I generally agree with this. Unless OpenAI has a track record of being poor stewards of open source projects, then right now the concern is mostly FUD.

However, this is a bit aggressive. It is appropriate to be skeptical about the intent of a controversial company acquiring another company that made a few popular open source projects or of the future state of those open source projects.

Just because a popular open source project is well liked today doesn’t mean the community will be happy with the project in the future or even that the project will forever remain open source. Some notable recent examples include Redis, Terraform, and CentOS.

That’s correct, but the XMPP portion of this communication chain is just your device to the JMP service. Any messages sent or received to another phone number are delivered via SMS/MMS. As a result, those messages can be read by unrelated 3rd parties. I assume something similar is possible for voice calls as well (or at the very least the call start/stop times and the other number on the call can be determined).

Essentially this just shifts trust from a mobile phone carrier to JMP. However, I understand that it may be more challenging to hack a VOIP number than perform a SIM swap attack. Another benefit of JMP for privacy is the more challenging tracking of location for a JMP phone number.

I’m not saying that using JMP is bad. I am saying if you need a secure and private way of messaging someone then this is not the best solution.

It depends on what your threat model is. For example, do you want to mitigate the ability to easily link accounts and other information to you based on a single phone number? If so, then this will help with that assuming you (at least temporarily) use multiple numbers through JMP. On the other hand, if you want your communication to be private then there are better alternatives.

Ultimately, this is similar to using a privacy respecting email provider over gmail. Unless you take some additional precautions, your communications have a similar security/privacy exposure. It can be an improvement (assuming you trust JMP), but it is not the best means of communication in terms of privacy.

I understand that there is a public benefit to this technology/data, but there are definitely concerns (including privacy concerns) even if the data is not currently widely available at a per household, per toilet, or per individual level. For example, insurance companies may not insure people who live in specific neighborhoods and it could lead to increased levels of surveillance through other means. There is also usually limited (or no) methods of opting out leaving a person’s consent to be questioned, especially visitors. Speaking of visitors, it could also enable location tracking/history of a person.

This really is just scratching the surface here, as is this technology. As the technology progresses, this can (and likely will) evolve into more sophisticated, granular, and wide ranged levels of tracking. Granted much of this is speculative, but the same thing has happened with computers, cell phones, TVs, cars, cameras, ancestry/DNA services, and many other services. As a result, its important to think of both current and future implications when considering the benefit and abilities of these technologies/data.

Maybe I’m not picking up on the different models correctly, but the first link I sent was about Z-Wave.

Can I use the Assure Lock 2 with my Z-Wave Hub?

The Assure Lock 2 supports the following Z-Wave modules:

• Z-Wave 500 Series (version 1.8.1)
  • Module Part Number: AYR-MOD-ZW2-USA
• Z-Wave 700 Series (available at a later date)

I know some people, like yourself and the commenter thelordzer0, have had success using the lock without a Yale account or app. I’m not sure why you’ve been able to but others are reporting differently. I was just commenting to help OP out in case they’re one of the other people who were forced to create an account and/or use the Yale app to initialize their lock.

Ah, you’re right about 800 mesh and LR.

I’ve seen multiple reports online about the lock requiring an account though and Yale’s documentation stating that it only supports 500 series. Below are just a few examples of reports indicating that a Yale account is required for setup. Is yours the same model?

• https://reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/xuy0iv/those_interested_in_the_yale_assure_2_beware/
• https://community.home-assistant.io/t/yale-assure-lock-2-with-fingerprint-sensor-and-z-wave/789555
• https://github.com/zwave-js/zwave-js/discussions/5391

This lock requires a Yale account to register/setup the lock though, correct? In other words, while you can use the lock locally, it first needs to be associated with a Yale account.

Additionally, if I remember correctly, its Z-Wave module is a 500 series using the Security 0 (S0) standard instead of the more modern 800 series and/or Security 2 (S2) sandard. The 800 series (introduced in 2021) should provide much better reliability and range while the S2 standard (introduced in 2017) should make your connection more secure and less chatty. However, the 800 series does not operate as a mesh network and is still working through the final legislative approvals in Europe.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all, perfect solution. I believe the only Z-Wave lock that addresses the two items in my comment is the Philips 4000 Series deadbolt. One issue with that lock is I believe you have less control over the combinations without the Philips app (eg: cannot specify date/time ranges when a code will work, can only add codes while physically at the device, etc.).

I’m not too sure - I’m not too familiar with any of these services (including PinePods 😂). I know this type of feature is a common request for any audio related services though. I imagine that this is something that could be added at some point, but I’m not sure what the effort would be.

I don’t see anything about it on the roadmap for v1 or anywhere else on Pinepods’ issues. Perhaps the developer/maintainer @[email protected] can chime in or an issue on Github can be created with more information about this feature request?

The biggest benefits are likely:

• Single service for all your podcasting needs (ie: searching, storing, playing, tracking, and syncing podcasts + listening history)
• Multi-device, cross-platform support (I know this can be somewhat accomplished through the process that you mentioned, but you would need separate apps for iOS and desktop/web)
• (speculation/assumption) It may be easier to get newer features added to Pinepods (especially those that you or the community contributes and/or for server-related features) since the project is focused on just podcasts
• I’m not aware of a similar all-in-one podcast server + client service. As Pinepods matures, it can offer features/services that may not be easily included in the services you mentioned. For example, searching by transcript across all downloaded podcasts or summarizing/combining multiple podcasts (which may be helpful if you listen to multiple daily/weekly/monthly “news” podcasts of a similar topic).
• Supporting a newer project and open source community

The first two may not apply to you in particular, but I’m sure if you have other users that use the services you support then I’m sure they would appreciate having to learn/use a single app/interface for podcasts instead of having to learn one for searching/downloading (if they care about that at all), one for listening on mobile, one for listening on web, and another for managing their download/play sync.

Lots of good suggestions in this thread! A few additional ones that I don’t think I’ve seen yet:

• Testing/QA server (eg: test existing software’s major upgrades before upgrading your “production” environment, test new services without impacting your “production” environment, test new operating systems/virtualization software/etc.)
• Learn automation (eg: Terraform, Opentofu, Ansible, etc.) or horizontal scaling (eg: Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, etc.) to try improving future upgrades and/or high availability
• Media center PCs (eg: Kodi, LibreElec, OSMC, etc.) or gaming PCs for various TVs around your house to replace Apple TVs/Google TVs/etc. or gaming consoles
• Home Assistant

I recommend that you think hard and properly access your threat profile. You are likely going to have to pay with either your wallet (eg: some sort of company incorporation, lawyer fees, forwarding services, and other privacy protection services), your time (eg: using “inconvenient” services, managing separate accounts, etc.), or both. It can be draining (in more than one way) and take away some of the joy that you’re intending this to bring you if you do too much to protect yourself. On the other hand, if you do too little then you can overexpose yourself leading to pricey or dangerous situations.

At a minimum, I would recommend incorpating and making sure your name is not publicly tied to the company in any way. You will likely need a person/company/lawyer to be publicly listed as an agent of some sort for the company. You should be able to have someone do this for you for a small-medium sized fee. Once you have that, do everything in the company’s name and ideally with separate phone numbers, email addresses, online accounts, bank accounts, and physical addresses as anything tied directly to you.

Some of that is to protect yourself financially and legally, but there are some obvious privacy benefits as well. Anything beyond that should be dictated by your threat profile.

As always though, follow best practices when it comes to security! Use strong passwords and use multi-factor authentication when possible (or ideally, use passkeys). Don’t reuse passwords (and ideally, don’t reuse email addresses for multiple accounts). Avoid clicking links in messages when possible. Don’t open suspicious documents (especially if they are unexpected). Verify the authenticity of any new person/business you interact with (especially if they contact you first). Be vigilant of all forms of phishing attacks.

Another piece of advice (that you didn’t ask for, sorry!) - if the process of making art is the thing that brings you joy and the materials are not too expenses, then just focus on making the art without selling it (at least for a while). At worst, you will realize that maybe this isn’t as enjoyable as you thought it would be with the added benefit of not needing to deal with all the troubles of working through all the legal/financial/privacy protections. At best, if you decide to get serious about selling it then you’ll have a larger product inventory and better understanding of what you like making most. It may also help you understand what you should price everything at (assuming you’ve made some of the items in larger quantities).

Thanks for the response!

Sorry to hear about the frustrations regarsing F-Droid, but glad to hear it will at least be on IzzyOnDroid. Excited to check it out once it’s available on there!

Excited to see the app develop over time. I bet Pinepods will be able to meet all my podcasting needs sooner than I can imagine.

Thanks for the update! Really appreciate all of the work that has gone into this.

A few quick questions:

• Will the Android app be available on F-Droid? It looks like it should/will be, but I don’t see it on F-Droid at the moment.
• Is it possible to download episodes from a Pinepods server to a local device via a Pinepods client so the episodes can be stored on something externally, like a USB drive or old MP3 player? If so, can all/multiple episodes on the server for a podcast be downloaded without having to manually select each episode? The only download options that I have seen are for the server to download the episodes from the podcast’s source.

I believe Google plans to use Google Play Services to block side loaded apps. By default, GrapheneOS does not come with Google Play Services installed. I am not sure how things would work if the sandboxes version of Google Play Services that GrapheneOS provides is installed.

The issue about maintaining/updating GrapheneOS is a separate issue from side loading apps. That was due to Google shifting the development of Android to a closed source model and only open sourcing the final code. This limits the Grapheme team’s ability to anticipate changes and make any required adjustments until after the release of Android.

Not sure if this is what @[email protected] was referring to, but I found free-games-claimer from a quick search which seems similar and has a container image at ghcr.io/vogler/free-games-claimer.

I think that any guides you find for Gitea + Renovate should work still for Forgejo + Renovate.

I believe the process is:

• Create Forgejo instance
• Create a user for Renovate within Forgejo
• Using the CLI on your local machine (or another tool to complete this step), create an SSH public/private key for the Renovate user
• Log into Forgejo using the Renovate user and configure the previously created SSH keys and separately generate a Forgejo token
• Create a Renovate instance with settings for at least RENOVATE_GIT_PRIVATE_KEY (SSH private key value), RENOVATE_TOKEN (Forgejo token value), RENOVATE_PLATFORM (gitea), RENOVATE_ENDPOINT (Forgejo API base URL), and any other Renovate settings that you may find helpful/necessary to configure (eg: GITHUB_COM_TOKEN, RENOVATE_AUTODISCOVER, etc.)
• Depending on how you want things to work, you may need to give the Renovate Forgejo user access to individual repos

It is not clear that this is the app that will be used for the new watches. I imagine it will support the new RePebble watches, but I believe that app was intended for the original Pebble watches.

The thing that makes it so unclear to me is that this is a repo owned by the Rebble team, not the RePebble team. I do not know how much overlap there is between the two teams, but the RePebble team does not have any open source repos that I could find. Any mention of open source software by RePebble (including the OS) are links to repos owned by other teams, which is a little concerning.

I understand that the watch operating system is open source. However, it seems that the watch will connect to a companion smartphone app. Do you know if the app is a requirement and/or if the app will be open source?

If you know your VPN’s DNS server, you can change your local DNS so that it redirects your specified domains/subdomains to the appropriate, local IP address and all other requests would then use your VPN’s DNS.

If you don’t know your VPN provider’s DNS server information, you may be able to still do something similar to the above depending on your setup. Otherwise, you could run your own DNS resolver or use a different DNS provider. I guess doing so could potentially be used to further fingerprint you, but the concern about “DNS fingerprinting” is moreso DNS leaks where your DNS queries are accessible to unintended parties due to improper configuration.

I believe the only other option would be to change your hosts file on each device you want to use to connect to your services, which is probably not the best approach and may be challenging/impossible for certain devices.

Also, unless you setup the self signed certs to be trusted on a network/domain level (or again on each individual device), you will likely get a warning/error about the self signed certs when accessing your services. You may need to work through this process each time the certs renew.

I recommend buying a domain if you do not already have one and finding a service that provides wildcard certification challenges. This would allow you to setup a valid, trusted certificate that you could reuse for all of your services. The only thing that you would need to provide is an email address (can be any email address) and your domain name (in addition to other information that may be required to setup an account at the cert provider, but you may already have an account there as it could be the domain name registrar or other services like VPS providers, Cloudflare, etc.). Since it is a wildcard cert, each subdomain does not need to be set publicly and if you only use the domain within your network, the domain does not need to be publicly associated with any IP address.

If you do go forward with that approach, you could use the wildcard cert directly within NginxProxyManager or other reverse proxies. They will also automatically update/maintain the cert for you.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution and there likely isn’t a solution that works for everyone even in specific situations due to different threat models. Purchasing and using a custom domain is often listed as a good practice for maintaining a person’s privacy. However, it can be even more detrimental to a person’s privacy than just using a trusted email masking/forwarding service and trusted email provider. For example:

• The domain is purchased without WHOIS protection (or without using non-personal information) or the WHOIS protection is not renewed
• The email server is hosted on hardware that can be linked to other services that identify the individual (eg: the email is self hosted using a home IP address)
• A self hosted email server is configured in a way that leaks information or is configured insecurely
• The email domain is used by only one person, which enables agencies to link each individual, unique email address back to that individual and create an aggregated profile across various accounts/services
• If the domain/DNS is not configured properly (or if the domain is not renewed), then the domain (and thus the email accounts) can be hijacked, which could lead to any additional accounts/services that are still using the domain vulnerable to a take over attack
• The email server is hosted by a privacy invasive company/service
• The person assumes that all emails are private since they use a custom domain on a trusted email provider (or self hosted email server), but continue to send emails containing sensitive information to email accounts running privacy invasive email services (eg: Gmail)

Please note that I am not saying that this is not a good option, but I just wanted to note some of the things that should be considered if a person decides to use a custom email domain to improve their digital privacy.