What small, easy things can the average person do to start protecting their privacy today?
“Just do what you can without overburdening yourself. So, use #ProtonMail, use #Signal or #Threema, use #DuckDuckGo — these are very good alternatives. And whenever you can, say no to cookies.
@sergeant Solid advice 👍
@ilyess @sergeant When Protonmail sends you a notice that you have a msg waiting, there's apparently no way of knowing if the msg that's waiting is actually just an announcement from Protonmail themselves. So you could be forced through hoops like Protonmail's #CAPTCHA only to find spam waiting. CAPTCHA has ruined #Protonmail as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't want to lead someone their CAPTCHA trap
@sergeant @ilyess #Signal is not a good recommendation either: https://github.com/privacytoolsIO/privacytools.io/issues/779 And #DuckDuckGo is also quite lousy: http://techrights.org/2021/03/15/duckduckgo-in-2021/
@sergeant @resist1984 you’re right. Unfortunately, as it stands today #Signal remains the best #privacy preserving messaging service out there for novice users. I’m thinking of users who just wanna put in their phone number and find all their contacts and start conversations, just like they did on Whatsapp.
We might not all agree with Signal’s move to introduce crypto but we don’t have proof that it makes the messaging service less secure or less private.
@ilyess @sergeant The mobile phone number requirement makes #Signal less secure than #Wire, #Jami, #Briar, & #Snikket. It creates a large & unpredictable attack surface in addition to expanding threat agents from the cryptocurrency. The worst part is it pushes an ultamatim on people: get mobile phone svc (huge can of worms) or be excluded.
@ilyess I do not have a mobile phone & I function quite fine. I'm not interested in accts on Facebook, Twitter, Signal, and MS LinkedIn so it causes me no issues. Mandatory GSM registration is reason *not* to have a mobile phone subscription, not the contrary. The only number I give businesses is a voicemail-only number. Using #Signal to marginalize ppl w/out a mobile# is not okay.
@resist1984
@ilyess
not sure the point here. are you saying people should be like you in their daily lives? no phone number, no phone to carry to have?
or you're just saying that's how you want to live?
@NatCor @ilyess Different people have different operational requirements. If you have kids, it might be hard to avoid having mobile phone service b/c you need to always be on-call for the kids. Or maybe you need to on-call for work emergencies. But if you don't have an operational need for mobile phone service always on standby, then you may have made a bad compromise. This is just part of my point
@ilyess @NatCor Having a mobile phone w/out service gives a good amount of availability w/out making a huge security compromise. The phone can still use wifi & work for voip,wire,briar,tutanota etc. Since some people have mobile svc & some don't, opting for Signal marginalizes ppl who don't have mobile phone svc b/c they are excluded. So my point is that it's bad to encourage or push Signal on ppl
I believe it's any phone number landline, voip, or mobile.
If signal it can't text you, it will call you for a confirm code. A small percentage will have random voip numbers with spoofed id info though. with landline mostly tied to specific location. some advanced users can spoof that as well.
@resist1984 Wow, I truly respect that. The voicemail-only service you’re using did not ask for you personal information upon signup? How is it different from a regular phone number?
If you wrote about this somewhere else feel free to send me the link. I don’t want you repeating yourself but I’m genuinely interested in your experience.
@ilyess The voicemail-only service sends the VMs to an email address, so I had to supply an email address but nothing else. And because it was gratis at the time of registration, I'm anonymous in principle (no payments to track). Of course there's no way to be anonymous when callers leave detailed voicemails, but I escape all the mass surveillance that's inherent in mobile phone service.
@resist1984 That’s pretty cool. Would you mind sharing their website? I’d like to take a look.
@resist1984 Absolutely! While that bothers you and me, the reality is that most users already have a phone number, and don't see this as an issue, because in this day and age you can't do much in society without a phone number. In some countries it's even part of your identity. At the hospital? What's your phone number? Wanna order delivery? What's your number? Need internet at home? Phone number.