privacy – Broken Star https://brokenstar.blog Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:58:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/brokenstar.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/broken-star.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 privacy – Broken Star https://brokenstar.blog 32 32 239080864 Link Dump – Recently Read Articles https://brokenstar.blog/2025/09/01/link-dump-recently-read-articles-3/ Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:58:45 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=1256

Here are some articles aI am reading and found interesting:

Synced from Raindrop.io on September 1, 2025 10:57 am

]]> 1256 Jailbreaking my Kindle Paperwhite https://brokenstar.blog/2025/08/13/jailbreaking-kindle-paperwhite/ Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:22:22 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=1176 Early this year, I heard that it was possible to jailbreak most Amazon Kindle devices. I was interested, but ultimately decided against it. The deal-breaker for me was Libby. If jailbreaking meant losing access to library books, I was out. I couldn’t find a good answer to this initially, so I held off. Since the height of the COVID pandemic, I’ve switched reading almost exclusively on my second-hand Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (7th Generation), so I didn’t want to disrupt my reading.

Last week, the topic of jailbreaking ereaders came up on the Reading Glasses podcast and it reminded me that it was something I was considering. Best of all, they gave a nice, non-technical overview of why one might want to do it. The increased flexibility was enough to get me interested again, and they confirmed that it still works with Libby. They also shared a helpful video overview:



I’ve rooted a few Android devices in the past and the process for jailbreaking the Amazon Kindle was very easy and well-documented. A great website provides step-by-step directions. I set aside about half an hour and was able to complete it without encountering any issues.


Once the jailbreak was done, there are additional steps to take to disable over-the-air updates from Amazon (these could potentially remove the jailbreak) and install a custom reader. I followed the guide and installed KOReader, which is a popular reader for e-ink devices. It gives you the ability to read a wider range of file formats (for example, ePub) as well as more customization options, faster PDF handling, and custom fonts. It also doesn’t send analytics to Amazon, which the privacy nerd in me enjoys. I struggled a bit with understanding the UI, but skimming the User Guide helped and after a few minutes, I had a nice optimized layout.

A good part of why I wanted to do the jailbreak was to hopefully get the Amazon ads removed from the lock screen. I haven’t figured out that part yet, but hopefully soon. Overall, it feels good to loosen Amazon’s grip — even if their ads are still clinging to my lock screen for now.
]]> 1176 Link Dump – Recently Read Articles https://brokenstar.blog/2025/08/02/link-dump-recently-read-articles-2/ Sat, 02 Aug 2025 16:39:20 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=1117

Here are some articles I have read recently and found interesting:

Synced from Raindrop.io on August 2, 2025 12:33 pm

]]> 1117 Link Dump – Recently Read Articles https://brokenstar.blog/2025/07/12/link-dump-recently-read-articles/ Sat, 12 Jul 2025 16:40:33 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=1043

Here are some articles I recently read and found interesting:

Synced from Raindrop.io on July 12, 2025 12:34 pm

]]> 1043 Link Dump – Recent Bookmarks https://brokenstar.blog/2025/06/25/link-dump-recent-bookmarks/ Thu, 26 Jun 2025 01:09:50 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=945

Here are 12 bookmarks I’ve collected recently:

Synced from Raindrop.io on June 25, 2025 8:57 pm

]]> 945 Why People Search and Data Brokers Threaten Your Privacy https://brokenstar.blog/2025/05/04/why-people-search-and-data-brokers-threaten-your-privacy/ Sun, 04 May 2025 23:55:12 +0000 https://brokenstar.blog/?p=630 There are a lot of things I don’t like about the modern Internet, but near the top are the various data broker websites that publish large volumes of personal information — name, addresses, phone, places of employment, voting history, criminal history, etc — about people without their consent. In the United States there is limited/to no regulation of these sites, so they operate without any real oversight. In practice, these sites facilitate harassment, doxxing, identity theft, and discrimination. 

Why Data Brokers are a Problem

They belong to that special class of websites that just feels slimy and predatory. Browsing through the sites is a good case study in anti-patterns and dark patterns and how they are deployed in websites. Surveying a handful of data brokers/people search sites will almost certainly showcase opaque opt-out processes, frequently changing opt-out URLs, unnecessary “searching” animations (we all know they aren’t actually compiling dossiers at the time of search), sensationalized enticements to subscribe, excessive Captchas, etc. 

The Opt-Out Nightmare

Aside from the core issue of publishing personal information without regard for the consequences, the worst part is the lack of standardized opt-out process. Each site has their own process and with hundreds of sites, removing yourself from these sites is an arduous undertaking. I’m not sure that it works all that well, but at least the telemarketing industry has the DoNotCall Registry. It would be great to see something like that for people search site.

My Experience: Fighting the Data Hydra

I’ve worked on this a lot in the past and had successfully — or so I thought — removed myself from most of these sites. I made extensive use of the “Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List” and Michael Bazzell’s “Data Privacy Workbook.” I did it all myself because I didn’t want to rely on the auxiliary industry of companies that you can pay to remove your information. In some cases, those companies have deals with data brokers or run data brokers themselves. After the initial work, I put various Google Alerts in place and tried my best to remove my information as it popped up.

The Return of the Data Brokers

Despite putting a significant chunk of time into it and being at least somewhat vigilant about how my information appears online, I recently found out that my information was once again present again. I had previously opted out of several of them:

  • Radaris
  • Veripages
  • Intellius
  • Infotracer

There was also a whole batch of new ones:

  • BackgroundChreck.run
  • Clay.earth
  • Councilon
  • Dataveria
  • GovernmentRegistry.org
  • Infover
  • Numlookup
  • People-background-check
  • Pub360
  • Verecor
  • Vericora
  • Virtory

Opting out what the usual mess of broken web forms and stonewalling, but I eventually had success — at least until the next round appears. 

]]> 630