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Not to get too much off topic of the thread, but the risk of exploiting the X11 display system on a desktop Linux OS is extremely unlikely. You would have to install some kind of bad application from outside your distro’s software repository that is designed to inject, copy or log information.
While X11 is an older display protocol/system it is still receiving security updates (my Linux Mint systems received/installed them Oct. 25). Also since X11 has been around a while it’s a very stable system and why many Linux distros still use it. Whereas Wayland is still relatively new and can experience stability issues on some systems and/or applications.
As to Fedora, each release is only supported for 13 months. So about every 13 months you will need to update your system to the latest version to continue to receive updates. Whereas Linux Mint is a long term support release (LTS) and supported for 5 years.
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Encryption like theirs where the private keys stay on their end is not secure. I would never use it. Just like hushmail and safemail and other honeypots.
Private keys for encryption are stored on the user’s device(s). Some snippets from Proton below:
Zero-access encryption is just what it sounds like: a type of encryption for data at rest that renders digital files inaccessible to the service provider. The files can only be decrypted using the user’s private encryption key. Because the server does not have access to the user’s private encryption key, once the files are encrypted with the user’s public encryption key they are no longer accessible to the server or the server’s owner. When the data owner wants to view their data, they request the encrypted files from the server and decrypt them locally on their device, not on the server.
Most companies do not implement zero-access encryption either because they sell your private information to advertisers (Google, Facebook, etc.) or because the technical challenges of implementing it are too great.
Instead, they might use regular encryption where they retain control over the encryption keys. This is like storing the key to the lock with the lock itself and creates many vulnerabilities. For example, if servers are ever hacked, your private conversations can be leaked (like in the Yahoo! breach of all 3 billion of its accounts).
Furthermore, this approach also leaves data open for misuse, either by rogue employees or unscrupulous third parties, such as in the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal. This data can also be made accessible to government surveillance agencies or sold outright to advertisers.
We drastically reduce these security and privacy vulnerabilities by using zero-access encryption to ensure that we ourselves do not have access to your data. That way, even if somehow Proton Mail servers are breached, the contents of users’ private emails will still be encrypted.
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I have been using Proton Mail since 2018 to get away from the spying eyes of big tech. I use their Mail Plus paid plan (pay yearly for a discounted rate of $3.99 per month, instead of $4.99 if paying by month) which is required to use their bridge application to sync with a mail client. Initially I used Outlook (on Windows 8.1) then about ten months ago switched to Thunderbird (on Linux Mint). I also use the Android app. Otherwise I do not use/need any of the other included services, ex. Calendar, Drive, VPN and Pass. I have never had an issue with their mail service, it has always worked well for me.
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I consider Microsoft Edge spyware if not malware (ex. Webview2) and even avoid using it at work where it’s installed by our IT department (on Windows 10 Enterprise).
Otherwise on my personal systems with Linux Mint, I only use Firefox ESR and Ungoogled Chromium as a secondary web browser (it removes all Google web service dependencies/connections for added privacy from Google’s spying too). But I rarely ever use it as Firefox ESR has worked well for most websites I use/need. On the rare occasion a website complains about Firefox I either change the user agent to look like Chrome (on Windows 10) or use Ungoogled Chromium.
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A web browser’s built-in update mechanism is often a day or two behind from when an update is actually first available. So it’s not the quickest method to ensure a web browser is updated, instead it’s more so of a fail-safe method that the web browser will eventually receive the update.
So whether Linux or Windows, if you want to ensure your web browser is always updated to the latest version ASAP there is always the option to download and install it yourself. There is no need to rely on the web browser’s update mechanism at all.
This is what I do with Firefox (ESR) with Linux Mint on my personal systems and with Windows 10 at work where the latest version is available for download from the Mozilla FTP site a day or two before it shows up in the web browser’s update mechanism. Also at work I use a similar method to update Google Chrome myself. So all my web browsers are often updated days before either their built-in update mechanism or our IT Department’s deployment tools can push out any updates.
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Thank you for the great info on what needs to be done to neuter Copilot and take back some control and privacy over one’s Windows computer. Although it goes without saying it’s a daunting task for most to even consider but is an option if one chooses to pursue.
Another option if one can do it, would be to forgo Windows all together and take back complete control of your hardware from Microsoft by installing/using something like Linux Mint instead. Then there is no need to remove unwanted “features” like this or take any kind of extensive measures to try to control your computer or worry about what information is collected from you and your system or about future updates breaking something because Microsoft is always changing things to constantly attempt to monetize you. Instead as stated on the Linux Mint website:
“Home rule
It’s your computer, your rules. This is a key principle at Linux Mint. We don’t collect data, we don’t work against you. You’re the boss. Your operating system is designed to do what you want without getting in your way.”
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I’m relatively new to the Linux world having switched to Linux Mint on my personal systems 9 months ago. But from what I have seen and learned so far, I would be very surprised that the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) community would integrate any kind of AI into a Linux distro. There would most likely be a massive uproar and backlash against it.
With that said though, lets say that perhaps Ubuntu may attempt it. But that does not mean distros that use it as their base such as Linux Mint would accept it. Instead they would most likely strip it out like they do with various other things (ex. Snap package system, any kind of telemetry, etc.) or they could switch to LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), their distro based on Debian in the event something were to happen to Ubuntu or it becomes too burdensome to continue to strip out unwanted things from the Ubuntu base.
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Below is more info on what was seen when visiting the ghacks website:
I rarely go there anymore and was not aware of the issue (long ago deleted my browser bookmark for it) since after it was sold to Softonic the quality of the content started to drop dramatically and many new authors were added where most of their articles read like they were created by AI. There was also the issue with the comments section frequently getting messed up and showing old comments from previous or other unrelated articles, not to mention the annoying cookie consent that would always overlay the entire screen and had to be acknowledged (or deny all cookies which took more effort) before able to see the site.
So this is just one more reason not to visit the site anymore. It’s rather sad as it used to be one of the top tech websites.
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