No, there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm highly unlikely to be a person of interest under the mass surveillance programme, so why bother?
Everyone can do something, the honest expression would be "there's nothing I want to do about it."
Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#12After reading Glenn Greenwald's book, I supported https://protonmail.ch/, an encrypted email service based in the EU (Switzerland -edit: no it is not, should have said "Europe"-). It's currently in beta, I'm waiting for custom domain support and apps. The complete focus on "but Americans are protected" as an excuse for the NSA spying makes me actively seek out local services that are privacy aware. I use Telegram with encrypted chats for many conversations now. I found this service as an alternative to digital ocean: Transip.nl. I do wonder how my rights are when I pick an Amsterdam based data center for my droplet though. I know MS actively protected user data from Ireland which is good, whatever their reasons are.
I also switched to using mobile websites in mobile FF instead of installing many intrusive apps. Mobile responsive website are often as good as apps and better for sharing links.
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#13I've started to despair a bit more about both technological and political solutions. I'm trying to adjust to the idea that nothing that happens online is private, and real privacy requires something more like tradecraft than mass adoption of encryption technologies.
>>I've started to despair a bit more about both technological and political solutions.
Ditto the despair. I feel like I've been contributing to the construction of an oppressive pantheon, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
But then I see things like ipfs, and tor, and so on .. and somehow feel like there might be hope. But regardless of the technological solutions that are being proposed, we still need to reign in - and more importantly, make society more aware of the need to reign in - those who wish to oppress us all with technology. Its a daunting task, but the best thing I can possibly do is raise my sons to understand the need to understand things. Teach them cryptography. Save all the old machines for them, just in case. Impress upon them the importance of recognizing repression and fascism in the world today, and do what they can to stamp it out.
I'm also spending more time outside with them, enjoying the simple beauties of life. Its just as important as waiting for the keys to re-gen ..
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#14No, there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm highly unlikely to be a person of interest under the mass surveillance programme, so why bother?
Glen Greenwald gave a TED talk about a similar point of view.
http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters...
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#15Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#16No, there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm highly unlikely to be a person of interest under the mass surveillance programme, so why bother?
That's not an attitude that leads to progress, to a better world. "It doesn't affect me, so why bother"?
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#17After reading Glenn Greenwald's book, I supported https://protonmail.ch/ , an encrypted email service based in the EU (Switzerland -edit: no it is not, should have said "Europe"-). It's currently in beta, I'm waiting for custom domain support and apps. The complete focus on "but Americans are protected" as an excuse for the NSA spying makes me actively seek out local services that are privacy aware. I use Telegram wi…
Switzerland is not in the EU.
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#18After reading Glenn Greenwald's book, I supported https://protonmail.ch/ , an encrypted email service based in the EU (Switzerland -edit: no it is not, should have said "Europe"-). It's currently in beta, I'm waiting for custom domain support and apps. The complete focus on "but Americans are protected" as an excuse for the NSA spying makes me actively seek out local services that are privacy aware. I use Telegram wi…
My only gripe with Protonmail is that they're closed sourced. The good news is that they intent to open source it when they come out of beta[0], so I'll be switching to them as soon as that happens.
[0] https://twitter.com/protonmail/status/468759469006942209
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#19After reading Glenn Greenwald's book, I supported https://protonmail.ch/ , an encrypted email service based in the EU (Switzerland -edit: no it is not, should have said "Europe"-). It's currently in beta, I'm waiting for custom domain support and apps. The complete focus on "but Americans are protected" as an excuse for the NSA spying makes me actively seek out local services that are privacy aware. I use Telegram wi…
mailbox.org seems like another EU (Germany) based email startup.
Email is a very big hard-to-deal-with issue, however the Dark Mail Technical Alliance and services such as those already mentioned are taking steps to making email more secure.
It is interesting you mention Telegram, i have started using that with contacts of mine who have also adopted it, i'm not totally convinced it is secure, but does seem a better alternative to WhatsApp.
Further to this i've secured the domains i host content on, not because the content needs securing in terms of handling financial data etc, but because i believe that the wider encryption is used the harder it will be to operate global 'catch-all' surveillance.
ref: http://darkmail.info http://mailbox.org https://telegram.org
Re: Ask HN: Since CitizenFour, have you changed the way you conduct yourself online?
#20I started using TextSecure with my closest friends, but not after the documentary, after the first Snowden revelations.
I'm also very cautious about using non-HTTPS sites these days, or using sites with broken HTTPS. I sent my bank an email about their poor HTTPS configuration as well.
I also intend to use EFF's CA for all my future sites, regardless of what type of site it is and whether it actually "needs" HTTPS or not.
I'm much more careful about what I share through Gmail/Hangouts. I use 2FA for Gmail now, but I know it's useless against the NSA, because Google defaults to SMS-based 2FA (and the wireless networks are completely owned by the NSA), regardless of whether you chose SMS or Authenticator 2FA. It's mainly to protect against other "regular" hackers.
I plan to start using FIDO-ready hardware tokens this year, and I won't change my phone until the new ones have strong support for local fingerprint recognition/FIDO.
I try to use as few Microsoft services as possible: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-c....
I haven't managed to move off Windows yet, but I might in a few years time. What most people don't realize is that Microsoft gives NSA "back doors" on a daily basis. It's all the zero-day vulnerabilities they share with them months before Microsoft gets around to fixing them. That's time in which the NSA can exploit those vulnerabilities. And now, unfortunately, Apple is going to do the same (technicaly giving them to the DHS...but I think we all know those are going to the NSA, too).
http://bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/u-s-agencies-said-to-sw...