find out through the grape vine and congratulate me "You're pregnant!" via text. I'm responding selectively and advocating for Signal.

There doesn't seem to be any movement from other expecting parents about baby's privacy in this way. I'm shocked that in 2026, I still see parents sharing photos of their children online, not knowing where in the dark web those will end up. In my case, I've taken it to more extreme levels trying to scrape any evidence that I'm expecting at all.

Has anyone else been thinking of this? What are you doing to protect baby's privacy online?

I'm getting ready for my first security clearance process. I've read official docs, but a lot of online advice conflicts.

For anyone who's been through a security clearance recently, what helped the most and what surprised you?

The whole scanning iCloud Photos thing is something I've suspected has been a thing for a long time, but now it's real and happening, I don't feel like my phone is my own because I'm having a nagging reminder in my mind that someone could see this. So private images for doctors, intimate texts, anything feels so uncomfortable to continue to have on MY OWN phone 😓

I'm also someone who struggles with feeling like I've done something wrong or illegal without knowing so this is back there with the other thoughts too. Goalposts on what's legal or not are constantly moving too so with access to everything they could find any old nonsense that might be fitting a crime seemingly.

Ugh I'm just looking for ways to not feel like a tin foil hat queen and actually feel confident about some privacy in some way. Big brother energy I swear

I recently got a new phone. Android and the features it has still overwhelm me. Particularly one potential security flaw

Some random wifi without a password randomly appeared on my Wifi connection. I didnt even request to connect to it. Does such a connection occuring compromise my phone in any way? I just got it and dont wanna get hacked somehow.

In the mittle of the city at that too! I was just walking too..

How do I disable this auto-connect? Do I seriously need to switch the wifi off whenever Im out now?

I've had the same email for years so of course I've ramped up the sign ups for random websites I completely forgot about. Lately I've been wondering if it's worth going back and deleting all those old accounts, or if the damage is already done. Part of me thinks they're just sitting there with outdated info, but another part thinks they're probably still holding onto my email, phone number, and whatever else I gave them.

Has anyone here gone through the process of cleaning everything up? If so how'd you do it? and did it actually help with spam stopping or anything like that?

I am worried my partner might be up to no good.

Im not very technically minded so I wouldnt dare attempt to look at his phone as he is very good with technology and I know he will know that I would have attempted to look at his phone. I think he uses a VPN on his devices too. Is there anyone that is able to help me with this? I feel sick writing this but we have children together and I have already been through so much in my life. We live in the uk and hes on Android

I've been looking into a few account compromises recently, and credential stuffing seems to be the common factor. Most users had reused passwords, and very few had MFA enabled.

The frustrating part is that people think a strong password is enough, even if it was exposed years ago. Are you seeing more credential stuffing lately, or is it just me?

Every year, we normalize something that would have sounded absurd a decade earlier.

Always on microphones.

Always on cameras.

Location history.

Biometric authentication.

AI analyzing everything we write, say, and search.

Most people don’t consciously choose this. They click “Accept” because saying no often means losing access to the service.

Privacy rarely disappears overnight. It erodes one small compromise at a time until surveillance feels ordinary.

That is why I think privacy preserving technologies matter, even if you never use them every day. Encrypted messaging. Self hosted services. Anonymous browsers. And privacy focused digital cash like XMR (Monero). Their existence creates an alternative to the idea that every action must be tracked forever.

My question is simple:

Which privacy loss do you think society accepted too easily, and which one worries you most about the future?

If you could recommend just ONE privacy change that everyone should make on their phone, browser, or accounts then what would it be?

Would love to hear what the community recommends.

Especially after 2026 with all the AI and Android banning independent developers who don't share IDs?

I am reading that just with the phone number, ICCID, PUK, and factory default pin found in SIM card packaging is sufficient for cloning a sim.

Reading more about Ki codes and how this could be accessible from data breaches is concerning. I don’t want to have to factory reset my device and get a new sim I just need to know realistically as I worry someone has my SIM card info (not physical card but the packaging numbers and barcode). I can pull up how the Ki is found from matching other numbers from other databases.

I’ve watched hours of YouTube videos and read hours of articles and past Reddit posts and cannot get a clear answer. Some saying you can clone it and some saying not. It’s terrifying that if my sim was cloned that I wouldn’t even have a way of finding out.

For once and for all can we please establish whether or not thsi is possible with someone’s sim? I’ve been asking Google AI and they are saying it is through multiple methods. What is the deal given someone has the SIM card info but not the physical sim?

I want to rely less on Google and make my online life more private and secure, but most advice I find is just a jumble of terms like private browsers, email providers, aliases, MFA, password managers and self-hosting.

I understand the basics and already implemented a few of these, but I don't know in which order to tackle things or how to improve gradually without making my digital life a living hell.

I guess I'm looking for a practical roadmap for beginners. Something that starts with the easiest, highest-impact changes, then moves towards more advanced options. I'd like a resource that explains how to replace Google services step by step, which privacy and security habits actually matter, and what is probably not worth self-hosting unless you really know what you are doing. I'ma geek, but am not a cybersecurity expert or IT professional.

Ideally, I'd like such roadmap/resource to be country-independent and focused on principles, so people can choose independently.

Does a guide like this already exist? If not, would there be any value in creating a community-maintained roadmap for dummies (like me)?

Cheers

Irecently started wondering, does google know everything about me or just the things I search for? I noticed some ads that felt a little too specific after a few searches.

I've read that Google stores search history if you're signed in, but does google know everything I search for even if I delete my history later? What about Incognito mode or another device?

I'm probably overthinking this, but how much of your search activity is actually linked back to you, and is there any realistic way to reduce it?

a while ago they started suspending people for "inauthentic behaviors" (in my case, it was probably because I used the uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger add-ons)

https://www.reddit.com/r/twitterhelp/search/?q=inauthentic+behaviors

then they made it impossible to register by e-mail (anonymously), demanding you to use their spyware app to track you.

and then they started demanding biometric verification.

https://www.reddit.com/r/twitterhelp/search/?q=biometric

they started working with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AU10TIX last year, "an Israeli identity verification and risk management company that is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel".

https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/corporate/au10tix-x-verification-israeli-intelligence-2025

"When you verify your X account with a government ID, your passport or driver's license goes to Au10tix, an Israeli company founded by former Shin Bet intelligence agents. Many of their engineers came from Unit 8200, Israel's NSA equivalent and the unit that birthed Pegasus spyware. In 2024, security researchers discovered Au10tix had left admin credentials exposed for over a year, potentially compromising millions of users' identity documents"

Windows has a advertising ID tracking you. If you search for it on YouTube you'll find details on it.

I am about ready to give up. Every VPN I try gets flagged by Netflix within a week. I just want to watch my shows when I am traveling. Is there actually a VPN out there that can stay under the radar?

Edit. Someone recommended Mysterium VPN because they use residential IPs. Gave it a shot and it has been solid so far. No blocks yet.

They had my SIM card packaging with all serial codes/IDs. They know my phone number and I think they might socially engineer their way with customer service to gain access to the account. I fear this could easily be done by getting the representative to change the email to access the account. Or by taking off the line lock on the call or when they access through the app. Then they could maybe change back the email as I wouldn't even get an alert of it being changed.

I am so frustrated right now and it's a very complicated situation. I worry they could even clone my sim at this point and compromise everything in my iPhone/iCloud/location.

I have read of so many stories of how people can clone SIM cards or use the ID numbers to socially engineer with these phone representatives at Total Wireless. I am prepared to just throw away all my devices and start new but I want to know better the how this potentially could work for someone who has my SIM card IDs.

I recently watched a video of a person disassemble his vape to find a microphone component.. People say it is to sense the breath from people using it. However, could it somehow be misused as a listening device?

I am sort of only having antsy thoughts of such devices over recently seeing a documentary about the Great Seal bug which was quite an advanced listening device for 1945. Almost a hundred years apart, a vape seems to be able to do way more

Could such a microphone on a vape be used in a similar way?