Yes! Excellent advice!

I am a big fan of RSS and have been using it as my primary source of info for at least a decade.

I actually already had SBS but only just now realised that ABC pages (eg “just in”) can be entered directly and it’ll find the RSS version (using Reeder at least).

Do you have advice about how to centralise/organise RSS? I use Feedly as a cloud source that I point Reeder at (have also been playing with Fiery Feeds). But I can’t help but think there’s a better way that doesn’t involve a third party (again, privacy).

Thank you. That’s very helpful.

And yep, https://www.abc.net.au/news is exactly one of the sites I was thinking of. I notice their app makes many calls to firebaselogging-pa.googleapis.com and similar. Sending who knows what.

Moving to the web version I’m hoping can blunt such things. On iOS I use AdGuard, Hush, and StopTheMadness. https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html tells me I’m not doing too bad in terms of ads and tracking.

Two others which are pretty bad with their apps but have very similar webpages:

https://touch.footytips.com.au/home https://www.afl.com.au/

I guess my question was if webpage versions of apps can/typically use Google analytics-type tracking of what you’re doing.

And more specifically if Safari with private relay, perhaps with some extensions, can hide anything such webpages are trying to scrape.

This. And if you have kids that just want a large catalogue of random games, it’s perfect.

Doesn’t seem many people commenting here like the idea. But for me personally, and my family situation, saves me heaps of money.

Sorry, my bad. I thought this was a petition OP had set up. And not Mozilla themselves to protect Firefox. Sleep deprivation :(

Why the focus on Firefox? Why not just say “browsers”?

Video games and heavy metal I found is good for my mental health

Aah I see. Both. Didn’t think to disconnect from either and try separately.

I’ve already got the book now. But will remember this if I have the problem again in the future. Thanks.

Yes! Much appreciated!

I see. Thanks.

Yes it was. It needed to be connected somehow to make the purchase.

Do any VPN providers cover this?

Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if both apps and webpages have access to the phone date/time for logs and to time stamp purchases etc. And Amazon use that to decide you’re not in the place your VPN is telling them.

Thanks. Still happened with location services disabled phone-wide.

Cheers, thanks for the very helpful info.

We paid for Nord quite a while ago with some special deal. I haven’t heard great things about them since though so might be time to ditch and pay for something better. I’ve heard Proton is good as well.

Yeah my payment method is US credit card. But Audible members get a credit (book) each month to buy a book with in addition to use physical money.

Everything for that account is US.

This might be it. I gave up and purchased from my desktop and the same steps worked straight away without issue. Maybe Amazon has access to phone info that I’m unaware of.

Nah the CC and billing address for my US account are fully local there. My AU and US accounts are totally seperate and everything is local for each.

I’ve tried both using their apps on my phone and the browser (Safari with privacy relay) with the same result (with VPN etc etc).

I agree, I can’t se how they’re doing this. Must be something I’ve overlooked. Or some new internet black magic they’re employing.

EDIT: Or the search result for the book I want isn’t actually available in the USA and they’ve just messed that up (since I’m searching from the US as far as they can see). I guess I could try buying a different book

I have a US Amazon account linked to a US home address and credit card. But I now live in Oz.

Audible uses your Amazon account. And regardless, I’m using an Audible credit for this purchase, so no actual payment anyway.

EDIT: and just to clarify, this is my US Amazon account I’ve had for years

Audible and Amazon accounts are the same. I have an AU account and a US account. But I’m only using the US account to buy the audiobook in the US store, using VPN and private browsing. No CC or similar involved.

But from Australia. So how does Amazon know I’m in Australia?!

From a privacy point-of-view I thought VPN masks such things. I’m trying to understand how Amazon is detecting my physical country.