5 ms·

Tools For Protecting Your Privacy Online

65 points by andrewsass 13y ago

nolite 13y ago
Half of these services are run or maintained by private companies... This is fundamentally something that we can't trust.. trusting our security and privacy to an opaque organization. Any tool needs to be open source and transparent
- mpconlen 13y ago
  The unfortunate reality seems to be that quality open source versions don't exist for a lot of these. I'd love to hear about alternatives that you know of though.
  - drdaeman 13y ago
    It doesn't matter privacy-wise if service without end-to-end encryption (like Burner, Pastebin or DuckDuckGo) uses FLOSS or not.
spindritf 13y ago
> Internet Relay Chat (IRC) can be set up to encrypt all messages Wouldn't SILC[1] be more appropriate than IRC? IRC can be made secure with OTR or FiSH but it's very much insecure by default. Also, you're probably much safer with Tails[2] than with a manually configured Tor instance. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_%28protocol%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_%28protocol%29 [2] https://tails.boum.org/ https://tails.boum.org/
- mpconlen 13y ago
  These are both very good points. The main reason I mentioned encrypting IRC instead of something like SILC is that many people already include irc in their daily workflow. Adding settings to a client you already use may be less intrusive than picking up a new protocol altogether.
- imperialWicket 13y ago
  +1 Tails is an excellent and active project, it will install on a flash drive alongside an encrypted storage area that Tails will manage for you.
richardlblair 13y ago
I appreciate that he wrote this up for the general population, but I don't feel this is really worthy of getting on the front page of hacker news. I mean, is there anything on there you honestly didn't know?
- zxcdw 13y ago
  I can say I've heard of all of the items but have I used them so I could say I know them? No. I would expect this to be the case for majority of HN readers, quite frankly. And I'd consider myself rather paranoid even, at least among the social circles I'm part of.
gasull 13y ago
And Bitmessage. It's a good substitute for email, Twitter and chan boards. It's a fork of the Bitcoin code. https://bitmessage.org https://bitmessage.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dTotavJZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dTotavJZ8
surespot 13y ago
surespot is a free and open source mobile messenger encrypting all messages end-to-end with 256 bit AES symmetric-key encryption using keys created with 521 bit ECDH shared secret derivation. www.surespot.me was built from the ground up to provide this exceptional security in an unobtrusive way, this is not a layer over something existing. surespot is like whatsapp but actually encrypted! group chat on the way.
forward_number 13y ago
Please consider Forward-Phone-Number as a complimentary to Burner App service with phone numbers in 40+ countries and Bitcoin acceptance. Here is a direct link: https://forward-phone-number.com https://forward-phone-number.com Disclosure: I work for them
systematical 13y ago
I don't understand how setting up a VPN on my local network would secure the information. It seems like you'd need to sign up for one of these vpn services so the exit node was elsewhere. Am I missing something here?

65 points by andrewsass 13y ago

Half of these services are run or maintained by private companies... This is fundamentally something that we can't trust.. trusting our security and privacy to an opaque organization. Any tool needs to be open source and transparent

mpconlen 13y ago
The unfortunate reality seems to be that quality open source versions don't exist for a lot of these. I'd love to hear about alternatives that you know of though.
- drdaeman 13y ago
  It doesn't matter privacy-wise if service without end-to-end encryption (like Burner, Pastebin or DuckDuckGo) uses FLOSS or not.

spindritf 13y ago

> Internet Relay Chat (IRC) can be set up to encrypt all messages Wouldn't SILC[1] be more appropriate than IRC? IRC can be made secure with OTR or FiSH but it's very much insecure by default. Also, you're probably much safer with Tails[2] than with a manually configured Tor instance. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_%28protocol%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILC_%28protocol%29 [2] https://tails.boum.org/ https://tails.boum.org/

mpconlen 13y ago
These are both very good points. The main reason I mentioned encrypting IRC instead of something like SILC is that many people already include irc in their daily workflow. Adding settings to a client you already use may be less intrusive than picking up a new protocol altogether.
imperialWicket 13y ago
+1 Tails is an excellent and active project, it will install on a flash drive alongside an encrypted storage area that Tails will manage for you.

richardlblair 13y ago

I appreciate that he wrote this up for the general population, but I don't feel this is really worthy of getting on the front page of hacker news. I mean, is there anything on there you honestly didn't know?

zxcdw 13y ago
I can say I've heard of all of the items but have I used them so I could say I know them? No. I would expect this to be the case for majority of HN readers, quite frankly. And I'd consider myself rather paranoid even, at least among the social circles I'm part of.

gasull 13y ago

And Bitmessage. It's a good substitute for email, Twitter and chan boards. It's a fork of the Bitcoin code. https://bitmessage.org https://bitmessage.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dTotavJZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dTotavJZ8

surespot 13y ago

surespot is a free and open source mobile messenger encrypting all messages end-to-end with 256 bit AES symmetric-key encryption using keys created with 521 bit ECDH shared secret derivation. www.surespot.me was built from the ground up to provide this exceptional security in an unobtrusive way, this is not a layer over something existing. surespot is like whatsapp but actually encrypted! group chat on the way.

forward_number 13y ago

Please consider Forward-Phone-Number as a complimentary to Burner App service with phone numbers in 40+ countries and Bitcoin acceptance. Here is a direct link: https://forward-phone-number.com https://forward-phone-number.com Disclosure: I work for them

systematical 13y ago

I don't understand how setting up a VPN on my local network would secure the information. It seems like you'd need to sign up for one of these vpn services so the exit node was elsewhere. Am I missing something here?