Comments by "" (@MsHojat) on "Rob Braxman Tech" channel.

  1. At least personally I find that Youtube deletes comments (presumably anti-spam) in a seemingly random manner. I've never noticed specific topics that it blocks. I can re-post pretty much the same content as the deleted post again and it will go through. I think it's more related to whether or not a user has anti-fingerprinting anti-scripting, and other privacy features in their browser. If Google/YT find it to be a hard to verify account it will seemingly randomly delete comments several seconds after they are posted. At least that is my experience and my hypothesized theory.
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  2. I get this as well, but it can occur for any message. From my experience YT just "randomly" deletes a ton of comments because it thinks it's spam. I think it mostly has to do with using tracker/script/fingerprint blockers in your browser, and considering the topic I wouldn't be surprised if you were both using them. Or at least that is my best guess how/why it happens. From my experience the topic seems mostly irrelevant (although it's possible that certain key words still might play a factor, even innocuous ones that you wouldn't expect (such as "hello", "vid" or "sexy")
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  3. That is a good point to raise. The answer would be to use a VOIP number for all normal voice/SMS use and then get a new regular number for 2FA. (in case you're not aware, VOIP/MMS/etc. through the 2nd number will still go through your regular data plan (or wi-fi if available))
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  4. Isn't 5G's location targetting not that big of a deal, since with older techs they could still use triangulation to get a good estimate of where you are? Sure 5G would still be more precise, but I have doubts as to how much such precision really matters. I guess that it could notice the specific buildings you enter.
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  5. How are you supposed to track an object for cheap aside from something like Tile or AirTag though? If someone wants to track an object (ex. a bicycle in case of theft), it seems like these are the only two options without paying for a more bulky battery-consuming device that has it's own GPS and cell data plan. For that matter saying that there's privacy issues to THE USER seems questionable as well. Using these devices aren't inherently a risk to the user's privacy (much), but rather other people who have the phone ping enabled (I think for Apple this is "Find my" functionality, and for Tile having the App installed (assuming that it also gets the permissions it wants). So while functionality of these devices is dependent on other people having their phones pinging out, It's not necessary to do so yourself to use the devices.
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  6. He explains what sort of apps work and don't work on deGoogled phones. You won't know for sure about specific local apps like for banking or transportation or such because it depends on how they run things. Guaranteed anything that runs on F-Droid and similar FOSS distribution stores will work. But if you're some normie consumer that "need"s to use food delivery from apps and ride hailing from apps and app-based banking (you can instead just do web-banking which is more private and can still be done on mobile), there is a higher liklihood of them not working. For that matter the reason they don't work isn't for compatibility reasons per se, but specifically because it's missing the spyware used to track you. Also even when the apps do work they can still spy on you even when the device does not have Google services installed; they can come with that stuff packed into the app itself so not having Google Services on the system itself doesn't protect a person privacy-wise. Anyway, I've gone off on a bit of a tangent there. With regards to other questions such as country support, it depends where you live; he has explanations on what sort of carriers it can work with and what cell signal technologies the Brax phones have (which is what decides if it works in other countries). Generally for most developed countries they should work fine. The devices definitely can not be shut down by anyone; certainly not Google, which doesn't even have control over a lot of stock Android devices; The one and only case where Google does have control of locking a phone out is when you specifically have stuff like Google Factory Reset Protection and Google Find My Device. And even then as far as I know they can't brick your phone, they can only lock it out from others who do not have your Google account password and/or your device PIN/password. Also for that matter I've heard that stuff like Google FRP can oftentimes—if not always(?)— be bypassed, although I haven't looked into the details of that.
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  7. I think this is a good move, but the video seemed a bit misleading as if there weren't already some affordable VOIP options out there. Some people might also assume it comes with mobile talk/text, but if I understand correctly it does not (requires an existing data plan on top) Also it might be nice to bundle VPN with the service; or at least offer a VPN discount, since pairing virtual numbers with VPNs is good for privacy (ex. encrypts SMS; well on your end at least, not the person being communicated with)
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  8. I do like Linphone, but for some reason after a few months (or some random number of months) it unregisters with the SIP account somehow and can't reconnect to it. Restarting the phone and the software didn't do anything. Oddly enough I had to completely reset the account (delete it) and/or reinstall the program (I can't remember which one I did but functionally they'd be similar). The bigger problem I've experienced with linphone is that it doesn't remember my SMS history well. I think it's due to the fact that there is no official standard for SIP SMS, and that Linphone client uses a slightly different standard than my VOIP provider uses. This results in only my most recent SMS message for each number being displayed in the app. For those who are okay with non-open options Zoiper is a very good SIP app for mobile as well. It's still freeware (with a premium option), just closed source proprietary. I actually get a similar problem with Zoiper too except it happens more frequently (like every few days or something). I think in both cases for the loss of registration/connection the problem is related to my device since I disabled some services on the device as well as put up a firewall, and something related to that could be causing disconnections.
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  9. There's already websites that do that. The reason there's a market for it is that people use the numbers to abuse verification services rather than 2FA. It's used for botting and ban circumvention and such, something I imagine Braxman would not want to support. In theory a privacy-minded person would do the same thing, however in that case they wouldn't need to use a disposable number because they shouldn't have any concern about getting banned.
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  10. I think it would be crazy and almost entirely pointless to have multiple 2FA numbers. You only need one, and you don't really get anything for having multiple.
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  11. The problem that I have with Signal is that it uses Electron on desktop so is super bloated. It also requires installing it on mobile (and with a phone number) despite the fact that it has a desktop version. So it is misleadig to say that you can't use it on desktop, just that it's not a good experience on desktop, and it also still requires installing it on a mobile (at least temporarily. The mobile doesn't need to be connected at all Also the problem that I've had with most modern messengers is that I'm stuck using their specific client. One that usually has very limited features (like poor customizability, or no DND/offline/idle, sometimes even no logs). Matrix and XMPP are exceptions that I'm aware of though.
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  12. Not that it matters much for Braxman himself, but you should be able to get super cheap 2FA-only plans, since you can get "pay per use" mobile plans which charge per minute and per text, and in most or all cases won't charge anything for receiving texts. In my case I only have to pay a monthly 911 fee which varies by state, but is still cheap. It varies between 0.20$ and 3.00$ per month, with the vast majority being between 0.50$ and 1.50$ per month. You might have to worry about inactivity deactivations or such, so just be mindful of that (a good provider should send a warning text about that, but most providers may not be good providers) and consider having to spend an extra 40 cents per year or something to make an outgoing call or text.
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  13. I'm guessing you'd have put Meta Quest on the no-no list too if you had thought of it?
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  14. Baseband modems are secretive and proprietary. You won't know detailed contents of the chip nor the code that runs on it. You can make an open source handheld computer, but the cell data part is not viable to do as far as I know. (I might be slightly out of date on this info though; I think people have been working on it, and it's possible that there might be limited functionality open cell modems now, but probably only old protocols that will have poor performance or no service at all anymore due to End-of-Life)
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  15. Great video. I have heard of PTSN gateway VOIP providers providing some sort of encrypted support though, so maybe that wasn't really covered in the video? I suppose you could say that it doesn't matter though since it wouldn't be end-to-end (inherently impossible), so government could set up to collect the data at the service provider (at least in theory)
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  16. Valid numbers can be obtained by brute force— calling/texting all possible numbers. I would assume that is probably the reason you are getting calls rather than someone from another area code, but your hypothesis is still possible instead. However, if you register your number with the do not call list that should protect you from getting US-based spam. Only international spammers would then do it, because any in the US (or even closely linked with the US) will be breaking the law and can be tracked down by law enforcement. Or, considering that they are presumably a legit organization that respects people, you can just call them and tell them they have the wrong person and you don't want their messages.
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  17.  @ipodman1910  What can be done is hide identity though. When they don't know anything about the owner then they aren't tracking the owner, they're just tracking some random device that they don't know "anything" about (aside from basic device ID stuff)
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  18. Using another device to use a device? I get that it could work, but if you could just make a device without the hardware problems in the first place then you wouldn't need 2 separate devices. What sort of methods are there to know whether current devices are using any sort of hardware monitoring/spying? I think the main way I've had faith in is people who analyze traffic that comes from the devices in question. Like a modern Pixel using a custom OS has hardware sub-processors that the software doesn't necessarily have control over, but I think that people have looked for if there is ever communication with Google and what that communication may be.
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  19. SIM swappers need to know your number in order to do the attack. If you Keep your 2FA numbers private from most groups they won't be able to target you. In addition I don't know for sure but I think that some pre-paid pay-as-you-go plans can't even be SIM-swapped because they don't transfer stuff.
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  20. Yeah I think rob misunderstood the question. The number on the old SIM will not work when that SIM is not in the device. You could in theory port that number to the new SIM, but obviously you're not talking about that sort of situation (because it's a data-only SIM). For both SIMs/plans to work simultaneously you would need a device with more than one SIM slot. That or regularly swap SIMs (if that is even a viable option for you) Although there's two other options as well: 1. porting your cell number to the VOIP service that you are using. Some services do allow this, but it will almost certainly require a lot of verification, so hard to remain anonymous to the VOIP provider if that is important to you. 2. If your device supports eSIM then you could get an eSIM plan along with a regular SIM card plan. Braxman has voiced some distrust of eSIM which is understandable, but from what I can tell there are no direct/proven privacy harms in using it as long as everything else is done in a privacy-conscious manner (such as paying for the eSIM via Monero or a prepaid credit card, assuming that you even care about having that high of a degree of privacy in the first place (privacy from government investigation, which I think many people don't care about compared to Google/Apple/Meta/Microsoft, etc.))
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  21. I'm not sure what you mean by that statement.
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  22. My post keeps getting shadow-deleted/auto-modded. I don't know why. It was talking about how I had a similar problem, and that Discord is even worse in many many ways. I even edited out words like "Discord" and "YouTube" and "Google". I don't know why this one didn't get deleted but my other attempts did (assuming this one does stay up)
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  23.  @robbraxmantech  Yeah I didn't think so. Youtube just arbitrarily deletes certain comments a moment after they are posted, and I have no idea why. I didn't spot any odd trigger words in my message, just talking about how services don't take VOIP numbers, and how Discord doesn't even allow VPNs nor land line 2FA.
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  24. This will regularly happen when you enter a large/solid building. Aside from that it can potentially occur from Stingray-type spying attacks (maybe that's why you brought it up?), but I would generally doubt it and pin it on some other issue like connection overload/outage or poor reception. There is a detector app out there which you could try called AIMSICD, although it is old and possibly out of date.
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  25. As far as I recall for a long time Microsoft mail (I presume just their e-mail service, not as likely e-mail clients) downloads remote content to their servers first, making beacons less useful since they just always get marked as read as soon as the e-mail is sent, regardless of whether the user ever opened the message.
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  26. I think it would have been good to clarify that one could get an Android phone if it was from a manufacturer that allows bootloader unlocking, in order to install a custom ROM (and that the user plans to do so). It's not like you can buy them with an OS other than Android on them (in like 99% of cases at least)
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  27. I think he has some videos on that. If you're not aware he's strongly against it as it is a problem for privacy since you can never "take it out" and are forced to use it, and gives a unique identifier.
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  28. Can that mobile hotspot work as a wi-fi relay as well?
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  29. I liked this root certificate topic, although it can be a bit hard to understand. Have you talked much about DivestOS? Seems good for privacy but maybe not ideal for security. Have you Considered making a video about the issues of RCS?
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