Security

3.5 Billion Accounts: Complete WhatsApp Directory Retrieved and Evaluated

Vienna researchers retrieved all WhatsApp numbers. The 3.5 billion profiles represent the largest data leak in history—and it

Meta/Facebook is so bad at security that one starts to suspect if it's intentional. View quoted note →

Whatsapp continues its degeneration. In the latest pain-point, it now refuses to let me share anything until I give it permission to access my Contacts. Like that's going to work!

The moon

A request to the Muslim authors here (e.g., @alp @Wes Al-Dhaher): Please see if there is a way to make your work available in digital formats. Paper-only format is not a viable option for someone in e.g., Pakistan, where shipping would cost more than the book itself.

A bank in India has sent me a bank statement email (meant to be sent to their customer). Ignore that they sent potentially sensitive information to a stranger. The statement pdf is password protected. And the email says the password is first 4 letters of his name and last 4 digits of the account number. Both the name and account number are given in the email. Q. So what did the password achieve? A. Bank grade security!

Going all in on cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, and others) is a good ideal. The path to it is not as straight forward. The traditional systems are designed to lock you in. For example, amy large purchase (house, car, etc) is likely goinh through a conversion to fiat because most sellers don't accept cryptocurrency. Your child's college would probably require fiat for fee payment. Given, how volatile the fiat vs cryptocurrency market is, it will keep aa significant population away from converting their life savings.

"When you argue with him, you make him feel that you are at the same level. Don’t!" This is a great piece of advice when supervising a bullshitter. I have wasted time and energy whenever I have ignored it. Short, authoritative messaging works best.

Whatsapp on the web browser encourages to download the app, making disingenous claims that the app is faster and as if it is impossible to do such calls within the browser. Most probably the "app" is the same code that runs in a browser but wrapped within electron. And by being able to run outside of the browser's sandbox (being an app), it can access more of your system and gather more personal information.

@YakiHonne doesn't show bookmarks?

Cardano/ADA is one of the two most academically sound cryptocurrencies (the other being Algorand). Calling it a shitcoin is ignorant. There is nothing "Islamic" about cardano. Calling it (or any cryptocurrency) Islamic is equally ignorant.

Now using Jumble on desktop and YakiHonne on Android. The good news is that zaps work (for the first time). View quoted note →

There is an opportunity here for Pakistan, and other markets where Amazon has no presence, to come up with its own alternatives. Build a more transparent and ethical platfom.

the Guardian

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittificati...

Dawn

Taliban internet cut sparks Afghanistan telecoms blackout

“We are blind without phones and internet,” says one shopkeeper in Kabul.

This has nothing to do with Islam or Sharia.