I just heard about this:

There’s a travel scam warning going around the internet right now: You should keep your baggage tags on your bags until you get home, then shred them, because scammers are using luggage tags to file fraudulent claims for missing baggage with the airline.

First, the scam is possible. I had a bag destroyed by baggage handlers on a recent flight, and all the information I needed to file a claim was on my luggage tag. I have no idea if I will successfully get any money from the airline, or what form it will be in, or how it will be tied to my name, but at least the first step is possible.

But…is it actually happening? No one knows. It feels like a kind of dumb way to make not a lot of money. The origin of this rumor seems to be single Reddit post.

And why should I care about this scam? No one is scamming me; it’s the airline being scammed. I suppose the airline might ding me for reporting a damage bag, but it seems like a very minor risk.

Gerrymandering is a symptom of the failure of representative democracy. Political minorities are surrounded by others who overwhelm their votes and elect politicians who do not represent anyone but themselves.

Reddit will restrict most of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine from indexing its content, citing concerns that AI companies are scraping data from archived pages to bypass the platform's controls. Under the new policy, the Wayback Machine loses access to Reddit post detail pages, user profiles, and comments. Only the Reddit.com homepage will remain available for daily archival.

As a result, the Internet Archive can now capture only basic daily snapshots of trending headlines, without preserving full post content or discussion threads. According to Reddit, some AI companies have used archived pages to scrape Reddit data in violation of the company’s policies. These restrictions will remain until the Internet Archive can better prevent scraping, comply with Reddit's privacy rules, and reliably delete removed content.

Reddit informed the Internet Archive in advance and said the limits would begin ramping up immediately. The move aligns with Reddit’s ongoing efforts to curb bulk data extraction, including 2023 API restrictions and paid data deals with AI and search firms. In 2024 and 2025, Reddit signed agreements with Google and OpenAI, blocked major search engines, and sued Anthropic for alleged continued scraping.

View article on AlternativeTo »

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Syncthing 2.0 has arrived, marking a major release for the popular open source solution for continuous file synchronization. With this update, the database backend transitions from LevelDB to SQLite, aiming for easier maintenance and improved reliability. Users also benefit from enhanced diagnostic capabilities, as logging now uses structured entries with newly introduced per-package log level controls and a new WARNING level positioned between INFO and ERROR.

For users running on less common systems, there are notable distribution changes. Prebuilt binaries are no longer provided for DragonFlyBSD (AMD64), Illumos (AMD64), Linux on PowerPC64, NetBSD, OpenBSD (386, ARM), and Windows on ARM because of the new SQLite dependency. Users on these platforms must now build Syncthing from source. Following these core changes, several adjustments to behavior will affect workflows: deleted items in the database are now forgotten after six months rather than preserved indefinitely, and the “default folder” is no longer created on first startup, requiring manual setup.

Command line option parsing has been modernized, with deprecated single-dash long options removed, several options renamed, and support for environment variables expanded. Other technical updates include the removal of rolling hash detection for shifted data, enabling faster scans, adoption of three default connections between v2 devices, and improved file conflict resolution that can now result in moved conflict copies when deletions win.

View article on AlternativeTo »

More about Syncthing | Syncthing Alternatives

Indian studio Eros International plans to re-release the 2013 Bollywood romantic drama "Raanjhanaa" on August 1 with an AI-generated alternate ending that transforms the film's tragic conclusion into a happier one. The original Hindi film, which starred Dhanush and Sonam Kapoor and became a commercial hit, ended with the protagonist's death. The AI-altered Tamil version titled "Ambikapathy" will allow the character to survive. Director Aanand L. Rai condemned the decision as "a deeply troubling precedent" made without his knowledge or consent. Eros CEO Pradeep Dwivedi defended the move as legally permitted under Indian copyright law, which grants producers full authorship rights over films. The controversy represents what appears to be the first instance of AI being used to fundamentally alter a completed film's narrative without director involvement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We share photos all the time, with friends, family, coworkers, or on social media. But every photo you take with your phone or digital camera contains hidden information called EXIF data that can quietly reveal a lot more than just the image itself — such as where and when you took the photo, what device you used, and what software you used to edit it.

That might seem harmless, but in the wrong hands, this invisible metadata can be used to track your location, piece together your daily routines, or dox you or your loved ones — exposing your identity, home address, or other personal data without your consent.

However, you can remove EXIF data to control how much information your photos reveal.

• What is EXIF data and what is its purpose?
• Why EXIF data can put your privacy at risk
• How to see your EXIF data
• How to protect your privacy before sharing photos

What is EXIF data and what is its purpose?

EXIF data (short for Exchangeable Image File Format) is hidden information automatically embedded in a photo when it’s taken with a digital camera or smartphone. It usually includes:

• Date and time the photo was taken
• Camera model and settings, like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
• GPS location if location services are enabled
• Orientation (which way the camera was held)
• Editing software used, if any

Photographers can use EXIF data to filter images by identifiers such as camera model, focal length, ISO, or aperture settings. For example, they can examine past shots to understand why a photo turned out well (or didn’t) and adjust settings accordingly.

Image editing software can use EXIF information to automatically group photos by date or location, identify duplicates, or similar shots, suggest lens or exposure corrections, and allow you to search by metadata (for example, “photos in Paris”). It’s helpful for sorting vacation images or documenting events over time.

Why EXIF data can put your privacy at risk

EXIF data is invisible but rich in sensitive information. And if you share photos without removing it first, you could be putting your privacy — and that of your family, friends, coworkers, and clients — at risk.

Your photos might share your location

If GPS tagging is enabled, your images will include coordinates of where they were taken, potentially revealing:

• Your home address, workplace, or regular commute
• Private venues such as schools, medical facilities, or event locations
• Details about your vacation itinerary or business travel
• Client sites or restricted areas

For example, if you take a photo of your child at home, school, or a favorite playground and share it in a private group chat, there’s always a risk that someone could forward it, download it, or save it to a platform that scans location tags to learn more about what or who is in the image.

Time and date stamps can give away your routine

EXIF data also stores the exact date and time a photo was taken. When cross-referenced with other content — like social media posts or chat messages — it can:

• Reveal your daily habits or availability
• Pinpoint your location at a specific time
• Reveal patterns that could be exploited by stalkers or scammers

For instance, someone could check the timestamp of a photo you posted and match it with a public event or another person’s social media post — revealing who you were with and where you were.

Your device info says more than you think

Photos may include details like:

• The make and model of your phone or camera
• Editing software and version used
• Serial numbers (in some cases)

While not always sensitive, this data can reveal your professional tools, hint at your budget or expertise, or even help identify photos from a specific person or organization.

What happens when you upload to Google Photos

When you store your photos on platforms like Google Photos, you’re granting the company free access to the full EXIF metadata embedded in each one, including location, time, and device details.

Even if Google says it doesn’t use Google Photos content for ad targeting, it can and does scan every photo that’s uploaded and reserves the right to use your data to personalize services, improve its products, and build detailed user profiles. Just because Google doesn’t use your data for ads doesn’t mean it doesn’t collect it and use it elsewhere — or share it with other third parties.

If you’re concerned about this kind of tracking, consider turning off Google Photos backups.

AI makes it easier to track you through photos

Large language models (LLMs) make it easier than ever to extract and use the hidden details in your photos’ EXIF data. If someone gets access to a batch of your photos, they can feed them into an LLM to quickly pull out the metadata, organize it into neat tables, and make it easy to search and filter.

All these small details can be stitched together

On their own, each individual bit of information stored in EXIF data might not seem significant. But when combined and cross-referenced with the photo itself and other information — like your social media profiles — they can start to paint a much bigger and more personal picture.

Bad actors, advertisers, and data brokers can exploit this metadata to:

• Infer personal or professional details
• Track you or your team across platforms
• Build detailed behavioral or location profiles without your consent

How to see your EXIF data

You can easily see what kind of EXIF data your own photos are carrying without any special tools or skills. Remember, if you can easily access this information, so can anyone who has your photos.

On Windows, right-click the image file, select Properties, then go to the Details tab.

On Mac, secondary-click the image and select Get Info.

On iPhone or iPad, open the Photos app and swipe up on any photo.

On Android, open Google Photos and swipe up on a photo.

How to protect your privacy before sharing photos

Here are some tips to help you keep more control over what your photos reveal without changing how you take or share them.

Turn off location tagging on your camera

Disable location services in your phone’s camera settings so GPS coordinates aren’t saved with each photo.

On iPhone, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera and tap Never.

On Android, open the Camera app, go to Settings, and toggle off Location tag.

Remove EXIF data before uploading or sharing

Always delete metadata before uploading your photos to websites, cloud storage, or messaging apps.

On Windows, right-click a photo, go to Properties → Details, click Remove Properties and Personal Information, and then select Create a copy with all possible properties removed.

Mac, iOS, and Android don’t have a built-in EXIF data remover, so you must use dedicated, third-party apps — such as ExifTool for Mac, Scrambled Exif for Android, and ViewExif for iOS.

Check and change file names

Even after removing EXIF data, the file name itself can still reveal information about a photo. For instance, Android includes the exact date and time the photo was taken in the file name — such as IMG_20250723_103045.jpg, which corresponds to July 23, 2025, 10:30:45 AM. WhatsApp makes things clearer by using file names like WhatsApp Image 2025-07-22 at 12.38.36 AM.

When sharing sensitive or personal photos, rename the files before sending or uploading them using neutral, non-descriptive names like photo1.jpg or image_001.png.

Check what’s visible in the photos

Beyond faces, your photos may contain subtle visual clues that can be used to identify people, places, or events:

• Street signs, license plates, or recognizable landmarks can reveal locations.
• Tattoos, jewelry, distinctive clothing, or reflections in mirrors and windows can expose identities.
• Background elements like screens, documents, schedules, or ID badges may contain sensitive information.
• Wall clocks, calendar dates, or smartwatch displays can pinpoint when a photo was taken.

Take time to review the entire frame before you share any image. Cropping, blurring, or redacting parts of the photo can go a long way in protecting privacy and safeguarding the people depicted.

And if you want to keep images from being reused or reposted without permission, you can also apply a repeating text or logo watermark using a watermarking tool. It’s not a replacement for blurring or editing, but it adds a visible layer of protection that makes misuse and AI scraping harder.

Remove EXIF data when sending emails

When sending sensitive images via email, Proton Mail helps protect your privacy by offering to remove metadata from attached photos before you send them. Here’s how to use this feature:

1. Open Proton Mail, sign in, and click New message.
2. Click the paperclip icon to attach your photo.
3. When prompted, select Remove metadata, then choose whether to insert the image inline or as an attachment.

4. Add your subject, write your message, choose the recipient, and hit Send.

Use private cloud storage that respects your privacy

Our cloud storage protects your privacy by design. Unlike other services, we can’t see your photos, their metadata, or any other personal information, thanks to a security model built on end-to-end encryption. Your files are encrypted on your device, stay encrypted during transfer, and remain encrypted while stored in the cloud. This means no one can see your photos except for you and the people you choose to share them with.

That said, Proton Drive doesn’t automatically remove EXIF data from your images. So if you’re sharing a photo that might say more than you’d like, it’s a good idea to manually remove the metadata first. Or, if you’re sending via email, you can use Proton Mail’s metadata remover for image attachments.