I still feel like I’m not taking privacy seriously enough. I haven’t gotten a VPN yet because that requires pay and I am too lazy to try to get money. (I wish there were free (in pricing) VPNs.)
Snowden was the kickoff for me. Once I saw how the NSA was collecting virtually all internet data, storing it in Utah for future decryption efforts, I knew we actually lived in 1984 times. Assange also had a strong impact, demonstrating that the free speech “protections” of liberal democracies were empty lies.
I started to reclaim my privacy back in 2016 when I switched from Windows to Linux. Today, I only use Windows for gaming and photo editing (Adobe Lightroom are still the best out there for me).
When it comes to VPN, I have used Mullvad VPN for years now. Super cheap (only 5 EUR per month) and privacy friendly.
But VPN only encrypts your connections and points your IP to somewhere else. If you want to take your privacy seriously, you need to take some actions and not only focus on the VPN part. For an example, Facebook, Twitter, Google Chat, Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Discord, and more are really, really bad for your privacy.
Instead, use XMPP or Matrix for chat options. If you want an encrypted service yet get better privacy than WhatsApp, use Telegram. Signal uses servers from big tech companies, but yet Signal are still better than WhatsApp.
Mastodon instead of Twitter and Facebook. Revolt or Mumble instead of Discord. Invidious, Piped, youtube-local, or NewPipe instead of YouTube. ProxiTok instead of TikTok. And so on.
Use containers for Google and Facebook services in a browser.
I guess you get the idea 🙂
I agree with most of the suggestions here, but I’m not sure why Telegram, a proprietary application that is not E2EE by default (and whose encryption is their own standard anyway) is touted as a privacy-friendly chat app alternative.
You get monitored by Facebook in WhatsApp thanks to metadata and Facebook are trying to somehow detect what you have sent to provide personalized ads.
Telegram are built on privacy and security. Except for the metadata, you will not be monitored and the non-personalized ads are only visible in huge channels (like Pavel Durov’s own channel) and groups. I am a member in Pavel’s channel and I have seen zero (0) ads so far. Guess they haven’t released this feature yet?
If you want E2EE in Telegram, stop using cloud chats and only focus on secret chats. They are working on adding secret chats to the desktop versions.
I am really looking forward to Telegram releasing the source code for MTProto as soon as Russia stops wanting the source code for themselves (Pavel’s words, not mine). We all know how Russia is.
Everything else except MTProto are open sourced.
I’m sorry to disagree. Matrix and Signal both offer end to end encrypted group chats, while telegram has done zero progress on this issue since it launched, that is before signal was even born from textsecure, chatsecure and redphone.
Telegram even did not open source their server code nor offer to federate. Worse than Signal. And finally, if you review their changelog, they just focus on addictive features: animations, glitter and “rounded edges” so to speak. This and a ton of minor usability improvements that make it super slick to use.
For me, Telegram is the new Twitter and the new Whatsapp, all together. With zero encription on server side. How far is the time when some data leak or theft happens? How far until all this huge chat history is used for data mining, marketing profilation, and finally, for violence against minorities or activists?
