@alshafei@mastodon.social
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alshafei

@alshafei@mastodon.social

Founder of Majal.org. Co-founder of the Numun Fund. Board member @ Wikimedia Foundation & Tor Project. Open web and privacy enthusiast.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Comparison of instant messengers: "SimpleX probably has the best privacy and anonymity of all the messengers compared here"

https://eylenburg.github.io/im_comparison.htm

Follow @simplex to keep track of the latest updates and ongoing improvements.

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Slack has always had a horrific privacy policy and default settings that enable workplace surveillance, so it's a good time as ever to share this campaign by @fight - supported by dozens of civil society organizations globally:

https://www.makeslacksafe.com/

"Safety should be an inherent feature of the tech we use in our daily lives and our workplaces. Sign the letter to demand Slack put user privacy and security first."

alshafei, to random
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"Within a day of his ousting, Altman said he received 10 to 20 texts from presidents and prime ministers around the world. [...] He responded to the messages and thanked the leaders without feeling fazed."

I'm not sure getting so much support from world leaders is something I'd brag about. I interpret it as being an asset or a pawn to some really shady things they often do at the expense of human rights - things Altman's AI and crypto projects are surely enabling.

https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-comments-openai-ousting-not-eating-sleeping-2024-5

evacide, to random
@evacide@hachyderm.io avatar

Everything about Durov's statement is so profoundly dishonest that I feel like engaging in a point-by-point debunking is a waste of time. If most of the messages on your platform are not end-to-end encrypted AT ALL, it is less private and secure than platforms whose messages are all e2e by default.

https://t.me/durov/274

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

@evacide It gets a bit worse, Telegram has a long-standing relationship with a Saudi organization that's essentially a govt arm in Riyadh, working in direct partnership to analyze and monitor an obscene amount of user data: https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/641746/SAUDI-ARABIA/Etidal-Telegram-remove-over-16-million-extremist-contents-in-early-2024

They claim this only targets terrorist groups. I can verify that it absolutely impacts groups run by queer communities in the Gulf, because I was in one such group that was monitored and shut down by Etidal.

Telegram can fuck off into the sunset.

alshafei, to random
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"NSO Group, which makes Pegasus spyware, keeps trying to extract information from Citizen Lab researchers."

"With the lawsuit now moving forward, NSO is trying a different tactic: demanding repeatedly that Citizen Lab hand over every single document about its Pegasus investigation."

Worth noting that former NSO Group CEO behind this spyware is already back with a heavily VC funded surveillance company called "Dream Security" -

https://theintercept.com/2024/05/06/pegasus-nso-group-israeli-spyware-citizen-lab/

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain

https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain/

#Privacy #Encryption

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Disappointed to see The Markup share advice for people to use WhatsApp in its post about preparing your phone for a protest, and that it's coming from "digital security trainers."

Metadata literally kills, and WhatsApp is swimming in it. The metadata they collect includes:

Groups you're a member of, location, personal info (email, phone number, user IDs), contacts and their phone numbers, in-app search history, when you use the app & how often you use it. E2EE alone doesn't guarantee #privacy

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Based on WhatsApp's information about media forwarding, they seem to imply that media is not E2EE, which is another reason why it's so dangerous to recommend the app in protest settings and times of heightened and targeted surveillance.

alshafei, to ai
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The Data Workers’ Inquiry aims to shed light on the often-invisible experiences and challenges faced by the workers who power AI.

This will be a community-led project where data workers are the researchers (from Germany, Kenya, Venezuela, Colombia, Syria and Lebanon) 👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAMqrXlEPDI

Promising and necessary work from @DAIR.

alshafei, to Palestine
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"To speak at USC in this moment would betray not only our own values, but USC’s too … We cannot overlook the link between recent developments and the ongoing genocide in Palestine."

https://lithub.com/c-pam-zhang-and-safiya-noble-have-withdrawn-as-usc-commencement-speakers/

alshafei, to random
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

An important thing to clarify on the newly formed Mastodon 501(c)(3) entity: it's not here to make or influence product decisions. It has no legal ability to enforce any such changes. Primary operations will remain led by the Germany-based Mastodon gGmbH, and this won’t change.

The focus of the U.S entity is to provide another vehicle for donations and other forms of support. The Board has no legal "control" beyond this.

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

@annika Well, I wasn't involved in the selection of other Board members. And "guidance" here relates to operationalizing the 501(c)(3) entity so that it can accept donations or potential grants with more ease and to be accountable for them.

alshafei, to Palestine
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"An analysis of war propaganda dissemination, particularly advertisements from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs which urged viewers to stand by Israel’s actions in its war on Gaza. The paper also analyzed YouTube’s content moderation policies, highlighting discriminatory practices such as demonetization or restrictions on content creators due to their criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza."

https://7amleh.org/2024/04/25/youtube-s-impact-on-palestinian-digital-rights-during-the-war-on-gaza

#Gaza #Palestine #YouTube

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

The messaging app you choose impacts others as well, not just yourself, and while you personally may not require complete privacy, others in your network might have their lives depend on it.

Full post: The dangers of metadata in messengers - https://simplex.chat/blog/20240416-dangers-of-metadata-in-messengers.html

#Privacy #Surveillance #Messaging

paulbiggar, to random
@paulbiggar@hachyderm.io avatar

I just published about Meta and Lavender - specifically how Whatsapp is used to enable bombing of WhatsApp users.

https://blog.paulbiggar.com/meta-and-lavender/

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

@paulbiggar Arguably it’s time to do away with any messenger that requires a phone number for registration, and preferably any identifiers at all (which is possible.) The risks are too high and are exasperated by AI, and people confusing genuine privacy with security is literally a deadly mistake. End-to-end encrypted messages don't protect from metadata being collected, and in many cases centrally stored, and enables operators to build out user social graphs & activities based on them.

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

@paulbiggar @signalapp But the comment is about requiring a phone number to use the app, not just to mask it with a username for public sharing, huge difference.

alshafei, to Palestine
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an independent investigation of the Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital that injured at least eight journalists on assignment:

"Assaults on hospitals have made it so the press have even fewer places to work safely."

https://cpj.org/2024/04/cpj-calls-for-probe-of-attack-injuring-8-journalists-at-gaza-hospital/

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

An overview of how @simplex works and what sets it apart from other messaging apps and protocols:

https://linuxiac.com/simplex-chat/

"SimpleX is one of the most private and secure chat and applications platform that you can find out there."

#Privacy #Messaging #E2EE

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

This post I co-authored with Falastine Saleh delves into the impact of Israeli surveillance technologies in Palestine and how localized instances of its use contribute to widespread global adoption.

It also highlights how spyware & surveillance companies navigate global scrutiny by rebranding and establishing offices worldwide, all while a network of venture capital firms facilitate their operations & help them avoid much needed accountability:

https://blog.torproject.org/surveillance-as-a-service-global-impact-of-israeli-defense-technologies-on-privacy-human-rights/

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

Happy birthday, Ma. https://werd.io/2024/72

alshafei,
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

@ben Lost mine 2 years ago. Her birthday was last week and she would've been 72 as well, so this piece hit close to home 💔 we are lucky to have had such incredible mothers. The grief never gets easier.

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Anytime a new privacy app/tool pops up, you're right to be initially skeptical. How the FBI secretly ran its own tech startup to wiretap the world:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"Grindr is currently revising its terms of service to ask people explicitly if the company can train its AI models on their personal data, which could include direct messages"

"This information will likely be used to train another paid product: an AI boyfriend"

Deeply troubling, and opens the door to so many (potentially life-threatening) security vulnerabilities:

https://www.platformer.news/grindr-ai-boyfriend-wingman-monetization-paid-taps/

alshafei, to random
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

Only 1 of the 5 biggest messaging apps in Africa isn't owned by Meta.

alshafei, to random
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"For the last several months, a city at the heart of Silicon Valley has been training artificial intelligence to recognize tents and cars with people living inside in what experts believe is the first experiment of its kind in the United States."

The deeply unethical surveillance of homelessness:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/25/san-jose-homelessness-ai-detection

alshafei, to privacy
@alshafei@mastodon.social avatar

"Mike Gallagher pushed the bill to ban TikTok because China can 'surveil its users.' Now, he's resigning and joining an American surveillance firm" (Palantir) :thaenkin:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-gallagher-tiktok-ban-palantir-1234993167/ #privacy #tiktok #surveillance

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