Nothing to do with rum Dept: Personal Privacy

Bet you never thought you'd see this one on a respectable forum. But this forum is hardly respectable, and neither is rum! This section is for the forbidden: rum and religion, politics and sex. Here's to Frank Zappa and Catholic Girls!
Post Reply
User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

Nothing to do with rum Dept: Personal Privacy

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Ask yourself this...


A survey was done asking people if they would be willing to pack up the evidence of their life: all their credit cards, mailing lists, passwords, bank accounts, receipts, and transcripts of all their communications in box, then choose a stranger (or even a friend) to leave it with "for safe keeping". No surprise, no one chose that option. When asked why, the common answer was:

"I don't trust them".

Yet that is exactly what's now happening with the NSA, Prism, etc. with one exception: we don't get the choice and we don't even know who has our box.


I won't get political here, but...

Here's some ways you can protect your privacy if you choose, per a program on National Public Radio:



1. Search Engine: Duck Duck Go or Startpage.

DDG: "Not only is DuckDuckGo built on open source software, but it also doesn't track users: no personal information is collected, shared, or used to customize individual users' search results. So, anyone searching on a particular term in DuckDuckGo will get the same results."

Ever notice how Google anticipates your search and tailors it to you? You'll be shocked at how much more unbiased info you'll get with DDG, not to mention many special links and expansion of search it provides.

Startpage: Like DDG, no info on you is saved, all is encrypted, and it's located in the Netherlands, free of NSA/US orders and influence.


2. Android Communications: RedPhone and TextSecure

These two new apps are designed to "drop in" easily and act within your normal phone/texts to encrypt your calls and texts before they are released to the cloud. RedPhone is based on the well respected PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") encryption. Only issue: your receiver also needs to use them to be able to understand you.


3. Cloud Storage: Dropbox and Tresorit

Both of these allow you to store data securely in the cloud for use by multiple devices or for sharing with your permission alone.

Dropbox: is an encryped, cloud-based storage for all your photos, docs, etc. that you can share with only those you select.

Tesorit: based in Hungary, designed for storing anything, but is promoted for sharing business data. It's encryption and permissions are reputed to be extremely powerful and convenient.

Note: the interview on NPR stressed that by far the most private method is personal encryption BEFORE it leaves your computer. Encryption by the big companies (eg Google or Microsoft) doesn't help if backdoors are provided to the government (and they are).


4. Social Networks: Diaspora

When you post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ et al, you might as well give the world a key to your house and life. Powerful government computers can make associations and develop files that describe you and your life down to your underwear.

On the NPR show the most impactful quote was "If a product is free, then YOU are the product!" as your every contact, friend, statement, picture and scrap of information is shared, sold, used and stolen. Even more frightening is the appearance of huge and well-organized data-stealing "social bots" - computer generated people and profiles created by the millions, and which are designed to infiltrate and steal your information as directed by a "botmaster". Read this and be scared - very, very scared...

http://news.techworld.com/security/3456 ... evil-bots/
"How safe is your online social network? Not very, as it turns out. Your friends may not even be human, but rather bots siphoning off your data and influencing your decisions with convincing yet programmed points of view.

A team of computer researchers at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia has found that hordes of social bots could not only spell disaster for large online destinations like Facebook and Twitter but also threaten the very fabric of the Web and even have implications for our broader economy and society."
Diaspora: "Diaspora is intended to address privacy concerns related to centralized social networks by allowing users set up their own server (or "pod") to host content; pods can then interact to share status updates, photographs, and other social data.[6] It allows its users to host their data with a traditional web host, a cloud-based host, an ISP, or a friend. The framework, which is being built on Ruby on Rails, is free software and can be experimented with by external developers."

"A key part of the Diaspora software design concept is that it should act as a "social aggregator", allowing posts to be easily imported from Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. As Village Voice writer Nick Pinto explained, "the idea is that this lowers the barriers to joining the network, and as more of your friends join, you no longer need to bounce communications through Facebook. Instead, you can communicate directly, securely, and without running exchanges past the prying eyes of Zuckerberg and his business associates"

Diaspora is not easy to quickly comprehend, but what is going on is a form of peer-to-peer sharing with no middleman (eg Facebook). By eliminating the middleman you have absolute control over your information, and there is no way your information can leak via careless friends or by middleman design. Diaspora will probably grow rapidly and privately. For more understanding you must go the OFFICIAL site and FAQS...

https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/Main_Page
https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_Users
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(software)


5. Anonymous Browsing: Tor

The Tor Browser bundle is very well known and widely used, has been for years. It's Firefox based but channels your encrypted searches through a series of random and anonymous IP's, so that your request will appear to be coming from one other than your own. Here's a C-Net review and safe download:

http://download.cnet.com/Tor-Browser-Bu ... 60251.html


6. Email: Thunderbird with Enigmail

Other than what you give away already, with almost every keystroke to Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, et al there are bots constantly working to get into the thousands of old emails still in the Gmail and other archives and which may contain all manner of account numbers, passwords and the like. Ever register somewhere and the site sent you a nice auto-reply stating "Here's your e-name and password" with both sitting there for easy pickings.

Seriously, do you really trust Google, et al who we now know are copying everything to Big Bother?

What to do? First of all - go to each of your email providers and delete - forever - everything. Although that won't stop Google or BB who already have them, but it WILL stop the bots from ever getting them. Next:

Thunderbird with Enigma: T'bird is on it's 17th version, so it's quite up to date. Although they are stopping development on add-ons, it will continue to be maintained for Security updates. And unlike your Outlook, etc. (which just means your sharing everything with Microsoft as well as your email provider), YOU own your own Thunderbird. And unlike your current email program, Thunderbird has tons of add-ons, the most important here being the Enigmail add-on, which allows you encrypt and decrypt easily and automatically if you choose.

Enigmail is an offshoot of PGP - GnuGP. Very secure and reputed to be the system used between Snowden and Greenwald.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/


7. Extras: Cloudsweeper and Security In-a-Box

Security In-a-Box: Discusses all the things you can do to protect your computer and your privacy, with a bunch of "hands-on guides" that walks you through using various options, like Thunderbird with Enigmail, above.

https://securityinabox.org/en/thunderbird_main

Cloudsweeper: Want to know what you forgot about in your gmail and what it's worth on the open market of identity theft (there is one, you know)? Cloudsweeper was developed by and resides at the University of Chicago. Here's some links:

https://cloudsweeper.cs.uic.edu/

http://www.geek.com/apps/cloudsweeper-t ... r-1560265/


Wanta hear the NPR program?

http://sciencefriday.com/segment/07/12/ ... ivacy.html



Cheers to all who are reading this! Not so fast, BB...
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Dai
Minor God
Posts: 796
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:33 am
Location: Swansea

Post by Dai »

nice bit of research there Jimbo.
Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect!

My Link to Save Caribbean Rum Petition
User avatar
bearmark
Beermeister
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2012 4:35 pm
Location: Near Dallas Texas
Contact:

Instant Messaging

Post by bearmark »

If you're interested in Instant Messaging, then you should add Pidgin and Off-the-Record to your list as well. Pidgin provides consolidated messaging for lots of services (Yahoo! Messenger, GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger, Facebook, etc.) and Off-the-Record ensures that you're conversations are private and secure.
Mark Hébert
Rum References: Flor de Caña 18 (Demeraran), The Scarlet Ibis (Trinidadian), R.L. Seale 10 (Barbadian), Appleton Extra (Jamaican), Ron Abuelo 12 (Cuban), Barbancourt 5-Star (Agricole)
User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Some experiences...


1. The Tor browser has been around for years, and is easy, reliable and is related to the famous Fox browser. It's an easy download. Arguably it's a bit slower but it does the job nicely and absolutely anonymously. Your request is routed through a number of random IP's, and your searches will appear to emanate from elsewhere, different everytime you use it.

https://www.torproject.org/


2. I've never been comfortable with the former Outlook Express, now replaced by Microsoft's Live Mail. Neither is particularly creative, both force you to work in their fashion and are really pretty clumsy. What sealed the deal was learning the MS willingly gave Big Brother an open door to all our emails. Let's face it - change is bothersome - but maintaining our American privacy rights is more important.

Enter Thunderbird (from Mozilla).

The changeover (to the newest version, 17. x ) was actually pretty easy. Gmail went over easily. Hotmail did as well but needing a little do-able alteration. And that's what makes Thunderbird terrific - the ability to really make it work your way, not Microsoft's.

Just like Android, where add-ons allow you to customize your look, services and abilities to work the way YOU want to, T-bird also has a bunch of well-tested add-ons or extensions available from the Mozilla Foundation (which is committed to open source and individual rights). The ability to customize is endless, yet the basic program works just fine right out of the e-box.

Even better things like chat, search and browsing are built in, and appear in handy tabs, without even leaving the program. I added a dictionary/thesaurus and a signature controller, plus the big one...

Enigmail. The Enigmail add-on takes some time, but by downloading GnuGP and the Enigmal add-on, you can make sure at least one of your email accounts has the ability to send and receive fully encrypted mail. Encryption is generally for geeks, but the Enigmail site walks even a Compleat Idiot through an easy install that works. Here's what you'll need:

http://www.enigmail.net/documentation/quickstart.php
http://www.gpg4win.org/
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... /enigmail/

For more add-ons:
https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/thunde ... xtensions/

All of these are safe downloads, but nonetheless after downloading anything I triple-check them for viruses, etc., before installing them.


3. We all know the BIG abusers are the BIG guys - especially Google and Facebook, but Microsoft, Twitter and the rest. Use any of them and you might as well make a copy of your house and car keys for them. Actually the first tool I adoped - in a few minutes - was to use Duck Duck Go for my primary search tool. After using it for a bit, I find that my need for Google is now rare.

Duck Duck Go keeps no information, no cookies, no IP records - in other words - nothing. Nada. So even if they are served with a court order there's nothing for them to give BB cause they don't collect any records. Further, DDG has a lot of very cool features: to alter, organize, filter and to expand your searches.

The best of all: because DDG is selling your life experience to anyone, you won't get any of the preferred listing "tailored" to you by Brother Google and which crowd out the real and unbiased, uncontrolled findings. Don't believe me - do a side by side - and watch your research come alive on DDG. Easy, fast and I like it for all the above...

https://duckduckgo.com/


Flat Ass Bottom Line:

Just using these three eliminates the Big Three abusers of your privacy. I have more to share, but that will wait. If I were you - and I'm not! - and in order of ease I'd start with DDG (in minutes), then Tor (also in minutes) and finally Thunderbird in its vanilla state. You can add further customizations and Enigmail/Gnu later.

If you do and have any problems, don't hesitate to write and just like rum reviews, I can share my stumblings and hard won knowledge that will save you the time and ignorant mistakes I made...
Post Reply