4 ms·

Usually when a question is asked in a headline one would expect the article to at least attempt to answer it. This piece doesn't guide you on how to make trade-

by t_mann 4y ago

Usually when a question is asked in a headline one would expect the article to at least attempt to answer it. This piece doesn't guide you on how to make trade-off decisions between privacy and usability, it doesn't even give concrete tips on how to improve privacy (apart from a single mention of password managers, where it doesn't even say whether they should be used or avoided). This is as useless for beginners as it is for experts, how did this make it to the front page of HN?

fsflover 4y ago
Some concrete advises: https://prism-break.org https://prism-break.org
- ryanisnan 4y ago
  I find sites like this very hard to accept at face value. For example, on iOS, they say to avoid Authy for MFA but recommend a project called Tofu. This may be a sensible recommendation but they give zero supporting information as to why. I have nothing against Tofu (maybe the texture) but if you are going to convince someone that an opensource project made by mostly one person with very little financial backing, over a corporate MFA provider, data or rationale is required!
  - cto_of_antifa 4y ago
  - fsflover 4y ago
    They usually explain and discuss specific apps in the Issue tracker: https://gitlab.com/prism-break/prism-break/-/issues https://gitlab.com/prism-break/prism-break/-/issues.
nunorbatista 4y ago
OP Here. Thanks for the feedback. When I started to write the article, I was set to give a list of things we can follow to improve privacy. In the middle, I noticed the arguments why you should do it were not clear. As I said in another comment, it's not clear for my mother the consequences of oversharing, so it's not easy for me to tell her not do do so. The reality is that it really depends. Maybe you do need to flash your phone and use a VPN or maybe not. It's complex. I work in Cybersecurity and I often get into projects where PMs want magic bullets but there isn't one. Are you processing personal data? Are you going to have legal, financial or reputation implications if you have your data stolen? It's not binary. The idea is to get the basics right so I can defend to my significant other why she doesn't see ads on Google: it's because pi-hole, honey. I will come up with the list of things you can do and share it here soon, sorry if you think it's clickbait.
- t_mann 4y ago
  Positively surprised that you are reacting, so I want to offer some constructive feedback: one thing you could do would be to describe various points on a 'Pareto curve' of privacy vs useability. Starting with a low-effort setup that explains eg password managers, cookie settings and other privacy-enhancing browser extensions, intermediate solutions with well-separated online identities, VPN, protonmail, local file encryption,... and a more extreme solution with self-hosting, custom OS...

by t_mann 4y ago

fsflover 4y ago

Some concrete advises: https://prism-break.org https://prism-break.org

ryanisnan 4y ago
I find sites like this very hard to accept at face value. For example, on iOS, they say to avoid Authy for MFA but recommend a project called Tofu. This may be a sensible recommendation but they give zero supporting information as to why. I have nothing against Tofu (maybe the texture) but if you are going to convince someone that an opensource project made by mostly one person with very little financial backing, over a corporate MFA provider, data or rationale is required!
- cto_of_antifa 4y ago
- fsflover 4y ago
  They usually explain and discuss specific apps in the Issue tracker: https://gitlab.com/prism-break/prism-break/-/issues https://gitlab.com/prism-break/prism-break/-/issues.

nunorbatista 4y ago

OP Here. Thanks for the feedback. When I started to write the article, I was set to give a list of things we can follow to improve privacy. In the middle, I noticed the arguments why you should do it were not clear. As I said in another comment, it's not clear for my mother the consequences of oversharing, so it's not easy for me to tell her not do do so. The reality is that it really depends. Maybe you do need to flash your phone and use a VPN or maybe not. It's complex. I work in Cybersecurity and I often get into projects where PMs want magic bullets but there isn't one. Are you processing personal data? Are you going to have legal, financial or reputation implications if you have your data stolen? It's not binary. The idea is to get the basics right so I can defend to my significant other why she doesn't see ads on Google: it's because pi-hole, honey. I will come up with the list of things you can do and share it here soon, sorry if you think it's clickbait.

t_mann 4y ago
Positively surprised that you are reacting, so I want to offer some constructive feedback: one thing you could do would be to describe various points on a 'Pareto curve' of privacy vs useability. Starting with a low-effort setup that explains eg password managers, cookie settings and other privacy-enhancing browser extensions, intermediate solutions with well-separated online identities, VPN, protonmail, local file encryption,... and a more extreme solution with self-hosting, custom OS...