Well folks I am very pleased to report that our initial meetup at Veteran Hall went quite well and I think that most attendees enjoyed and learned good stuff. For those of you that attended, I sincerely thank you for your donations as they covered the hall hire cost with some extra for my time spent.
The early part of the meetup was spent covering the 3 main radios in our devices - that is WiFi, Bluetooth, and mobile data - and how to easily switch them off and on. We also discussed how these radios can be used to track us. We spent some time focusing on location services and looked at settings in both iPhone and android phones to limit the device and certain apps from providing location tracking upstream to big tech platforms. I think we'll probably see some more questions on this topic and I will happily continue these discussions.
You can download a PDF file of the presentation I showed the various settings to change in android and iPhone from here . See page 4.
We also discussed two factor authentication (aka 2FA) and an open source app called FreeOTP+. This is a free open source app that replaces the need to use the Google or Microsoft Authenticator apps that only runs on android. I have been using this one for many years now on my android phone and it works a treat. There is another app with almost the same name (FreeOTP) which is available for both android and iPhone, but it has a flaw in the backup / restore so I do not recommend it for iPhone at this time. We'll look into other alternatives for iPhone.
While discussing how we would move forward, the group talked about the idea of a discussion group on social media. We canvased Telegram and Signal without total agreement, and ended up wanting to use the Element app on the matrix network as it is more secure with good encryption in group chats (aka rooms).
At our next meetup, we'll get everyone connected to the Element app and create a discussion room so we can talk about privacy and security issues on our devices between meetups. This will also allow us to discuss what topics we want to delve into at future meetups and I can then do any necessary research and be prepared.
We have decided to continue meeting every Saturday morning at the Veteran hall from 10am, except when the hall has events scheduled like this coming 30th November where they have a xmas craft market going on.
This coming Saturday we can dive deeper into the best web browser apps for privacy and also discuss what's involved in de-googling an android phone.
The next gathering will be:-
When: Saturday the 16th November 2024. 9:30am for a 10am start. 12 noon finish with optional extra hour.
Where: Veteran Hall - 598 Sandy Creek Road, Veteran Q 4570
We have the use of the kitchen with cups etc and I'll have a selection of teas and coffee sachets. The hall is on tank water. Bring any other refreshments that you want.
Note: This meeting is once again by donation to cover the hall hire cost and some of my time. Future costing will need to be discussed by the group.
Please contact Graham on 0409 723 008 (or