A webinar would be great. I heard part of a past webinar you did but was unable to complete it :(. There are so many choices which makes things quite confusing as well as time consuming, so some additional guidance would be helpful.
Hi Glenn, I have scary news, sorry to say. Ever since I've been helping Mom become private online, she's been getting all kinds of spam texts and calls. I don't know what I did, but I really need some help. All the junk texts have been showing up in iMessage. It's as if her phone number has been passed around or something, Most people we know won't use Signal, because they don't know it and it's too complicated. So everyone's texts go to iMessages. Mom's afraid she will have to change her phone number, although she didn't want to. What would you recommend to resolve this? Is it too late and mom has lost her anonymity and has to start over again?
Privacy finally got their act together and helped mom resolve her connecting issue, as of today. Probably it was easy for most people, but for us the customer service was horrible. It was one thing or another, since the end of January. Mostly they took their set time, and WE were utterly polite, not rude or impatient. But now we got it working.
I recommend that she does not respond to them, and she should block the numbers. Note that this does not mean that her number has been hacked. They are dialing all possible numbers.
Hi Glenn, I helped mom (Faith) install the PIA vpn, as well as the BitWarden password manager, and a couple questions we had was about the free Boxcryptor protection that this included:
1. Is the Boxcryptor download for Mac trustworthy?
2. Why isn't there a family membership offered here?
My dad won't bother looking into all of these security measures because he doesn't want to spend the money on this sort of thing. I'm afraid that one day he might compromise our safety, security and privacy. I myself cannot afford all these memberships or accounts, because the only income I get is a tiny bit of ex-spouse support per month. So meanwhile, my mom will be the only one with all the security. Do you have any suggestions for us?
Absolutely! I and my daughter have many questions. We had never ensured or researched how we could be more safe online. All we have so far is a secure email service provider, named Hushmail, which comes out of Canada-- that we subscribe to every year, and we have been using Duck Duck go for our search engine. Are Hushmail and Duck Duck go okay to use, in your opinion? If not, I implore for your honesty, sir.
Mr. Meder, 2 weeks ago, I sustained my 3rd concussion. Every day is a struggle to remember words, people's names, etc. I have some learning impairment anyway. We've iMacs, and they're brainy-brains for me. I sent letters in the past to Duck Duck Go-begging for someone to help me to fix all the things to ensure privacy/security. I never heard a word from a living soul. That was over a year ago. Yeah, right?
I mis-discerned a couple of pastor/preachers I'd recommended to a few people. I don't want to get a bad reputation here. I'm more than hesitant about you. You came when another daughter forwarded your newsletter to me. I just turned 75 recently 😊, but that's great with me, it's where and when the Lord is pleased to put me. So, it's important that I see if you are trustworthy, and have tons of integrity. Uhh, how can I do that, please?
If I have sounded at all sarcastic, or have offended you, please forgive me. Moni and I just don't know how, where to start. I can't tell anyone about you yet. This is too important, and time-sensitive. If you are too very busy, and thus unable to assist, I will understand, and still pray for you.
Thank you for listening, also
Sincerely,
Faith
p.s.
I would really love a phone call during which my daughter would do things and I would just listen. But I cannot give you my phone #, because everyone else would also have it. Suggestions?
Hi Faith. It's great that you use DuckDuckGo and HushMail. Yes, both are good. I'm sorry about your concussion. As for my integrity, you can ask others to respond and tell you what they think. Otherwise you'll just have to read my articles and judge for yourself. I think you've signed up for premium, right? So go through each step of the program, starting with step 1. Once you've finished the first one, go to step 2. I have 4 steps published so far, and I will continue to publish more.
Hi Glenn, I have decided to go for the PIA vpn. Now, I can't decide if I want or need to add the $5 per month dedicated IP two-year plan. They don't explain anything about it, so could you shed some light on it? We were just going to buy the plan when we noticed the dedicated IP option. Should I go for that or not? Did you go for it?
Hi Faith, the dedicated IP service for PIA is a new feature that they have introduced. Here's what they say about it, "Secure your remote connections to any asset with a dedicated IP from a country of your choice. During your subscription, this IP will be yours and yours alone, protecting your data transfers with the strongest encryption out there."
I believe that the main difference is that streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime will detect standard VPN connections and will make you turn off your VPN while you use them, but if you have a dedicated IP address they probably won't be able to detect that you are on a VPN, so you will be able to keep it on all the time. If you will remember to turn your VPN on after you use these services, then you probably don't need it. But if you want to just keep your VPN on all the time, then a dedicated IP address will be good.
After the Yahoo.com hacking, I decided to find the most secure email service, not only did they hack Yahoo.com email but someone who sent me email's account was hacked. They sent emails to all of the addresses he had listed in his account and harassed them. He lost allll his clients. True story, he couldn't stop it from coming and I had to disconnect my account.
What most of the free email accounts don't tell you is they have left a back door open for the US government to enter, so these email accounts are vulnerable to hackers. I don't know if it's still like that but the other day gmail.com went down for the whole day.
A good VPN service is a must too many are stalking other people online. If you do a lot of work on line, or just spend a lot of time on line or on your mobile phone it's a must, to stop people from tracking you and where you live. Didn't realize how easily someone can track where you live online. It's a must for privacy and safety.
So, possible silly questions here but can I actually change the e-mail on my various subscriptions to switch them over to Proton or do I have to set up new accounts/subscriptions? I have to be honest, I do EVERYthing online so this is a huge undertaking. I'm understanding that I need to go in and create a new password then set up all those vendors (through a password mgr) as well as the debit/credit card I use for all of them (privacy.com)...? Is that correct? I set up duckduck and I started researching the VPN. I'm in the Grand Canyon and the Internet is already sloooow. Finding out that the VPN will slow it down even more wasn't exactly the highlight of my afternoon. I read that you don't need a VPN w/Brave browser but I guess that's not true...? Also, does using a VPN, Signal and an encrypted e-mail negate the need to use a dumb phone? You're still tracked, right? The moment it comes out of a Faraday bag...? And does it matter if the person you're communicating with hasn't taken all these precautions? Can you be tracked THAT way, through the other phone? I have no idea, just wondering.
Wow Debbie. A lot of questions in this. I'll try to answer them all. First, regarding changing your email on subscriptions, yes, you can do that. You're right though, that would take a long time. If you have your own email address (for example, debbie@debbieh.com) then you could simply redirect that email address to your new email provider and all the emails will follow you to your new provider. However, if you use something like debbie at gmail dot com, you don't own that email address. I suggest that you may want to keep your existing email for newsletters and non-important stuff, and then make a new protonmail account for your important email (I'd still recommend that you use your own domain, if that is not too technical for you). I'm glad that you are using DuckDuckGo, a password manager and privacy.com. Be careful with the VPN you use. The VPN company will be able to see everything you do, so you have to be able to trust them. I like ProtonVPN because I trust them. A VPN does not necessarily slow things down. Yes, even if you use Brave, you need a VPN. As far as the dumb phone, there is only so much you can do. It's simply not possible to totally extricate yourself from the system unless you go phoneless and completely off grid. Find your balance point.
I haven't done the PM and privacy.com yet. I was just making sure I knew what I had to do.
I will share that with my first DuckDuckGo search (and it was only the blasted weather!) it said that it had blocked Google, Amazon and 12 other sites trying to track me!!! Unreal.
Fantastic newsletter Glenn. I do most of those already, but need to check out privacy.com. I also shared it with some friends & others that blow me off on this type of thing.Somehow it's paranoia to keep your info & conservations private!
I've noticed that when Parler.xxm & the App were taken down by AWS, Google Play, & suspended by Apple that a bunch of people in my contacts started showing up in Signal & Telegram. Meaning they downloaded the App & created an account. Hopefully more & more will start using these services.
You can get a Protonmail account for free, you just get a small amount of space & not all the features. You can still send end to end encrypted email if the person(s) your emailing also have a proton account. You can also send an encrypted email to any domain as long you give the recipient a pword you create before sending. Give it to them over the phone or some other method. It works, as I've done it. I think you can also setup your public & private PGP keys in the free account.
I'd recommend this: When signing up for a protonmail account, make it Jay1234xxxxxxx@protonmail.ch not .com. You can choose which domain in the beginning, but can't change back. You may be able to switch to .com, but not .ch. Reason being is the US owns .com & the Swiss own .ch. If for some reason they wanted data from protonmail that wasn't encrypted, they could possibly get a warrant & get that data. If it's.ch, the Swiss gov would probably say take a hike. I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard this from other experts in secure mail, especially Protonmail..
Thanks Jay. Great comments. I never thought about the .ch version of ProtonMail. Yes, I noticed a lot of people moving when Parler was deleted, but the move over happened before that because of Whatapps change in privacy policy. I think people are finally waking up to the importance of privacy.
I have already taken the steps of using a better email, browser, and messaging app. The only step I haven’t taken is using a vpn. It’s because it seems more complicated to me. I have recommended that my friends and family switch to protonmail, but they don’t do it because they think it’s too much of a hassle to use a different email. All their contacts know them by the email they’re using; they are already signed up for newsletters at their present email, etc. I think that they also don’t think it’s a big deal if someone spies on their emails. They don’t see the threat, or maybe they don’t believe it.
Thanks Belle. Yes, explaining the problem to others is the main problem. Send them my email and see if that changes their mind. Also, get them to watch the video I linked to regarding the Chinese Social Credit System. If that doesn't wake them up then nothing will. As for the VPN, it's super easy to use. I think it's a very important piece of the puzzle.
I asked Proton about this question, and this is what they told me, "ProtonVPN has no logs on our VPN servers, but on the user device, there are error logs. However, those logs are not sent to us, and exist only on the user's device. If the user runs into problems and needs help from our support team to debug an issue, then the user can chose to send us the logs for us to help with resolving issues."
I started using proton’s vpn. A warning message popped up when it was asking permission to turn it on. It said that it could monitor my usage on my device. I thought the vpn was supposed to conceal what you do, not monitor it?
I haven changed anything because i feel like at this point the deep state has pretty much full control over everything. However i will do this as an alternitive and try and get those close to me to do so. About getting rid of google and amazon etc. What would your suggestions for alternative sources be.
As for your other point, they are always increasing their grasp. It's almost impossible to totally remove yourself, but you can take steps to greatly improve your privacy and reduce their influence over you.
For my phone I use the DuckDuckGo browser. Unfortuantely they don't have a desktop version. For desktop I primarily use FireFox, although I'm looking for something new because they are getting very political.
I use Safari on my devices & DDG as my search engine. On a PC I'll use Firefox, which has been good for a long time..I've heard rumblings about them too lately. The browser 'Brave' is also a good secure one. Nix Chrome, IE, & Edge ASAP. You have to keep IE on most versions of Windows & same with Edge or Windows won't function (at least connect to the Internet). I tried it! You can leave them on, just don't use them. Turn all there defaults off & any reporting back to MS.
Takes some research & work, but worth it. I'm dreading getting a new laptop with Win 10. It will take a week to get all the garbage off & lock it down as best I can. I loved Win 7! 😥
Well thought out article Glenn... For what it's worth (and I'm not the originator of this perspective), privacy is the most precious personal property right that a person is born with - that of self-ownership. If you aren't free to control what defines you as a person. self-determination, or whatever else you might prefer to call it, and an external agency does, you are a slave - nothing more.
Hi Glenn, for me it is some version of the following thoughts that keep me from taking action: If things can get much worse what confidence can we have that ProtonMail (and other privacy venues--like Parlor) will not be forced to "sell out" or simply be shut down? Also, by migrating to and using ProtonMail (and the likes) are we not simply painting a big target on ourselves that says, I am a non-conformist (to put it politely). I will now go ahead and try to get up to speed on ProtonMail if for no other reason than as a backup (other than gmail) to my "silicon valley account." Thank you for your urging on this important matter.
Hi Rob. I understand your concerns. We still have to fight efforts to take away our freedoms at every step. One of the ways to do this is to be confident that you can speak freely without big brother or big tech listening in. As for ProtonMail, you attach your own domain to a protonmail address, so no one knows that it's from protonmail. For example, if you own the domain robblack dot com, you could have your email be me at robblack dot com but in the background it would be on ProtonMail.
My first issue is laziness. It is going to br a lot of work to migrate to these new services. Second is I use fb etc for business as well as personal. And my contacts personal and professional are not necessarily making the same leap. And since I figure I am already on a 'list' somewhere, what difference will it make?
I understand. Just take one step at a time. Maybe start with a VPN, because that is a one time set up and then you are done. Also, do the basics, use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, put tape over your camera, make sure your computer is updated regularly, uninstall unnecessary and unused apps, ect.
I've not very little to become more private online, and reason is real simple, I don't have the time and money to do it. i'm kept so busy trying to keep my bills paid. i did try to set up a proton email, but got stuck, and couldn't proceed
A webinar would be great. I heard part of a past webinar you did but was unable to complete it :(. There are so many choices which makes things quite confusing as well as time consuming, so some additional guidance would be helpful.
Have changed my brouser to "Brave" and am changing over to Protonmail.com for privacy factor.
Hi Glenn, I have scary news, sorry to say. Ever since I've been helping Mom become private online, she's been getting all kinds of spam texts and calls. I don't know what I did, but I really need some help. All the junk texts have been showing up in iMessage. It's as if her phone number has been passed around or something, Most people we know won't use Signal, because they don't know it and it's too complicated. So everyone's texts go to iMessages. Mom's afraid she will have to change her phone number, although she didn't want to. What would you recommend to resolve this? Is it too late and mom has lost her anonymity and has to start over again?
Privacy finally got their act together and helped mom resolve her connecting issue, as of today. Probably it was easy for most people, but for us the customer service was horrible. It was one thing or another, since the end of January. Mostly they took their set time, and WE were utterly polite, not rude or impatient. But now we got it working.
Hi Monica. Yes, I have been receiving a lot more spam texts lately too. I've been getting about 3 per day, which is really unusual. According to this article, this is happening to everyone. The carriers are supposedly going to install software on their systems to reduce the number of these. https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/spam-calls-back-with-vengeance-in-2021-spam-texts-expected-to-get-worse
I recommend that she does not respond to them, and she should block the numbers. Note that this does not mean that her number has been hacked. They are dialing all possible numbers.
Hi Glenn, I helped mom (Faith) install the PIA vpn, as well as the BitWarden password manager, and a couple questions we had was about the free Boxcryptor protection that this included:
1. Is the Boxcryptor download for Mac trustworthy?
2. Why isn't there a family membership offered here?
My dad won't bother looking into all of these security measures because he doesn't want to spend the money on this sort of thing. I'm afraid that one day he might compromise our safety, security and privacy. I myself cannot afford all these memberships or accounts, because the only income I get is a tiny bit of ex-spouse support per month. So meanwhile, my mom will be the only one with all the security. Do you have any suggestions for us?
Absolutely! I and my daughter have many questions. We had never ensured or researched how we could be more safe online. All we have so far is a secure email service provider, named Hushmail, which comes out of Canada-- that we subscribe to every year, and we have been using Duck Duck go for our search engine. Are Hushmail and Duck Duck go okay to use, in your opinion? If not, I implore for your honesty, sir.
Mr. Meder, 2 weeks ago, I sustained my 3rd concussion. Every day is a struggle to remember words, people's names, etc. I have some learning impairment anyway. We've iMacs, and they're brainy-brains for me. I sent letters in the past to Duck Duck Go-begging for someone to help me to fix all the things to ensure privacy/security. I never heard a word from a living soul. That was over a year ago. Yeah, right?
I mis-discerned a couple of pastor/preachers I'd recommended to a few people. I don't want to get a bad reputation here. I'm more than hesitant about you. You came when another daughter forwarded your newsletter to me. I just turned 75 recently 😊, but that's great with me, it's where and when the Lord is pleased to put me. So, it's important that I see if you are trustworthy, and have tons of integrity. Uhh, how can I do that, please?
If I have sounded at all sarcastic, or have offended you, please forgive me. Moni and I just don't know how, where to start. I can't tell anyone about you yet. This is too important, and time-sensitive. If you are too very busy, and thus unable to assist, I will understand, and still pray for you.
Thank you for listening, also
Sincerely,
Faith
p.s.
I would really love a phone call during which my daughter would do things and I would just listen. But I cannot give you my phone #, because everyone else would also have it. Suggestions?
Hi Faith. It's great that you use DuckDuckGo and HushMail. Yes, both are good. I'm sorry about your concussion. As for my integrity, you can ask others to respond and tell you what they think. Otherwise you'll just have to read my articles and judge for yourself. I think you've signed up for premium, right? So go through each step of the program, starting with step 1. Once you've finished the first one, go to step 2. I have 4 steps published so far, and I will continue to publish more.
Hi Glenn, I have decided to go for the PIA vpn. Now, I can't decide if I want or need to add the $5 per month dedicated IP two-year plan. They don't explain anything about it, so could you shed some light on it? We were just going to buy the plan when we noticed the dedicated IP option. Should I go for that or not? Did you go for it?
Hi Faith, the dedicated IP service for PIA is a new feature that they have introduced. Here's what they say about it, "Secure your remote connections to any asset with a dedicated IP from a country of your choice. During your subscription, this IP will be yours and yours alone, protecting your data transfers with the strongest encryption out there."
I believe that the main difference is that streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime will detect standard VPN connections and will make you turn off your VPN while you use them, but if you have a dedicated IP address they probably won't be able to detect that you are on a VPN, so you will be able to keep it on all the time. If you will remember to turn your VPN on after you use these services, then you probably don't need it. But if you want to just keep your VPN on all the time, then a dedicated IP address will be good.
And another thing: Is it a good idea to switch browsers? (Safari)
See this post: https://glenn.substack.com/p/privacy-action-plan-4
After the Yahoo.com hacking, I decided to find the most secure email service, not only did they hack Yahoo.com email but someone who sent me email's account was hacked. They sent emails to all of the addresses he had listed in his account and harassed them. He lost allll his clients. True story, he couldn't stop it from coming and I had to disconnect my account.
What most of the free email accounts don't tell you is they have left a back door open for the US government to enter, so these email accounts are vulnerable to hackers. I don't know if it's still like that but the other day gmail.com went down for the whole day.
A good VPN service is a must too many are stalking other people online. If you do a lot of work on line, or just spend a lot of time on line or on your mobile phone it's a must, to stop people from tracking you and where you live. Didn't realize how easily someone can track where you live online. It's a must for privacy and safety.
Hi, Glenn!
So, possible silly questions here but can I actually change the e-mail on my various subscriptions to switch them over to Proton or do I have to set up new accounts/subscriptions? I have to be honest, I do EVERYthing online so this is a huge undertaking. I'm understanding that I need to go in and create a new password then set up all those vendors (through a password mgr) as well as the debit/credit card I use for all of them (privacy.com)...? Is that correct? I set up duckduck and I started researching the VPN. I'm in the Grand Canyon and the Internet is already sloooow. Finding out that the VPN will slow it down even more wasn't exactly the highlight of my afternoon. I read that you don't need a VPN w/Brave browser but I guess that's not true...? Also, does using a VPN, Signal and an encrypted e-mail negate the need to use a dumb phone? You're still tracked, right? The moment it comes out of a Faraday bag...? And does it matter if the person you're communicating with hasn't taken all these precautions? Can you be tracked THAT way, through the other phone? I have no idea, just wondering.
Any add'l insights would be appreciated.
Thanks so much!!!
Wow Debbie. A lot of questions in this. I'll try to answer them all. First, regarding changing your email on subscriptions, yes, you can do that. You're right though, that would take a long time. If you have your own email address (for example, debbie@debbieh.com) then you could simply redirect that email address to your new email provider and all the emails will follow you to your new provider. However, if you use something like debbie at gmail dot com, you don't own that email address. I suggest that you may want to keep your existing email for newsletters and non-important stuff, and then make a new protonmail account for your important email (I'd still recommend that you use your own domain, if that is not too technical for you). I'm glad that you are using DuckDuckGo, a password manager and privacy.com. Be careful with the VPN you use. The VPN company will be able to see everything you do, so you have to be able to trust them. I like ProtonVPN because I trust them. A VPN does not necessarily slow things down. Yes, even if you use Brave, you need a VPN. As far as the dumb phone, there is only so much you can do. It's simply not possible to totally extricate yourself from the system unless you go phoneless and completely off grid. Find your balance point.
Perf! Thanks, Glenn.
I haven't done the PM and privacy.com yet. I was just making sure I knew what I had to do.
I will share that with my first DuckDuckGo search (and it was only the blasted weather!) it said that it had blocked Google, Amazon and 12 other sites trying to track me!!! Unreal.
Fantastic newsletter Glenn. I do most of those already, but need to check out privacy.com. I also shared it with some friends & others that blow me off on this type of thing.Somehow it's paranoia to keep your info & conservations private!
I've noticed that when Parler.xxm & the App were taken down by AWS, Google Play, & suspended by Apple that a bunch of people in my contacts started showing up in Signal & Telegram. Meaning they downloaded the App & created an account. Hopefully more & more will start using these services.
You can get a Protonmail account for free, you just get a small amount of space & not all the features. You can still send end to end encrypted email if the person(s) your emailing also have a proton account. You can also send an encrypted email to any domain as long you give the recipient a pword you create before sending. Give it to them over the phone or some other method. It works, as I've done it. I think you can also setup your public & private PGP keys in the free account.
I'd recommend this: When signing up for a protonmail account, make it Jay1234xxxxxxx@protonmail.ch not .com. You can choose which domain in the beginning, but can't change back. You may be able to switch to .com, but not .ch. Reason being is the US owns .com & the Swiss own .ch. If for some reason they wanted data from protonmail that wasn't encrypted, they could possibly get a warrant & get that data. If it's.ch, the Swiss gov would probably say take a hike. I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard this from other experts in secure mail, especially Protonmail..
Jay
Thanks Jay. Great comments. I never thought about the .ch version of ProtonMail. Yes, I noticed a lot of people moving when Parler was deleted, but the move over happened before that because of Whatapps change in privacy policy. I think people are finally waking up to the importance of privacy.
I have already taken the steps of using a better email, browser, and messaging app. The only step I haven’t taken is using a vpn. It’s because it seems more complicated to me. I have recommended that my friends and family switch to protonmail, but they don’t do it because they think it’s too much of a hassle to use a different email. All their contacts know them by the email they’re using; they are already signed up for newsletters at their present email, etc. I think that they also don’t think it’s a big deal if someone spies on their emails. They don’t see the threat, or maybe they don’t believe it.
Also, tell them that they don't necessarily need to drop their other email, but they should move all of their sensitive stuff over to ProtonMail.
Thanks Belle. Yes, explaining the problem to others is the main problem. Send them my email and see if that changes their mind. Also, get them to watch the video I linked to regarding the Chinese Social Credit System. If that doesn't wake them up then nothing will. As for the VPN, it's super easy to use. I think it's a very important piece of the puzzle.
Also, i noticed in the app description it says it doesn’t log ever, but in the app’s settings it has a log.
I asked Proton about this question, and this is what they told me, "ProtonVPN has no logs on our VPN servers, but on the user device, there are error logs. However, those logs are not sent to us, and exist only on the user's device. If the user runs into problems and needs help from our support team to debug an issue, then the user can chose to send us the logs for us to help with resolving issues."
I started using proton’s vpn. A warning message popped up when it was asking permission to turn it on. It said that it could monitor my usage on my device. I thought the vpn was supposed to conceal what you do, not monitor it?
It is probably the operating system popup that appears by default whenever a VPN is turned on, regardless of which VPN.
I haven changed anything because i feel like at this point the deep state has pretty much full control over everything. However i will do this as an alternitive and try and get those close to me to do so. About getting rid of google and amazon etc. What would your suggestions for alternative sources be.
Here's a good guide for getting rid of Google: https://www.howtogeek.com/348792/how-to-remove-google-from-your-life/
As for your other point, they are always increasing their grasp. It's almost impossible to totally remove yourself, but you can take steps to greatly improve your privacy and reduce their influence over you.
Hi Glenn, What Browsers do you recommend? Using Chrome less and Firefox primarily. Any comments on Tor? Thanks!
For my phone I use the DuckDuckGo browser. Unfortuantely they don't have a desktop version. For desktop I primarily use FireFox, although I'm looking for something new because they are getting very political.
I use Safari on my devices & DDG as my search engine. On a PC I'll use Firefox, which has been good for a long time..I've heard rumblings about them too lately. The browser 'Brave' is also a good secure one. Nix Chrome, IE, & Edge ASAP. You have to keep IE on most versions of Windows & same with Edge or Windows won't function (at least connect to the Internet). I tried it! You can leave them on, just don't use them. Turn all there defaults off & any reporting back to MS.
Takes some research & work, but worth it. I'm dreading getting a new laptop with Win 10. It will take a week to get all the garbage off & lock it down as best I can. I loved Win 7! 😥
Dissenter and brave are good browsers.
Well thought out article Glenn... For what it's worth (and I'm not the originator of this perspective), privacy is the most precious personal property right that a person is born with - that of self-ownership. If you aren't free to control what defines you as a person. self-determination, or whatever else you might prefer to call it, and an external agency does, you are a slave - nothing more.
Great point Vigila! Thank you!
Hi Glenn, for me it is some version of the following thoughts that keep me from taking action: If things can get much worse what confidence can we have that ProtonMail (and other privacy venues--like Parlor) will not be forced to "sell out" or simply be shut down? Also, by migrating to and using ProtonMail (and the likes) are we not simply painting a big target on ourselves that says, I am a non-conformist (to put it politely). I will now go ahead and try to get up to speed on ProtonMail if for no other reason than as a backup (other than gmail) to my "silicon valley account." Thank you for your urging on this important matter.
Hi Rob. I understand your concerns. We still have to fight efforts to take away our freedoms at every step. One of the ways to do this is to be confident that you can speak freely without big brother or big tech listening in. As for ProtonMail, you attach your own domain to a protonmail address, so no one knows that it's from protonmail. For example, if you own the domain robblack dot com, you could have your email be me at robblack dot com but in the background it would be on ProtonMail.
I meant "digital target."
My first issue is laziness. It is going to br a lot of work to migrate to these new services. Second is I use fb etc for business as well as personal. And my contacts personal and professional are not necessarily making the same leap. And since I figure I am already on a 'list' somewhere, what difference will it make?
I understand. Just take one step at a time. Maybe start with a VPN, because that is a one time set up and then you are done. Also, do the basics, use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, put tape over your camera, make sure your computer is updated regularly, uninstall unnecessary and unused apps, ect.
Hey Glenn,
Good question. The main reason I've not gotten on board is that I didn't really see it as an important issue in my life.
All that has changed with all I'm seeing in the political, social media and medical arenas here lately.
All of a sudden, I see internet privacy as a truly vital step going into the future.
I'm grateful to you for all the work you've done to pave the way. It would be so much more work to figure all this out on my own!
:o)
Glad I could help! And I'm glad that you see the importance of it now!
I've not very little to become more private online, and reason is real simple, I don't have the time and money to do it. i'm kept so busy trying to keep my bills paid. i did try to set up a proton email, but got stuck, and couldn't proceed