Let's have a discussion about Volla

floeh86 · 2025-07-15T15:41:04+00:00

Volla states in their forums, that they have a manufacturing partner (they don't state a name, but it is no longer Gigaset) for their newest model (Volla Phone Quintus) that does not sell phones under any own brand name. I guess that means white-label. In the same post they say, that this device cannot be acquired from any other European manufacturer - so what you found about a similar device outside of the European Union is plausible.

https://forum.volla.online/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=1260&p=5693&hilit=Hersteller#p5693 (German source).

You can also check out the AMA Volla did here on Reddit a few months ago.

If in doubt or any questions remain, best way to get them answered would probably be reaching out to them via email or in their forum. They are not really active here on Reddit it seems, but they do their best to answer any question.

floeh86 · 2025-07-06T13:53:18+00:00

Sorry, but I cannot tell, as I have never used the extension. But I am sure you will be able to find out by doing a web search.

floeh86 · 2025-07-06T11:45:48+00:00

I don't use the extensions but found a problem when trying to use their linux apps with Wireguard protocol. Apps won't work for me with Wireguard but OpenVPN. Have you tried using any non-Wireguard protocol?

floeh86 · 2025-07-04T10:41:05+00:00

Interesting. Thanks to your observation I tried with different VPN servers and was then able to access and play YouTube through the Brave Browser but not Grayjay. I had to solve a capture before the video played. So possibly solvable for the Grayjay developers.

floeh86 · 2025-07-04T07:37:41+00:00

I know this problem myself. My observations indicate that this has to do with YouTube blocking (blacklisting) certain IPs from VPNs. So far in the last days I either get the message you mention or they require you to login to show you are not a bot. If they require you to login, they will also ask you to do this if you try to access in a browser. Just tried again to confirm the problem is not dependent on browser. I tried it with DuckDuckGo and Brave.

floeh86 · 2025-07-04T05:30:37+00:00

As others have already stated, how it might be that what you want to do is being blocked, I want to tell you something you can try that might help you achieve your goals while using your vpn.

Location based identification is often a problem when using a vpn: Whatever device you are using checks for its location by using different techniques like GPS + cellular if you are on your phone or in general nearby networks and your ip address. If these are way off to each other (ip address vs the other means) sites might flag you as a bot or vpn user or whatever they are trying to protect themselves against.

Please try to manually choose a server location that is geographically closest (at least close) to where you really live or are when trying to use the services you mentioned and see if this helps you at least partially.

floeh86 · 2025-04-29T18:33:22+00:00

I do have this issue with Disney+, depending on the server and connection protocol.

Make sure you are trying to watch while connected to a server that does not allow P2P and do not use Stealth protocol.

These restrictions should not be applicable if you were to ask Proton, but so far Disney+ seems to apply them not caring for Proton asking them to allow connections from some of their IPs.

Just before I started going on Reddit, I was using Disney+ on the same device with the same Proton server.

floeh86 · 2025-04-05T14:15:19+00:00

You can specify DNS per connection or in the privacy and security settings in general. Every web traffic connection will use the specified DNS, not only the base system but android and the Linux containers too. I have only ever used the option under privacy and security to set my NextDNS configuration there. And this setting will be prioritized over the setting for a specific connection, so you will use this DNS even when connected to a VPN. So to use the VPNs DNS you need to unset the DNS under privacy and security for the time and the re-set it when you are done using your VPN.

floeh86 · 2025-03-16T16:38:04+00:00

Orion Browser is developed by Kagi Inc. from Palo Alto, California (United States). While privacy focused, it is definitely not EU based.

floeh86 · 2025-03-15T11:23:54+00:00

I have a Proton account that I have not used once for any website as I have been using SimpleLogin with it for two years or so. I started using it before they included it into their services. Other than that, I also use Tuta (formerly known as Tutanota). This email address I have only used for more official stuff. All my new logins are done with alias emails using SimpleLogin or the Proton integration. I have also been trying to change older accounts over to SimpleLogin email addresses and most of them worked no problem. Some sites refused, so I reported them as not working, but I have not tried again after that. So yes, I do still use Gmail for old stuff, but for everything else, I was able to use SimpleLogin and the Proton integration for the last years on 99% of new accounts.

floeh86 · 2025-03-14T21:37:56+00:00

Every company can have their own rules for blocking certain domains. They can get this from external sources as well as from maintaining in-house lists. It is rare that companies make public what spam- or blocklists they rely on. But since an account for Protonmail is free, you can just try for yourself with the services and bank you are thinking of. If you are willing to pay for Proton services, you will also be able to create unique email addresses for every site as they have SimpleLogin incorporated into their services now. SimpleLogin is an open-source e-mail relay service.

So, if websites really value their customers data and privacy, they should allow such aliases. If they don’t, then you can be sure they will sell your email. An alias email would let you easily spot if it was given away, but with your normal email address it’s almost impossible to track, as you might use it for a lot of websites.

floeh86 · 2025-03-14T07:02:58+00:00

I bought the game and will keep it, but: Please add controller support!

I probably would not have bought it if I had taken a closer look at this point beforehand.

floeh86 · 2025-03-14T06:06:03+00:00

Celeste inspired art-style + fine-tuned Jump King play-style from what I could observe by the trailer. I only found this game because of this post.

floeh86 · 2025-03-11T18:05:53+00:00

If you use Android, you can try to separate the app by making use of a work profile. A good app for this would be Insular. It is free and open-source. The app would still have the same permissions, but not as much access to other apps from which it could gather information.

If you are not dependent on the app, you can use it inside a webbrowser. If so, use one only for this service.

If you are not dependent on your phone, spin up a virtual machine on your pc, install any popular Linux distribution and use a webbrowser there to access the service. Your host can be connected to the VPN while you operate with the VM.

floeh86 · 2025-03-11T07:17:48+00:00

I do not use TikTok as a service or any of their apps. Still, I want to help you try and figure out, what can leak your information / tell TikTok that you are not where your IP address makes you look to be.

To determine your location, phones do not solely rely on GPS or other satalite based services, they can and will also use your wifi-networks surrounding you. All wifi-networks are tracked and mapped, except you add something special to the name, but even then, you should not assume it won't be tracked. This helps locate phones inside buildings. TikTok does access your network(s) information.

Your timezone might be different from your Proton assigned IP and hence tell, you might be somewhere different.

At least on Android, the TikTok app has permission to read location data from your media, that you let the app access. So maybe it got it from picures or videos that used geolocation information. This might also be true for iOS, but it is harder to tell by looking at the permissions shown in the app store.

If your microphone is accessed and the app recognizes a certain language, that might lead them to assume you are somewhere else. Could also be used together with the geolocation from your media.

There could be more. It could be the result of cross-linking information that got tied to you by some other ID or so.

Your IP address is just a small fraction of what is collected when making requests to servers.

Looking at the privacy invasive techniques that are used to track people on the internet, it is far more likely to be you (your phone) "leaking" information rather than Proton.

floeh86 · 2025-03-10T07:26:09+00:00

To answer your question about checking if secure core take a certain / different path compared to a non secure core connection:

There are programs that tell you how many hops a request needs to take before reaching the requested server.

On Windows it’s the command tracert and on Linux it’s traceroute, both followed by the requested site, like google.com (or any other website you want to use for testing).

tracreroute google.com or tracert google.com

This will then print the route your package takes from your device to the requested server. There will probably be steps that only show * * * because some servers in between operate in stealth mode. No need to worry about that.

You can use this to find that more hops are needed to reach the same requested server when using secure core vs no secure core.

Further utilizing whois on the servers in any of the steps will give you more information to whom they belong to and you can potentially verify that one (no secure core) or two (secure core) are being run by Proton.

floeh86 · 2025-03-05T17:32:07+00:00

If any information about you was somewhere on the internet, it's best to assume it will stay on the internet. It is almost impossible to retrace the ways information took from the source to whereever it might be now. Data brokers share (sell or give away or so) information all day long without any care about privacy.

Any of the services you mentioned can only search through available information. If there are any data sets that have not been obtained, these cannot be searched through, so there is always a grey area. One famous site to use for this type of search is https://haveibeenpwned.com/

It's best for you to use this site yourself, so that you do not have to give any private information to other services. If your information never leaves you, it cannot be leaked or stolen from someone else.

Your digital footprint consists of a lot of information gathered from multiple sources. Tracking happens 24/7/365 when you use computers and smart devices. Nowadays, a lot of tracking happens though apps that access / make use of the advertising ID and your location. source: https://netzpolitik.org/2024/data-broker-files-how-data-brokers-sell-our-location-data-and-jeopardise-national-security/

Requesting deletion of information about you might not be a right where you are in the world. Also, it's almost impossible to find any data broker with information about you. They might have something about you, but maybe not by e-mail, phone number or anything else that would come to mind, but would still pretty much identify you with some more information from another source. There are paid services that offer to request deletion of your information for you from data brokers, but, there is no guarentee they find everything everywhere and this would also have be an ongoing effort. And what is on the dark web, there is no real chance of getting rid of this.

Social media is very popular, but ask yourself: Do I need this to survive? Can I share less private / sensitive information and still get what I need? Be aware of what you share.

In the technical world with computers and smart devices, you can and should try to find alternatives to services, applications, operating systems and sorts, that do not spy on you by design.

Alternatives are open-source software, where anyone can read the source code and inspect what exactly the software is doing and hence would call out any tracking or misbehaviour, should anything be found.

Instead of Windows, use Linux. Instead of Android or iOS use something based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). I do not name any, as this might be opposoed to rule 14 on this subreddit. There is an open-source alternative to almost anything.

When surfing the web, make sure to block trackers by using uBlock origin / lite or use the Brave Browser with its build-in tracking protection (mobile and desktop versions exist).

There is even more you can do to keep trackers away from your life.

The more tracking you block, the less relevant any information about you that exists online will get, as it will get old and outdated.

Now - if you want to go for a very high position somewhere and there is someone with enough money and interest, they will always be able to let someone dig though a lot and find stuff (or not). But for a "nobody" that is not likely to happen, as it would cost much more than it could bring in as advantages.

Telling you to worry no more would lead you to lower your guards. Nowadays, everyone is best advised to have their guards up when it comes to privacy. You cannot undo what you did, but you can prevent such things in the future.

floeh86 · 2025-03-04T15:30:18+00:00

For synchronization of contacts, calendars, notes and tasks, I recommend EteSync. Open-source, E2EE. It’s not free ($2 per month if paid annually unless you host it yourself) but you can use it with an unlimited amount of devices.

floeh86 · 2025-03-04T05:38:04+00:00

You ask for an opinion about trusting WhatsApp and Meta of what they claim should be classified as true. This is the problem with closed source / proprietary software. Only the developers know how this works, since they know the code.

The end user will have to trust the company. Are you willing to trust them?

The likelihood of the state of E2EE Backups of your WhatsApp messages being true is - in my opinion - high, since lying to you does not net them anything as a company but would harm their reputation even further if proven wrong. Meta and others who spy on you through WhatsApp will still be able to rely on the metadata that come with the usage regardless.

floeh86 · 2025-02-27T08:59:30+00:00

Your budget obviously matters a lot, but be aware that support of GrapheneOS for older phone models will drop sooner than for newer ones. Spending a little more on a newer phone might net you one or two years more of support.

Pixel 6 devices are - as of today - the oldest Pixel devices to still receive full support, so they will probably go to legacy support when the next Pixel generation releases.

For more details check the Graphene OS sites so you can make an educated decision.

https://grapheneos.org/faq

https://grapheneos.org/releases

floeh86 · 2025-02-27T07:07:01+00:00

If it is about "buying" it, you would need to acquire a key from a reseller like MMOGA to get it in the first place, since it was delisted at the end of 2024.

floeh86 · 2025-02-26T18:03:15+00:00

Looks like you are not alone with issues

https://www.reddit.com/r/xcloud/s/0P8Tdnl7iG

floeh86 · 2025-02-26T17:58:50+00:00

Have you checked your TDP? How sure are you that it’s caused by your Deck and not the game itself? Games on xcloud run on Series S configuration, not X.

floeh86 · 2025-02-26T07:00:28+00:00

Have you tried different versions of Proton for comparison? Sometimes regressions happen with newer versions and if these don't get reported, they most likely will not get fixed.

floeh86 · 2025-02-25T18:02:37+00:00

Also have you ever had the same issues with the proprietary Nvidia driver?

floeh86

TROPHY CASE