• 1 Post
  • 84 Comments
Joined 9 months ago
Cake day: September 7th, 2024
  • jim3692@discuss.onlinetoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•The Privacy Iceberg
    6·
    16 days ago

    Just like you can change your Windows PC to Linux, or install a custom ROM on Android, to have better control over your devices, it is also possible to change the firmware on most routers.

    OpenWRT is the most popular option for that. It’s a Linux based firmware, that has a package manager allowing you to install additional things on your router.

    For example, I have a TP-Link TL-WR902AC v3. Out of the box it is just a USB-powered 5GHz extender. After installing OpenWRT to it, I added:

    • WireGuard: to route all the traffic over my VPN
    • DNS-over-HTTPS: to encrypt all DNS requests
    • USBIP: this is because I sometimes use it to connect a webcam for my cat, and I forward the camera to my server in another room

    By adding WG and DoH to the “repeater”, I can connect this little guy to any public WiFi, and securely connect my devices to it.

  • jim3692@discuss.onlinetolinuxmemes@lemmy.world•Microsoft secured my files!
    51·
    18 days ago

    I think they want you to only use Windows and pay for cloud storage.

    By enforcing BitLocker and Secure Boot, they are trying to eliminate dual-booting (you don’t need to dual-boot Windows/Linux anyway, as you can just use WSL2 /s).

    By enforcing disk encryption, in general, they try to force the use of cloud storage, by making data recovery nearly impossible. Most people are probably too lazy to buy external storage, and manually copy their files over.

    This guarantees 2 money streams. One from Windows’s tracking/advertising and the other from OneDrive subscriptions.

  • jim3692@discuss.onlinetoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•P2P Encrypted File Sharing.
    3·
    1 month ago

    TL;DR: Do not sell the app, sell the service

    After reading all the comments, I am a bit confused.

    Based on my understanding, this a self-hostable, privacy friendly app, that does not contain a libre license, as you plan on monetizing it.

    First of all, the primary reasons of opting for libre software are privacy and freedom. So, the lack of such license can be considered a red flag.

    Second, a lot of privacy conscious Android users download their apps from services like F-Droid, that have strict rules against closed-source. So, trying to sell a privacy solution on Play Store does not sound like a good business model.

    Tips for monetizing a libre service:

    1. The client should have a libre license. You code running on the user’s device should be verifiable.
    2. Charge for your STUN/TURN server.
    3. Sell the server blob. Sandboxing apps on a Linux system is far easier (to prevent them from accessing the internet and potentially leak data).

    There are apps that are even available on F-Droid, and are similarly monetized. Some examples, that I use, are: Bitwarden, Mullvad, Telegram and Tailscale.