Tech-Illiterate people seem to be absolute idiots when it comes to ComSec, and TechLiterates groom them into ignorance, making it even worse!

• Regardless if AIM, ICQ, Sky ECC, EncroChat, ANØM, Skype, WhatsApp or Signal.

All you guys literally providing trivial means to track and trace users should be ashamed!

• There was no "legitimate reason" to demand PII like a phone number in 2010, there certainly ain't one in 2026!

Use XMPP+OMEMO and/or PGP/MIME and stop being unofficial informants for the Americal Stasi, dipshits!

• Or does anyone believe that Signal will cover your asses? They can't even pay their bills, decentralize and get off AWS!

#rant #venting #sarcasm #commentary #TechIlliterates #TechIlliteracy #TechLiterates #TechIlliterates #AIM #ICQ #SkyECC #EncroChat #ANØM #Skype #WhatsApp #Signal #LegitimateInterest #KYC #privacy #PII #tracking #PhoneNumber #PhoneNumbers #XMPP #OMEMO #PGP #NSA #AmericanStasi #UnofficialInformant #Stasi #Privacy #Encryption #E2EE #SelfCustody #aws #unsustainable

9to5 Google: Google accounts no longer get 15GB of free storage, only 5GB until you link a phone number. “Google has made a notable change to its account storage policy, limiting the usual 15GB of free storage only to accounts that are verified with a phone number.”

MIT Technology Review: AI chatbots are giving out people’s real phone numbers. “In March, a software developer in Israel was contacted on WhatsApp after Google’s chatbot Gemini provided incorrect customer service instructions that included his number. And in April, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington was messing around on Gemini and got it to cough up her colleague’s personal […]

Yes please! (And thanks to @gruber for pointing this out.)

“Apple should update the formatting … and turn phone numbers with the area code in parentheses into the 123-555-1234 format. It’s only because area codes used to be optional that they were put in parentheses. Given that 7-digit dialing is never going to return, we should abolish the parentheses too.”

#APStyleGuide #PhoneNumbers #Formatting #Apple #AppleContacts

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/16/how-to-format-10-digit-phone-numbers

Radio New Zealand: Timaru cafe inundated with calls after AI tool lists phone number for hospital . “Google’s Gemini Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool had been offering up the phone number for Sopheze Coffee Lounge when people searched for Timaru Hospital. Sopheze Coffee Lounge manager Vanessa Keen said the problem started about six weeks ago.” Good grief.

The use of #NoReply addresses ( and #ShortCodes instead of #PhoneNumbers ) should be illegal as in:
- Lifetime ban for using Computers and Phones
- Life no less than 25 years of jail

If you - as a business or organization - can send me a message, you owe me the ability to reply to you in the same way.
- If you can't even be assed to add a "reply-to" address, I consider you a spammer.

#rant #venting #sarcasm #JobSearch #eMail #Phone #NoReplyAddress

Substack Newsletter Platform Data Breach Saw Phone Numbers, Emails Exposed
https://www.pcmag.com/news/substack-newsletter-platform-data-breach-saw-phone-numbers-emails-exposed

#Infosec #Security #Cybersecurity #CeptBiro #Substack #DataBreach #PhoneNumbers #Emails

#PaneraBread #DataBreach

What Happened
In January 2026, PANERA BREAD suffered a data breach that exposed 14M records. After an attempted #extortion failed, the attackers published the data publicly, which included 5.1M unique #emailaddresses along with associated account information such as names, #phonenumbers and physical #addresses. Panera Bread subsequently confirmed that "the #data involved is contact information" and that authorities were notified.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/PaneraBread