I am going to show what it would look like if a society had no privacy whatsoever, and then compare it to a society where privacy is a top priority. I am going to show that what little privacy we have in countries such as the United States is the thread holding those countries together, and without it society crumbles. I am going to show that privacy is essential for a free society to function properly, and also help you appreciate the privacy you may not know you have. Let's begin.

A Privacyless Society

"Our" Personal Life

Privacy, by definition, is the ability to control your data. That means controlling what data is shared, who it is shared with, how long it is shared for, when it is shared, and by what medium it is shared.

If you have no privacy, that means you lose the ability to obscure any of your data. All of your data is shared with everyone

Personal information: full name, birthday, address, occupation, social security number, etc.

Documents: birth certificate, driver's license, passport, ID, etc.

Biometrics: Facial scans, fingerprints, handprints, retinal scans, DNA, etc.

Digital information: The content of all emails, every post made online, bank account balance, spending habits, social graphs, all pictures, all ~~private~~ instant messages, every show you watch, etc.

Other information: health and workout data, past relationships, every word you say, every thought you think, likes and dislikes, every place you visit, every waking second of your life, etc.

All of that data becomes available for anyone to use. As you can imagine, this data would quickly be used for mass government control. Anyone who thinks out of line would be punished.

Without privacy, you would also no longer be allowed to obscure personal belongings. All carrying devices such as backpacks and bags would need to be transparent. Since clothing counts as a carrying device, it would need to be transparent or nonexistent.

Yes, you heard me right, everyone would be mandated to be completely nude. The French TV series Nu carries this idea, where a society has been "frog boiled" into giving up all privacy, and all clothes. One man has slipped into a coma during this transitionary period, and is disillusioned with the society.

Access Control

With all data becoming public, you may wonder "Why even have passwords anymore?" To put it simply, even if all your data is public, you still wouldn't want someone impersonating you or posting on your social media. It's the same as how you wouldn't want anyone accessing your bank account, even if transactions are public.

This falls under the topic of security. Without privacy, security would become a citizen's most valuable tool. This begins to show you a hierarchy in personal freedom. Security is the foundation, privacy is layered on top of that, and only then should convenience be added. Unfortunately, in today's world, convenience comes first.

Breaches would become much less common as security is prioritized. The use of password managers, multi-factor authentication, time-based one-time passwords, passkeys, and hardware security keys would become common. However, because all biometric data is public, the "rule of three" for multi-factor authentication can't be completely satisfied.

Documents such as your birth certificate or passport can still be used to verify your identity, as long as the physical composition can't be counterfeit. The information itself becomes useless, and so all identification using the documents must be done in person.

Autonomy

This society has no privacy for individuals, but even if you tried to enforce transparency in higher powers, those powers literally have all the power. Governments and companies would hide behind closed doors, and cover up any misconduct. These powers would use the trivially available data collection to control every member of the public, and manipulate their decisions. Good news: Elections will take place almost instantly because all individual preferences are made public. Bad news: The election is rigged so it doesn't matter who you voted for.

The control over the public would stop at nothing, until we all are turned into mindless work drones. If you control every aspect of the population, then many pieces of a society are removed entirely. The public never makes any money, so there's no reason for taxes or rent to exist. The only transactions taking place would be between different companies and the government. Homelessness is solved by cramming everybody into government issued bunkers for maximum efficiency. Soylent becomes the largest company in the world, providing the only food for every citizen. The only people with any real autonomy would be refugees that are somehow evading the global satellite surveillance cameras, high ranking government officials, and CEOs drifting on their mega yachts.

Death and birth rates would hit an all time high as humans become a disposable asset. The most common cause of death becomes black lung disease from the increase of workers mining coal. Trees may or may not be planted depending on how near-sighted the powers are. As society shifts, some terms take on new meanings, such as "self-driving cars" adapting to the meaning of "cars you drive yourself".

The powers would eventually find neurotechnology to be the most efficient means of control. Installation would become mandated for the public, and manipulation tactics such as peer pressure would force everyone into submission. The device would kill a person at the first sign of corruption. People would be selectively bred and genetically modified to minimize the risk of defiance.

The point is, your data is valuable as a means of manipulating you. The more data you give, the more effective the manipulation is. Major influential powers use manipulation to gain more power, and all of society crumbles into an authoritarian regime. One day, though, throwing disposable humans at a problem will fail, and it will lead to the extinction of our planet(s).

A day in the life

I want to end this section by outlining a day in the life of a privacyless society. This is meant to be somewhat lighthearted and humorous.

Choose your character:

• Disposaperson
• CEO
• Government official

If you chose Disposaperson:

You are Disposaperson #42069. You wake up at 7:00 AM in bunker #42, shared by you and your ordinally closest friends. You got a restful 6 hours of sleep. It's election day, so you were treated to 2 extra hours of sleep than normal. You should be in peak mental condition when making big decisions, after all. Speaking of which, you take your mandated 30 minute brain activity period, to make sure you are still able to function mentally. You scroll through Dreamscape, a new app that lets you watch the nightly dreams of each Disposaperson.

As you are scrolling, you land on a deleted video. 'This dream has been removed under suspicion of defying government powers.' Thats good. you think to yourself. Our government is protecting us from misinformation. "I agree," your bunkmate says, while listening in on your thoughts. You scroll past the occasional ad reminding you to work hard and follow the rules.

Once your mandated 30 minute brain activity period is up, your bunker marches in an organized fashion to the cafeteria. The Disposaperson in front of you accidentally stumbles, and is immediately killed. You step over the corpse, just as you have been trained how to do since childhood.

Once in the cafeteria, you take your seat and suck government issued Soylent out of tubes. You feel happy that food is free and doesn't make a mess. You feel euphoric, even, and not just because of the serotonin injected into the food. You're definitely going to cast your vote to the leader promising to increase the frequency of this Soylent flavor by 5%. Listening to everyone else's thoughts, you can tell everyone is in unanimous agreement. I'm so glad everyone can agree on everything. World peace has been achieved.

After your daily meal, you have been assigned to work in sector 12. It's nice to finally be mining coal instead of planting trees. Doesn't everybody know planting trees is bad for the environment? Where else would the government put bunker 9736?

Once in the mines, you take a nice breath of the black air. You're encouraged to breathe as much as possible during the beginning as an adjustment period. You love mining coal because it benefits everybody. You're so fortunate to be living on a planet with so many natural resources to use up. Your first planet, Earth, didn't have this much coal. You're so glad the government blew that planet up to reduce the number of depleted planets floating through space.

You check the mine's digital leaderboard. You are in the top 1% of coal miners today. You are happy at your work. After all, any lower on the leaderboard and you would be killed off to purify the gene pool. Only the best of the best should be working.

Once mining is complete, it's time for the election to be polled. It only takes a few nanoseconds. Oh good! you think. 5% more Roast Beef Soylent! I wonder what "Beef" is anyways... After that last thought, you feel yourself slowly drifting to sleep. The only words in your head: 'Defiance detected.'

If you chose CEO:

Your name is... what was your name your birth parent gave you? You can't remember, but it doesn't matter. Your servants call you "Master" anyways. You wake up on the sunny beaches on your own private island on your own private planet. You had a restful 14 hours of sleep. Your smart watch alerts your personal Disposapeople that you are awake. Disposaperson #1337 brings you your breakfast: scrambled eggs, fresh milk, and sizzling bacon.

You get flashbacks to the time one of your Disposapeople tried to bring you oatmeal. You hate oatmeal. It's too similar to the food those Disposapeople eat, even though you are the CEO of Soylent. You don't thank your personal disposaperson, and eat your meal. You have a nice life, after Soylent became the leading company in the galaxy. It's nice to have all your work done for you.

You check your profits for the day. You get angry after you see that they are only up by 756%. You'll have to pull some strings with your government connections later to only keep the top 1% of coal miners. That should raise your profits, and encourage those workers to work harder and follow the rules. Haven't they seen the ads?

You are almost done with your meal when your spouse barges in. Your spouse urgently tells you to come quick. Your spouse tells you that your child has been infected with a deadly disease. You ask how that could have happened. The doctor informs you that your child likely caught it from a contagious Disposaperson who had been in the mines.

Outraged, you know that the only solution is to cut the number of workers in the mines. You make a few phone calls and order any miner not in the top 1% to be disengaged immediately. You and your spouse can now rest easy knowing that no more of those workers will be infecting your family anymore. Plus, your profits are up by 1,058%!

If you chose Government official:

Your name is Steve. You are the government official in charge of planet C-137. Today is election day, so you have to put on a good show to make it seem like there is competition. You make sure the news is convincing as many people as possible, and you partner with Soylent to launch an ad campaign. "Work hard, and follow the rules." You like it, it's catchy.

Your assistant informs you that the planet needs to cut back on planting trees, otherwise there will be no room for bunker 9736. You thank her for informing you. They say being polite to your assistants increases the chances of winning an election, after all.

You check the numbers. Good. you think. Bunker #42 is unanimous. An alert pops up: 'Potential defiance detected in worker #42069' You scan the worker to check if the it is voting for you. The worker isn't fully confident. You decide to feed the worker its favorite flavor of Soylent, and promise to increase production of that flavor by 5%. It's convenient to know every worker's preferences.

That should do it you think. You tell your assistant to disengage that worker once the election is complete, just to be sure. You tried Soylent once. It was the worst thing you've ever tasted, but you had to put on a good face, or else the CEO of Soylent wouldn't have partnered with you.

The phone rings. You pick up the phone. It's the CEO of Soylent. The CEO tells you that you have to disengage any coal worker not in the top 1%. You remind the CEO that it's already at 2%. The CEO tells you it's urgent. You need Soylent to vote for you in the election, so you give in under the pressure. You order your assistant to disengage any coal workers not in the top 1%.

You turn on the TV to watch the workers from the satellite cameras. You couldn't imagine what it would be like if anyone could hide their actions. Only criminals would do that.

It's finally time to cast the votes. You push a button, and the votes are collected almost instantly. You won the election, you should be happy... Why aren't you happy?

A Private Society

Let's compare that dystopia to a private society. In this society, privacy is a fundamental human right.

Your Personal Life

Your information is yours, and stays yours. Personal information is never collected. There's no reason to collect it, because you never need to identify yourself using personal data.

If you want to rent a house, you just start paying for it. If you try to stop paying rent, the house gets seized. No identity required.

Healthcare is either free or a very small price that you pay for on the spot. No identity required.

Voting is done in closed buildings so nobody can try going to the back of the line to vote a second time. No identity required.

You buy a car by paying on the spot. Budgeting money and saving up is a common practice. No identity required.

People are civil. If you get in an accident, you pay each other's medical bills. No identity required.

If you want to board a plane, you pay for a ticket and board. No identity required.

When you get a job, you work and get paid at the end of the day. No income taxes, no background checks. If there are references on your résumé (which are not required), jobs can call those references as a "background check". No identity required.

No taxes at all. There's no way to enforce it without tracking income, and there are plenty of other ways to fund the government. No identity required.

Education is either free or you pay for an access card to the building. If you stop the payments, the access card is revoked. No identity required.

Immigration is something that can be done while respecting privacy, but it's apparently a controversial topic, so I will avoid talking about it. I will leave this as an exercise for the reader.

Stores can prevent theft in many different ways without surveillance cameras. Some examples are putting products in lock boxes to be unlocked at checkout, or vending machines. I'd love to hear some of your clever ideas for this.

Your data remains yours. No more online accounts to read an article about bigfoot. No more "send us a picture to verify your age". No more surveillance cameras. No identity requirements.

All communications are private by design. Aliases are common. Also, you can wear clothes.

Security

Breaches hit near zero as security becomes a requirement. Software is mandated to be open source, and government used software is required to be heavily audited. People use proper multi-factor authentication in day to day life. Funds are kept secure by using anonymous digital currencies or cash. ATMs to swap these are around every corner.

Centralized banking exists, but is used less commonly. The ones that exist are closely regulated to make sure they use good privacy practices. Companies are regulated in the same way.

Innovations in physical locks skyrocket, since cameras are no longer strapped to your doorbells. People realize surveillance isn't safety, and that they can get hacked quite easily. Those who do have surveillance systems use a closed circuit to host it locally. Laws are in place so these cameras only record the owner's property. Not the sidewalk, not the road, not the neighbors. Notices must be clearly posted outside.

Self hosting becomes widespread, with the most common tool to self host being blockchain miners. Those servers can double as heating systems in the winter. This person tried mining cryptocurrencies to heat his apartment, but the post with the results got deleted.

The society runs on a full mesh network. This ensures that internet is free and not tracked or censored.

Powers

Companies and governments are fully transparent, so any misconduct is easy to spot and fix. Individuals have privacy, but businesses and corporations do not. This society prioritizes individual privacy, but also transparency.

If misinformation spreads, it is neither the government's nor a company's job to censor it. People will learn to spot misinformation on their own.

Open source software is mandated for use in the government. The government takes security very seriously. National security is not kept by obscuring actions, but by putting real protections in place.

Without being able to sell your data, companies charge for products and services, not software. This not only encourages self hosting, but provides a better business model for things that cannot be self hosted. Things like VPNs, cloud storage, streaming services, etc. are open source but paid. Essentially, you pay with money, not data.

People are not controlled by any entity, and so they can think freely and express freely. Of course, free speech always has social consequences, but it is still free speech.

Conclusion

I could flesh out a lot of the fine details, but you get the picture. Society can function and thrive with privacy, and you need privacy for a free society. It really helps you appreciate the privacy we have today, and helps you realize how our privacy is slowly being eroded. It's a fun thought experiment to see some creative solutions to work around some of the challenges with privacy. We should have privacy as an essential baseline, and work around the problems, rather than defaulting to "more cameras in schools!". Can an AI camera stop a bullet?

Anyways, thanks for reading! My mandated 30 minute brain activity period is over, so I have to go.

P.S. I've undoubtedly made some pretty stupid mistakes while writing this, but I wrote this in good faith.

Edit: Typo

I am making this post in good faith

In my last post I asked about securely hosting Jellyfin given my specific setup. A lot of people misunderstood my situation, which caused the whole thread to turn into a mess, and I didn't get the help I needed.

I am very new to selfhosting, which means I don't know everything. Instead of telling me that I don't know something, please help me learn and understand. I am here asking for help, even if I am not very good at it, which I apologize for.

With that said, let me reoutline my situation:

I use my ISP's default router, and the router is owned by Amazon. I am not the one managing the router, so I have no control over it. That alone means I have significant reason not to trust my own home network, and it means I employ the use of ProtonVPN to hide my traffic from my ISP and I require the use of encryption even over the LAN for privacy reasons. That is my threat model, so please respect that, even if you don't agree with it. If you don't agree with it, and don't have any help to give, please bring your knowledge elsewhere, as your assistance is not required here. Thank you for being respectful!

Due to financial reasons, I can only use the free tier of ProtonVPN, and I want to avoid costs where I can. That means I can only host on the hardware I have, which is a Raspberry Pi 5, and I want to avoid the cost of buying a domain or using a third party provider.

I want to access Jellyfin from multiple devices, such as my phone, laptop, and computer, which means I'm not going to host Jellyfin on-device. I have to host it on a server, which is, in this case, the Raspberry Pi.

With that, I already have a plan for protecting the server itself, which I outlined in the other post, by installing securecore on it. Securing the server is a different project, and not what I am asking for help for here.

I want help encrypting the Jellyfin traffic in transit. Since I always have ProtonVPN enabled, and Android devices only have one VPN slot enabled, I cannot use something such as Tailscale for encryption. There is some hope in doing some manual ProtonVPN configurations, but I don't know how that would work, so someone may be able to help with that.

All Jellyfin clients I have used (on Linux and Android) do not accept self-signed certificates. You can test this yourself by configuring Jellyfin to only accept HTTPS requests, using a self-signed certificate (without a domain), and trying to access Jellyfin from a client. This is a known limitation. I wouldn't want to use self-signed certificates anyways, since an unknown intruder on the network could perform a MITM attack to decrypt traffic (or the router itself, however unlikely).

Even if I don't trust my network, I can still verify the security and authenticity of the software I use in many, many ways. This is not the topic of this post, but I am mentioning it just in case.

Finally, I want to mention that ProtonVPN in its free tier does not allow LAN connections. The only other VPN providers I would consider are Mullvad VPN or IVPN, both of which are paid. I don't intend to get rid of ProtonVPN, and again that is not the topic of this post.

Please keep things on-topic, and be respectful. Again, I am here to learn, which is why I am asking for help. I don't know everything, so please keep that in mind. What are my options for encrypting Jellyfin traffic in transit, while prioritizing privacy and security?

Please take this discussion to this post: https://lemmy.ml/post/28376589

Main content

Selfhosting is always a dilemma in terms of security for a lot of reasons. Nevertheless, I have one simple goal: selfhost a Jellyfin instance in the most secure way possible. I don't plan to access it anywhere but home.

TL;DR

I want the highest degree of security possible, but my hard limits are:

• No custom DNS
• Always-on VPN
• No self-signed certificates (unless there is no risk of MITM)
• No external server

Full explanation

I want to be able to access it from multiple devices, so it can't be a local-only instance.

I have a Raspberry Pi 5 that I want to host it on. That means I will not be hosting it on an external server, and I will only be able to run something light like securecore rather than something heavy like Qubes OS. Eventually I would like to use GrapheneOS to host it, once Android's virtual machine management app becomes more stable.

It's still crazy to me that 2TB microSDXC cards are a real thing.

I would like to avoid subscription costs such as the cost of buying a domain or the cost of paying for a VPN, however I prioritize security over cost. It is truly annoying that Jellyfin clients seldom support self-signed certificates, meaning the only way to get proper E2EE is by buying a domain and using a certificate authority. I wouldn't want to use a self-signed certificate anyways, due to the risk of MITM attacks. I am a penetration tester, so I have tested attacks by injecting malicious certificates before. It is possible to add self-signed certificates as trusted certificates for each system, but I haven't been able to get that to work since it seems clients don't trust them anyways.

Buying a domain also runs many privacy risks, since it's difficult to buy domains without handing over personal information. I do not want to change my DNS, since that risks browser fingerprinting if it differs from the VPN provider. I always use a VPN (currently ProtonVPN) for my devices.

If I pay for ProtonVPN (or other providers) it is possible to allow LAN connections, which would help significantly, but the issue of self-signed certificates still lingers.

With that said, it seems my options are very limited.

This post is long and kind of a rant. I don't expect many to read the whole thing, but there's a conclusion at the bottom.

On the surface, recommended security practices are simple:

• Store all your credentials in a password manager
• Use two factor authentication on all accounts

However, it raises a few questions.

• Should you access your 2FA codes on the same device as the password manager?
• Should you store them in the password manager itself?

This is the beginning of where a threat model is needed. If your threat model does not include protections against unwanted access to your device, it is safe for you to store access your 2FA codes on the same device as your password manager, or even in the password manager itself.

So, to keep it simple, say you store your 2FA in your password manager. There's a few more questions:

• Where do you store the master password for the password manager?
• Where do you store 2FA recovery codes?

The master password for the password manager could be written down on a piece of paper and stored in a safe, but that would be inconvenient when you want to access your passwords. So, a better solution is to just remember your password. Passphrases are easier to remember than passwords, so we'll use one of those.

Your 2FA recovery codes are something that are needed if you lose access to your real 2FA codes. Most websites just say "Store this in a secure place". This isn't something you want to store in the same place as those (in this case our password manager), and it's not something you will access often, so it's safe to write it down on a piece of paper and lock it in a safe.

Good so far, you have a fairly simple system to keep your accounts safe from some threats. But, new problems arise:

• What happens if you forget your master passphrase?
• What happens if others need access to your password manager?

The problem with remembering your passphrase is that it's possible to forget it, no matter how many times you repeat it to yourself. Besides naturally forgetting it, things like injuries can arise which can cause you to forget the passphrase. Easy enough to fix, though. We can just keep a copy of the passphrase in the safe, just in case we forget it.

If someone else needs to access certain credentials in your password manager, for example a wife that needs to verify bank information using your account, storing a copy of the password is a good idea here too. Since she is a trusted party, you can give her access to the safe in case of emergencies.

The system we have is good. If the safe is stolen or destroyed, you still have the master passphrase memorized to change the master passphrase and regenerate the 2FA security codes. The thief who stole the safe doesn't have your password manager's data, so the master passphrase is useless. However, our troubles aren't over yet:

• How do you store device credentials?
• How do you keep the password manager backed up?

Your password manager has to have some device in order to access it. Whether it's a phone, computer, tablet, laptop, or website, there needs to be some device used to access it. That device needs to be as secure as your password manager, otherwise accessing the password manager becomes a risk. This means using full disk encryption for the device, and a strong login passphrase. However, that means we have 2 more passwords to take care of that can't be stored in the password manager. We access those often, so we can't write them down and store them in the safe, Remembering two more passphrases complicates things and makes forgetting much more likely. Where do we store those passphrases?

One solution is removing the passwords altogether. Using a hardware security key, you can authenticate your disk encryption and user login using it. If you keep a spare copy of the security key stored in the safe, you make sure you aren't locked out if you lose access to your main security key.

Now to keep the password manager backed up. Using the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy. It states that there should be at least 3 copies of the data, stored on 2 different types of storage media, and one copy should be kept offsite, in a remote location (this can include cloud storage). 2 or more different media should be used to eliminate data loss due to similar reasons (for example, optical discs may tolerate being underwater while LTO tapes may not, and SSDs cannot fail due to head crashes or damaged spindle motors since they do not have any moving parts, unlike hard drives). An offsite copy protects against fire, theft of physical media (such as tapes or discs) and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. Physically protected hard drives are an alternative to an offsite copy, but they have limitations like only being able to resist fire for a limited period of time, so an offsite copy still remains as the ideal choice.

So, our first copy will be on our secure device. It's the copy we access the most. The next copy could be an encrypted hard drive. The encryption passphrase could be stored in our safe. The last copy could be a cloud storage service. Easy, right? Well, more problems arise:

• Where do you store the credentials for the cloud storage service?
• Where do you store the LUKS backup file and password?

Storing the credentials for the cloud storage service isn't as simple as putting it in the safe. If we did that, then anyone with the safe could login to the cloud storage service and decrypt the password manager backup using the passphrase also stored in the safe. If we protected the cloud storage service with our security key, a copy of that is still in the safe. Maybe we protect it with a 2FA code, and instead of storing the 2FA codes in the password manager, we store it on another device. That solves the problem for now, but there are still problems, such as storing the credentials for that new device.

When using a security key to unlock a LUKS partition, you are given a backup file to store as a backup for emergencies. Plus, LUKS encrypted partitions still require you to setup a passphrase, so storing that still becomes an issue.

Conclusion

I'm going to stop here, because this post is getting long. I could keep going fixing problems and causing new ones, but the point is this: Security is a mess! I didn't even cover alternative ways to authenticate the password manager such as a key file, biometrics, etc. Trying to find "perfect" security is almost impossible, and that's why a threat model is important. If you set hard limits such as "No storing passwords digitally" or "No remembering any passwords" then you can build a security system that fits that threat model, but there's currently no security system that fits all threat model.

However, that doesn't let companies that just say "Store this in a secure place" off the hook either. It's a hand wavy response to security that just says "We don't know how to secure this part of our system, so it's your problem now". We need to have comprehensive security practices that aren't just "Use a password manager and 2FA", because that causes people to just store their master passphrase on a sticky note or a text file on the desktop.

The state of security is an absolute mess, and I'm sick of it. It seems that, right now, security, privacy, convenience, and safety (e.g. backups, other things that remove single points of failure) are all at odds with each other. This post mainly focused on how security, convenience, and safety are at odds, but I could write a whole post about how security and privacy are at odds.

Anyways, I've just outlined one possible security system you can have. If you have one that you think works well, I'd like to hear about it. I use a different security system than what I outline here, and I see problems with it.

Thanks for reading!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26453685

Not many people have heard about secureblue, and I want to spread the word about it. secureblue provides hardened images for Fedora Atomic and CoreOS. It's an operating system "for those whose first priority is using linux, and second priority is security."

secureblue provides exploit mitigations and fixes for multiple security holes. This includes the addition of GrapheneOS's hardened_malloc, their own hardened Chromium-based browser called Trivalent, USBGuard to protect against USB peripheral attacks, and plenty more.

secureblue has definitely matured a lot since I first started using it. Since then, it has become something that could reasonably be used as a daily driver. secureblue recognizes the need for usability alongside security.

If you already have Fedora Atomic (e.g. Secureblue, Kinoite, Sericea, etc.) or CoreOS installed on your system, you can easily rebase to secureblue. The install instructions are really easy to follow, and I had no issues installing it on any of my devices.

I'd love more people to know about secureblue, because it is fantastic if you want a secure desktop OS!

Not many people have heard about secureblue, and I want to spread the word about it. secureblue provides hardened images for Fedora Atomic and CoreOS. It's an operating system "for those whose first priority is using linux, and second priority is security."

secureblue provides exploit mitigations and fixes for multiple security holes. This includes the addition of GrapheneOS's hardened_malloc, their own hardened Chromium-based browser called Trivalent, USBGuard to protect against USB peripheral attacks, and plenty more.

secureblue has definitely matured a lot since I first started using it. Since then, it has become something that could reasonably be used as a daily driver. secureblue recognizes the need for usability alongside security.

If you already have Fedora Atomic (e.g. Secureblue, Kinoite, Sericea, etc.) or CoreOS installed on your system, you can easily rebase to secureblue. The install instructions are really easy to follow, and I had no issues installing it on any of my devices.

I'd love more people to know about secureblue, because it is fantastic if you want a secure desktop OS!

(In honor of Holiday. You know who you are.)

Yesterday I decided to start "officially" selfhosting. With almost no experience with Docker, I struggled for eight hours straight, but I finally have it working.

Currently, the two tools I am selfhosting with Docker Compose are LibreTranslate and spotDL. I'm only accessing them over the local network using a direct IP:PORT, so there's no domain name. I don't want to use a custom DNS, since it is fingerprintable online, so I want to keep it the same as my VPN.

With that said, I want to add encryption to the connections. I was able to generate my own self signed certificates with this command:

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ./certs/key.key -out ./certs/cert.crt

spotDL was easy to setup with these self signed certs, since it has command flags for --enable-tls, --key-file, and --cert-file. LibreTranslate has an environment variable for - LT_SSL=true, however it gives the following error:

libretranslate  | (URLError(SSLCertVerificationError(1, '[SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1006)')),)

That led me to this issue which is 2 and a half years old. LibreTranslate doesn't have a way to specify certificates that I know of.

I tried using Nginx Proxy Manager to create a reverse proxy, but I couldn't quite figure it out. (I also didn't understand Docker Compose at the time. I had a few hours to go before I did) NPM also seems to want Let's Encrypt certificates which can't be given without a DNS record. I tried manually providing certificates in the config file, but I don't quite understand NPM enough to be able to set it up properly on my own.

My requirements are:

• No changing the DNS from my VPN's default
• No port forwarding, everything should be accessed by the local network only
• No email required (ability to use a fake email without risk is fine)
• Only free and open source software
• Modern security standards where available

I also would like help adding the self signed certificates as a permanent exception in Brave browser, if possible.

This question has been answered. Please stop trying to repeat information that has already been said many times before. Everything in this thread is in good faith, I am here to learn, so I will make mistakes. Furthermore, if you want to contribute something new, please read the entire post to avoid misunderstanding the purpose of this post.

Selfhosting is useful when you either need a lot of storage or a lot of processing power. For example, Kiwix is useful to selfhost on a server because a lot of its content can take up terabytes of storage, which a phone may not have. LLMs are also useful to selfhost because they require a degree of processing power that, again, a phone may not have.

In both cases, there is also a need for perpetual access. If you simply hosted an LLM on your home computer, it wouldn't be very useful to access from your phone since your computer won't be running all the time. So, a separate always-on server is needed.

However, there are some selfhosted software that I don't see a use for. For example, Immich. Immich requires to be run on a server to function, but a lot of (or even all) of its functions are things that could reasonably done entirely on-device. Aves combined with some automatic backup solution such as Nextcloud gets (from what I can tell) most of the functionality Immich offers. Obviously, some features like AI image tagging are missing, but you get the point. AI image tagging is also something that could be run on-device as well, since it's mostly lightweight (iPhones are capable of it). Having a setup like that also comes with the benefit of automatic backups being completely optional, rather than required.

There's no reasonable need for extra storage or extra processing power needed for that use case, from what I can tell. (Disclaimer: I haven't actually used Immich before, so this is speculation. I apologize if I'm missing something obvious) There's a lot of other selfhosted tools like spotDL which have a selfhosted web UI, but no GUI that can be installed outside of a web browser.

I guess my question is why there are so many selfhosted tools that unnecessarily require being run on a separate device. I do understand the legitimate use cases some of them have, but others seem better off on-device airgapped. This especially became an issue trying to find a notes app for Android that requires no account and runs fully locally, or an RSS reader that loads from the device itself. I found Joplin and Feeder or Read You as the software for each of those. I don't like "server-based" selfhosting for things that could be done from the device itself.

I'm sorry if this turned into a rant. If someone could help me understand, I would appreciate that very much.

Cheers!

Edit: The comparison here isn't between selfhosting and using a cloud provider. The comparison here is between selfhosting on a server and running explicitly on-device (besides where extra storage or processing power is required)

Answer

So that nobody has to dig through the comments for answers, this is what I've learned: In the case of Immich, its purpose isn't designed to be a photo gallery. It's designed to be a more polished backup solution, designed explicitly for photos and not general files. While Nextcloud could be used to backup photos, it's not as focused on photos as Immich, and so it isn't as nice to use for that purpose. Immich also allows you to share photos with a link, rather than relying on a cloud provider to do that for you. There's also another benefit to selfhosting that I hadn't entirely realized, which is availability across devices. Some things like an eBook library may not take up much space, but it's convenient to not have to sync manually (or automatically) across devices, and instead access it from a central server. That same logic is true for RSS readers as well, since it's inconvenient to manually add and sync feeds across devices. Syncing across devices can be done with something like Syncthing in some cases, but not all, and so that's where selfhosting can be useful.

After about 2 and a half years of battling for my privacy, I'm finally at a place where I can step back and be happy. Technically the seed of privacy was planted 5 years ago, but it hadn't become a goal yet.

I used to use Windows 7 (even 10 and 11, eventually), an iPhone 6, Gmail, Google Hangouts (anyone else remember when it was called that?) and Discord as my main messengers, Snapchat, Instagram, Spotify, Netflix, Reddit, ChatGPT, Chrome, Google, Avast and Avast VPN, YouTube, Authy, and so, so much more.

I am so fortunate to be able to be where I'm at now. I use Fedora (Silverblue. I tried secureblue but it was too strict for my taste), a Pixel 8 running GrapheneOS, Proton Mail + addy.io (although I try to use email as little as possible), Signal and SimpleX Chat, a "self-hosted" music library, some cheaper ways to stream movies, Lemmy (duh), HuggingChat (because I don't have the hardware to run my own model quite yet), Tor Browser and another (I want to avoid arguments about my browser choice), SearXNG, Proton VPN (until I can get Mullvad VPN paid for), FreeTube, Aegis Authenticator, and a plethora of other software.

I got quite lucky with device compatibility. My computer and laptop just so happen to be compatible with every distro I've tried, and I've sure dragged them through hell to find the one I want. I'm blessed to have been able to snag a decent phone for GrapheneOS, and so glad to have automated the transition from Spotify.

It's been a good run. I'm glad to finally be satisfied with where I'm at. I started to see the fruit of my labor months ago. Now I can rest easy and do my part to help others become more privacy aware. I'd love to hear your story too, maybe mine isn't far off!

Bonus story: The straw that broke the camel's back that caused me to fully switch to Linux was Windows 11's Efficiency Mode. It's a cute feature that throttles the performance of programs to save on carbon emissions... and (at the time) you couldn't disable it. You could disable it per-process, but it would re-enable itself shortly after. ChatGPT was becoming quite popular at the time, but Efficiency Mode slowing down the browser made it nearly unusable. I did look for ways to permanently disable it, but either I wasn't experienced enough or it didn't exist yet. Well, no way except to replace Windows altogether!

Happy Christmas and Merry Hanuka!

If you're struggling to find something to buy your privacy enthusiast friend for the holidays, I have some gift ideas. As with any gift, not everyone will need these, but it can give you a good idea of what to look for. Feel free to submit your own suggestions, as well!

No affiliate links, no sponsors, no favorites. All prices are in USD. If a price is something like "$X.99" or "$X.49" or "$X39" I have rounded it up by one digit.

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Subscriptions

Some privacy tools come at a cost, and not all open source software can be used for free!

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Addy.io

Addy.io is an email aliasing service.

Pricing

Lite: $1 / month

Pro: $3 / month

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Bitwarden

Bitwarden is a cloud-synced password manager.

Pricing

Personal Premium: $10 / year

Personal Families: $40 / year

Business Teams: $48 / user / year

Business Enterprise: $72 / user / year

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Calyx Institute Internet Membership

The Calyx Institute Internet Membership provides you with a privacy respecting cellular hotspot.

Pricing

Contributor Yearly: $500 / year for first year, $400 / year thereafter

Contributor Quarterly: $150 / 3 months

Contributor Plus: $600 / year for first year, $500 / year thereafter

Sustainer Yearly: $750 / year for first year, $500 / year thereafter

Sustainer Quarterly: $175 / 3 months

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JMP

JMP is an open source phone number provider.

Pricing

Plan (USD): $5 / month + additional usage costs

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Mullvad VPN

Mullvad VPN is a virtual private network.

Pricing

1 month: $5.28 / month

Physical vouchers are also available through resellers.

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MySudo (PROPRIETARY)

MySudo is a proprietary aliasing software. I could not find any open source option for aliasing phone numbers, especially this cheap.

Pricing

SudoGo: $1 / month or $10 / year

SudoPro: $5 / month or $50 / year

SudoMax: $15 / month or $150 / year

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Privacy.com (PROPRIETARY)

Privacy.com is a proprietary financial transaction masking and aliasing tool. There are other options such as Revolut (open source), but Privacy.com seems to be the one that works best in the United States. Consider your threat model while using these tools.

Pricing

Plus: $5 / month

Pro: $10 / month

Premium: $25 / month

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Proton

Proton is a software suite that includes email, VPN, cloud storage, password manager, calendar, and wallet. Their pricing is extremely convoluted and difficult to navigate.

Pricing

Proton Unlimited 1 month: $13 / month

Proton Unlimited 12 months: $10 / month

Proton Duo: $15 / month

Proton Family: $24 / month

Mail Plus 1 month: $5 / month

Mail Plus 12 months: $4 / month

Drive Plus Monthly: $5 / month

Drive Plus Yearly: $4 / month

Proton VPN Plus 1-month plan: $10 / month

Proton VPN Plus 1-year plan: $5 / month

Proton VPN Plus 2-year plan: $4.50 / month

Pass Plus Monthly: $5 / month

Pass Plus Yearly: $3 / month

Proton Business Suite Monthly: $15 / user / month

Proton Business Suite Yearly: $13 / user / month

Mail Essentials Monthly: $8 / user / month

Mail Essentials Yearly: $7 / user / month

Mail Professional Monthly: $11 / user / month

Mail Professional Yearly: $10 / user / month

VPN Essentials Monthly: $9 / user / month

VPN Essentials Yearly: $7 / user / month

VPN Professional Monthly: $12 / user / month

VPN Professional Yearly: $10 / user / month

Pass Essentials Monthly: $5 / user / month

Pass Essentials Yearly: $2 / user / month

Pass Professional Monthly: $7 / user / month

Pass Professional Yearly: $3 / user / month

Drive Professional Monthly: $10 / user / month

Drive Professional Yearly: $6 / user / month

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Hardware

Not everything is digital. Hardware is the foundation for privacy, after all!

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Dumb Television

Smart TVs are so last century... and this century... and the next century... Enjoy the luxury of buying a "dumb TV" while it lasts, because your TV doesn't need to spy on you! There's no best option here. You might need to purchase a large monitor instead of a TV.

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Google Pixel

Google Pixel phones are one of the most secure devices, especially when you run a security/privacy focused custom Android distribution such as GrapheneOS. Other phones exist for this category, but the Google Pixel is a good baseline. Prices here are based on what are actively being sold on Google's own website.

Some things to look out for when installing a custom Android distribution:

• Make sure the custom Android distribution you want to install supports being installed on the device you get. GrapheneOS, for example, only supports Google devices.
• Make sure the device you purchase allows unlocking the bootloader.
• Make sure the custom Android distribution you want to install supports locking the bootloader after installation for the device you get. Some devices do not allow relocking the bootloader, and in some cases this can brick the device. Google Pixels generally have the best support for this.
• Make sure the device you purchase is carrier unlocked or the carrier allows OEM unlocking/bootloader unlocking. Some carriers (most notoriously Verizon) will disable this functionality to maintain a monopoly and will refuse to lift the restriction. Second hand sellers are often unaware of this and will mistakenly list the device as "carrier unlocked" when it is in fact not.

Pricing

Refurbished Pixel 6 128GB: $340

Refurbished Pixel 6 256GB: $390

Refurbished Pixel 6 Pro 128GB: $540

Refurbished Pixel 6a: $250

Refurbished Pixel 7 128GB: $430

Refurbished Pixel 7 256GB: $480

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 128GB: $630

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 256GB: $680

Refurbished Pixel 7 Pro 512GB: $780

Pixel 7a: $500

Pixel 8 128GB: $700

Pixel 8 256GB: $760

Pixel 8 Pro 128GB: $1,000

Pixel 8 Pro 256GB: $1,060

Pixel 8 Pro 512GB: $1,180

Pixel 8 Pro 1TB: $1,400

Pixel 8a 128GB: $400

Pixel 8a 256GB: $460

Pixel 9 128GB: $650

Pixel 9 256GB: $750

Pixel 9 Pro 128GB: $850

Pixel 9 Pro 256GB: $950

Pixel 9 Pro 512GB: $1,070

Pixel 9 Pro 1TB: $1,300

Pixel 9 Pro XL 128GB: $950

Pixel 9 Pro XL 256GB: $1,050

Pixel 9 Pro XL 512GB: $1,170

Pixel 9 Pro XL 1TB: $1,400

Pixel 9 Pro Fold 256GB: $1,500

Pixel 9 Pro Fold 512GB: $1,620

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OpenWrt One

OpenWrt One is the first router designed specifically to run OpenWrt. It's not the only supported device, and there are other open source router firmware projects, but this is a good out-of-the-box choice.

Pricing

This can currently only be purchased from unofficial resellers for $90.

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Qubes OS certified hardware

Qubes OS is likely the most hardened Linux distro available. They have their own list of certified hardware that comes with Qubes OS preinstalled. Those devices aren't the only ones capable of running Qubes OS. You can also check out the Hardware compatibility list and Community-recommended computers. These computers can run more than just Qubes OS, but if it's good enough to be certified by them, it will likely run anything else just as securely!

Pricing

NitroPad V56: Lowest $1,565.58

NovaCustom V56 Series 16.0 inch coreboot laptop: Lowest $1,256.40

NitroPC Pro 2: Lowest $1,614.73

Star Labs StarBook: Lowest $863.00

NitroPC Pro: Lowest $1,614.91

NovaCustom NV41 Series Lowest $930.60

Dasharo FidelisGuard Z690: Lowest $994.28

NitroPad T430: Lowest $737.79

NitroPad X230: Lowest $737.79

Insurgo PrivacyBeast X230: $1,341.46

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Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pis are miniature computers that are very useful for setting up proxy servers.

Pricing

There's endless configurations, but the most recent Raspberry Pi model is the Raspberry Pi 5. There are multiple resellers of this, and the cheapest one is the $50 Raspberry Pi 5 2GB

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Self-hosting hardware

A privacy enthusiast's best tool is being able to self-host certain things. There is no single device to self-host, but some ideas are:

• A server rack for general self-hosting
• A powerful GPU for self-hosting AI
• A self-hosted home automation kit

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Hardware Accessories

What is a piece of hardware without a few accessories? Modularity is always a benefit of modern technology.

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Camera covers

From laptops to webcams to phones, cameras are everywhere. If you don't fully trust the device you use and want some peace of mind, having an accessory to obscure the lenses of your cameras is a good thing to have. There are lots of options here depending on which camera you want to cover. Some phone cases even offer a sliding camera cover.

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CD/DVD/Blue-ray drives

Some CD/DVD/Blue-ray drives can allow you to preserve the physical DVDs that you have bought and paid for, that may soon be end-of-life. These devices allow you to read the contents of the disk, and save a digital copy of it for archival purposes. There is no best-option here, so look around to find one that fits.

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Data storage devices

Data storage devices are useful for many things such as backups, installing operating systems, booting live operating systems, data transfer, and more. The market here is huge and convoluted, so learn about different types of drives, different connectors, different connector versions (such as USB), etc. before making an educated decision.

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Hardware security keys

Hardware security keys allow your accounts to be locked with a physical form of multi-factor authentication. Many organizations sell these, and some of them even provide open source hardware/software. Here are a few common brands:

• Nitrokey
• OnlyKey
• SoloKeys
• YubiKeys

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Microphone blocker

Microphone blockers come in all shapes and sizes, but they all serve the same function: making sure your microphone is not able to hear anything. The effectiveness of some of these are debatable, given that most phones have multiple microphones, but it can be a fun gift nonetheless.

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Privacy screen protector

Privacy screen protectors are films that you apply over your screens to restrict viewing angles. This means that if someone were to look at your phone while standing next to you, they likely wouldn't be able to see what you're doing. These screen protectors are also available for laptops, smart watches, and other screens.

When buying these, make sure of the following:

• The screen protector supports fingerprint unlock for relevant devices.
• The screen protector actually works well.
• The screen protector will actually protect the device as a screen protector.
• The screen protector fits correctly for the device you're getting.
• The cameras will still work after the screen protector is applied to relevant devices.

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Wired headphones

Bluetooth can pose a privacy risk, and that is especially true when you need to play sensitive audio. One time I was in a hallway with my Bluetooth earbuds in, connected to my phone but not playing anything, when suddenly I heard a grainy piano song. My phone wasn't playing anything, and eventually the music just cut out. To this day I have no idea how it happened, but it does mean you should be careful with wireless headphones.

Wires can be annoying, but being able to fully turn off Bluetooth can give you peace of mind knowing that your audio stays inside the wire. Having high quality wired headphones can be a blessing, and even provide a better listening experience. It's worth looking at many brands, but Google still sells USB-C wired earphones and headphones from a few different brands. Here are a few:

Google Pixel USB-C™ earbuds: $30

AIAIAI Pipe 2.0 USB-C Earphones: $40

AIAIAI Tracks 2.0 Headphones: $60

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Currency

Anonymous payments are growing more and more difficult, so if you aren't sure what to buy, these are well appreciated options.

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Cash

Cash is one of the most anonymous methods of payment, and can be a privacy enthusiast's gold. Multiple small bills ($1, $5, etc.) are appreciated more than a few large bills ($20, $50, etc.) because many places do not accept cash in large bills. You can also gift some rare or interesting cash, such as $2 bills, half dollars, silver dollars, dollar coins, etc.

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Cryptocurrency

Getting cryptocurrency, especially anonymously, can be a long and painful process. If you are comfortable setting it up, this is a huge time saver and a great gift. Monero is generally considered the most private cryptocurrency, so that's a better choice than other cryptocurrencies. However, Bitcoin is the most popular and most widely accepted, even though it isn't very private. Try to obtain these through anonymous means such as using cash at cryptocurrency ATMs that may be in your city.

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Prepaid cards

There's usually no option to pay in cash online, but there are ways around this. If you buy gift cards or prepaid VISA cards with cash, it can be almost as anonymous as cash itself. Some good choices may include:

• Amazon Gift Cards: Amazon is very hard to use privately, but this can help significantly.

• Google Play Gift Cards: Google Play is one of the most secure ways of installing apps, but not all of them are free. Google Play gift cards can allow you to pay for apps anonymously, so you can maintain your security.

• Visa Prepaid Card: This is a catch-all solution for when there's no specific gift card available.

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Physical Items

As with hardware, not everything needs to be digital. There are plenty of items that are cheaper and good for almost anyone.

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Books

eBooks are a marvel, but they come with complications. Sometimes the formatting isn't right, sometimes you can't get them anonymously, and you need a device to even view it. If the digital apocalypse ever happens, the only way to access information will be through books. No ads, no eye strain. A good privacy related book you could buy is Michael Bazzell's Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear

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Calendar

Digital calendars can be convenient, but not always safe. Anything digital can risk being remotely accessed or spied on. Having a physical calendar means you can have the benefits of a calendar, without the need for a digital device. Plus, it comes with pictures that you get to pick.

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DVDs

Best paired with a DVD ripper, having physical copies of movies and games means no company can take it away from you with the push of a button. You have no ads, use no internet, no subscriptions, and have full quality.

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Faraday bags

Faraday bags and pouches are containers for your devices that block all incoming and outgoing signals. That means anything that goes inside of it will have no Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, NFC, etc. This is useful if you want to make sure your device isn't phoning home. This is an item that you may want to spend extra on, because lower quality ones can still leak radio signals.

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Merchandise

Privacy themed merchandise can be a good way to show that you care about privacy and to help spread it. You can find privacy merch anywhere, but NBTV (a privacy YouTuber) has a good selection of products: https://shop.nbtv.media/en-usd/

Monerochan my beloved

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Notebooks

Having everything in a digital notes app can be nice or convenient, but I much prefer to write a lot of things down in a physical notebook. From diaries to sketches, it's nice to take a break from your digital life to jot down some ideas, privately.

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Paper shredder

When you have sensitive documents that you need discarded, one of the best ways is a paper shredder. If you buy one of these, the best ones are ones that dice the paper or burn it entirely. Even those small squares can be pieced together again.

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Safes and lockboxes

Speaking of sensitive documents, where do you store those? A good place to store sensitive documents is in a safe or a lockbox. From government documents to your best ideas, they deserve to stay (in a) safe. It's good to make sure you buy a fireproof safe, just in case Fahrenheit 451 becomes more of a reality.

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Surveillance camera jackets

As the looming threat of widespread AI surveillance comes closer, defenses against them grow stronger. Generally, you have two options:

• A jacket that fights AI recognition

• A jacket that blinds cameras entirely

These can be expensive and hard to find, but the best way to fight surveillance.

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Ending notes

Thank you all for reading this! I hope it helps you find a gift for a privacy enthusiast you can't think of a gift idea for. You don't have to buy the exact things listed here, but it gives you a general outline with ideas. I know there are some great gift ideas I missed here, so please leave them in the comments to help out others!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, and have a nice day!

- The 8232 Project

In my post on why mass surveillance is not normal, I referenced how the Wikipedia page for the Nothing to hide argument labels the argument as a "logical fallacy." On October 19th, user Gratecznik edited the Wikipedia page to remove the "logical fallacy" text. I am here to prove that the "Nothing to hide" argument is indeed a logical fallacy and go through some arguments against it.

The "Nothing to hide" argument is an intuitive but misleading argument, stating that if a person has done nothing unethical, unlawful, immoral, etc., then there is no reason to hide any of their actions or information. However, this argument has been well covered already and debunked many times (here is one example).

Besides the cost of what it takes for someone to never hide anything, there are many reasons why a person may not want to share information about themselves, even if no misconduct has taken place. The "Nothing to hide" argument intuitively (but not explicitly) assumes that those whom you share your information with will handle it with care and not falsely use it against you. Unfortunately, that is not how it currently works in the real world.

You don't get to make the rules on what is and is not deemed unlawful. Something you do may be ethical or moral, but unlawful and could cost you if you aren't able to hide those actions. For example, whistleblowers try to expose government misconduct. That is an ethical and moral goal, but it does not align with government interests. Therefor, if the whistleblower is not able to hide their actions, they will have reason to fear the government or other parties. The whistleblower has something to hide, even though it is not unethical or immoral.

You are likely not a whistleblower, so you have nothing to hide, right? As stated before, you don't get to make the rules on what is and is not deemed unlawful. Anything you say or do could be used against you. Having a certain religion or viewpoint may be legal now, but if one day those become outlawed, you will have wished you hid it.

Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean it is justified to share everything. Privacy is a basic human right (at least until someone edits Wikipedia to say otherwise), so you shouldn't be forced to trust whoever just because you have nothing to hide.

For completeness, here is a proof that the "Nothing to hide" argument is a logical fallacy by using propositional calculus:

Let p be the proposition "I have nothing to hide"

Let q be the proposition "I should not be concerned about surveillance"

You can represent the "Nothing to hide" argument as follows:

p → q

I will be providing a proof by counterexample. Suppose p is true, but q is false (i.e. "I have nothing to hide" and "I am concerned about surveillance"):

p ∧ ¬q

Someone may have nothing to hide, but still be concerned about the state of surveillance. Since that is a viable scenario, we can conclude that the "Nothing to hide" argument is invalid (a logical fallacy).

I know someone is going to try to rip that proof apart. If anyone is an editor on Wikipedia, please revert the edit that removed the "logical fallacy" text, as it provides a very easy and direct way for people to cite that the "Nothing to hide" argument is false.

Thanks for reading!

- The 8232 Project

If you're just here for the results, the best ones are listed in my list of software, Open Source Everything under the "Sports & Health" section.

For the rest of you, thanks for staying! 2 days ago I made this post asking you all about which health apps for Android you recommend. I appreciate everyone who took the time to give their recommendations, however, I didn't get as many responses as I had hoped for. So I took inspiration from Thanos and tested out 81 different health apps for Android.

Wait, 81? Doesn't the title say 49? Yes, I tested 81 apps, but a good bit of them were either unavailable, required an account to use, not open source, or not a health app at all. So, those have been omitted from this list.

I should also mention that I didn't try every app, so you may have one I didn't try! I tried to test the major ones I could find from a massive list, but obviously we are all human and make mistakes. With that, here are my opinions for each software I tried.

Beauty Product Information

The only one that fits in this category is Open Beauty Facts. It requires the Network permission to function, and it's used to look up information about different beauty products. You can add these products to a list, scan barcodes (if you grant it camera permissions), and more. It's fully featured, still active, and the best app for this so far. However, the UI is fairly basic and it contains optional telemetry.

Breathing Exercises

Inner Breeze

Inner Breeze is a somewhat basic app to help you with breathing exercises. The app has a nice UI, and a few settings. It allows you to also keep a history of your breathing sessions which can be viewed in a graph. It requires no permissions at all.

Breathly

Breathly actually would have been the top app in this category, but unfortunately there hasn't been a commit in over a year. It has a better UX than Inner Breeze, and includes calming(?) voice instructions to guide your breathing. It does require DCL via memory permissions, which is unfortunate. It also does not have a graph functionality, but it does have different types of breathing exercises.

Brethap

Brethap (which I keep accidentally calling "Brethrap") has a basic UI, but it includes plotting your breathing sessions on a calendar. It also includes a web interface. It requires no permissions. It has decent customization, and includes support for Text to Speech.

Diabetic Trackers

Glucosio

Glucosio is an app for tracking different things within the body, such as glucose level, cholesterol, etc. It allows you to add custom data, graph it, import and export data, etc. Unfortunately, there aren't many settings and the app has been abandoned. The UI is very basic, but it's functional. It requires no permissions.

Diaguard

Diaguard is a German diabetic tracker that also has full English support. It is similar to Glucosio in functionality, but it has many more settings and a better UX. The UI is still basic, but it requires no permissions to function. It can plot graphs and pie charts, as well as many more functions. It is the best in this category.

xDrip+

xDrip+ has a horrible UI, confusing elements, I'm not even sure which permissions it needs, but it (supposedly) can connect directly to physical glucose meters. I don't recommend this app, but this isn't as bad as it gets.

Juggluco

Juggluco has the absolute worst UI I have ever seen, not just on this list. It forces you to use it in landscape, the clock does not hide itself, it seems to be badly translated, it has no settings, it barely has controls, but for some reason the app is still being updated.

Diet Creation Tools

The only app for this that I could find is Daily Dozen. By default it uses a scientifically recommended diet for your day, with no customization. It has a very basic UI with no settings, but it allows you to check off which foods you ate that day. It requires no permissions to run. If anyone is willing to make health software, this would be a good section to make it for.

Fitness Trackers

This section is weirdly named. Gadgetbridge is a replacement software for proprietary apps for your wearable gadgets. I've never used it, but it seems to have good support. It asked for so many permissions it might as well have the root permission itself, and the themes are slightly broken. The UI is fairly basic, but there are plenty of settings.

Gym Exercise Trackers

This section was really difficult to pick a best for.

Massive

Massive is a material exercise tracker. It requires no permissions. You can view your data on graphs, import and export, create custom exercises, and more. However, the experience is a bit confusing, there's little customization for which exercises you do, and there are a few bugs. Overall, it's the best in this category, but not by much.

Fast N Fitness

Fast N Fitness has a really bad UI. It requires no permissions to run, you can customize the exercise types, graph your data, create profiles, and more. It isn't really special, but it does have a worse UI than the alternatives.

GymRoutines

Also a material fitness tracker, GymRoutines requires no permissions to run. You can create custom workouts, graph them, backup and restore, and... That's it. That is about all the app can do. It has only 3 settings. It's very basic, and the last commit was 9 months ago.

Verifit

Verifit was someone's passion project, with a surprising number of features. It has pretty much every exercise you can imagine, as well as custom exercises. You can view the data on pie charts, import and export data, log workouts, and more. Sadly, the project was abandoned. It has a basic UI and few settings. It requires no permissions.

Lift

Lift was abandoned 4 years ago. It allows you to put workouts on the calendar. The (two) settings don't work, it has a basic UI, and does not have custom workouts. It requires no permissions.

Habit Trackers

Table Habit

Table Habit is a material habit tracker. It has a setting for "positive" and "negative" habits, however the goal of the app is to enforce habits and not break them, so... if you have a negative habit of murder, and need some encouragement, Table Habit is the app for you! It's essentially fully featured, so it has way to many functions for me to list. It requires no permissions to run.

Loop Habit Tracker

Loop Habit Tracker is tied with Table Habit on which one is better. LHT has a more basic UI, but it has a lot more streamlined experience with habits. It does not allow for negative habits. It is simple but powerful. It also hasn't had a commit in 6 months, but it is still great software. It requires no permissions to run. If I had to pick though, I would probably choose Table Habit.

Medicine Reminder Tools

I only tested Simpill, but people did suggest others to me. Simpill has probably the best UI out of all of these apps. It requires notification and background usage permissions. It has few settings, but it doesn't really need many. It is a bit buggy with 24 hour time disabled, and you need to make sure you enable background usage, but it works well. I may eventually try out other apps in this category.

Meditation Tools

Medito

Medito requires a network connection initially, but you can download meditation audio offline. The purpose is to play audio to guide you through meditation for different purposes (sleep, relaxation, etc.). It has a lovely UI. However, there are no settings, and it does not allow importing meditation audio.

Om

Om was abandoned 5 years ago. You open the app, and you either have a voice guided meditation, or a self-guided meditation (an annoying bell). That is the entire functionality. It requires no permissions, and has absolutely no other features.

Meditation

Meditation, also known as Essential Meditation, is a weirdly popular meditation app. It requires notification and background permissions to function, except it shouldn't need those. You can change some settings for the sound you hear, etc. It has a basic UI. It also gives me a headache. Maybe I should log that in the...

Menstrual Cycle Trackers

Something something disclaimer about "mature topics" so this post doesn't get nuked by lemmy.ml.

drip.

drip. allows you to track menstrual cycles and symptoms. It has plenty of default symptoms, allows you to encrypt the app with a password, import and export data, and more. You can view this data on a calendar or a graph. It has a basic UI, few settings besides the ones listed previously. The UI is also slightly laggy.

log28

log28 would have made it alongside drip., but unfortunately the app was abandoned 2 years ago. It has a basic UI, some bugs, but requires no permissions. It has plenty of default symptoms. You can view data on a calendar, but not a graph.

Mensinator

Finally a material design app, Mensinator allows you to track menstrual data and symptoms. It does not come with many default symptoms, but you can add your own. It offers some customization, statistics, import and export, and more. It allows you to view data on a calendar, but not a graph. It requires no permissions, but does have a few minor bugs.

Mood Trackers

I've been writing for an hour straight, so let me log my fatigue in Pixy. Pixy has a lovely UI, although slightly laggy, and allows you to log your mood for each day. You can view the data on a calendar, graph, bar chart, and lots more. You can also log what you did that day, import and export data, change colors, etc. It is probably fully featured. However, it is sadly abandoned, requires DCL via memory permissions, and tracks your data if you give it network permissions.

Nutrition Information Tools

Let me speedrun this one: Open Food Facts, which also has a web interface, lets you scan bar codes or search products to view information such as ingredients or how humane it is. It has opt-in telemetry, requires network permissions, also requires DCL via memory, does not have a local database, and has a mediocre UI. It has plenty of customization, and you can add products to a list.

Pedometers

Pedometer (PFA)

This app is abandoned, which is unfortunate since the team behind it also makes so many other fantastic apps. It allows you to track your steps, view it on a graph, and more. It has a basic UI, few settings, and requires the physical activity permission.

Paseo

Paseo has many more features than the previous app. It has a basic UI, and requires the physical activity permission. It shows much more data in graph and circle form, such as current steps and expected steps. It has lots of customization, you can set step goals, it's overall great. It is, unfortunately, abandoned as well.

If you want to make a health app, this is another good section for it.

Physical Activity Trackers

This section was extremely difficult to decide best software for. Let me break my default style and tell you a little story. The first app I tried was OpenTracks (actually that's a lie). It is unique because you can use it fully on its own, but it does not have map capabilities. To get map capabilities, you need to install either "OSM Dashboard" or "OSM Dashboard (Offline)".

OSM Dashboard will allow you to use OpenStreetMaps directly, or download other maps for local storage, etc. OpenTracks will then display your physical activity path on that map (or without, if you really want just the shape). OSM Dashboard (Offline) does not connect to the internet ever, at all, for any reason. You have to download maps yourself and import them yourself. OpenTracks for real made 3 separate apps so you can be as private as you want by installing only what you want, and I applaud that massively.

However, it came between OpenTracks and FitoTrack. FitoTrack essentially packages the map capabilities within the app itself. You can load from OpenStreetMaps directly or import downloaded maps. What made FitoTrack better is the ability to view your data on a graph, bar chart, etc. Also, OpenTracks requires notification and nearby devices permissions, whereas FitoTrack does not. OpenTracks has a slightly broken UI, FitoTrack has a basic UI and fewer settings. While I massively applaud OpenTracks for their work so far, FitoTrack is my current preferred option.

There is also RunnerUp, which just has a bad UI. It allows graphs and connected devices.

Seasonal Food Information Tools

Speedrun time: Seasonal Foods Calendar is an abandoned app that simply tells you which foods are in-season for your location, as well as basic information. The app lacks in data and customization, has a basic UI, but allows you to search for foods. It requires no permissions.

Relaxation Tools

Noice allows you to play relaxing background noise sounds. It requires network permissions, but you can download audio for offline listening. It is material design, has plenty of settings, and I would say it is fully featured. However, it does have optional telemetry.

Weed Trackers

Something something disclaimer don't do drugs please don't nuke this post.

Petals helps you track your weed usage to help you see how much you're using, if it's dangerous, and educate you on everything it can. It requires no permissions, you can import and export data, it has an app lock, and plenty of settings. It has a mediocre UI, but it includes many graphs. For some reason it added icons on the home screen for me, YMMV.

Weight & Diet Trackers

I'm not going to be detailed with this section because it was honestly the worst one to gather info on. trale is as minimal as it gets, but it's available for Accrescent if that's your thing. openScale can connect to Bluetooth scales and track lots of data. Energize has integration with OpenFoodFacts. OpenNutriTracker forces you to agree to a privacy policy and EULA. Waistline is laggy and requires a network connection for some integrations. All these apps basically do the same stuff, except for trale which does very few stuff. You can track what you eat, your weight, and set goals. I couldn't decide on a "best" for this section.

Workout Routine Tools

I've been testing all of these apps for the past 3 days as well as writing for the past 2 hours, so you can start to see my slow descent into insanity. I really need an editor.

Workout Time

This was abandoned, is slightly laggy, and straight up does not work.

Liftosaur

This app requires network permissions because the entire app is just a website. That means it's super laggy, and has no settings.

openWorkout

This app has ads for some reason, but it doesn't need network permissions so it doesn't matter. It has a basic UI, and lacks in settings and features.

Those 3 are pretty terrible, but these last 2 apps were pretty much tied.

Feeel

Feeel is great for creating custom workout routines. It not only lets you pick which exercises to do and for how long, but it also teaches you how to do those exercises, which pictures. The design is great, it has few settings, and has its own polygon style. It requires no permissions.

LiftLog

Liftlog is a material design app to create workout routines. It lets you create your own exercises, view stats, and more. The app is kind of laggy, but it provides plenty of good settings. It does, however, have premium features such as AI. It also requires DCL via memory permissions.

Workout Timers

Finally, the last section, I'm going to break my style again to save my sanity. HIIT was abandoned 3 years ago. OpenHIIT lacks in settings, has a material design, and only allows up to 9 exercises.

Just Another Workout Timer and TimeR Machine almost tied. JAAT is material design, fairly fully featured, but the UI is confusing, button positions are weird, and icons can be unclear. It makes it very difficult to use. However, it has plenty of settings, including import and export.

TimeR is a more basic UI, but it is much more clear what is going on. It even puts you through a tutorial in the beginning. You can view data on graphs, etc. It's my preferred option. It requires no permissions, has plenty of settings, it's great.

Conclusion or something

People get mad at me for not adding summaries or conclusions, so... Hello, I've lost all personality and soul after writing this. I hope this helps someone in the future find some good Android health apps. Please make more health apps, since the open source community really needs it. Please check out Open Source Everything, which is my own curated list of open source software that I've been working on for years.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

- The 8232 Project

Oh yeah, P.S., I didn't actually double check that I listed 49 software here. If it's 48 or something it's because I was going to add Quit Smoking but it's abandoned and the source code no longer exists besides archives.