Monique Barrow

@moniquebarrow_
24 Followers
53 Following
189 Posts
Writer | Gamer | Introvert | Privacy Enthusiast
Website: monique-barrow.com
🌐 Websitehttps://monique-barrow.com/
📧 Privacy Newsletterhttps://theprivacycloud.substack.com/
❤️ Support Mehttps://monique-barrow.com/support-me/

So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully controlled internet.

The age verification rush must be slowed down, and politicians need to recognize the consequences of different types of legislation and systems.

Read more on https://mullvad.net/blog/age-verification-for-social-media-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-a-free-internet

Age verification for social media – the beginning of the end for a free internet?

So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully government controlled internet.

Mullvad VPN

"US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows"
"GitHub faces a fight for its survival at Microsoft"
"Concerns Mount That EU Will Demand Age Verification for VPNs"
"Cities Are Covering Flock Cameras With Trash Bags"
"A new way to fund internet freedom"

Check out the latest monthly news roundup for the full list of headlines.

https://theprivacycloud.substack.com/p/may-2026-privacy-news-roundup

#privacy #security #tech #surveillance #AI

May 2026 Privacy News Roundup

News

The Privacy Cloud 🔐☁️

Subscribe to The Privacy Cloud, a free bi-weekly newsletter that discusses how to protect your online privacy. Posts are published on Wednesdays, and at the end of each month, I send out a roundup of privacy-related news that I find worth reading.

https://theprivacycloud.substack.com/

#privacy #newsletter

The Privacy Cloud 🔐☁️ | Monique Barrow | Substack

A bi-weekly newsletter about privacy and how to better protect it. Click to read The Privacy Cloud 🔐☁️, by Monique Barrow, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

We have 100 days to stop Google from implementing the Android Developer Verification program, which demands developers verify themselves before they can develop Android apps.

Keep Android Open is a campaign being raised that calls for Google to drop the verification program. Their open letter has 71 signatures from prominent privacy organizations/companies.

To learn more about the initiative and what you can do, check out their website.

https://keepandroidopen.org/

#google #android

Keep Android Open

Your phone is about to stop being yours. In September 2026, Google will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with them.

@novet Zulip might work for you. It can be self-hosted and I believe even the Mastodon team was migrating to them from Discord.

I recommend taking a look at AlternativeTo's page that I have threaded and seeing the alternatives they have listed. You can even put on some filters to find features you need.

https://zulip.com/

Zulip — organized team chat

Zulip is an organized team chat app for distributed teams of all sizes.

Zulip
Looking to leave Discord for a more private alternative? Check out AlternativeTo’s page: https://alternativeto.net/software/discord-app/
Best Discord Alternatives: Top Group Chat Apps in 2026

The best Discord alternatives are Stoat Chat, Signal and Telegram. Our crowd-sourced lists contains more than 100 apps similar to Discord for Web-based, Android, iPhone, Windows and more.

AlternativeTo

Discord now has end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls, but not DMs. Interesting timing since in a few months, Discord will roll out their global age verification measures for a second time (originally meant for March 2026, it’s now set for the second half of 2026).

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/discord-calls-finally-get-end-to-end-encryption-but-your-dms-didnt-make-the-cut/

#discord #privacy

Discord calls finally get end-to-end encryption, but your DMs didn’t make the cut 

Discord's multi-year encryption project is done. Every call is now E2EE by default across consoles, mobile, and browsers. However, there’s a catch that you might want to know.

Digital Trends

Android users: You should check out Molly, a Signal fork that aims to improve the official Signal app.

https://theprivacycloud.substack.com/p/what-is-molly

#privacy #security

What is Molly?

Signal gets an upgrade

The Privacy Cloud 🔐☁️
Canada’s C-22 bill is a surveillance overreach that paves the way to backdoor encrypted communications of users around the world. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/canadas-bill-c-22-repackaged-version-last-years-surveillance-nightmare
Canada’s Bill C-22 Is a Repackaged Version of Last Year’s Surveillance Nightmare

Last year, the Canadian government pushed Bill C-2, which would erode Canadian digital rights in the name of “border security.” The bill was so bad it didn’t even make it to committee because of the backlash from the privacy community. Now, the spring’s worst sequel, Bill C-22, aka The Lawful Access Act, is trying it again.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
PSA: please update Tails with the latest release. It is an emergency release to fix a critical security vulnerability in the Linux kernel, as well as security vulnerabilities in Tor Browser and in the Tor client. https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-7_7_3/
New Release: Tails 7.7.3 | Tor Project

This release is an emergency release to fix a critical security vulnerability in the Linux kernel, as well as security vulnerabilities in Tor Browser and in the Tor client.