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Define "subversive." Does politically organizing against Putin count as "subversive"? Does not wanting everything you read online to be tracked and recorded by

by ekidd 10y ago

Define "subversive." Does politically organizing against Putin count as "subversive"? Does not wanting everything you read online to be tracked and recorded by the NSA/Obama/Trump count as "subversive"? Does not wanting a large fraction of your browsing habits to be added to marketing databases count as "subversive"? Honestly, I would suggest that more people ought to consider encrypting more of their communications just for day to day use.

germinalphrase 10y ago
More people ought to - but the extent to which everyday people attempt this (even if aware that they might want to) is probably no more extensive than searching via duckduckgo and/or browsing with a private window/incognito mode. It doing so is much more difficult than these options, then it seems unlikely to happen. Edit: that said, if there are - in fact - simple ways of achieving this goal I'd like to hear so I can share them.
- ekidd 10y ago
  > Edit: that said, if there are - in fact - simple ways of achieving this goal I'd like to hear so I can share them. Here are some things which aren't too hard, but which provide a reasonable improvement in security: 1. The easiest thing to do is replace your current SMS application with Signal, and to encourage your less technical friends to do likewise. You can still send regular SMS messages, but if both people have Signal, it will switch to encrypted messages. I've talked a fair number of non-technical, non-paranoid users into doing this and they all seem pretty happy. 2. Tor is surprisingly easy to set up and use these days, it works well, and it uses DuckDuckGo search by default. Again, it won't provide flawless protection against a sufficiently powerful adversary, and it's obvious you're using Tor. But still, launching Tor and using it is pretty easy. And it will definitely keep, for example, web advertising companies or ISPs from building detailed dossiers on your behavior. Again, if you just want something easy to use and you don't pay attention to the fine print, you're not necessarily going to be well-protected against sophisticated adversaries. But you can improve your security a lot for relatively little effort.

by ekidd 10y ago

germinalphrase 10y ago

More people ought to - but the extent to which everyday people attempt this (even if aware that they might want to) is probably no more extensive than searching via duckduckgo and/or browsing with a private window/incognito mode. It doing so is much more difficult than these options, then it seems unlikely to happen. Edit: that said, if there are - in fact - simple ways of achieving this goal I'd like to hear so I can share them.

ekidd 10y ago
> Edit: that said, if there are - in fact - simple ways of achieving this goal I'd like to hear so I can share them. Here are some things which aren't too hard, but which provide a reasonable improvement in security: 1. The easiest thing to do is replace your current SMS application with Signal, and to encourage your less technical friends to do likewise. You can still send regular SMS messages, but if both people have Signal, it will switch to encrypted messages. I've talked a fair number of non-technical, non-paranoid users into doing this and they all seem pretty happy. 2. Tor is surprisingly easy to set up and use these days, it works well, and it uses DuckDuckGo search by default. Again, it won't provide flawless protection against a sufficiently powerful adversary, and it's obvious you're using Tor. But still, launching Tor and using it is pretty easy. And it will definitely keep, for example, web advertising companies or ISPs from building detailed dossiers on your behavior. Again, if you just want something easy to use and you don't pay attention to the fine print, you're not necessarily going to be well-protected against sophisticated adversaries. But you can improve your security a lot for relatively little effort.