Digital Privacy

General Chat 💬
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Hi folks,

So privacy online is becoming a thing in 2018, and I think it’s great. More people than ever before are using VPNs, encrypted messaging and so on. Not that we have anything to hide, but it’s similar to closing your curtains when it gets dark - It isn’t that you’re up to anything nefarious, you just want it to be your own business and no one else’s.

For those of you who need a good starting point, I recommend this site:

For others, what do you use? Do you have any software/tips/practises you’d like to share?

I’ll go first :slight_smile:
I use ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com/) for private email, even things like email receipts for what I purchase. It shocked me to learn that Google store all of your ‘products and purchases’ based on the email confirmations you receive. I’d prefer if that stays between me and the company.

Right now I’m looking at VPNs but it’s an absolute minefield out there. I’d also love to use an encrypted messaging app, but the barrier to entry here is that you need to get your contacts to do it as well :frowning:

Cheers guys!

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WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption now :slight_smile:

https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/28030015/

or is that not quite what you meant?

Also, I get the impression that Signal seems is the preferred choice for journalists but it’s obviously less popular in the UK..

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Hey Alex, it’s absolutely what I meant :slight_smile:

The issue with WhatsApp (and please correct me if I’m wrong) is that they encrypt the content of messages, but not the metadata, which is logged, and after reading this - you’ll agree that the content becomes largely irrelevant at points:

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Fellow ProtonMail user here, I really like it, but you have to be aware of potential downtime as we’ve seen lately due to relentless DDoS attacks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/8uu9t7/update_regarding_the_ddos_situation/

When it comes to VPN, I use PIA, they do not log any of your traffic and still maintain a good speed, it costs me under £5 a month.

I steered away from Signal after reading an in depth piece about it being a lot more vulnerable than we all believe, unfortunately I can’t find the source now so it could be that this has been addressed. However instead I use Wire, which I like, but don’t get to use as often as I’d like due to lack of adoption from my friends.

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Wire - The Slack for people who aren’t slacking when it comes to privacy :slight_smile:

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For backups check out https://www.tarsnap.com/ - “Online backups for the truly paranoid”

Have a look at Mullvad.net

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How are they for mobile? Decent on iOS/Android? The iOS app has bad ratings from poor connectivity, etc. How about accessing US Netflix and things like that?

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It can be a bit temperamental, the connection does drop out randomly every now and then but it can also go for days without any issues :slight_smile: Geospoofing also works really well, and you can access all the sites your ISP blocks.