Taking Control of your Privacy

The first stop you should always make when trying to find privacy alternative software is Privacy Tools. They are a great resource for locking down your web browser, what operating systems to use, and other social media providers you can run yourself to get away from Facebook and YouTube.

Over the last 16 months, as I’ve debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, “I don’t really worry about invasions of privacy because I don’t have anything to hide.” I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, “Here’s my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you’re doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you’re not a bad person, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide.” Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.

• Glenn Greenwald in Why privacy matters - TED Talk

The other thing I would like to point out about their website, is they are focused on privacy. If you look at their Password Manager section, you’ll noticed that LastPass isn’t listed. I would rather someone use LastPass than nothing at all. Some users are not ready for making their own server and hosting their own services.

For most beginners, I recommend using LastPass, as it is available for mobile and desktop operating systems. Combine that with Authy or a YubiKey for two factor authentication (2FA) and you’ll have a pretty decent setup. Then for encrypted messaging you can use Signal and ProtonMail for encrypted email.