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Disclaimer/Disclosure of Interest: The New Oil has a CTemplar referral code. If you sign up using this code, we get one free month of Prime membership.

What is Zero-Knowledge/End-to-End Encrypted Email & Why Do You Need It?

CTemplar is a new up-and-comer in the encrypted email space, founded in 2018 as far as my research can tell. Encrypted email is a bit of a misnomer. Technically all emails are “encrypted,” but in this context we mean specifically “end to end” encrypted, also known as “zero-knowledge.” This means that the provider can’t read your inbox, which is – in my opinion – a must-have for any person who values their privacy and security. Many people argue that zero-knowledge email providers are overhyped – or worse – because you’re only securing half of the chain. If I email someone at a Gmail address, the contents are still exposed on Google’s servers. However, in my opinion, that’s still cutting your attack surface in half. If we’re both using Gmail – or if one of us is using another provider like Yahoo – that’s just twice the opportunity for a data breach, warrants, or an insider threat. Sure, you may not get the full benefit without both parties using encryption, but it still counts for something.

The Good

CTemplar starts out the gate strong with some impressive claims. First off, they offer an onion address for Tor users. As veteran readers may know, this is one of the first steps toward making a service truly anonymous. The next step is that they offer payment via Monero, which unlike Bitcoin is truly private by design. If your threat model isn’t quite that hardcore, they also offer Bitcoin and fiat currencies via Stripe. So far so good.

On their about page, they claim to be independently owned and funded without any grants or investments due to the invasive nature of such arrangements. They base their encryption on PGP – a win in my book as it allows non-users to initiate a secure conversation with you if they have your public key (which you can freely post/share anywhere) and allows you to add the keys of other non-users so you can securely email them without the additional step of an external password (a la Tutanota and ProtonMail). They have also open sourced all their clients (Android, iOS, and desktop) as well as their web client and several other libraries, but that should be expected if I’m writing about them given that open source is a requirement for us to consider listing a service. They also offer a free-tier, though you do have to request an invite from a user you know or from CTemplar directly. This is a bummer, but it’s primarily aimed at fighting spam, which I completely understand. Abuse like that can sink a new company.

Finally, jurisdiction: CTemplar as a company (Templar Software Systems Ltd, to be exact) is based in the Seychelles, an independent island nation off the East coast of Africa. Data – according to their website – is stored in Iceland. This does provide two considerable layers of protection against Eyes surveillance.

The Bad

For all of CTemplar’s strong points, there’s a few objective concerns. First and foremost, let’s tackle that anonymous signup thing: CTemplar’s onion link redirects to clearnet (aka the regular “ctemplar.com” address) when attempting to signup or login. While this doesn’t make anonymous signup impossible – as they still do not require any kind of phone number or email address – it does make it incredibly difficult for those with very high threat models. This is compounded further by their Monero payment system: you have to to email them. But wait, there’s a catch here: as I said before, you have to request an invite. This automatically obliterates any chance of truly, hardcore anonymous sign up. You have to contact them from some sort of existing account, which may or may not be anonymous depending on which account and how you set it up. You could probably be reasonably safe by asking someone that you trust in person – assuming you know anyone in person who uses CTemplar – but such an exchange would still have to be done intentionally and carefully. Again, this only affects people with particularly high threat modeling – and the onion/clearnet issue does appear to be a legitimate bug outside of their control – but it still feels kind of misleading and puts users who want or need maximum anonymity in a very tough spot where they have to tread with immensely more care than usual.

My next complaint is more personal than objective: I find the company to be remarkably opaque. A while back, I wrote about their catastrophic data loss incident (note: they have since changed their practices to ensure this doesn’t happen again) which I also listed on the website as a “con” because – in my opinion – they never formally addressed it. During an unrelated correspondence with the company, they informed me that they did officially address it here. As such, I removed that “con” but personally I think Reddit is a pretty poor replacement for an official company bulletin board of some kind, especially when you have an official blog on your official website. I get that a blog is a useful marketing tool (which is why I don't mind but actually really enjoy all the articles they post), but it’s also a good way to communicate important news with your audience in an official, trusted capacity. Like I said, this is all subjective. CTemplar is not my company, and I can’t tell them how to run it or what they should and shouldn’t do, I can only offer my perspective. I don’t want to have to follow their subreddit – no matter how official – just to get official important updates that aren’t marketing pieces. The point of a blog is that I get the official, important news. I don’t want to subscribe to their subreddit where I’m now getting all the user posts – which range from “casual discussion” to “help tickets.” I just want the official, noteworthy updates.

Furthermore, perusing their subreddit reveals some noteworthy but troubling things. Take this post, for example, where a user asked for some clarification on the company’s latest transparency report. Notice a lack of response from the company? What about that onion bug I mentioned earlier? No official company response, only responses from other readers. Even a post as simple as where the blog’s RSS feed can be found was answered by a reader. You could make the argument that since the questions were answered there’s no need for the company to officially weigh in, but in at least the first two cases I personally would feel a lot better with official input. That said, I have spoken with the company on two separate occasions and in both cases I found their support to be responsive, helpful, and professional, so maybe I’m just nitpicking with the Reddit thing. Like I said, this is subjective and has no real bearing on the quality or security of the service itself, so feel free to disregard all of that if you don't care.

Moving away from my personal opinions there a couple other smaller, objective drawbacks to the service. First, both cryptocurrency payment methods require annual plans and cannot be done monthly (I guess that particularly makes sense with Monero since it must be processed manually by the company). While I’m a fan of paying annually as it almost always means a cheaper price, not everyone has that kind of financial stability. Second, the Seychelles have no data privacy laws at all as far as my research could tell. Being located out of any kind of Eyes country does still provide a layer of protection, but it would also be a nice plus if the company’s country of origin provided some additional legal legal protection. And, just to touch on the criteria we list: the service is centralized and not audited. Personally I don’t really consider either of those dealbreakers: the company is new enough that they may not be able to afford a full audit yet, and as far as decentralized email, while I do see the value of such a thing (mainly being harder to take down or seize the data), email is already interoperable and CTemplar relies on PGP so I don’t see this as tremendously important.

Conclusion

Email is not secure. I think that’s always worth pointing out. Email was never designed to be 100% secure. You never know who might print it or forward it, and there’s also a bunch of super-technical issues with both email itself and PGP that literally cannot be fixed. You should never trust your life to email (which is one reason why Snowden didn’t just email his documents to people). Yet email is still a widely-used tool that permeates almost every service we use in some way, shape, or form. For that reason alone, it’s worth trying to get a secure email provider to mitigate the risks as much as possible. CTemplar is a solid choice of email provider with multiple layers of data protection (both legal and technical), PGP-based encryption for interoperability, a free tier that should work for most users, and some great bonuses like green energy, Monero, and a number of other features that show that they really are trying to take user security and privacy seriously. While they are a young company, they are coming up fast. They’ve still got plenty of room to grow in terms of features (for example, I would love to see an email export feature for personal backup reasons) but they’ve already got enough to make them worth considering if you still need an encrypted email provider, or if other options haven’t convinced you. I strongly encourage you to check them out, maybe sign up for a free tier, and see how you like it.

You can learn more and sign up for CTemplar here. If you do, consider using our referral code (OjgEXLVR). It gives us one free month of Prime membership.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

I talk a lot about digital privacy and cybersecurity. After all, it is the focus of the site. However, I think there’s a time and a place for us to give some thought to our home situations. Your home is your castle, and a home invasion is one of the most violating, confidence-shaking things that can happen to a person. You can spend the rest of your time there – maybe even the rest of your life – living in fear and feeling unsafe. Not to mention that there is, of course, an obvious crossover with privacy: keeping your home safe from would-be stalkers who mean you or your family harm, or even just jerks who want to rob the place.

Much like digital privacy and cybersecurity, there is no such thing as “invincible” when it comes to keeping your home safe. But also like privacy and security, there are things you can do to reduce your risk and the likelihood of something bad happening. So this week, I want to share the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years to help you harden your home and reduce your risk of harm.

Picking a Location

Let’s start at the top: picking a place to live. It’s a sad fact that “nicer” (aka “richer”) neighborhoods suffer less crime – or at least less violent, random crime. Therefore I would definitely encourage you not to save a few bucks by living in the rough part of town. Of course there’s a balance – you do hit a certain point where you’re paying more for the prestige of the zip code than you are for safety. You likely already know that that point varies from town to town, but my point is simply to be aware of the neighborhood you may be moving to.

This is probably a “no duh” concept, so let me give you something actionable: you can see what kind of crimes get reported in your area and how often. I found several such resources just by searching “crime heat map” and my city name. You can also contact your non-emergency line on a slow day and let them know you’re thinking about moving to a certain area and ask if they get a lot of reports of violent crime from that area. The dispatchers would be uniquely qualified to answer. You’ll probably never find a truly crime-free area, but if the only crimes on the block are “drunk in public” and not “breaking and entering,” (or at least the more troubling ones are rare) you’re probably in a good spot.

Here’s a trick I’ve started doing: knock on random doors. The most recent time my partner and I moved, we found a beautiful apartment complex in a great area with reasonable prices. After leaving the leasing office from our tour, I walked out of sight and knocked on a random door. When I explained to the people who answered that we were thinking about moving in and wanted to hear some tenant experiences, both of them immediately cut me off and exclaimed “don’t!” They rattled off their list of complaints with the property, which were verified by a few other doors we knocked on (never take one stranger’s word for something), and we dodged a bullet. We ended up settling in another complex in the area that wound up being even cheaper, but had none of the problems of the other complex. Another tip I was given said to visit a potential home near twilight: if people are out walking their dogs and exercising close to dark, that’s probably a safe neighborhood. Other good indicators could be if people park their cars outside their garages or on the street, or if the area is near a park or school.

Picking a Home

Once it comes to actually picking a house, you need to start thinking like a criminal. If you’re an apartment or condo dweller, I recommend getting a place at least on the second floor, but no higher than the sixth (firefighter ladders typically have a maximum height of 75-100 feet, so this ensures you can always be rescued by emergency services). This also gives a bit of privacy from people just passing by – most of whom are probably just going about their business, but a few may be casing the place. Be mindful of windows that are close to the walkways – you don’t want to open yourself up to a “smash and grab” where people break the window, grab whatever’s nearby, and go.

The next piece of advice is conflicting: yards. One way to deter criminals is to have yards that make it hard for them to enter – fences, hedges, etc. But on the other hand, having an empty yard makes criminals uneasy and feel exposed. A good middle ground is probably best: a fence with very few decorations (definitely nothing expensive or showy), but a well-kept yard that shows any passers-by that you maintain your stuff and they might get caught. Make sure to lock up anything that a criminal could use to gain entrance – like ladders or loose toys – and trim any trees that get too close to the roof or windows.

There’s also a lot of advice to get security system signs (or stickers in the window), and maybe even a “beware of dog” sign (with a big water bowl and some used chew toys to really complete the illusion). You don’t necessarily have to pay for a security system – I actually recommend against it, since most of them are ineffective and a waste of money – but if a criminal thinks you’ve got an alarm system, it may make them rush so they’re gone before the cops arrive and possibly not steal everything (or miss some things). I recommend purchasing some ADT security stickers or signs online as they're one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable brands out there.

A privacy trick I mention on the website is to get a home that’s not in your name. This is a complicated process that deserves an entire blog post, but basically if you’re buying a home put it in a trust, and if you’re renting an apartment put it in a shell corporation (this is known as a “corporate rental,” FYI. When scouting possible apartment complexes, ask if they do “corporate rentals”). I’m not a lawyer, I suggest you consult one before doing any of this as the exact regulations for how to set up a trust/company and stuff like that varies from state to state, but it’s usually not outrageously difficult or expensive and can be invaluable to protect against doxers and stalkers.

Hardening the Home

Okay, you picked a safe neighborhood, you picked a good home that’s got some built-in deterrents, now let’s talk about steps you can take once you’ve moved in.

Let’s start with the front door. Your front door is probably garbage. If you live in a house you can probably buy a solid-core door that will be much harder to break down (if you own the house or the landlord approves). If you live in an apartment, this is probably not an option, but in both cases you can insert longer door screws. Chances are that your current door is being held in by ½” screws. I can break that down while sick. For solid-core doors, most websites recommend using 3” screws. For hollow doors, I’ve found 3” to be too long. Your screws are no good if they don't grip anything. I recommend 1 ½” – 2” screws instead. Be sure to replace both the door side and the frame side, as well as the screws around your lock. For additional security, you can even get a door frame reinforcement kit that makes the door even harder to break down, as well some locks that can't be accessed from outside like a deadbolt or a slide lock.

Speaking of your door lock, let’s talk about locks. Traditional consumer cylinder locks are total trash. Hard stop. End of story. No arguments welcomed. I have yet to find a good solution for this. Traditional locks can be picked easily in less than 30 seconds with a $15 lock pick kit from Walmart (personal experience talking here). Most digital locks also come with key backups, rendering them equally useless in my opinion. Fully digital no-backup locks run the risk of a battery failure, though I do think this is unlikely for most people as the lock should give you some indicators that the battery is low, allowing you to replace them before you get locked out. Perhaps the best solution is one with a key backup that’s hidden.

Regarding digital locks, there are generally three kinds: PIN, fingerprint, and keycard. Depending on your threat model (as always) PIN and fingerprint are probably okay if you make sure to wipe the panel down after each use or keep an eye on the number buttons to make sure they aren’t getting too noticeably faded. If the numbers 1, 2, 6, and 7 are all faded on your keypad (or if I can see the smudges), I can tell that your PIN is some variation of those four numbers, which means I only have to guess 24 combinations. Instead, I’ve come to believe that keycards are probably best for most people. No smudges, no buttons, no cylinders waiting to be broken. Of course, keycards can be skimmed and cloned if you don’t take proper precautions, but for most people I don’t think this is likely. Again, as always, weigh your own threat model. Spare keys – if you put any outside – should be reasonably hidden away from the door. Under the mat and even fake rocks or flower pots are all pretty well-known tricks. Attaching a magnetic case under the air conditioner unit in the back or putting the fake rock behind the shed is significantly less obvious.

This next trick I stumbled on by accident: my current home is not very well insulated. As such, we sought out some kind of solution and my partner discovered insulating window film. Most of these are easily removable (a plus for renters), dirt cheap, and can easily be installed by one or two people with a can-do attitude and some patience (personal tip: don’t start with the sliding glass door. Start with a smaller window so you get the hang of it). We can’t say for sure, but we do think this has had an impact on our energy bill (it definitely feels more comfortable than it did), but another pleasant side effect was that it gave us some privacy. These films are highly reflective from the outside – not “reflect the sun into your eyes” reflective, but kind of like a car window on a sunny day. As long as it’s brighter outside than in, nobody can see inside our home, giving us an additional layer of privacy during the day. Of course, we still close our windows at night because once the sun sets and we turn on the lights, the reflectivity stops working. You can find window insulator film kits at your local hardware store or online.

The next tip I have is to not put any names anywhere (ex, “The Johnsons” on the mailbox) and to make your house number highly visible with big, reflective, easily-seen-from-the-street numbers. The first tip will make you private (you should be using a PO Box anyways, in my opinion) while the second one makes it easier for police to find your house in an emergency. A final pretty common tip: I recommend putting motion-activated floodlights outside your home. Remember: criminals don’t like being seen – hence the stuff about the yard earlier. A bright light suddenly turning on as they approach may make a criminal reconsider and possibly even flee because it may be enough to get your attention – or your neighbors’ – and ruin both their element of surprise and stealth.

Being Proactive

Hopefully all these steps will be enough, but sometimes they’re not. Despite our best efforts, sometimes things happen and people can be unpredictable. In this context, there’s a few things I think you should do just in case the worst ever does happen. The first thing I suggest is to inventory everything of value in your house. Go through your house now, identify the valuable stuff, take pictures of it, and make a spreadsheet that lists make, model, serial number (if it has one), and value. Unfortunately, I have been robbed before and I know firsthand this is what the cops want. If you can provide them will all five of these things, that will make their investigation a exponentially more likely to succeed. It should go without saying that you don’t have to list every single “live laugh love” poster in the house, but you should at least get the things that are most valuable or most meaningful to you: game consoles, computers, musical instruments, jewelry, grandma's ashes, etc.

Regarding pets: you should both train (if possible) and microchip them. Even if you have a big dog, it probably won’t actually attack the person breaking in unless you’ve explicitly trained it to. Find a good, credible dog trainer in your area and train your dog on how to be able to defend the home. If you have a small dog, cat, or other animal that either can’t be trained or training would be useless, I recommend microchipping them and getting them tagged (I recommend this for the big dog, too, by the way). A criminal probably doesn’t really care about being polite, as in they’re not going to shut the door when they leave (in fact, if you followed these tips, they probably had to break the door down or break a window to get in). This means your pets may wander off, either out of fear or simply curiosity of the outside world. Making sure they have collars with a phone number and/or microchipping them may be the difference between getting them back and never seeing them again. As a pet owner, I can imagine firsthand how devastating this would be.

I know I’m getting kind of long here, but there’s one last thing I want to address: guns. I’m not going to weigh in or express my opinions too much, but I do think this is something you should ask yourself about if you live in a place that allows gun ownership. Guns are sometimes called “the great equalizer.” No matter how big or small an attacker is or how much judo they know, a gun is likely to take them down. Likewise, no matter how big or small a victim is or how much judo you know, a gun will defend you all the same (assuming you get the right one and know how to use it, which I talk about in a second). And in America you can often get a pizza to your house faster than a cop. If you’re staunchly anti-gun, that's fine. I’m not here to make the case for why you should get one. But if you’re pro gun or on the fence, I encourage you to ask yourself if getting a gun for home defense is right for you. Even some pro-gun people may not be comfortable with a weapon in the house if they have small children, mental health issues, or other circumstances. In that case – or if you're anti-gun – I would advise getting a baseball bat or something else you can to defend yourself if the worst happens. If you think a gun is right for you, I offer three pieces of advice: first, get the right gun. An assault rifle in a small, cramped hallway is – in my opinion – not a good choice. If you have a very wide, open home, maybe it is for you. Just put thought into it. Second, similar to the first, get the right ammo. This is especially important if you live in an apartment or have other people in your house. If you miss the criminal – or if the bullet goes through them – what will it hit? Will it blow right through the drywall and hit someone in the unit next door? Will it hit your kids sleeping in the next room? I’m being dark, but serious. Guns are not toys. They kill. That’s their purpose. Period. Make sure you’re not killing something you didn’t mean to. And finally, on that note: training. Guns are deceptively complicated. They’re not as simple as “point and click.” I mean, they are, but they aren’t. There’s a lot to be said for learning how to shoot the gun right – how to SQUEEZE and not PULL the trigger, how to handle the recoil, the follow-through of the shot, etc. Don’t just buy a handgun and go “yay! Now my family is safe!” Learn how to use it, get actual lessons from an expert, and make sure you go to the range regularly to keep those shooting skills sharp. When someone’s in your home, you’re under high stress with a million things going through your mind. Knowing how to shoot – and hit your target – needs to be second nature that just happens without any thought, and you need to be practiced so that – again – you don’t miss or hit something you didn’t mean to.

Conclusion

Hopefully all of this helpful and gave you some tips to help keep your home safe. In my opinion, the best defense is deterrents. I would put the most energy into the initial steps I discussed: finding a home in a good neighborhood, putting up signs and fences that deter criminals, etc. Just like with basic cybersecurity tips (password managers, 2FA, etc), having good deterrents in place will make you far less likely to be victim of a crime. And, should the worst happen anyways, hopefully some of these tips will make it easier for you to pick up the pieces, fix the damage as much as possible, and reduce stress during a stressful time. The world is crazy, and not all of our threats are digital. Make sure you take some time to consider your physical footprint and how you can protect yourself. Be safe this week.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

or: Interview With An “Average” Non-Privacy Person

If you follow me on Twitter or Mastodon, you likely saw over the last 6 weeks or so that I was planning to do a Valentine's Day Q&A with my partner featuring listener submitted questions. My partner humors me about privacy stuff, and she does care a little bit (for example, she often sends me links to apps and asks me to identify any serious privacy concerns about them) but overall she's nowhere as privacy-minded as myself. A lot of people seem to struggle with connecting with non-privacy people, and that can be especially devastating when you comes to someone you love. So while I don’t consider myself a flawless paragon of anything, I do have reason to believe that my partner and I have a very healthy, strong relationship and thus I decided it might be helpful (and fun) to have her answer reader questions so you can get a first-hand account of what goes through the head of someone who’s not a privacy enthusiast and how we make it work.

Bonus: at the last minute, my partner asked to make this a video interview, so if you prefer video content (or you’re just curious what my better half looks like), you can watch the interview on YouTube, Odysee, and PeerTube. Without further adieu, let’s jump in.

Q: How do you feel about the whole “privacy” thing?

A: When you first introduced it to me, it was kind of scary to realize that all of this stuff is happening behind the scenes and I had no idea! Now it’s kind of part of my day-to-day life. I guess for other people who are also actually into privacy, like Nate, it just kind of feels like an everyday thing now.

Nate: For the record, that just reaffirms my belief that more people would care if they knew how bad it was. I firmly believe that a lot of people who say “I have nothing to hide” or “I don’t really care,” you don’t care because you don’t understand how invasive it is.

A: Especially me, remember when I got really scared, I had my privacy scare. I thought that my job was looking at my text messages and I was like “oh my god” and I think after that I started using a VPN more. But I think it was one of those things that they could only see it if you’re logged into the [company] WiFi or something? It was like “well I’m gonna start using a VPN because I don’t want to use my data so I’m still gonna be logged into the WiFi but you can’t see me.” Though I think it was just an empty threat.

How much of my security posture has rubbed off on you?

A: I guess just the things that you listed: ProtonVPN and Signal. And I guess – because [Nate’s] the more technical one between us so you know what you’re looking for – I do allow you to actually get on my computer and my phone for any tracker kind of situation, with Windows and Firefox and things like that. I guess just kind of those things – Signal and ProtonVPN and whatever it is that you feel you need to do to keep me safe.

Note from Nate: I use the same stuff I recommend on this page and this page of the website to secure her computer with minimal disruption.

What privacy advice did you actually end up implementing in your life?

A: Signal and ProtonVPN. Well actually, I remember you set up a ProtonMail for me, so I guess that kind of counts in a way.

Nate: Yeah, you’ve been using that a lot more.

A: Oh yeah and SimpleLogin, too, I just remembered that.

Nate: Oh yeah, you actually asked me about that one.

A: Yeah, and Privacy.com cards. So there’s a lot more than just those two things. Very little by little.

What compromises have you had to make with me for privacy?

A: I feel like you’ve made more compromises than I have.

Nate: I mean that is… yeah, that’s true. I’ll be honest.

A: The reason why I say that is because – for anybody who is watching this who is a privacy person and they’re kind of wanting their partner to also be very privacy-centric, it is kind of that whole “trying to compromise” thing but you also have to let your partner be their own person. Definitely one of the biggest compromises, I think, is definitely TikTok.

Nate: Do we compromise on that?

A: In a way, because I guess to me you could always be worse and not want me to have that ever and be mean about it. I feel like if you had more of your way, you just would not let me have that app at all. Again, I just feel like you compromise more. If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have a Roku TV. Compromises have mostly been on your side rather than mine.

What privacy measures that I take do you find the most annoying?

A: This probably would fall more under the compromise one: I really, really loved using Google Assistant on my Android and that’s kind of a compromise for me that I took is I don’t really do that anymore but I really loved Google Assistant in the sense of some of the funny things that she would say. The biggest thing: the f’ing VPN on the damn internet. It was just one of those things for me – especially when we first got the router – you were messing with it so much-

Nate: That I can understand.

A: Mostly because I would be on an off day and I just wanted to do whatever on the computer or the phone or whatever and I could not do it because there was no f’ing internet and I was trying not to just scream at you like “please, just stop! Let me have my day off! You can do this tomorrow, I don’t care! I’ll be at work tomorrow!”

Nate: That was a lesson I did have to learn was to wait until you weren’t having a day off.

A: If any of y’all ever get a DD-WRT router, please make sure that anybody in your household who also uses the internet: don’t torment them with this because it was a very difficult setup, it was really hard for me – it was that and, I guess I’m irritated about the VPN because of so many issues we’ve had with it. Really I think it’s just those two. Granted, I kind of would’ve liked a Google Home, but that’s a dream that’s dead.

Note from Nate: I am not as tech-savvy as a lot of my readers (or as some of you think I am). A DD-WRT router is not terribly difficult, but for me this was uncharted territory. I have never set up anything on a router prior to this besides the DNS, the WiFi name, and the password. When I got the DD-WRT device, I flashed it (which was remarkably simple), then I set up VLANs, VPNs only on certain ports and WiFi networks, port-forwarding for self-hosted networks, etc. Depending on your skill level and experience, this may or may not be difficult. There was a lot of trial and error for me, but if you have experience with networking you’re unlikely to encounter the same level of difficulty I did.

Where do you draw the line between privacy and convenience?

A: That’s a great question because I don’t know because I don’t think that line has been crossed. I guess in a way that’s kind of already been answered with the whole internet thing. There’s not really anything you have done that has completely impacted my life severely where I’m just like mad mad. I mean, there’s small inconveniences but those are usually fixed.

What do you think about Linux phones?

A: I don’t have an opinion because I’ve never messed with it. I don’t know if I would like it mostly because I don’t have any experience with Linux as a whole.

Nate: I can say from my experience that the Pinephone is not ready for the average user but in terms of a “linux-like” experience it really depends which one you go with because Ubuntu Touch, for example, you can’t use the terminal. It’s actually so locked down it is not designed to work that way. You have to use all the graphic interface stuff like the app store and stuff. So something like that, once it’s a little more polished, I think would be – assuming it had all the same apps and everything – it would be virtually indistinguishable from an Android or an iPhone, it would just be another option. Then there’s other ones like Mobian that are very heavy on the terminal and that’s a much more traditional “linux-like” experience. At least, in my experience.

A: If the day comes when it does become more user-friendly – that I don’t have to use the terminal or something to update all of this stuff and it just kind of updates automatically or at least tells me that it needs an update – if it’s something more like that…

Note from Nate: We got off topic here talking about how Android alerts users to updates, but I think the implication is that she’d be willing to try a Linux phone under these conditions.

Do you watch Surveillance Report?

A: I saw [this question] and I laughed so much and my answer to that is: I kind of technically have a front row seat to at least half of it, so no. My Surveillance Report is technically this [gestures at Nate] anyway. I don’t need to listen to the podcast when I live with half of the team. So, no.

What made you care about privacy? (In other words: “how can someone like me convince the people around them to care?”)

A: That is a difficult question because I didn’t truly start caring until it affected me. I’m gonna sound very braggy here: the only reason that I managed to get one of Nate’s friends on Signal at all was because I knew how to kind of “work it” in such a way that “it does this and that and whatever.” “There’s these things that I like about it personally that maybe you might like about it.” Like recently, with Tiktok videos, especially with a lot of them being three minutes long. For example, Nate doesn’t have TikTok, but there are some TikToks that I find that I really want to share with him. Since [Nate] doesn’t have the app, and you’d rather me not send them to you with a link anyways, I just download the video if I can and just send to you and I can actually send it versus if it’s just regular MMS, you can’t do that cause it’s like “oh the video’s too big! I can’t handle it!” and Signal on the other hand is over here like “la la la la!” just doing the thing. And the voice message, too. The voice message feature, I know most phones already have that but I’ve run into a problem if I’m sending a voice message to someone either on Instagram or even Facebook Messenger, you can’t do that. You can’t send long voice messages, you have a very limited amount of time to do that. It’s just really hard to get someone to care, it really is. It’s kind of like the whole “you can’t help people who don’t want to be helped” thing. If somebody is just stubborn like that and they don’t want to hear about it and they don’t care no matter how many times you try to drill it in their head that Facebook is bad and this is bad, the way that you’re doing this thing – if it has not affected them personally yet, it’s not gonna matter. Again, I didn’t start using ProtonVPN or get really, really terrified about my privacy being invaded until I was told to my face that my job reads my text messages. We all love our creature comforts and unfortunately a lot of them are very privacy invasive. I usually just say “hey, here’s an app, you can download it if you want to.” Like Signal, “here’s all the things I like about it,” and if they still don’t get it, then I’m just like “okay.” Keep fighting the fight. This is not me saying “stop fighting.” Clearly a lot of people care because otherwise we would not be sitting here right now talking about privacy.

Nate: For readers, the part of that that really jumped out to me – and this is something I’ve noticed when you get people on Signal – is you focus, like you said, on the features. A lot people criticize Signal, for example, because – it does have shortcomings, like requiring a phone number. They promised us usernames like three years ago, or maybe even more than that. What the heck, guys? But as she’s pointed out, all these features they keep prioritizing that seem really stupid that nobody wanted like GIPHY integration, those are the little features that reel people in. When we’re trying to spread privacy to the average person, they want the features. I kind of like the fact that Signal focuses on the features because that’s what’s going to reel in people that maybe don’t care about their privacy as much – or at least not right now – but now they’ve got that protection because they’re like “all my friends are on Signal, I can join group chats, I can send massive video files.” Those little features get them in and to an extent I personally don’t even care what gets people to start using this stuff. It’s a net win for them and for everybody when they start protecting their privacy, even if they’re doing it inadvertently. That’s my opinion.

A: Go look at all of the things that you use and be like “these features are amazing and this is what makes it amazing for me!” The way that people are wired is that they want to know why something works for you and how they can also benefit from it. That’s why everybody loves Facebook because they “benefit” from it. Especially for people who could potentially be making other products for privacy, figure out what you can do to get the average person who doesn’t really care about privacy, see what you can do to market that. “Why do I want Signal on my phone? Why should I use it? I don’t know anybody who’s using it!” Features are always important.

Did you have anything else you wanted to say?

A: If anybody ever has any more questions for me, just ask Nate and I can definitely respond. I don’t mind being asked these questions. It’s times like these where I’m like “maybe I should join The New Oil’s Matrix room...”

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

At the time of this writing, the following article has not posted to my Twitter/Mastodon feed yet, but will in a day or so: https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-browser-for-privacy/. This article from ZDNet claims to compare the “best” privacy browsers in 2022, with an honorable mention at the beginning for NoScript. Now, I already think ZDNet's “best X of [Year]” articles are either a joke or paid adverts (how many “best VPN” articles have they done and never once mentioned IVPN but mentioned Nord, Express, and Surfshark every time?), and this article is also not without imperfections: namely no mention whatsoever of Tor browser (not even an honorable mention), the inclusion of Microsoft Edge, and favoring NoScript over the much more user-friendly uBlock Origin. But I'm gonna share it anyways, and I'm gonna explain why in this quick, out-of-band blog post so that next time somebody goes “wow, really? You shared an article that lists X/doesn't list Y?” I can just send them this and stop repeating myself.

If I wanted to create a list of suggestions for a service that I think is perfect, I'd do it. Oh wait, I did. It's called TheNewOil.org. (Actually I don't believe this website is perfect, which is why it's open to suggestion and improvement, but the point is that I do strongly believe in every item listed there and will add or remove items as I become aware of their fitness or lack thereof.) I share these “best of” lists from time to time because it's a way to keep this stuff in people's minds and make sure people remember to check their fundamentals and maybe hear about some new options or angles they weren't aware of before.

Do these lists have flaws? Sure. Do I skip them altogether sometimes for having too many flaws? Oh yeah. Frequently. But what if they're mostly good except for one or two bad suggestions? Well then I probably share them. Because privacy isn't about being perfect, it's about doing your best. I don't think it's productive to hardline and say “I can't share this article that has six good suggestions because Suggestion #7 is bad.” What kind of a world would we have if we threw out every privacy tool that wasn't 100% perfect? One without any privacy at all, that's what. Because no privacy tool is 100% perfect. We'd have no universally-acclaimed Signal protocol because Signal requires phone numbers. We'd have no XMPP because it's too buggy and user-unfriendly. We'd have no VPNs or Tor because both have drawbacks, and no strong passwords because they can – in theory – be compromised by keyloggers. We'd have no encryption at all because weak passwords render it useless. Nothing is 100% foolproof or perfect, and if we “throw out the baby with the bathwater” as my mom used to say, we'd have nothing.

It's not about being perfect, it's about raising awareness and reminding readers to stay informed and continually check their basic foundations to see if there's room for improvement. If you don't like the things I share or the lists I've made, please start your own privacy project. There is plenty of room for good, level-headed, evidence-based content that's not sensationalist or extremist. I don't claim to be the expert or end-all-be-all of privacy, handing out godlike judgements over what is or isn't acceptable. Feel free to add your own voice with your own blog or page. But that's why I'm willing to let a little not-so-great slip in with the good, because to me it's a net gain if we get people to care a little more in the process, and I'd rather people start with a less-great solution and then eventually move onto a better one once they feel comfortable than not even try because people are telling that the barrier to entry is absolute perfection from day one. And who knows, maybe these types of posts will remind them that they can do better.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

When we talk about privacy, we tend to think of technology: VPNs, messengers, metadata, and cameras. When we do think about relationships, we tend to think of them in terms of social engineering. But the fact is that most of us are not Elliot Alderson or Thomas Anderson. Most of us have jobs, hobbies, and an innate need for social interaction. Humans are social creatures, and while the amount of human connection we need varies from person to person, most of us still need it to lead an emotionally healthy and fulfilling life. Unfortunately, it seems that a number of people in the privacy community struggle to find connection once they’ve become passionate about privacy. To their defense, it’s not hard to see why. Our society has become increasingly digital: “Netflix and chill,” “add me on Facebook,” “Google it,” and more. Choosing to live a privacy-conscious life can be a one-way ticket to isolation if you let it. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be and you don’t have to let it. In this blog post, I want to talk about a few people skills and life hacks I’ve picked up along the way that have made my life socially fulfilling without compromising too much on my privacy goals. These skills can be applied to various levels to help you find love or simply be part of the workplace. This blog post can also work in conjunction with some other “people skills” posts I’ve made in the past, like “How I’ve Convinced People Around Me to Care About Privacy” and “Interacting With Non-Privacy People.” For some of you, you may have already mastered some or all of these skills. Congrats. But for those who struggle to find connection, read on.

Let’s start with the most obvious, basic things: if you’re not a likeable person, nobody’s going to want to connect with you. There are three skills I’ve found that can make a person likeable: sense of humor, breadth of knowledge, and diplomacy. I want it to be noted that I had virtually none of these skills growing up. I had to learn them all. These are not natural traits like height or skin color that you’re born with and can’t change. You can learn them if you put your mind to it.

Humor

Let’s talk about humor first, because in my experience this is where you get the most mileage. Humor consists primarily of subverting expectations. Consider the following joke:

Two farmers are talking to each other about their size of their land. One farmer brags “well I start driving the property before sun-up, right after breakfast. After driving for hours and hours, we pause for lunch, then keep driving. We just keep driving and driving til supper time, then we drive some more until the sun goes down.” The other farmer nods and goes “yup, I used to have a truck just like that.”

Now admittedly, this joke isn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever heard but I bet you that if you told it to most people they’d at least get a chuckle. That’s because humor is about breaking the tension with something unexpected and surprising. In this joke, the tension suddenly shifts from the incredible size of the farmer’s land to the poor quality of his truck. Consider this other joke: “there at 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.” The humor occurs when a person is expecting me to list off ten different types of people or personality traits, but instead I make it about a binary where there are only two options. The joke is further compounded by the fact that I clearly don’t understand Binary myself.

There are, of course, different types of humor. I thrive on sarcasm and dark humor. There’s also puns, stand-up, actual jokes with a setup and punchline, etc. There’s a million ways to tell jokes, but at the end of the day they all come down to a break of tension. This is why a lot of speakers start with a joke or funny story. It breaks the tension and makes everyone feel at home. The most important thing is to know your audience. Telling a dark joke in an HR meeting is probably not a good idea, and telling a tech joke to non-techies probably won’t go over well (my mom would not understand that binary joke to save her life). Not everybody is a master of every kind of humor. I couldn’t do stand-up comedy, but I am a master of situational humor. And not every joke is going to land. That doesn’t mean you aren’t a funny person, it could mean the people who heard it weren’t paying attention, didn’t get it, or aren’t in the right headspace for jokes. But if you can learn how to crack a well-timed joke tailored for the right audience, that’s a good way to get people to like you. This is probably the nerdiest thing I’ve ever said, but if you struggle to be funny I recommend “500 Clean Jokes and Humorous Stories: And How to Tell Them” by Russel and Linda Wright. I read this book as a child and it helped me understand why humor works and what makes people laugh.

Breadth of Knowledge

When I started high school, I was a hardcore gamer. I didn’t know anything about politics, I didn’t have a job, and I didn’t (and still don’t) like sports. If it didn’t concern X-Box, Gamecube, or PlayStation 2 then I didn’t care. While there’s nothing wrong with being a gamer, this made me incredibly difficult to talk to for anyone who wasn’t a gamer. I didn’t know any movies or TV shows, I had no additional hobbies. I really can’t stress how hard this made it for me to carry on a conversation with anyone that wasn’t about a video game. These days, I’m much more well-rounded. I’ve seen a wide variety of movies and TV shows (mostly scifi and horror), I’ve read classics like Dracula and Frankenstein as well as modern books like American Gods (as well as all of HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe). I read enough news to know what’s going on in the world broadly. This means that I can now carry on a functional conversation with almost anybody about almost anything, from current events to pop culture. No matter who I’m talking to, we can typically find something to talk about. Keep in mind, I never pretend to be an expert, but I know enough to talk and have an opinion.

A lot of people in privacy who struggle to make friends seem to lack this. They’ve fallen so far down the rabbit hole of privacy that that’s all they can talk about anymore. Don’t get me wrong: I can talk about privacy for hours – and admittedly I probably steer the conversation toward it more often than I should – but it’s far from the only thing I can talk about. If every time anyone mentions anything you inevitably tie it back to Big Tech and encryption, you may need to develop some other hobbies. Take up gaming, fitness, reading, psychology, cars, anything. If you want to connect with people on any kind of level and make them like you, you have to be able to talk about more than just a few niche topics. For this, I strongly recommend the podcast “Stuff You Should Know.” They lean left politically, for those who care, but they usually don’t cover political topics and they’ve been on the air for over a decade, so they’ve covered everything from grass (like the kind that grows in your front yard) to serial killers in deep, well-researched detail. This podcast should give you a great passing knowledge of a variety of topics. You don’t even have to listen to every episode, just pick whatever sounds mildly interesting.

Diplomacy

Last but not least, let’s talk about diplomacy. Winston Churchill once famously described diplomacy as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” In this case that’s probably not the message we want to share, but the point is that it’s the ability to delivery a message in an amicable way, even if it’s an unwelcome one. For example, earlier I mentioned that I’m not into sports. When I’m trying to connect with someone and they say something like “did you see the game this weekend?” I usually reply with something like “nah, I’m not really into sportsball, but my dad was a big Sooners fan growing up.” This serves two purposes. One, it injects some humor with the phrase “sportsball” (which a word that usually implies “I know absolutely nothing about sports of any kind, not even what they’re actually called”), and two, it tells them I’m probably from Oklahoma because the Sooners are a college team from University of Oklahoma. That naturally leads them to ask “oh, are you from Oklahoma?” and turn the topic toward where we grew up, which is something else we can talk about and find common ground over. Maybe they didn’t grow up there, but they might have visited. Or maybe they have a friend from there.

The lesson here is that diplomacy is subtle. It’s not an instant, hard shut down of communication (ex, “no I don’t do sports.” End of statement, end of conversation) nor is it some kind of awkward question dodge (ex “you see the game last week?” “Nope, so where are you from?”). It’s a natural flow to the conversation, directing it in the direction you want to go. It’s almost like social engineering, except the goal isn’t to extract any specific piece of information from a person, only more information that you can both share.

Connection

Throughout this article, I’ve used the term “connect” multiple times. That’s because it’s important to remember what the goal of communication ultimately is: connection. No matter the form of communication – film, text, or spoken word – the goal is to create a relationship with a person and transfer a message. Sometimes the message can be about society, sometimes it’s about trying to impart the importance of privacy, sometimes it’s trying to say “I’m someone you’d get along with and you should hang out with more often.” But unless you can find a way to relate to that person, that message won’t stick. And that’s really what communication and connection is all about: finding common ground. If you both like Italian food and cooking, that’s a connection. If you both like black-and-white horror films, that’s a connection. Finding and cultivating these connections is ultimately what will make people like you and want to spend more time around you, and fills that social need.

Privacy is important. Privacy is a human right. But it doesn’t have to mean being alone and isolated from the world. You can be private and still have friends, family, and fall in love. It just takes some practice. And the more you do it, the better you get. Assuming it’s safe to do so with the pandemic and all, getting out is the best way to practice and develop new connections. Figure out your interests, then figure out where those people gather: concerts, old movie screenings, EFF meetups, cooking classes, you name it. It just takes a little intentionality.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

This week is Data Privacy Week (and today is Data Privacy Day). To celebrate, this week I made a series of short blog posts highlighting tools, services, products, and techniques that I feel are underrated to help improve your privacy.

Today, as we wrap up the week with Data Privacy Day itself, I want to go in a different direction. I'm a strong believer that you can learn just as much in failure about what not to do as you can in success about what to do. So today I'm going to focus on three overrated tools and techniques that everybody focuses on very intently, probably a little too much.

Let's start with VPNs. A lot of VPN companies promise more than they can deliver like total anonymity, freedom online from censorship and tracking, and more. This is a lie. Even the best VPNs pretty much only do two things: hide your IP address from the websites you visit, and hide your traffic from local snoops such as your ISP or work router. That's it. And your IP address is only one small way that companies track you. Fortunately in recent years there have been a lot of writings about this very topic, but still many people seem to be lulled into putting too much faith into their VPN provider. Don't. See my page and IVPN's Do I Need A VPN? for more details.

Next let's talk about instant messaging. A lot of people put massive amounts of concern into their daily messengers. It seems like every day I see people having near meltdowns over very small, minuscule things in their messenger of choice: “X is centralized,” “Y is based in the US,” “Z uses Encryption A instead of Encryption B.” While I'm a big fan of using end-to-end encrypted messengers (it's a must for anyone who wants to be close to me personally), let's take a step back here: how often do any of us really send anything important? Granted, this argument could apply to every area of our digital lives, but some people really put an unjustified amount of work into protecting their daily communications when all they're sending is memes and “want anything from Wendy's?” There's no need to get bent out of shape over having something that's NSA-proof when it means so little. There's a reason I recently moved this category to the “least important” section of the website.

Finally, on that note, email providers. At least once per week, usually more, I see posts on Reddit of people asking “what email provider should I use?” Does it really matter? You're not sending state secrets, and unlike encrypted messaging you're probably not even securing both ends of the communication. Yes, it's important to cut that threat surface in half by using a zero-knowledge provider so that the rogue employee can't open my inbox, but the email I received from my bank is still plaintext on their end. The email I sent to my boss is still visible on Gmail's servers. Only one half of the contents are encrypted, and while that's definitely better than nothing, it's really not worth having a paranoid episode trying to pick the one server that's located in Antarctica and run by hedgehogs who can't read court orders.

Now, it should be noted: I endorse and encourage the use of all these services. I list all of them on my website and strongly encourage you to use them. Your privacy – even the stupid memes and grandma's chain letter – are yours and nobody should have the right or ability to read those without due process. I'm not saying this stuff isn't worth doing. What I am saying is that in my experience/opinion, I feel like people put way too much time, energy, and effort into these particular tools for what they get out of them. Like I said, people will dive deep into the history of every time an encrypted messenger's CEO took a dump, but all they're sending over the platform is inside jokes and plans to hang out. It's about being proportional. You don't need to put hundreds of hours of research into a platform that isn't going to be containing any sensitive data. Just a few solid hours of research is plenty. Time is the most valuable resource we have: we can never earn more or get it back. Don't put unnecessary amounts of time into things that will get you very little in return. Do your research and make smart choices, do use these products, but remember that in terms of protecting your privacy, there are many other areas that will give you much higher and more effective returns. Be smart with your time.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

This week is Data Privacy Week. To celebrate, this week I will be making a series of short blog posts highlighting tools, services, products, and techniques that I feel are underrated to help improve your privacy.

Today I want to talk about disinformation. This is something that deserves a whole blog post itself, as I’ve said before, and I still plan to honor that at some point, but in the meantime I want to discuss some basics. Disinformation is – simply put – intentionally spreading false information to throw off tracking of any kind. There’s a few important caveats before you start using disinformation. First off, never ever lie to government or law enforcement figures. Do not give a cop a fake ID, do not put a fake name on your tax returns, etc. Second, on that note, don’t forge government IDs. Making a fake workplace or gym ID is totally fine. Making a fake driver’s license can land you in some really hot water. Finally, don’t commit fraud. The goal of disinformation is not to cheat anyone out of money or evade any legally-binding agreements, the goal is prevent companies from collecting data about you that they don’t actually need.

The amount of disinformation you employ will vary based on the situation. Are you buying a physical product online that will be shipped to you? Then you need to give them a real address you have access to, like a PO Box or workplace. Are you buying a digital product that will be downloaded, like an ebook, digital album, or video game? Then they don’t have any reason to know your address. You can use disinformation here. Whenever asked to give up information, ask yourself “does this person actually need this information?” If they don’t have a legitimate use for this data – like the aforementioned “sending you a product” – then find a way to not give it to them. Sometimes you can simply say “no thanks” or leave the spot blank. If that’s not an option, then this is where disinformation comes in.

In my experience, there are two main pieces of disinformation pretty much everybody will need to have ready to go, and three optional ones for those who wish to take it further. The main two are physical address and phone number. For physical address, I recommend a hotel. Whether that’s a hotel in town or in another town depends on your threat model and preferences. The reason for this is because some websites will demand a real, verified address or may flag you for using “123 Main Street” for looking suspicious. “28 N Franklin St” looks legitimate though, and that’s because it is. It’s the Hyatt in downtown Chicago. This is much more likely to pass in my experience. The second piece of disinformation to memorize is a phone number. My favorite is (248) 438-5508 – which plays “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley – but Michael Bazzell also recommends (909) 661-0001 through (909) 661-0090 and (619) 364-0003 through (619) 364-0090.

The other three optional pieces are name, date of birth, and personal details. These are optional depending on your threat model or personal preferences. Date of birth is easy: Michael Bazzell recommends swapping the month and day and then adding or subtracting a year or two. For example, if your real date of birth is February 5, 2000 you can make it May 2, 1998, 99, 01, or 02. For name, I recommend using a shortened nickname or a middle name. If your real name is Alexandra Ashley, you can go by Alex or Ashley (Alex has the advantage of being gender-ambiguous). This is especially useful if you have a really unique, foreign name. I’ve met a few Indian people with names like “Raj” who Americanize it as “Ron” for simplicity. I don’t know if that’s common but it really helps to completely hide their real, unique names. Finally, for personal details, I recommend “fuzzing.” Instead of full-out lying and risking getting caught by someone who’s an area expert, just be vague or change small details. If you’re the head of the finance department at Sunshine Technologies Inc, say you work in accounting, or you work at a tech company. If you spent a few years in Seattle recently, say you grew up there. This ensures you don’t get caught in your lie (ex – claiming you’re a biologist then meeting a biology professor) and doesn’t give away anything too personally identifying in terms of details or timelines.

Again, this is a subject that warrants an entire blog post, and that will come. In the meantime, I hope you’ll look into this and start giving some thought to your own disinformation preparedness. Using disinformation can help protect you from spam, data breaches, and other forms of tracking. Happy Data Privacy Week!

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

This week is Data Privacy Week. To celebrate, this week I will be making a series of short blog posts highlighting tools, services, products, and techniques that I feel are underrated to help improve your privacy.

Today I want to highlight backups. This is a little more security than privacy, but there’s still some privacy involved here, too. First off, let me say: backups are important. A lot of us overlook having good backup practices because it’s one of those things that you never really think about until you need it. Even I’m guilty of occasionally being late with making my backups. It happens to the best of us. There’s two good practices to follow with backups. First is the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of your data (one being your “live” in-use copy), 2 different mediums (like an external hard drive and a USB stick) and 1 offsite (such as a cloud). The second “best practice” is to use automatic backups if that’s available to you. This way you don’t have to worry about accidentally putting off your backups for too long and having outdated, useless backups when disaster strikes. I talk all about how to design good backup strategies on this page.

This is where privacy comes in. If you’re following the 3-2-1 rule, then you’re supposed to have at least one copy of your data stored offsite. How can you do this privately? There’s a few options. What I do is I have an encrypted 4 TB external hard drive that I keep at home where I store every backup, going back as far as possible, at least one year. Then, at my day job office, I store an encrypted USB with only the latest, most recent backup on it. It’s encrypted so that if we ever got robbed, if one of my coworkers started snooping, or if I just got suddenly fired and never returned to the office again, my data would still be safe. I’m usually in the office at least once per week, so I can keep that USB updated regularly. If you are 100% “work from home” or don’t work in an environment where it’s feasible to store your backup device you could also consider storing at a close friend’s house or something like that. Of course, these are just offline backup ideas. Storing on the cloud is much simpler and direct.

No matter where you choose to store your data – be it at a physical location you frequent and update or on the cloud – the biggest concern is keeping it private. When I make my backups, EVERYTHING is there. I’ve mentioned before that I have a small interest in disaster prepping, which means that in addition my password database I also have lots of sensitive documents like scans of passports and social security cards, digitized medical records, and documentation on things like insurance and leases. (There’s also things like backups of emails with consulting clients and other confidential communications.) I don’t want this information exposed, so no matter how I decide to backup my data, I have to make sure this stuff is protected. As I said, my preferred solution is to be entirely offline, but others may want something more convenient and readily accessible for any number of reasons: aka, “The Cloud.” My ideal recommendation for cloud backups is something zero-knowledge. Nextcloud is the poster child for the privacy community, but ProtonDrive, Sync.com, or even Filen.io are all popular choices. However, as noted on the page I listed earlier, each of these services comes with drawbacks. While you may decide these are not dealbreakers, some may want to pick more vetted, reliable services like Google Drive or Dropbox. In this case, I recommend the use of a service like Cryptomater or Veracrypt to ensure that your files are hidden from possible rogue employees, unwanted snooping, and automated scanning. Again, I go in-depth on how to set up an encrypted container on the Backups page of my website, so consult that for details.

No matter what option you go with, remember to keep regular backups and keep them protected from prying eyes. This is a critical but frequently overlooked technique in the privacy community. Happy Data Privacy Week!

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

This week is Data Privacy Week. To celebrate, this week I will be making a series of short blog posts highlighting tools, services, products, and techniques that I feel are underrated to help improve your privacy.

Today I want to talk about mobile habits. As most privacy enthusiasts know, phones are some of the most effective surveillance devices out there, recording everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, every app you use – which can betray your interests and more – and in some cases can even infer information about you like sexual orientation and health. Truthfully, I think many privacy types dream of being able to live without a cell phone, but sadly for most of us that’s just not reasonable. If you can, good for you. But many cannot. While there are a number of steps we can take to reduce phone data collection – like using a deGoogle OS or even just changing a few settings – there’s also a lot of tricks that frequently get ignored, and those mainly involve mobile habits.

On the website, I offer a number of behavioral suggestions to help reduce the tracking of your phone. The biggest one, in my opinion, is simply to use it less. While you may need your phone at work to get important messages, there’s no need to take it to the grocery store or out to dinner. You can safely leave it at home and bring a paper grocery list, talk to your dinner date, or bring a book if you’re eating alone. Another technique is simply to rely on less apps. While some apps have a place – like encrypted messaging or a more private browser – some may not really be necessary. Most of my loved ones use Signal, therefore I see no reason to have Matrix and Session on there too since I rarely get messages there. I also removed all email from my phone. Phones these days come with a stock mail app, but email was never designed to be realtime communication. If you’re emailing me, then that tells me whatever you’re asking can wait. Instead of swapping a bad email app for an encrypted one, I just deleted it altogether. Desktop only now. And on that note, I mentioned a privacy browser. Just because you have a better browser right there doesn’t mean you should always use it. Sure, I use it to find items in the store when I’m at work or to check what time the store closes on the way home, but I try not to use it figure out what Daniel Radcliffe has been up to since Harry Potter ended (note: Miracle Workers. It’s hilarious. I highly recommend it) or what’s the furthest object ever observed in space. Point being: I try not to do things on my phone unless it’s an emergency or highly important. If it can wait til I’m at my desktop, I try to do that because I have more control over my data there. Phones are difficult to harden in a really meaningful, effective way. No matter what apps we download or steps we take, we should always be skeptical of them.

Hopefully this article has given you some thought and helped you rethink your relationship with your miniature surveillance device. Don’t get me wrong: I’m grateful for my phone. It has made my life easier in so many ways, providing endless hours of entertainment and contact with those I care about nearly 24/7. But it’s important that I stay in control of it and not the other way around. Happy Data Privacy Week, hopefully this helps you protect your privacy just a little better!

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...

This week is Data Privacy Week. To celebrate, this week I will be making a series of short blog posts highlighting tools, services, products, and techniques that I feel are underrated to help improve your privacy.

Today I want to highlight settings, specifically changing and checking them. There's nothing like a fresh device. It's what “new car smell” feels like. I love a freshly installed OS, and I love doing all the hardening steps. On Windows (which I use strictly for gaming and production), my usual routine is Windows Spy Blocker, W10 Privacy, Bulk Crap Uninstaller, and lately I've been delving into Portmaster. Then I move on to things like Firefox, VLC, etc. But as fun as these things are and as empowering as it feels to help take back control of my device and regain a little bit of privacy from invasive analytics, there's a less exciting step: settings. You see, many of us in the privacy community get a new device and we get eager to start customizing it and locking it down: firewalls, VPNs, encrypted messengers, etc. These are all great and important steps, but it's important not to overlook the simple steps. Whether on desktop or mobile, don't underestimate the value of changing your settings. Why do you think companies like Google pay millions of dollars each year to be the default browser in Firefox? Because settings matter. Most people don't bother to change the default settings, but simple changes – like changing your default search engine or video program, turning off analytics, or having the device lock after a minute of inactivity – can offer simple yet powerful protections to your privacy (and as a bonus, they can reduce your attack surface by not requiring you to use extra plugins or third-party software to replicate the same behavior). So as fun as it is to start going straight to all the hardcore, power-user tweaks, don't overlook the basics and review your default settings.

Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. It's a well-known phenomenon that sometimes updates can revert your settings back to default. In my opinion, this is probably usually a bug as it seems to only happen to certain people and programs inconsistently, though sometimes it is certainly intentional. In my experience, this usually seems most prevalent when doing major updates (for example, going from Version 14 to Version 15), but it can happen at any time. So even if you've already checked your settings and made your adjustments, be sure to review them periodically – particularly after an update if you know you've just had one. This is a great way to spot any new settings worth adjusting and catch any settings that were reverted.

Happy Data Privacy Week, hopefully this helps you protect your privacy just a little better!

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...