Just came across this extremely timely article on Zero Hedge about privacy today. We believe that privacy is something that’s becoming more and more important every day given things such as the NSA Utah data center.
We’re in the process of checking out all the tools described below, some of them we already know like Tor, while others were new to us like CryptoCat. We just tried it out and like and thought why not have an open Single Dude Travel chat going. Until further notice we will have an ongoing open chat with the coversation name “sdt_live_chat”. Just get the CryptoCat plugin, enter a random name of your choosing, enter conversation “sdt_live_chat” and click connect. We’ll see you there.
Guest Post: Five Tools To Protect Your Privacy Online
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/15/2013 18:23 -0500
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog
We’ve discussed many times before - hardly a month goes by without some major action against Internet users… from Obama’s ‘kill switch’, to ACTA, SOPA and PIPA, to stasi tactics against people like Kim Dotcom.
Online privacy is becoming more important by the day. And nobody is going to give it to you, you have to take steps yourself to secure it.
Below are five different tools and services that will get you started:
1. Tor Browser
Tor is a great weapon in the fight for online anonymity as it allows you to surf the web without giving up your location and other personal data to the websites you visit.
The Tor Browser Bundle is the easiest and most secure way to get started; simply download it, and start surfing the web with the Tor Browser. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Learn more about and download the Tor Browser Bundle here
2. Duck Duck Go
If you want privacy, don’t search with Google.
Google store all of your searches to customize ads for you, but even worse, they can hand over the whole list of searches to any government agency that are curious about what you’ve been looking at for the last couple years.
A better alternative is Duck Duck Go, a completely anonymous search engine that does not store any information about you or your searches. The search results are essentially identical to Google’s, so there’s no loss of quality.
3. HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Everywhere is a plug-in for Firefox and Google Chrome that tries to force a website to connect in secure mode, thus encrypting your traffic with the website you are visiting. This makes your browsing more secure because it prevents eavesdropping thieves or state-mafia from intercepting your unencrypted Internet traffic.
Download HTTPS Everywhere here
4. Cryptocat
Cryptocat is an encrypted chat that beats Facebook and Skype when it comes to security and privacy. If you want to chat in private then this is one simple solution. It’s also open source, which means you can see the full code and be sure there are no government “backdoors” built in.
Read more about and download Cryptocat here
5. Silent Circle
Silent Circle is a new player on the market, but it is founded by “old” players in the security and encryption industry. One of the founders, Phil Zimmerman, is also the creator of PGP, one of the most-used encryption platforms in the world.
Silent Circle is a suite of products offering:
- Encrypted email
- Encrypted video chat
- Encrypted phone calls
- Encrypted text messaging
Silent Circle is the only service on this list that is not free. But having the gold standard of encryption may be worth it for you. It is for me.
Read more about Silent Circle here
Bottom Line
You can set up most of the tools we discussed in 5 minutes. Each of them will go a long way in securing your privacy online.
That all depends on who you are trying to hide from and what you’re doing. All of the acceptable VPN providers don’t keep logs and operate out of obscure jurisdictions.
As for payment, obtain bitcoins via the most anonymous method you can utilize (handing some dude cash is good for that I hear, and you can buy bitcoins face to face in most major cities), then use those bitcoins to get pre-paid credit cards from some dude from some other country (mailing is a problem, yes, but an old one with easy solutions), then use those pre-paid credit cards to pay for your VPN connection. While you’re at it, just obtain bitcoins via cash face-to-face then use (one of) them to pay for the VPN service. Pay a few years in advance in one payment.
You are right that in theory, if used properly, TOR is better for anonymity than most VPNs (although JonDo and CryptoHippie have better network infrastructure for anonymity than most VPN providers). But, once again, what are you doing and who are you hiding from? It has to be some seriously illegal shit to require TOR over a VPN over some stranger’s wireless connection in a country you don’t live in. You’re not a Bond villain.
Absolutely. TOR, nor VPN is enough to make you totally invisible and we definitely do not advocate doing anything illegal. This is just about one’s right to privacy and keeping your personally affairs away from prying eyes.
Also agree, seems right now the best way to obtain Bitcoins is via a face to face transaction with someone you find on LocalBitcoins.com or similar.
About these prepaid credit cards though, how do they work as far as the name and the billing address? How do you know somebody is giving you legally purchased prepaid credit cards and not stolen credit cards (prepaid or otherwise)?
Thanks for the tips on alternatives JonDo and CryptoHippie.
Incorrect. The majority of TOR traffic is just normal web traffic that has been encrypted and routed through several proxies. There was a paper published by French security researchers where they claimed, and presented some supporting evidence, that running Bittorrent over TOR can compromise its effectiveness for everyone (https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea). However, using TOR is much slower, and no more effective from a privacy/anonymity perspective than a good VPN connection for the vast majority of people.
Some countries ban VPN traffic because they cannot inspect encrypted traffic content. It is a simple matter to prevent the routing of VPN traffic, most of which relies on the IPsec protocol suite. Therefore, TOR can be used to achieve similar goals to a VPN in a manner that is more difficult for telecom operators/governments to prevent via technical means. But unless you’re traveling to one of “those” countries (you aren’t), you don’t need TOR.
http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-that-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2013-edition-130302/
The VPNs that are good for torrenting are usually good for everything else too. Pay for them via anonymous methods if you’re that paranoid (prepaid credit cards that are difficult to trace to you).
Finally, it is not a good idea for most of you to use TOR because you will no doubt log into your personal email account or facebook or some other account that is easily traceable to your real identity, thus defeating the entire purpose for using TOR. Furthermore, you will be flagged as a TOR user, which puts you automatically “on the radar” of people you think TOR will actually help you hide from. So in that sense it is basically a self selecting suspect identification scheme.
Also, Simon Black is not a technically proficient individual and writes like a 5th grader.
Good point, he does kind of make it sound like you can just use TOR to go about your daily business and be anonymous and I guess some readers will be stupid enough to think they can use it to login to their own Gmail or Facebook thus defeating the entire purpose. And there is the possibility of spying on you via the exit nodes as well.
Agreed with your conclusions on VPN mostly except for one big one. Setting up a VPN service means you’ve got to pay some trusted third party and most likely reveal your identity (unless you pay in Bitcoins anonymously). Who is to say which VPN providers are really going to take one for the team protect their clients if push comes to shove? Who’s to say that somebody can’t compromise their records and get the client list.
For that reason I think Tor offers better anonymity providing you follow the rules of not accessing anything attached to your real identity plus it’s free and available everywhere.
I’m not aware of these prepaid credit cards that difficult to trace. Where and how do you get them? What name and billing address would be attached to them allowing you to use them like normal credit cards for online purchases.
I thought you were only supposed to use Tor for the darkweb, as accessing clearweb sites would compromise the system.
I’m not aware of that but id like to know more.
Instead of Duck Duck Go I think you should give ixquick a try. It is far more private and anonymous. It is even hosted offshore.
https://ixquick.com
Please elaborate