# Bring me up to speed on privacy developments in the past 2 years **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions? (post them here)\ **Created:** [September 4, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85 "2026-09-04T21:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cosmic.beard](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/cosmic.beard/32/98_2.png) [@cosmic.beard](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/cosmic.beard)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/1 "2026-09-04T21:30:08Z")
I haven’t been tapped in for the past 2 years, but before that I was heavily invested in security culture. Can we talk about what’s happened in the past 2 years? I’m interested in anything regarding phone security like GrapheneOS, Qubes, Whonix, Tor, XMR, and KYC and privacy laws. I’m curious about Tails but never used it much myself. I haven’t looked too deeply into it but it looked like Qubes got Windows integration figured out, so that’s pretty cool. I heard something about an attack on the Monero network, but I’m skeptical of the severity of it (FUD???). Idk maybe it’s really bad I’m just skeptical about news like that. The surveillance state seems to have been hard at work though so let’s fill me in and ruin my day ---
**Author:** ![BTC-brother2018](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/btc-brother2018/32/6_2.png) [@BTC-brother2018](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/BTC-brother2018)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/2 "2026-09-04T21:56:46Z")
You picked a pretty eventful two years to disappear 😂. Here’s the condensed version: GrapheneOS: Still one of the strongest options for a hardened privacy-focused phone. It’s kept pace with Android 16 while continuing to add its own hardening and exploit mitigations on top. Development is very active. Qubes: Probably one of the bigger changes you noticed. Qubes OS 4.3 released in December 2025 with Xen 4.19, newer Fedora/Debian templates, Whonix 18 and the return of improved Qubes Windows Tools. Windows 10/11 integration is legitimately much better now, although the seamless graphics integration is still considered experimental. Whonix 18 is the current generation. Whonix 17 has reached end of security support, so anybody still sitting on an old 17 installation needs to move. Qubes 4.3 ships with Whonix 18 templates by default. Tor itself is still very much alive. A lot of work has gone into censorship resistance, bridges, Snowflake, WebTunnel, etc., because countries have gotten considerably more aggressive and sophisticated about blocking Tor. Tor Browser 15 is the current stable generation and is based on Firefox ESR 140. Tails: One of the biggest changes actually happened behind the scenes. In September 2024, Tails officially joined forces with the Tor Project and merged operations. Tails had grown to the point where fundraising, finances, HR, infrastructure and other administrative work were putting a lot of pressure on its relatively small team. Moving under the Tor Project gives Tails access to a much larger established organization and lets its developers spend more of their time actually maintaining and improving Tails. KYC/privacy regulation, this is probably the depressing part. Regulation has continued moving toward more identification and transaction monitoring at centralized financial intermediaries. The EU’s 2024 AML regulation, for example, specifically prohibits regulated crypto-asset service providers from maintaining anonymous crypto accounts and explicitly addresses anonymity-enhancing coins. That applies to regulated intermediaries, it isn’t the same thing as governments somehow banning the existence of self-custodial Monero wallets. The thing you heard about with XMR probably wasn’t completely FUD. In August 2025, Qubic claimed it had obtained majority hashrate and demonstrated a blockchain reorganization against Monero. I’d distinguish that from saying “Monero was broken,” though. A majority-hashrate/reorg attack attacks PoW consensus; it doesn’t magically decrypt RingCT, reveal everyone’s transactions or break Monero’s privacy cryptography. Qubic itself claimed it reached 51% and successfully reorganized the chain. ---
**Author:** ![cosmic.beard](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/cosmic.beard/32/98_2.png) [@cosmic.beard](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/cosmic.beard)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 1:18am UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/3 "2026-09-05T01:18:38Z")
**Reply** Thanks for the update. Tor partnering with Tails is cool. I’m gonna sound dumb because I can’t remember enough to describe what I’m trying to talk about: I think I recall somebody making a Tails-like OS, but I was kind of unclear about what it was trying to achieve anyways. I think it showed up after a Qubes update. Idk that just popped into my head and I guess we’re doing stream of consciousness now. I’m happy to hear there hasn’t been more legislation on non-custodial wallets, at least. I remember when they made KYC mandatory for XMR trades, and that was frustrating. Only tangentially related, but this Flock shit got me fucked up. It’s reassuring that people are generally mad about it, but I don’t think anything short of revolution is going to stop Uncle Sam from constructing the panopticon. I also read the story about the dude who got jammed up for giving the DHS his duress PIN. It does feel like the government is getting more aggressive about anti-privacy policies and practices, but like I said it’s a little reassuring that it seems like people are largely not crazy about it. I’m mad about a lot of things and I’ve learned to expect people to be complacent with the craziest shit. ---
**Author:** ![BTC-brother2018](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/btc-brother2018/32/6_2.png) [@BTC-brother2018](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/BTC-brother2018)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/4 "2026-09-05T01:32:17Z")
I think I know what you’re talking about with the Tails-like OS, but I’m drawing a blank on the name too. If I figure out what it was I’ll post it here. And yeah, the Flock stuff is concerning. What bothers me most isn’t any one surveillance technology by itself, it’s how easy it becomes to combine all these different sources of data. At least there starting to be more public awareness and pushback around privacy than there used to be. Not nearly as much as there should be. IMO ---
**Author:** ![cosmic.beard](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/cosmic.beard/32/98_2.png) [@cosmic.beard](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/cosmic.beard)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/5 "2026-09-06T16:26:10Z")
Kicksecure is the software I was thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![BTC-brother2018](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/btc-brother2018/32/6_2.png) [@BTC-brother2018](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/BTC-brother2018)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/6 "2026-09-06T16:57:09Z")
Kicksecure is the hardened Debian-based operating system that Whonix is built on. But it’s persistent so it’s not like Tails. ---
**Author:** ![cosmic.beard](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/cosmic.beard/32/98_2.png) [@cosmic.beard](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/cosmic.beard)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/7 "2026-09-07T17:27:54Z")
Yeah I read up about it a little bit. I didn’t really understand what it was back then, and I don’t know where I heard that it was a kind of Tails-like. ---
**Author:** ![BTC-brother2018](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex051/user_avatar/darknet-questions.discourse.group/btc-brother2018/32/6_2.png) [@BTC-brother2018](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/u/BTC-brother2018)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 1:14am UTC](https://darknet-questions.discourse.group/t/bring-me-up-to-speed-on-privacy-developments-in-the-past-2-years/85/8 "2026-09-08T01:14:39Z")
Maybe because you can install it on a usb. But it still a persistent os. Just on a usb drive