Hello friends, how are you? I want to ask you a question. I bought a used cell phone from Swappa and I received an empty box by USPS, there was only one cable in the package.
The address where I received the package is a warehouse in Miami that works as Freight Forwarder, which is of my full confidence.
The package according to USPS, weighed 8 ounces, approx 225 grams.
The people in Miami told me that as soon as they received the package they weighed it and it weighed less than 100 grams.
The thing is that I am in Argentina, so this company that is in Miami receives and sends the packages to my country. It is worth mentioning that I have bought more than 25 phones in Swappa with this address and this is the first time this has happened to me.
Being a foreigner and not living in the USA, what do you think are my best options?
Obviously the seller and even the administrators of Swappa are trying to dismiss my case and tell me something like "well yes, I wish I could do something, good luck" and they want me to just write off the money as lost.
I understand that there is something like a law or something that obliges merchants to cover consumers in cases like this, but as I reiterate, I am a foreigner and I don't know what to claim or what to demand, what to expect, etc. I also don't want to file a dispute with PayPal without further dialogue.
What I think is that USPS has stolen the package but who covers in this case? what do you recommend me to do or what would you do if you were in my place.
Thank you very much and sorry for the extension, for me it is a lot of money and it costs me a lot of time to earn it.
Thank you.

Hello friends, how are you? I want to ask you a question. I bought a used cell phone from Swappa and I received an empty box by USPS, there was only one cable in the package. The address where I received the package is a warehouse in Miami that works as Freight Forwarder, which is of my full confidence. The package according to USPS, weighed 8 ounces, approx 225 grams. The people in Miami told me that as soon as they received the package they weighed it and it weighed less than 100 grams. The thing is that I am in Argentina, so this company that is in Miami receives and sends the packages to my country. It is worth mentioning that I have bought more than 25 phones in Swappa with this address and this is the first time this has happened to me. Being a foreigner and not living in the USA, what do you think are my best options? Obviously the seller and even the administrators of Swappa are trying to dismiss my case and tell me something like "well yes, I wish I could do something, good luck" and they want me to just write off the money as lost. I understand that there is something like a law or something that obliges merchants to cover consumers in cases like this, but as I reiterate, I am a foreigner and I don't know what to claim or what to demand, what to expect, etc. I also don't want to file a dispute with PayPal without further dialogue. What I think is that USPS has stolen the package but who covers in this case? what do you recommend me to do or what would you do if you were in my place. Thank you very much and sorry for the extension, for me it is a lot of money and it costs me a lot of time to earn it. Thank you.

Hello friends, how are you? I want to ask you a question. I bought a used cell phone from Swappa and I received an empty box by USPS, there was only one cable in the package.
The address where I received the package is a warehouse in Miami that works as Freight Forwarder, which is of my full confidence.
The package according to USPS, weighed 8 ounces, approx 225 grams.
The people in Miami told me that as soon as they received the package they weighed it and it weighed less than 100 grams.
The thing is that I am in Argentina, so this company that is in Miami receives and sends the packages to my country. It is worth mentioning that I have bought more than 25 phones in Swappa with this address and this is the first time this has happened to me.
​
Being a foreigner and not living in the USA, what do you think are my best options?
Obviously the seller and even the administrators of Swappa are trying to dismiss my case and tell me something like "well yes, I wish I could do something, good luck" and they want me to just write off the money as lost.
​
I understand that there is something like a law or something that obliges merchants to cover consumers in cases like this, but as I reiterate, I am a foreigner and I don't know what to claim or what to demand, what to expect, etc. I also don't want to file a dispute with PayPal without further dialogue.
What I think is that USPS has stolen the package but who covers in this case? what do you recommend me to do or what would you do if you were in my place.
​
Thank you very much and sorry for the extension, for me it is a lot of money and it costs me a lot of time to earn it.
Thank you.

Hello friends, how are you? I want to ask you a question. I bought a used cell phone from Swappa.com and I received an empty box by USPS, there was only one cable in the package.
The address where I received the package is a warehouse in Miami that works as a Freight Forwarder, which is of my full trust.
The package according to USPS, weighed 8 ounces, approx 225 grams.
The people in Miami indicated to me that as soon as they received the package they weighed it and it weighed less than 100 grams.
The thing is that I am in Argentina, so this company that is in Miami receives and sends the packages to my country. It is worth mentioning that I have bought more than 25 phones in Swappa with this address and this is the first time this has happened to me.
Being a foreigner and not living in the USA, what do you think are my best options?
Obviously the seller and even the Swappa staff are trying to dismiss my case and tell me something like "well yeah, I wish I could do something, good luck" and they want me to just consider the money as lost.
I understand that there is something like a law or something that obliges merchants to cover consumers in cases like this, but as I reiterate, I am a foreigner and I don't know what to claim or what to demand, what to expect, etc. I also don't want to file a dispute with PayPal without further dialogue.
What I believe is that USPS has stolen the package but who covers in this case? what would you recommend me to do or what would you do if you were in my place?
Thank you very much and sorry for the extension, for me it is a lot of money and it costs me a lot of time to earn it.
Thank you.

Hello friends, how are you? I want to ask you a question. I bought a used cell phone from Swappa.com and I received an empty box by USPS, there was only one cable in the package.
The address where I received the package is a warehouse in Miami that works as a Freight Forwarder, which is of my full trust.
The package according to USPS, weighed 8 ounces, approx 225 grams.
The people in Miami indicated to me that as soon as they received the package they weighed it and it weighed less than 100 grams.
The thing is that I am in Argentina, so this company that is in Miami receives and sends the packages to my country. It is worth mentioning that I have bought more than 25 phones in Swappa with this address and this is the first time this has happened to me.
​
Being a foreigner and not living in the USA, what do you think are my best options?
Obviously the seller and even the Swappa staff are trying to dismiss my case and tell me something like "well yeah, I wish I could do something, good luck" and they want me to just consider the money as lost.
​
I understand that there is something like a law or something that obliges merchants to cover consumers in cases like this, but as I reiterate, I am a foreigner and I don't know what to claim or what to demand, what to expect, etc. I also don't want to file a dispute with PayPal without further dialogue.
What I believe is that USPS has stolen the package but who covers in this case? what would you recommend me to do or what would you do if you were in my place?
​
Thank you very much and sorry for the extension, for me it is a lot of money and it costs me a lot of time to earn it.
Thank you.

https://swappa.com/listing/view/LXFP95724
Switched from iOS, gave it a try for 6 months but just couldn’t make it work one-handed, which is how I use my phone all the time. Battery life was not as long as I was used to. I missed not having to charge everyday. The battery ran out on me when out at night a couple times so I made the switch back.
It didn’t work for me but maybe it will find a good home here!
Edit: Phone is really cool and works great, just wanted to switch back to iOS and one-handed use.

Hey Everyone, just wondering if anyone is using/rocking an OPPO Find N2 like me So I had been using a Fold 3 and am totally on board with foldables(don't think I can go back to candy baslab phones again) and I was deciding what to get as I felt the Fold 4 was more of an iterative upgrade and while I loved my Fold I didn't like typing on it when it was closed as I felt like it was too tall/narrow which made typing not the best. Other phones I thought about were the Mate X2(too expensive), the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2(no flex mode which is important to me), and also the Vivo X Fold 2(kind of expensive). I was also thinking about the Pixel Fold but didn't want to pay $1999(512GB) so I decided to get an OPPO Find N2 and was able to pick it up for $1077 off Swappa. So these are my impressions of the Fold since having/using it for a little under a month:
Pros: I love the shortewider form factor when closed, for me it makes typing a lot easiebetter and I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything when it's folded. The crease is significantly less noticeable on here compared to the Fold and when folded the device side completely flush unlike the Fold 3. I also don't know how to explain it but when closing/opening it just feels bettemore secure than compared to the Fold IMO. I also enjoy how light it is, and my hands/arms don't get tired from extended use like they did with the Fold when they are unfolded.
Cons: mainly the software. It's a China phone only so there's no Google on here, but it is easy to install Google Play store and everything runs fine. Also a lot of China Bloatware which again, can be removed from the phone. The first thing is, sometimes when unfolded an app won't fill up the whole screen and when you force it to it will rotate it the wrong way. Also on the Fold series you can split apps vertically/horizontally, you can only split them vertically on the OPPO. In addition on the Fold you can have three apps open simultaneously and change the size that each takes up, you can't do that on the OPPO Find N2(as far as I know). Minor annoyances, but not deal-breakers for me would be the lack of water resistance or wireless charging on the OPPO Find N2. Another one would be no pen support for it, but I never used that on the Fold 3 so it's fine for me. Some people would also say the cut off for the selfie camera interrupts the screen but that doesn't bother me. Hopefully Android 14 can fix some of the problems I listed.
Overall I am enjoying my time with the phone and may get the Pixel Fold when the price drops, the Pixel Fold 2(smaller bezels, pen support etc) or another phone. Anyways hopes this helps and I would love to hear if anyone else bought the phone and their experience with it. 📱📱♥️♥️♥️♥️
PS - Shameless plug of my OPPO Find N2 unboxing/first impressions video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=S84nf8QgOWQ&feature=share8

​
https://preview.redd.it/xsxbux28j74b1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc58955cd711058387e847b4fdfb7615b299b0d5
Swappa’s fair fees lets you pocket more cash.

https://swappa.com/listing/view/LXFV85903

This is for USA.

Iphone 13 Mini 128 GB 100% battery health. Purchased off Swappa in great shape
Apple Care: None
Repairs: None
Included: Iphone 13 Mini with box and accessories. Will ship via USPS. Prefer local sale in Ventura, CA.
Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/UpEXlOT

Writing this post to maybe help some people out and to record down what happened so I have something to refer to in the future when it comes time to do it all again.
I pre-ordered ZFold 3 with Tmobile, traded in a Samsung S9 for $1000 recurring device credit. Sold my S21U on Swappa for $800. It made sense for me to get SquareTrade to insure my entire family's phone for $20 a month, with $150 deductible. Started using the phone Sept of 2021.
On Jun 2022, my inner screen protector started to separate with vertical bubble line going down the middle. I purchased Orzero inneouter screen protector and replaced my inner screen protector myself. The first one lasted until Mar of 2023. The second one was still going strong when the inner screen cracked.
May 23, 2023, when I got to work and unfolded my phone, I heard the sound of glass or something crackling and popping. The middle of the screen went dark and the screen was no longer responsive. I could navigate the screen by touching down the black area, but not the still lit area. I went online to Squaretrade.com and filed a claim, they approved same day and said, "Get it repaired at a shop of your choice." There were a list of shops available, but it's very outdated and half of them have wrong phone numbers. I eventually got a hold of someone at Squaretrade who said yes when I asked, "can I get it repaired at a nearby Asurion / ubreakifix store?"
May 24, 2023, I visited the ubreakifix store near us after calling them to see if they have the Zfold 3 screen in stock. The receptionist was very nice and told me the repair is going to be, after tax, $879.19. I was flabbergasted. The guy behind me said, "you got a zfold? call samsung directly. they sent me a new one!" I was tempted, but when I asked if he got insurance, he said, "oh ya, I got the verizon insurance, the people are verizon took my fold and samsung sent me a new one next day" Anyways, that's his story, not applicable to me. I continued with the repair, left it there at lunchtime and picked it up after work.
https://imgur.com/a/udnasvS - See this link for itemized repair with kit #s.
Mind you, there was no visible damage to device, only the inner screen got the vertical black bar down the middle -- but they replaced the front screen, the frame, and the inner screen. I literally got a brand new phone back with the same innards. If I didn't have insurance, I think I would be pissed that they repaired more than they should've.
I asked, "is this repair warrantied?" The reply was, "sorry, the fold is the exception to the 1 year warranty. There's a 90 days workmanship warranty... but if the same thing happen again, we will have to look at it to see what happened and if we would honor it as part of the 90 day warranty."
I sent the receipt to SquareTrade same day. The system is wonky, it wouldn't allow me to upload the receipt. After speaking with the customer service, they said just reply to the Claim Email with the receipt image.
May 25th - I received email from SquareTrade that they received my receipt and the claim is accepted and my reimbursement in the amount of $730.19 is coming.
May 27th - I decided I wasn't going to keep the Z Fold 3. It's a risk I didn't want to take. I listed it on Swappa and kept dropping prices until it was purchased next day.
June 1st - I received the reimbursement rom SquareTrade as promised. I would recommend SquareTrade - it's really a painless process in my opinion.
I really used my Z Fold 3. For the inner screen, it's what I use to consume any media when I can sit and relax whether it's lunch time or toilet time. I enjoyed playing tic tac toe and drawing pictures with my son. I utilized the multiple screens for my work. I even, at one point, got a USB C dongle thing that allowed for wired ethernet, HDMI to TV, USB to PS5 controller, and DeX mode PS5 remote play.
I didn't upgrade to Z Fold 4, because the one thing I wanted -- being able to draw and take note on the outer screen, wasn't available. When zfold 5 is released, I suppose I will be repeating this whole process.

I had a s22 ultra for the past year on Verizon. The battery life sucked and the phone lagged like crazy . I had paid it down to $730 after 1 year and saw that T-Mobile was doing a buy your phone off and switch .
I ended up selling my s22 on Swappa before the even trying to get with T-Mobile so I didn't even have the device anymore. So I sold that for $600 and then ported out to T-Mobile with a old pixel 6 . After I took a screen shot of my payments remaining on the s22 ultra they processed everything within 2 weeks and I just paid off my s22 ultra with Verizon with a $730 virtual card they had PLUS I still got $600 for selling my phone .
I am now in the process of porting to ATT and getting $700 trade in credits for my pixel 6 and buying a iphone 13 for like 10 bucks a month
Point of the story is if you want out of Verizon and still owe , port T-Mobile , don't pay off you phone , wait till they send you the card and then pay it off.

Hello,
I would like to buy a refurbished macbook in LA. Do you know any good stores where I can see the product in person and find good deals? I know about sites like Backmarket and Swappa but I'm looking for a physical store.
Thanks !

I had a 13 Pro Max and sold it because it was too cumbersome and heavy. I really did love the phone and the battery life, but the frustration with the size started to get to me after a year. I bought a 14 Pro and I like it, it isn’t too heavy or anything and the battery life has been fine so far but I’m conflicted if I should return it and wait for the 15. I don’t really care about having “THE BEST”, none of the 15’s rumored features stand out to me, I only switched so I could get a smaller size phone ( I type so much better on it too) . I also read there may be price increases and I’m not keen on that either (are any of us lol?). Anyway, I’m looking to see what you guys think. My other option is purchasing an iPhone 11 off Swappa until the 15 is released…or keeping the 14 Pro.

Hi! I just purchased a SD1 off swappa in mint condition for $360. Comes with the bumper case and all of the other neat bits n bobs.
I was wondering if there were any reccomendations for skins, screen protectors or cases I should take a look at? Also, is there any settings I should turn on or turn off when it shows up? Very excited to start playing some light games on this thing and multitask!

I'm looking to buy a used MacBook in the 4 - 500 dollar range. Anyone know of a trustworthy site online to find this? I've been on swappa.com but it seems too good to be true. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello! I have been sitting on top of this since a year, and now is the perfect time to voice it out. Enough is enough! I have been on the lookout for this dreaded group since years, and even though I covered this group largely before, it is essential to cover rest of the elements I could not give space to in my previous expose writeups, due to lack of ample evidence and sheer amounts of writing that does not allow enough space for one particular group.
This Canadian (yes, took time to know that) group of trolls is nothing significant today, thanks to largely efforts of people dishing out ample evidence about them, but they tend to fabricate way too much lies in a concerted manner across Reddit, 4chan, YouTube comments and the like, all while simultaneously fabricating boogeymen cabals that apparently attack them. Today, even Louis Rossmann has felt the wrath.
It is critically important to trace and decode the patterns of their workings and Kiwifarms-like behaviour on internet, and I see this group as the next big threat to privacy community, simply because they have been persistent and think they are unstoppable.
My aim is to try to stay objective throughout as much as I can. I also want to mention that this is a lore that basically nobody other than me has tracked in this depth (arguably Techlore has enough material), and nobody else carries a record of these events in this manner to date.

WHY IS DANIEL MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD?

I have been more curious than anyone else, trying to decode his behaviour psychologically to the best of my capabilities and experience on internet by myself. This person is claimed to be either mentally ill or narcissistic by various people, as of now. But I do not think he is simply narcissistic, because he consciously and responsibly knows very well what he does. As I show you screenshots of DivestOS incident, you will know why.

EVENTS

I will describe events in a chronological order since last year's "criticism of ... 4 years of evidence" magnum opus I wrote, making this the 5th year of "security" entities in FOSS community continuing to engage in awkward behaviours and exploiting the lack of expertise of ordinary folks who skim through various privacy communities. I recommend going through this first if you want to know everything about the backstory about privacy community's related issues. (https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ug9qnc/writeup_criticism_of_rprivacyguides_grapheneos/)

HOW IS GRAPHENEOS AN EMBARGO GOOGLE PARTNER FOR SECURITY PATCHES?

I read a couple of years ago somewhere, GrapheneOS describing how they are an embargo security partner. However, I cannot find those reddit comments anymore, so the next best option is a tweet from August 2022 by the horse's mouth. One person alone building monthly patches for years for supported Pixels compared to Google Inc seems like quite an impossibly tall order to me.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220829223401/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1564322206414524420#m

(MAY 2022) MICAY CLAIMED HOW I WAS PAID BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT TO SPREAD LIES AND DESTROY PRIVACY COMMUNITY, PRIVACYGUIDES HEAD ENDORSES SAID CLAIM

Exactly one day after I published the 4 year criticism magnum opus on May 1 2022, what I see on the afternoon of May 2 2022 is this.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220502064114/https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/
One long thesis with zero citations. Hubris. This guy loves to talk about character assassination after pissing off people, and when he gets civilly criticised, this happens.
You can remove the archive.org part (https://old.reddit.com/PrivacyGuides/comments/uged1y/is_grapheneos_actually_good_or_just_hype/) and check currently how Jonah Aragon, head of PrivacyGuides, fully endorses these claims, and to this day, has a shared moderator (mbananasynergy) with GrapheneOS subreddit (earlier it was B0risGrishenk0/Tommy_tran whose new alt is Privsec_dev). You may also check how after a year, the post mostly has [deleted] users and comments, all being GrapheneOS sockpuppets and harassers abusing pseudonymity offered by Reddit. These are the people that scream everyday how sockpuppet harassment occurs to them.
He did this on Twitter as well. http://web.archive.org/web/20220820001954/https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1560729241364340737
In the tweets down the chain, he says:

That person is a tankie who supports authoritarian governments and peddles lies for them [...] It might as well be official CCP propaganda too.

Is there any problem with liking certain countries that you hate, because of geopolitical preferences and news media propaganda? How xenophobe can you be, to think Indians/Asians must like same geopolitical narratives as Canadians/Westerners? I do not believe in Western nationalist tropes, and I think it is fair for everyone to have this freedom.

HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS

Here is the moderation list of GrapheneOS. https://i.imgur.com/nZDeBG6.jpg Here is it, straight from the horse's mouth. https://i.imgur.com/nhepoMJ.jpg

(JUNE 2022) LEMMY RCMP THREAT FIASCO REVISIT

There has been a recent incident from late April 2023 (a month ago) where Daniel Micay claimed he has faced a swatting attempt (attempt to raid house and murder), and a certain CP and gore spammer flooded GrapheneOS chatrooms with this type of nasty troll content, but in one month, he has NOT provided any evidence. Moreover, he claimed Royal Canadian Metropolitan Police (RCMP) is investigating this matter, and then proceeded to lockdown the GrapheneOS Off-Topic Matrix chatroom (place of claimed incident) for sometime.
For context in follow up, Lemmy is a free and open source federated Reddit alternative, that is fully federated with Mastodon, Twitter's free and open rival.
This faux threatening using Canadian police's credentials reminded me of a very similar incident that I faced at Lemmy from two moderators (akc3n from GrapheneOS and dngray from PrivacyGuides) on behalf of Micay. I am the moderator of c/privacy at Lemmy, and this was their failed attempt at trying to rage bait me into reacting hastily, causing administration to revoke my moderation powers, so that GrapheneOS trolls could make Lemmy their next place of habitat, something I protect Lemmy from.
https://archive.ph/acy2h
During this incident, due to the chaos that the tag team of GrapheneOS and PrivacyGuides (remember they still have shared moderator after Tommy?) caused, one Lemmy administrator warned me, because they got scared about the name of police being involved. Tommy_Tran/Privsec_dev proceeded to get me banned from Lemmy c/privacy's Matrix chatroom by tag teaming with dngray (PrivacyGuides moderator) to bait the moderator of that Matrix chatroom in believing I was the troll. Tommy took over soon enough and changed the room into some Windows/GrapheneOS Security crap, and later the moderator of Matrix chatroom itself moved off of Lemmy.ml (Lemmy's main instance) onto Lemmy.ca (coincidentally a Canadian instance). I do not know if these Canadians are friends or just fellow countrymen, but what they did was insanely evil. (Instances are like separate websites that can still operate like they are the same forum/website.)
Screenshot of c/privacy Matrix room takeover and trolling behind my back, knowing what they have pulled off: https://i.imgur.com/PoTiANo.jpg

(JANUARY 2023) akc3n, GRAPHENEOS MOD, CLAIMS THAT WITCH HUNTING CRITICS' ACCOUNTS IS "BRAND REPUTATION AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS" AND TOMMY BEING A XENOPHOBE

Another horse and his mouth. N-n-neighhh!!! Since Reddit made API paid and Pushshift archival service has said goodbye forever, I can only show you the thread with barely any comments leftover as proof combined with the screenshot I preserved from back then.
Tommy loves Micay so much, he started to accuse me of being a Chinese government shill in exactly the same way Micay did in May 2022.
Now a ghost town of comments: (https://old.reddit.com/deapple/comments/10dxzdb)
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/q2OefBw.jpg (see the blue highlighted portion at the very end, at about 20% height from below)

DIVESTOS DEVELOPER BANNING ME ON MICAY'S ORDERS OTHERWISE HE WILL INITIATE A SOCIAL MEDIA HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST DIVESTOS

Yes, this happened, and this is my favourite part as far as everything GrapheneOS head/mods have done to date. As dramatic as it sounds, Micay in realtime, in DivestOS' XMPP chatroom, was accusing me of the typical "harassment ringleader campaign" BS, and ordered DivestOS/Mull developer (these are his aliases) SubZer0Carnage/Tad/SkewedZeppelin that if I was not banned immediately, DivestOS and him would face social media targeted campaign and DivestOS will have to forcibly pull off any borrowed GrapheneOS code. DivestOS developer dusted his hands off me, since he does not like me apparently for liking some closed source software and he benefits off of the crybully. Also, unlike the crybully, I have never harassed or harmed anyone because I have a moral conscience to not be an abusive asshole on internet, so he will face no issues on my end.
Screenshot 1: https://i.imgur.com/Al65uTZ.jpg
Screenshot 2 continuation: https://i.imgur.com/mT8W9pa.jpg

TOMMY AND ANUPRITA/RANDOMHYDROSOL SHOWCASING THEIR LOVE FOR GOOGLE/APPLE/MICROSOFT SPYWARE

See, the point is Google and Apple are spyware/ad companies at the end of the day, and it does not matter if you need to use their services due to necessity. The technicality of it does not change, and people simply make privacy compromises for convenience or out of necessity. I do not have anything against that. What I am against though is this weaseling being done in privacy community, knowing people want to prevent privacy abuse from corporations and governments.
I use Windows (and Linux) daily according to how I laid it out in my computing guide in a very private and secure manner. I understand the use cases of common people extremely well, even better than just about all of privacy community, having been a Windows user all my life and daily driving Linux exclusively since 6 years (now dual boot).
These specimens come and evangelically claim how Google and Apple do not spy on people, and how "degoogling" is a nonsensical concept. The reality is, basically all of these peoples' knowledge other than Micay and DivestOS dev, is as good or worse than a first year sophomore computer science student. They mostly parrot the typical points that they formulate based upon things they would hear in their own little world of shitty security blogs, reddit and whatever proficionados like Micay and developers at XDA would blabber about, creating reductionist notions in their head they can just preach around.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/bUdVCpH.jpg

GRAPHENEOS ALTS CLAIM CELLEBRITE KITS CANNOT EXFILTRATE DATA FROM PIXELS ON YOUTUBE COMMENTS

I do not know enough to be able to browse every YouTube comment section of every tech related video made on custom ROMs on phones, but what I know is Luke Smith is fairly popular among Western youngsters regarding tech topics. He is a more extreme version of Mental Outlaw, for those that are clueless.
When I saw this, I was astounded. Cellebrite is an Israeli cybersecurity company whose phone exfiltrating kits cost upwards of $1 million, and are only purchasable for government agencies like TSA, police and forensic departments. This company purchases 0day vulnerabilities in commonly used smartphone apps which allows them to run their phone hacking government nexus. How are these GrapheneOS people buying million dollar kits when Micay only has one desktop computer for his GrapheneOS ROM binary compilation? The answer is - it is a lie attempted to be spread like rumour.
One would think, why would anyone be concerned about going this far? I am usually the person who people try to follow on, since I pose good questions regarding a lot of things. In this case, the question would be: if GrapheneOS claims bootloader lock security for protection against Evil Maid and other bootloader attacks, is it secure against phone hacking kits at airports or against state actors? Has GrapheneOS' security ever been vetted independently? Since regular Joe on the street is not a proficionado, would it be okay to ensure selling claims of such extreme security of GrapheneOS is battle tested? People started asking these questions that always went unanswered. You get the idea.
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/woNxPhx.jpg

DOZENS OF GRAPHENEOS ALTS SPAMMING "PIXEL 6A $299" ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS AND 4CHAN PRIVACY CLOSES OFF ALL AOSP ROM DISCUSSION POST BRIGADING

If you go to any of the 4Chan archives for /g/ board, and search "graphene" or "pixel", you will find both of these mentioned together many times, which is a very interesting phenomenon. This is known as astroturfing. Here is a compilation of /g/ comments from the last 6 months. https://i.imgur.com/G6P1c9n.jpg
privacy suffered the same and sheltered Micay against all criticism until last month when Micay accused privacy moderators of sheltering claimed CP/gore spammer and swatter, followed by a lot of vote manipulation and sockpuppet brigading, leading to privacy shutting down all discussions relating to any specific AOSP custom ROMs. https://old.reddit.com/privacy/comments/130y6uz/android_based_operating_systems/

MICAY'S CLAIMS OF CP/GORE SPAM ON HIS CHATROOM, AND CLAIM OF ATTEMPTED SWATTING (HOUSE RAID MURDER)

This is the spiciest part for most people in the know about this, and it has been one whole month since the claims. However, neither local Canadian news media has reported anything on something that would be as significant as swatting a software developer, nor has he presented evidence upon being asked by numerous users. Upon being asked, Micay has either ghosted or banned people, or accused them of being complicit in his self-proclaimed attempted murder.
What he is doing here is using psychological trickery of dead cat strategy, creating a loop of "mysterious" act that only he and his 2-3 moderator friends know about but have, upon being repeatedly requested by dozens, denied to give a shred of evidence, and has attempted to use this dirty sensationalist act to gain sympathy. He has also utilised the effect, until now, of relying on the goldfish attention span of masses regarding world events, so that people forget questioning his shocking claims and think his gospel is the immortalised truth.
Moreover, he has a history of never giving any evidence for his claims he has made over the years. Techlore and I have noted and documented this dozens of times at this point, and one Reddit user involved with using GrapheneOS undertook the effort to do this as well. https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/
In the past 24 hours, after Rossmann's video came out, Micay announced that not just is he claiming to step down as developer of GrapheneOS, but that "police know about the swatting situation and are preventing it happening again". How did it go from blocking and ghosting dozens of people upon asking for evidence, to a month later claiming "oh all is good I am quitting social media have a nice day"? Is everyone this gullible? Is there no course of action, or no accountability to present evidence publicly (let alone block users asking) for the duration of an entire month? Nobody is asking for CP material, and evidence of such incident could have easily been shown. Micay engages on social media almost everyday, in a terminally online manner. The reality is, he is escaping accountability after failing to get sympathy from baseless sensationalist claims. Dead cat strategy works until it does not, and people hate being taken as fools for long enough.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE.
STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET.
BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230527063653/https://twitter.com/DanielMicay/status/1662212232506388481#m

COMPARING LEMMY FIASCO FROM LAST YEAR WITH CURRENT EVIDENCE-LESS CP/GORE SPAMMING AND SWATTING CLAIMS

The incident that happened with me from June 2022, in a nutshell, is faux RCMP (Canadian police) threats in order to sensationalise and scare off me and Lemmy's admins into thinking I was onto some serious wrongdoings, creating an image of things that never happened or never will happen. The exact same scare off tactics happened with Micay's fresh claims in late April 2023, which constitutes psychological manipulation of privacy and Android community users to gain attention at all costs. Bad PR is good PR, and good PR is great PR.

LOOKING AT u/lo________________ol's COMPILATION POST OF MICAY'S NUMEROUS EVIDENCE-LESS CLAIMS IN THE PAST

This is the compilation post. https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/_/
The only ever real conflict that materialised enough into a spat, where I did support Micay, was when CopperheadOS CEO James Donaldson and him had their catfight going on, and when Donaldson asked me in DMs to harass Micay in an organised manner. I protected Micay. https://i.imgur.com/hujn4P1.jpg
Coming to basically every single claim Micay has made about me, Techlore, CalyxOS, F-Droid, Bromite, FlorisBoard developers/heads and so on... Micay has NEVER EVER provided proof justifying his claims. That is right, NEVER, not in a single case. All he has ever done, is scream and shout sensationally, utilising dead cat strategy over the years. There does exist a reason for why he has done all this, which I will elaborate on in a section below.

A VERY COMMON OCCURRENCE OF "$299 PIXEL 6A" COMMENTS ON PRIVACY SUBREDDITS

privacy has now purged comments of these Graphene/Pixel zealots, but there was a certain phenomenon that started after the Black Friday/Christmas sale regarding how financially "accessible" Pixels were, leading these single origin sockpuppets and astroturfers to spam comments with this theme in every "phone recommendation" post/thread. After the Black Friday sales ended, they went ahead and started recommending Swappa/Craigslist used handsets over anything else, with the idea that if you do not buy Pixel, you might as well be directly streamed 24/7 live to 3 letter spook agents. How much more elitist, misleading and toxic can one be when trying to improve privacy of average people?
Collage: https://i.imgur.com/Q1wIIfS.jpg

GRAPHENEOS MATRIX CHAT TELLING PEOPLE TO FLY TO OTHER COUNTRIES TO GET A PIXEL IF NOT AVAILABLE DOMESTICALLY

It is known among Google Pixel buyers and USA/Canada phone buyers, that Pixels have extremely limited availability by country. The amount of mental gymnastics required for someone to tell they need to travel by airplane to other countries to get one specific phone, if they want to have any privacy and security on a phone, forces me to say this - you need medical assistance. When a community goes ahead to do this, what will be your reaction? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Here you go. https://i.imgur.com/Yv9nvxy.jpg

PRIVACYGUIDES PROTECTS AND PETS GRAPHENEOS MODS/HEADS INTENTIONALLY, UPON QUESTIONING YOU GET MUTED OR SILENCED

Tommy was originally made the moderator of PrivacyGuides (PG) exactly one day after he published the "false privacy prophet" post on me (https://archive.is/7wKJW), a post that had no evidence, and trended for an entire month at PG. This person has been a key member and friend of GrapheneOS mods and Micay himself. He thoroughly ensured that Micay's personal grudge based ideas were echoed through PG, and fellow mods like dngray, trai_dep and Jonah fully supported this. akc3n, a fellow GrapheneOS moderator, was always active in threads with them, essentially heavily controlling participation of users at every level. This sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you, and to this day (May 27 2023), mbananasynergy is a shared moderator between GrapheneOS and PG. You might wonder, the subheading above has still not been addressed. How did I get silenced? Read below.
The exchange between Jonah Aragon and me. https://old.reddit.com/u_lo________________ol/comments/1314x2x/why_did_i_do_this/ji36hbs/#c

REDDIT MAKING ITS API ACCESS PAID, CAUSING PUSHSHIFT ARCHIVAL SERVICE TO COLLAPSE, LEADING TO RAMPANT SOCKPUPPET ABUSE AND HEADACHE FOR MODERATION

Reddit's decision to cripple Pushshift's archival service is intentional. It allows to generate negativity and drama, which will lead to more internet traffic like how Elon Musk loves the new "town square" Twitter. More internet traffic translates to more value when Reddit becomes public entity for shareholders. This causes a nerve busting headache for sitewide moderation, and everyone knows it.
GrapheneOS, as demonstrated and as observed by basically everyone, is extremely formidable at sockpuppet trolling and witch hunting of critics. The definition of a "critic" for them is anyone who does not worship GrapheneOS. Period. Louis Rossmann sees how this makes sense, and so does everyone else. Refer to the "HOW GRAPHENEOS WITCH HUNTS ANY OF ITS CRITICS" section above.

UTTER IGNORANCE AND FAILURE OF PRIVACY COMMUNITY TO SELF POLICE SUCH ELEMENTS

A little angry rant on privacy community as a whole
Privacy community seriously is pathetic in keeping people accountable and vetting the products/tools and their developers, for all the vigilante preaching that goes on in here. It took me to create privatelife and bring some change, and I do not know how much change has been brought about. People just want to look good, nobody cares about actual democracy and putting in the effort to maintain it. Everyone wants their hands clean, expecting others to do the watchdog job, and nobody ends up standing in the crowd. I am from India and I should care zilch about privacy community filled with "democratic westerners" not standing up for themselves, and living like sheep in a dictatorship of some FOSS, corporate and closed source developers/entities. Why do people want to dust their hands off of everything like X or Y incident has nothing to do with them? Where did the concept of solidarity go? Why does nobody want to hold people accountable for being assholes?
/rant

LOUIS ROSSMANN FACES THE MUSIC (COMPLICIT IN ATTEMPTED MURDER) FROM DANIEL MICAY FOR CALLING HIS REPULSIVE INTERNET BEHAVIOUR "INFORMATIVE AND UNFORTUNATE"

Rossmann came out yesterday with a descriptive video with a screen recording of his chat with Micay, where Micay accused him of all that he has gone to accuse literally everyone under the sun during the past month, and folks like me during the past few years. Some reddit users have been targeted with the same, and found solace in talking to me and whatever I have documented on Micay and his acolytes, among other topics and groups.
Rossmann's video on uninstalling GrapheneOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl1x1Dy-ej4
The video is gaining attention because of how much goodwill Rossmann's deeds towards Apple repairing and Right to Repair movement has garnered over the past 10-15 years. And he is a good person. My only disappointment with him has been missing the mark on, and being silent on GrapheneOS all this while. I get his reasons of benevolence towards FOSS projects, but we need to be stricter about social conduct. Nothing excuses being a horrible person, as far as civil discourse goes.

SO, WHY IS MICAY'S BEHAVIOUR SO WEIRD? A LITTLE MORE CONTEXT AND AN ATTEMPT TO SEE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM...

More than almost anyone else, I have been interested in why he turned out like this. I will preface this by saying I do not fully believe he is autistic, and even if he is, it does not explain this kind of "me versus the world" impulsive behaviour.
Last year, sometime after he wrote that "paid Chinese government agent" comment on me, I decided to try to genuinely sympathise with him for one more time and see his response.
https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf/ (feel free to read with context https://old.reddit.com/privatelife/comments/ws96wx/_/ikzipwf?context=10)
He went silent on me and stopped attacking me. Considering I have documented his behaviour for a few years, I have a well supported conjecture that is better than "BPD/schizo".
Originally, Micay made the memory allocation hardening patch for Linux kernel, but never got a fulfilling wealthy life or career out of it, considering how many of his years later went down quarrelling with CopperheadOS' Donaldson. He quit Copperhead organisation to maintain his fork under the name of GrapheneOS, which is a free open source project. Lack of success in life is the first condition fulfilled.
The second part of this consists of many smaller parts.
I noted last year how in the below reddit thread/screenshot, Daniel Micay and madaidan argue together against Firefox. Before the Tor Project mailing list happened in August 2019, the whole anti-Firefox sentiment mysteriously used to not exist in GrapheneOS community. This is probably the first instance of Micay's resentment towards a large FOSS project.
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2019-August/013995.html
https://www.unddit.com/firefox/comments/gokcis/firefox_is_insecure_refuted/
Screenshot: https://i.postimg.cc/1P0cfmjX/Firefox-insecure-refuted.jpg
For context, I would ideally advise to read through the "criticism... 4 year evidence" writeup, but an easier way to go through this is knowing about madaidan and his "toilet paper" (I did not call it that) blog attacking FOSS projects' security while simultaneously recommending the antithesis of privacy - Windows, MacOS, Google Chrome et al.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210929053611/https://old.reddit.com/linux/comments/pwi1l9/thoughts_about_an_article_talking_about_the/
https://web.archive.org/web/20220111035527/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25590079
https://archive.is/zxS72
This is one part of how Micay started to become an isolated toxic person developing hate for FOSS projects for others not conforming to his ideas of how things should be done. This was also the first moment where he took a step towards the Google Big Tech black hole.
Slowly, however, he started to attract the "security zealots" in privacy and FOSS community. What happened here is explained by Dunbar's number, which says a human can only form relationships with 148 people. This number falls to a maximum of 30-50 if you are not particularly extroverted or prefer a smaller group. All of the "security zealots" found some comfort together, creating a loosely linked group where everyone can unite with certain talking points, regarding bashing Linux/Firefox security, preferring Big Tech obscure security products and services, and allowing to normalise the various toxic behaviours everyone individually bears, in the name of "oh IT security people are just bad at social skills". I can count these 15-20 people which allows me to be a bit more confident in what has happened.
People do not know much about this, but Micay used to fantasise replacing Linux kernel with Google's Fuchsia microkernel, a... Google project, because Linux is insecure and trashy. The issue here is that while he did work on Linux kernel patch in the past, he does not anymore, because he has started to develop resentment against any FOSS projects that are not fully conformant with his ways. Linux simply never gave him the success. Micay is apparently entitled to get the fruits, not realising individual work on Linux is largely a communistic effort. Free open source movement is by design democratic and for the community/society first.
Sometime ago, someone informed me of Micay (alias thestingestrcat) creating drama with Bromite (on which their Vanadium browser fork is based) and FlorisBoard projects. They labelled those project maintainers with very bad, false epithets, like "you will be tied to a group engaging in Kiwi Farms level abuse and tolerating neo-nazis". Well too bad, witch hunting people is what you people admittedly do and call it market research.
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/pull/2102#issuecomment-1155760155
https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/2141
http://web.archive.org/web/20220803142758/https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard/issues/1921
I should not need to elaborate on GrapheneOS' attitude towards Techlore (he has 2 videos on it) and CalyxOS (again Techlore partially covers CalyxOS).
GrapheneOS members, Micay and his friends like Wonderfall have attacked F-Droid in the name of security, only to push using Google Play Store that annihilates all privacy of people. Google Play Services gather every possible metric about your phone which includes sensor, location, IP address, telephone number, IMEI and so on every 7 minutes. Just to be fair, Apple does the same things and is far worse. This theme of evangelising Google products at the cost of bashing all other projects is a thumb rule for GrapheneOS community.
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/what-are-the-issues-fdroid-have-about-security/17520
Micay finding solace among his "security zealot" friends allowed him to go unchecked and grow into a very malicious person, targeting FOSS projects, individuals, organisations and privacy communities with a lot of sockpuppet trolling, vote manipulation, dishonesty, normalising horrific social etiquette, demonising and witch hunting any and all people that do not worship GrapheneOS. It is borderline criminal and is a surprise to me how people are okay with someone like him. I have two explanations for this - either the ones okay with this themselves share some of these behaviours, or they themselves use GrapheneOS and due to sunk cost fallacy and/or fear of Micay personally targeting them, they either defend him or keep their mouths intentionally shut. An insignificant number of people accept him merely because of benevolence towards FOSS projects IMHO.

FINAL WORD

The problem is not Daniel Micay. The problem is this kind of mindset that has been able to breed and flourish in society. Today, this Micay might go. Tomorrow, another Micay will come under a different name or even this very person under an alias. Privacy community needs to stop being such selfish and individualistic. People need to stop procrastinating or avoiding vetting of these people. I understand tools and code is hard to vet, but people behind the projects can absolutely be vetted. Giving space to elements like these toxic "security zealots" in tech is not bravery or benevolence, it is stupidity and disgustingly selfish. This is precisely why rulebooks like Code Of Conduct have become increasingly popular. We need to give people and projects the boot from society that do not follow Code Of Conduct, and especially pretentious groups like GrapheneOS (https://web.archive.org/web/20230521023428/https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11-grapheneos-code-of-conduct) that pretend to have civil rules but do the exact opposite to everyone that disagrees with them.
Since enough people may not have understood this, I will repeat it, as I end this text file with some internet rules.
EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS REQUIRE EXTRAORDINARY EVIDENCE.
STOP BELIEVING STRANGERS SAYING ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET.
BEING EMPATHETIC DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED TO TAKE EVERYTHING AT FACE VALUE.

I am in the market for a pixel. I'm seeing the prices vary alot. On swappa, certain carriers you can get for cheap but then unlocked and my carrier (ATT) are much more. it has been more challenging finding a pixel 6. Ebay is kinda suspect..... they always have been. You really gotta dig and read the posts because theres always hidden surprises. any other recommended used phone markets? does reddit have a sub for that? also, should I just look for a 5 or 5 pro? are they that much of a downgrade from the 6?

Iphone 13 Pro 128 locked to Verizon in good shape. 100% battery health. Purchased off Swappa. Switching carriers.
Apple Care: None
Repairs: None
Included: Iphone 13 Pro with Smartish case. No box or accessories. Will ship via USPS. Prefer local sale in Ventura, CA.
Timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/Y1IbOa8

I'm on a Fi support trying to get one dead 5a replaced, while they won't do jack shit for the Swappa 5a I bought before I realized these things are TOTAL GARBAGE.
How many people are we talking about for a group trying to make a claim? I'm reading a lot of complaints about this phone and I've had them die on me three times in the last year.

iPhone 11 Pro Max - Generic Thin Blue Case - New never used
$6 shipped
Pixel 6 Pro 256GB - sold on swappa
Timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/8IzIHfi
Heatware and Ebay Refs under Trader05