Like it or not, we live in the Digital Age. We are sucked into The Matrix by our cellphones, televisions, computers and wall-to-wall advertising. Our search engines manipulate their results to guide us without our knowledge. We are fed information without knowing why it is presented to us or who is behind it.
Short of moving to a deserted island and becoming hermits, what can we do? How can we get off the grid? Here are some steps you can take:
- get protonmail (https://protonmail.com/)
- get signal (https://signal.org)
- get the tor browser (https://www.torproject.org/download/)
- get off google
- get off facebook
- get off Alexa
- get a VPN (expressvpn.com is a highly recommended)
- get a secure network
- get a separate computer for personal stuff, don’t use your work laptop
- get serious about passwords with a password manager
- get tails (if you’re really serious)
Now, USE these things! (Be sure to read the disclaimer at the end!)
Protonmail
protonmail is great for secure communications. A wise person once said “Never put anything in an email that you would not be willing to see on the front page of the New York Times.” After all, your triple-secret-probation-encrypted love letter to your mistress may be perfectly secure in transmission, but you’re still screwed (and not in a good way) if she decides to send it to the New York Times. Just the same, encrypting your email is a good idea. If you think that gmail and aol and msn (and more nefarious 3-letter agencies) don’t have ‘bots’ scanning your email for interesting stuff, think again.
It’s also really nice to have a separate account like this for serious stuff. You can give your gmail address when you surf sites that require it, like an online purchase, and still use protonmail for things you would never want hacked or spammed and consider personal.
Signal
signal is an encrypted communications suite for pc and phone, providing secure messaging, voice calls and video calls, including video conferencing. If you are using zoom for anything other than chatting with your grandchild, stop it and get real. Zoom is compromised by the Chinese. Signal is what Ed Snowden uses. That’s good enough for me.
Tor
The tor browser gives you secure browsing — it’s nearly impossible for a third party to detect what you’re surfing on the net. You’d be astonished to find out how much someone can find out about you from your ip address.
google manipulates your search results for its own benefit, not yours. It also tracks you, and bombards you with ads. Why give them what they want? Try duckduckgo instead.
facebook is a like a drug dealer who gives out free samples. And manipulates what you see and hear. And censors you. And for some reason, you like it. There are better alternatives out there — try mewe.com.
Alexa
STOP using Alexa. For the love of Zeus, are you really willing to let some electronic device listen to and interpret every single conversation you have during the day? Really? The price you pay for not having to actually move anything other than your lips to play a song or ask about the weather is your PRIVACY.
The right to privacy is so imporant that the founders of this great country wrote it into the Constitution of the United States. It is illegal to invade your privacy and bug your home without a legal warrant, and here you are giving it all up just for the sake of a bit of convenience. What are you thinking?
VPN
A VPN provides even more anonymity. Get one and use it. It doesn’t matter that you’re not trying to hide anything, and you only visit cute websites that feature puppies and fun recipes. Other people are looking for your metadata and exploiting it. Just stop it.
Network
Many people do not have secure home networks. They use the default password (which is, literally, “password”) and administrator name (yes, it’s “admin”) for their router and wireless network. Slightly more aware users will use easily guessed names and passwords — there are kiddies out there who love to crack things like that because they have WAY too much time on their hands and poor parenting. If you’re not comfortable, find a nerd who will help you, and offer him/her a case of their beverage of choice in return.
Separate Computer
It’s a big mistake to use that nifty laptop your company gave you to “work from home” for personal stuff. Just don’t do it. Employers have a vested interest in making sure that (a) you’re working, not goofing off, and (b) not bringing shame to them by surfing for bi-racial lesbian amputee midget porn using their network. Get a second hand or refurbished machine, and use that for personal stuff. You’ll be glad you did.
Passwords
The passwords you use for your everyday gmail and facebook stuff are probably not secure, but who really cares. The passwords you use for sensitive stuff should be really secure, so get a password manager and use it. If you need to write your passwords down in a small notebook inside your desk drawer, do it in such a way that the password as written must be modified in some standard way, for example, by adding a prefix or suffix at the end that only you know, or by changing certain letters.
But wait — there’s more! You and I are not very good at guessing good passwords. Here’s an article that explains a lot more.
Tails
tails is an operating-system-on-a-stick — a complete OS that boots from a USB stick and stays there! That is, the only non-volatile storage it uses is on the USB stick itself, and it leaves no trace on the computer you plug it into. Just turn off the computer, insert the USB stick, power on the computer and hit the boot menu key (look it up on the web for your computer) then select the USB stick as the boot device. Now you’ve got email, a tor browser, word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, text editor, etc. When you’re done, shut the OS down and turn off the computer. You have left no trace, and anything you have downloaded exists only on your USB stick. Pretty cool. Again, Ed Snowden uses this.
Disclaimer
You may (OK, certainly will) experience a slowdown in browser response and download speed when using a VPN and/or a tor browser. You should use secure software like that for secure tasks. If you’re just looking for pinterest photos of cute kittens or whatever, any browser is fine. Know what you’re doing.