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/

@ilyess @sergeant Note that #Signal has also recently brought cryptocurrency into their platform, which invites copious unwelcome probing from regulators.

@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.

@sergeant @ilyess Excluding people for not having mobile phone svc is privacy abuse, as it creates pressure for them to subscribe to a service that tracks them. It also then puts users in a position of financing privacy offenders, like AT&T.

@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.

@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.