Going on a Data Diet

The world wide web, as we know it today, has been around for over 30 years. In that time, most of us have created many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of online accounts. How many of those accounts are still alive somewhere? What data do they hold? And how good are the passwords you used? Today we're going to start on the path to finding all those accounts which could drastically improve our privacy and security.

In the news: millions of Dell laptops have critical security flaws you need to patch now; Facebook may be secretly scanning your phone's images; National Public Data is back and you should delete your data; data brokers are flouting privacy laws; Ionic 5 owners in the UK will have to pay for a security fix; Flipper Zero devices are being (wrongly) blamed for auto thefts; the US Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect; data brokers are hiding their opt-out pages; app TeaOnHer exposed users' data; UK backs down from Apple backdoor demand; and now is the time for EU residents to speak out against Chat Control.

Article Links

Millions of Dell laptops hit by ‘critical’ security vulnerability https://www.pcworld.com/article/2870014/millions-of-dell-laptops-hit-by-critical-security-vulnerability.html

Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll - how to check and turn it off https://www.zdnet.com/article/meta-might-be-secretly-scanning-your-phones-camera-roll-how-to-check-and-turn-it-off/

You Should Remove Your Info From the Rebooted National Public Data Site https://lifehacker.com/tech/remove-your-info-from-rebooted-national-public-data-site

Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law. We Deserve Better. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/08/data-brokers-are-ignoring-privacy-law-we-deserve-better

Hyundai wants Ioniq 5 owners to pay to fix a keyless entry security hole https://www.theverge.com/news/757205/hyundai-ioniq-5-security-upgrade-fix-game-boy-device-attacks

Can Flipper Zero really steal your car? (Spoiler: NO) https://blog.flipper.net/can-flipper-zero-steal-your-car/

Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect https://www.npr.org/2025/08/14/nx-s1-5482925/scotus-netchoice

Data Brokers Are Hiding Their Opt-Out Pages From Google Search https://www.wired.com/story/data-brokers-hiding-opt-out-pages-google-search/

How we found TeaOnHer spilling users' driver's licenses in less than 10 minutes | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/13/how-we-found-teaonher-spilling-users-drivers-licenses-in-less-than-10-minutes/

UK blinks, backs down from its Apple backdoor encryption demand https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/08/19/uk-blinks-backs-down-from-its-apple-backdoor-encryption-demand

Worried about Chat Control? This website can help you get your say https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/worried-about-chat-control-this-website-can-help-you-get-your-say

Tip of the Week: Data Diet Introduction: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/data-diet-introduction/ 

Further Info

Cory Doctorow on age verification: https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/14/bellovin/#wont-someone-think-of-the-cryptographers 

Fight EU’s Chat Control: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/ 

My book: https://fdsd.me/book 

My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 

Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 

Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch 

Table of Contents

0:00:00: Intro

0:01:37: News preview

0:05:00: Millions of Dell laptops hit by ‘critical’ security vulnerability

0:06:44: Meta might be secretly scanning your phone's camera roll

0:12:00: You Should Remove Your Info From National Public Data

0:15:39: Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law

0:19:06: Hyundai wants Ioniq 5 owners to pay for security fix

0:22:43: Can Flipper Zero really steal your car? (No.)

0:30:38: Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect

0:34:35: Data Brokers Are Hiding Their Opt-Out Pages

0:43:35: We found TeaOnHer spilling users' info in less than 10 minutes

0:49:17: UK backs down from its Apple backdoor demand

0:53:38: Having your say about Chat Control

0:58:41: Tip of the Week: Data Diet, Intro

1:02:52: Merlin's Musings preview

1:04:21: Looking ahead