Yesterday my Windows machine went black screen and shut down on its own. It is Microslop, so I cannot expect more from it. I guess a recent bad update caused it.

But surprisingly, when I turn on my machine, Brave settings went completely default as if it installed as new. The interesting part is that history and bookmarks are kept as they are, and even the previous tabs as well. But all the settings and sync are gone. Thankfully I logged in to it on my Android and got things from there.

But if I had not logged in and Brave had not kept bookmarks, I would have been done for. My bookmark setup from two years ago would have pissed me off if I hadn't found it. After seeing this, I am moving my primary browsing away from Brave. Last week I also found that the Android version is not blocking all ads even with aggressive mode on and filters updated. My main use case was no ads, which is why I switched to Brave 4 years ago.

Now it looks like the golden era is fading away. After MV2, Brave is definitely still a solid Chromium option. But I cannot rely on Brave alone, because I feel they are trying to do multiple things at the same time with a single piece of software. Now it's more like an ecosystem OS than a simple browser to me.

I'm looking for a lightweight Firefox fork. I'm currently using Floorp. Is Zen lightweight? My device has 8GB RAM.

Edit: It crashed when I was using Signal & Spotify app simultaneously, no browser was running background. I'm yet to figure out what caused it, maybe a software update.

Yesterday my Windows machine went black screen and shut down on its own. It is Microslop, so I cannot expect more from it. I guess a recent bad update caused it.

But surprisingly, when I turn on my machine, Brave settings went completely default as if it installed as new. The interesting part is that history and bookmarks are kept as they are, and even the previous tabs as well. But all the settings and sync are gone.

Thankfully I logged in to it on my Android so got things from there. But if I had not logged in and Brave had not kept bookmarks, I would have been done for. My bookmark setup from two years ago would have pissed me off if I hadn't found it.

After seeing this, I am moving my primary browsing away from Brave. Because last week I also found that the Android version is not blocking all ads even with aggressive mode on and filters updated. My main use case was no ads, which is why I switched to Brave 4 years ago. Now it looks like the golden era is fading away.

After MV2, Brave is definitely still a solid Chromium option. But I cannot rely on Brave alone, because I feel they are trying to do multiple things at the same time with a single piece of software. Now it's more like an ecosystem OS than a simple browser to me.

And yes, I have Floorp and Edge installed on the machine and they are completely fine, the same as all other apps. Only Brave got wiped out.

After enshittifying WhatsApp with advertisements, they've now introduced WhatsApp Plus.

I used to think companies used Gmail for spamming since they'd send emails every other day, so I'd eventually unsubscribe. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. But the good thing was I could ignore them completely, since they were just emails. Email isn't a major communication medium in India; we have WhatsApp and text messages for that. We even had an Indian made product for it, Hike Messenger.

But in the last year or two, I've noticed I get more spam on WhatsApp than on Gmail itself. Clicking "Stop" sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. They'll send you ads anyway, which is very frustrating.

Also, your number is exposed on WhatsApp by default. Anyone can type a random number and text you. That's how companies find you and spam you even if you never registered with them. On Signal, there's a toggle to turn that off.

So, like everyone else, I tried switching and installed Signal. But as expected, there are maybe three or four people on it at most; for some contacts, there's zero. A communication app with zero members is a complete waste. And since Signal is a nonprofit, it doesn't promote itself like WhatsApp does, so only a niche group of people use it.

So here's a workaround: we're making an open Signal group for our community members. We already have a Discord server, but very little conversation happens there. And since Telegram is also facing a ban, we're avoiding it altogether.

Before joining, make sure you follow these rules:

• Hide your phone number from unknowns, but not from contacts: set "Who can see my number" to Nobody, and "Who can find me by number" to Contacts. This way your contacts can find you on Signal, but others can't. Alternatively, set both to "Nobody" and just share your profile link with others to connect. No worries.
• Since it's an open group, unwanted people may sometimes DM you. We can't prevent that, but we can ban them from the group itself, so please be aware of that. If you follow the privacy rule above, they won't be able to see your number anyway.
• This group is only for digital privacy discussions: no illegal content, no promotions, and no posts about circumventing government orders or bans.
• We have multiple admins, so reports get actioned quickly instead of sitting pending.
• These rules are pinned inside the group itself, so everyone agrees to them before joining the conversation.
• Anyone who violates the rules will be strictly banned, and we will rotate the group link when needed.

This is our way of creating a use case for Signal, since we support the open source movement. We don't expect a huge shift, but if you're struggling to find anyone to talk to on Signal yet still want to use it, join our conversation. Build the habit, and encourage others to join too. Our privacy is in our own hands.

Megatech Photos is shutting down its business on August 14th, 2026. Apparently, 2 days ago, degoogle mods banned the Megatech Photos owner just because they were spamming users in DMs. Marketing is a different thing, and spamming is a very different thing. There are many small cloud storage or email services we have not heard of, but they are trying their best to prove themselves. They earn community trust even if they are niche.

But someone just tried to test their luck, opened a business, and is shutting it down as if their hobby wasn't working out. This makes the real users super frustrated and confused because they need to jump to another service. And this is the reason why people do not want to switch from Google itself.

So choose wisely when jumping from Google so that you do not have to come back. Imagine spending a whole month setting up Google Takeout to another service, and after a year it goes down and you need to jump to another. I have never invested in this, and I have no intention to either. But it is a great lesson that without a vision from the owner, a product goes nowhere.

In the end, it is all about TRUST.

Check check mic check.

Check check app check.

A new report from Proton analyzed over 54,000 user profiles to see how much Google advertisers pay to reach different people. The results show a huge gap.

The average American generates about $1,605 in ad value per year. But this number changes a lot based on who you are.

The biggest difference:

• A 35 to 44 year old man in Bozeman MT with no kids using a desktop computer and making corporate searches is worth an estimated $17,929 per year.
• An 18 to 24 year old father in Fort Smith AR using an Android phone with low value searches is worth only $31 per year.

That is a 577 times difference for the same free service.

What makes you valuable?

• Children: People without kids are worth 17% more. Parents get shown ads for minivans and preschools which pay less than ads for wealth management or software.
• Device: Desktop users are worth 5 times more than Android users. iPhone users are worth almost 3 times more. Advertisers think desktop means you are at work and ready to buy.
• Age: Your value peaks between 35 and 44 years old. It drops after that as you get shown ads for Medicare and retirement.
• Location: Cities with more lawyers and financial planners bidding for clicks have higher values. Bozeman MT and Edmond OK are the top markets. Rust Belt cities are at the bottom.

The big picture

Over 10 years the average person is worth $16,050 to Google. The richest profiles could be worth $180,000.

This is why Google wants to keep you locked into their ecosystem. They collect your data to sell access to your attention.

The report suggests the only way to stop this is to use services that do not track you like Proton Mail. If they cannot see your data they cannot sell it.

The full report is here: Source.

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I just found this blog and wanted to share it.

Blog : Proton

You can now connect and use your Gmail account directly inside Proton Mail!

This new feature lets you read and send emails from your Gmail address right from your secure Proton inbox. By doing this, Proton automatically strips away the trackers, ads, and spam that usually follow you around on Google's apps. It’s the perfect, stress free way to protect your data and transition to a private inbox at your own pace.

1. 12 Months free
2. Till 31st May 2026
3. No Credit Card required
4. Only new registration (or a new email)

Not the best, but worth trying as a free trial.

This is the fundamental shift in the security model of a password manager. A password manager's primary job is to be an impenetrable vault. By introducing a mechanism that allows an external agent to 'log in' on your behalf, even with scoped tokens, you're effectively adding a new attack surface.

If an AI agent is tricked via prompt injection or phishing, the token logic could be exploited to hand over credentials you never intended to share. Even if you don't enable the feature, the mere existence of this code in the vault increases the risk profile for everyone.

For users like me who prioritize absolute security over automation, the safest path is a tool that doesn't try to be an AI gateway. Until there are independent audits proving that prompt injection can't bypass these tokens, you should be sticking to the traditional 'vault-only' models like Bitwarden, 1Password, Roboform etc.

Source

If you cannot entirely wipe google from your daily life, just replace one of them for a month.

Also, never use "Sign up with Google", if you have enough brain. Because like this guy, if you loose your Google account, you'll loose all linked to it.

Apple is currently rolling out new health focused firmware updates for users in India.

The two primary additions include:

• Sleep Apnea Monitoring: The Apple Watch will track breathing disturbances during sleep to help identify signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea.
• Hearing Health Features: AirPods are receiving a clinical grade hearing test alongside related hearing assistance functionalities.

The updates bring features that were previously awaiting regulatory clearance to compatible devices.

Read: Official | News

GitHub is investigating unauthorized access to its internal repositories after a threat actor called TeamPCP listed what they claim is GitHub's source code for sale on a cybercrime forum, asking $50k for around 4,000 repos.

This is part of a broader ongoing worm campaign that has already compromised several popular PyPI packages. The malware steals cloud credentials, spreads across AWS and Kubernetes environments, and the number of affected packages is expected to grow.

GitHub says there's no evidence of customer data being impacted yet, but if you're pulling packages from PyPI in your pipelines it's probably worth checking what's been flagged.

Full Story.

Source

A researcher basically found that anyone can send a malicious file to Gmail without getting flagged or marked as red. If they upload the file to Google Drive and send it as an attachment, Gmail doesn't mark that file as malicious.

And Google Drive only marks files as malicious if they are copyrighted or CSAM. Google Drive doesn't scan files for Gmail safety.

So don't randomly open attachments here and there, recheck non-trusted ones carefully.