Hoodedcrow

Thankfully, Ublock Origin in advanced mod can block those requests by default. It's just very irritating and I'd say disrespectful when you HAVE to unblock them for the site to work.

It also works with Gadgetbridge without having to pair it in the official app first (for Xiaomi bands, you need to do it to extract a key, not sure how consistently it's doable nowadays). Apparently the supported featureset is not as complete as for Xiaomi devices, but seems to be enough to cover the basics.

So Huawei are also easier to use without having to send your data anywhere.

A few corrections: - Matrix does not require you to host a server, even if I'd prefer it - there are multiple public ones in various jurisdictions. - There is XMPP - like Matrix, but older, jankier, much lighter and kind of freer. - Weird to call Simplex "centralized" if you did acknowledge that it's selfhostable... But it's indeed weird that last I've seen, there's not some directory with the public servers like there is for Matrix/XMPP. They seem to be going with adding other servers to defaults instead, like they did with Flux recently.

I have a separate KeepassXC database for 2FA. I guess my life experience is limited, but I am yet to encounter cases when this would be outright required. The closest one was Steam, but I used an Android VM for this.

For Android - Conversations is in a very good shape now.

What anomalies are they looking for? There are protocols that make traffic look like something mundane.

There are methods to bypass the Chinese Firewall though. the issue is getting people to use them.

We already have this - it's called Tor and I2P.

There is an easier way - going with a selfhostable, federated solution. And at least XMPP is now commonly used with an encryption protocol that is based on Signal's.

I just gave up on smartphones altogether. It is much easier to make a laptop/desktop private instead and limit your private messaging and activities to it.

I use XMPP with OMEMO for my main encrypted messaging, and I don't get why Matrix got popular instead of XMPP (aside from a big marketing budget). Even a lighter server implementation takes up several times more resources than an XMPP server, plus the concerns about the enormous central instance.

XMPP FTW.

IDK about parking situation as I don't own a car, but I find it hard to believe that in some place there would be no way of paying for public transport without a smartphone. I personally use a cash-paid, cash-refilled transport card.

As for TOTP - this one is very universally doable on desktop, like with KeepassXC. Or you're talking about logging in outside your home, like in a library or computer club?

Can't you just never connect your device to the internet though?

> you are just shifting the problem to a computer.

Libgen works with anonymizers.