Forwarded from Middle East Spectator — MES
— 🇮🇷 More images of the funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei, whom the West told you is hated by Iranians
@Middle_East_Spectator
@Middle_East_Spectator
Forwarded from The Cradle
‘There will be blood’: Millions mourn Khamenei, demand vengeance during historic funeral procession
Top officials were seen at the procession, including the IRGC Quds Force chief and Iran’s president and foreign minister
Top officials were seen at the procession, including the IRGC Quds Force chief and Iran’s president and foreign minister
Forwarded from Ukraine Watch
The energy crisis in Cuba has led to record power outages in recent days. The day before, up to 72% of the country was left without electricity simultaneously during peak hours.
#News #Politics #Cuba #USA
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Media is too big
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Age Verification Is Inescapable: The Truth About 'Alternatives' | Tech,Privacy News - Explained
When Discord demanded facial scans, searches for alternatives jumped 10,000% overnight. People fled to Matrix, Mastodon, and Bluesky. Then Matrix implemented age verification.
This video looks at two parallel escape routes — decentralised messaging and alternative social media — and asks whether they're still open. From the Discord exodus to the EU's new cross-platform identity infrastructure launching this month, the pattern is consistent:
the exits close the moment they become visible.
• Matrix, Element & Revolt — what the messaging alternatives actually offer
• The Fediverse — Mastodon
• when Matrix became the go-to Discord alternative
• How GDPR already reached individual #Mastodon instance admins
• The #EU's centralised #AgeVerification app (July 2026) — what it really is
• Why the #OnlineSafetyAct and #DSA extend jurisdiction beyond borders
• Whether any identity-free infrastructure can survive at scale
When Discord demanded facial scans, searches for alternatives jumped 10,000% overnight. People fled to Matrix, Mastodon, and Bluesky. Then Matrix implemented age verification.
This video looks at two parallel escape routes — decentralised messaging and alternative social media — and asks whether they're still open. From the Discord exodus to the EU's new cross-platform identity infrastructure launching this month, the pattern is consistent:
the exits close the moment they become visible.
• Matrix, Element & Revolt — what the messaging alternatives actually offer
• The Fediverse — Mastodon
• when Matrix became the go-to Discord alternative
• How GDPR already reached individual #Mastodon instance admins
• The #EU's centralised #AgeVerification app (July 2026) — what it really is
• Why the #OnlineSafetyAct and #DSA extend jurisdiction beyond borders
• Whether any identity-free infrastructure can survive at scale
Two and a Half Centuries of War – A Timeline | Consortium News
The wars of the United States of America dating from its independence, conquest of much of the North American continent, its overseas territories and indirect rule in a mad quest for global dominance.
The British Empire began to war against the native population in 1586. Britain exterminated, by direct killings, from 1586–1776 in the range of 20,000–100,000+, concentrated in major conflicts like the Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and repeated wars with Powhatan and other tribes. This does not include indirect deaths from disease.
@CIJ_Consortium_News
#BritishEmpire #USEmpire #Genocide
The wars of the United States of America dating from its independence, conquest of much of the North American continent, its overseas territories and indirect rule in a mad quest for global dominance.
The British Empire began to war against the native population in 1586. Britain exterminated, by direct killings, from 1586–1776 in the range of 20,000–100,000+, concentrated in major conflicts like the Pequot War, King Philip’s War, and repeated wars with Powhatan and other tribes. This does not include indirect deaths from disease.
@CIJ_Consortium_News
#BritishEmpire #USEmpire #Genocide
Media is too big
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Woman in Denver is forced to prove her innocence after police used #Flock cameras to accuse her of theft
"We have cameras everywhere in that town and you cannot get a breath of fresh air without us knowing"
When police are admitting this out loud, it's time to admit the cage isn’t coming, we're already inside it. – Source
@Revelations_and_Rabbit_Holes
"We have cameras everywhere in that town and you cannot get a breath of fresh air without us knowing"
When police are admitting this out loud, it's time to admit the cage isn’t coming, we're already inside it. – Source
@Revelations_and_Rabbit_Holes
Media is too big
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His #Windows PC Testified Against Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOoP4BSATJs
#why #microslop #cybersecurity #privacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOoP4BSATJs
#why #microslop #cybersecurity #privacy
#Debian Urgently Seeks Volunteers After Data Protection Team Resigns
https://linuxiac.com/debian-urgently-seeks-volunteers-after-data-protection-team-resigns/
ahah what privacy?? the only privacy debian has is the one it violates, pretty much since 2018, to serve the interest of corporate owned web browsers with the /etc/machine-id implemented by dbus and systemd
well done resigning, what took so long
https://m.slashdot.org/story/364072
context
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20190308.124740.2b7329de.en.html
this is how debian ripped its users of their privacy all this time
and then they even call it "software in the public interest"
https://linuxiac.com/debian-urgently-seeks-volunteers-after-data-protection-team-resigns/
ahah what privacy?? the only privacy debian has is the one it violates, pretty much since 2018, to serve the interest of corporate owned web browsers with the /etc/machine-id implemented by dbus and systemd
well done resigning, what took so long
https://m.slashdot.org/story/364072
context
https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20190308.124740.2b7329de.en.html
this is how debian ripped its users of their privacy all this time
and then they even call it "software in the public interest"
Linuxiac
Debian Urgently Seeks Volunteers After Data Protection Team Resigns
Debian seeks contributors interested in privacy to restore its Data Protection Team after all members stepped back, shifting responsibilities temporarily to the project leader.
#Linux devices have a unique identifier called machine-id. Here is how to change it.
Posted on February 24, 2021
What is a machine-id, and why should you randomize it? From the machine-id man pages, it is defined as:
In an effort to promote privacy, having a unique and unchanging identifier tied to your device seems like the wrong approach. It’s quite possible that poorly coded or even maliciously coded software could fetch this ID from your system. Let’s make sure that even if that does happen, that the value is constantly changing so that your device can not be uniquely identified as your device.
This is an incredibly simple and quick adjustment to your default Linux system. What we’re doing is showing you how to either adjust this value manually by hand, or by running a cronjob to change this value every minute with a new, randomized value.
Before we begin, a disclaimer: We’ve tested this on our own work desktops and development environments and I’ve tested it on my daily driver desktop. We have not found that anything has ‘broken’ because of this, but this is untested in many environments and may not be suitable for your use. It’s always reversible if you later wish to continue with a single, uniquely identifying ID attached to your device(s).
Debian / Ubuntu systems
To check your machine-id, open up your terminal and enter the following:
The output should look a little something like this:
You’ll note that this value is also stored in /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and that a symlink between the two exist. Any change to one file, will be reflected in the other.
If you reboot your device, you’ll notice that this value remains unchanged. So, let’s change it ourselves!
Method 1: Manually.
Method 2 is automatically, every minute, as ran by a cron-job. If you don’t want to fully commit to that, you can change your machine-id by hand manually whenever you feel like it.
Step 1, remove the old machine-id file.
Step 2, recreate the machine-id file.
Step 3, confirm that /etc/machine-id (and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id) now show a new value, different from the original.
That’s it! You should see two lines in your output with matching IDs that differ from the original machine-id you had in the beginning.
You’ve changed your device’s uniquely identifying machine-id. This change will survive device reboots and will remain the same until you create a new one.
Method 2: Changing every 1 minute, automatically.
If the above didn’t satisfy your needs, than feel free to automate the creation of a new machine-id by creating a cronjob entry that will generate a new ID every minute.
Step 1, open up your crontab file.
Step 2, enter at the bottom of the file the following:
Save and Exit.
Step 3, wait a minute and confirm that your machine-id value has changed:
You should see two new matching values, that differs from the original value you had at the start. Wait a minute and run the step 3 command again, and you’ll see that these values have changed.
Posted on February 24, 2021
What is a machine-id, and why should you randomize it? From the machine-id man pages, it is defined as:
This ID uniquely identifies the host. It should be considered “confidential”, and must not be exposed in untrusted environments, in particular on the network. If a stable unique identifier that is tied to the machine is needed for some application, the machine ID or any part of it must not be used directly.
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html
In an effort to promote privacy, having a unique and unchanging identifier tied to your device seems like the wrong approach. It’s quite possible that poorly coded or even maliciously coded software could fetch this ID from your system. Let’s make sure that even if that does happen, that the value is constantly changing so that your device can not be uniquely identified as your device.
This is an incredibly simple and quick adjustment to your default Linux system. What we’re doing is showing you how to either adjust this value manually by hand, or by running a cronjob to change this value every minute with a new, randomized value.
Before we begin, a disclaimer: We’ve tested this on our own work desktops and development environments and I’ve tested it on my daily driver desktop. We have not found that anything has ‘broken’ because of this, but this is untested in many environments and may not be suitable for your use. It’s always reversible if you later wish to continue with a single, uniquely identifying ID attached to your device(s).
Debian / Ubuntu systems
To check your machine-id, open up your terminal and enter the following:
cat /etc/machine-id The output should look a little something like this:
a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd You’ll note that this value is also stored in /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and that a symlink between the two exist. Any change to one file, will be reflected in the other.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd If you reboot your device, you’ll notice that this value remains unchanged. So, let’s change it ourselves!
Method 1: Manually.
Method 2 is automatically, every minute, as ran by a cron-job. If you don’t want to fully commit to that, you can change your machine-id by hand manually whenever you feel like it.
Step 1, remove the old machine-id file.
sudo rm /etc/machine-id Step 2, recreate the machine-id file.
sudo systemd-machine-id-setup Step 3, confirm that /etc/machine-id (and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id) now show a new value, different from the original.
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id That’s it! You should see two lines in your output with matching IDs that differ from the original machine-id you had in the beginning.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a You’ve changed your device’s uniquely identifying machine-id. This change will survive device reboots and will remain the same until you create a new one.
Method 2: Changing every 1 minute, automatically.
If the above didn’t satisfy your needs, than feel free to automate the creation of a new machine-id by creating a cronjob entry that will generate a new ID every minute.
Step 1, open up your crontab file.
sudo crontab -e Step 2, enter at the bottom of the file the following:
*/1 * * * * sudo rm /etc/machine-id && sudo systemd-machine-id-setup Save and Exit.
Step 3, wait a minute and confirm that your machine-id value has changed:
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id You should see two new matching values, that differs from the original value you had at the start. Wait a minute and run the step 3 command again, and you’ll see that these values have changed.
You’ll see that the command, when ran a minute or more apart, will produce new values now.
In closing
Uniquely identifying ID’s are rarely a good thing when you take privacy into consideration, and although these items have their purpose in limited use cases it doesn’t appear that generating a new unique ID every minute has any downsides.
What do you think? Is this a pointless privacy practice or a needed, but often overlooked part in maintaining privacy in the modern age? Let us know in the comments below.
Additional Thoughts
After publishing this article, we received some feedback that I’d like to touch base on here.
Testing the high privacy, pro-anonymity Tails-OS shows that you receive a new machine-id after every reboot. Props to Tails-OS!
Testing the privacy and anonymity promoting Whonix-OS shows that they do not issue a new machine-ID after every reboot.
A commenter on a [RAMBLE] post mentions that MXLinux does not use systemd, and thus does not use a machine-id.
Here is a list of Linux operating systems that do not use systemd. (And will not have a machine-id)
Yes, there are other uniquely identifying aspects on all systems. From device serial numbers to MAC addresses. The purpose of this post was to discuss a lesser discussed unique identifer: machine-id.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0 In closing
Uniquely identifying ID’s are rarely a good thing when you take privacy into consideration, and although these items have their purpose in limited use cases it doesn’t appear that generating a new unique ID every minute has any downsides.
What do you think? Is this a pointless privacy practice or a needed, but often overlooked part in maintaining privacy in the modern age? Let us know in the comments below.
Additional Thoughts
After publishing this article, we received some feedback that I’d like to touch base on here.
Testing the high privacy, pro-anonymity Tails-OS shows that you receive a new machine-id after every reboot. Props to Tails-OS!
Testing the privacy and anonymity promoting Whonix-OS shows that they do not issue a new machine-ID after every reboot.
A commenter on a [RAMBLE] post mentions that MXLinux does not use systemd, and thus does not use a machine-id.
Here is a list of Linux operating systems that do not use systemd. (And will not have a machine-id)
Yes, there are other uniquely identifying aspects on all systems. From device serial numbers to MAC addresses. The purpose of this post was to discuss a lesser discussed unique identifer: machine-id.