Privacy and security

[jennyst]

Today I want to talk briefly about TOR and PGP. There has been a lot of recent discussion in light of political changes in the US.

One thing you can do to help the community is start using TOR (download their Firefox version from torproject.org). It works better when more people are using it, and this will help journalists and human rights activists if more people are used to using it for their everyday browsing. Websense currently blocks it as "Proxy avoidance" - let your workplace know why this is a bad thing if they use it.

Another thing you can do to help is get used to using PGP to sign or encrypt your emails. Thunderbird makes it relatively easy, and it's also possible in Outlook. It's harder but possible in the Gmail web interface. GPG helps you get it set up. Find a friend you can meet in person and sign each other's keys, extending the web of trust. I am happy to do this with anyone in my area.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Thanks for this. It looks much easier than paying for a decent VPN. I've got my brower nicely customized, though. Do you use TOR? Do you mind not being able to download extensions, use Flash, etc?

Going to investigate PGP now...

[jennyst]

I haven't used it since I last switched computer, and I did get annoyed by that, yes.

[stultiloquentia]

Hi again! I'm chatting with thedeadparrot, who thinks TOR is probably a bad idea, as frequently used by actual creeps and criminals, plus a bunch of its nodes are purportedly controlled by the FBI.

Definitely planning to learn more about encryption, though.

[jennyst]

Yeah, the FBI control is a problem. Being used by genuine bad guys as well as good guys is in the nature of the tool. Good to have a more up-to-date view, thanks.