New Tips And Triks For You

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Many of us find ourselves asking - how could we let something like PRISM happen?

We have next to no control over our online privacy. Both the government and the private sector have been habitually disregarding privacy in order to pursue their own interests.

One of the reasons is that online infrastructure is not built to protect us. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox and Skype (Microsoft) are designed with servers that store data in plain text.

Anytime plain text data lives on a third-party system, it can be decrypted and examined by third parties such as company employees, the government and lawyers with subpoenas. This is how so many tech companies were able to give up data to the NSA upon request.

We may live in a surveillance state, but we're not powerless to protect ourselves against it. Through the grassroots adoption of privacy-first technologies - those that are designed from the ground up to provide privacy - consumers and enterprises can bypass the data collection problem.

There are a few simple places to start. Tor, originally built to protect the privacy of the US Navy, is a free download that lets you surf the Web anonymously. Firefox, already a popular browser, does the same thing, and for techies, GNUzilla is a GNU version of Firefox.

DuckDuckGo, the Seeks Project, Startpage and YaCy are all private alternatives to search engines like Google. Look to BitMessage and RiseUp for private webmail, or Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software like Mailvelope or WebPG that lets you encrypt your existing email. There are more choices for desktop email; Mozilla Thunderbird and Evolution are examples.

Crypto.cat, OTR (Off-The-Record) and Pidgin are confidential chat providers. Keep an eye out for private options in the realms of video, phone and file sharing as well. Jitsi, Linphone and Mumble work to replace Facetime, Skype and Google Talk.

In addition, there are a wide variety of social media apps that can replace the 'big four' of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Diaspora, Friendica and Tent are some places to start. Piwigo and Zenphoto are private replacements for Instagram and Picasa. The list goes on.

As you can see, there's no dearth of tools when it comes to privatizing your online habits. Moreover, it is more important than ever to be an empowered user when it comes to technology. Consider your right to privacy online violated by default, unless you choose specific technologies that protect them.

Until official spheres come up with a solution to the widespread abuse of privacy, it's up to you, the user, to defend your rights. Let's begin the conversation and arm ourselves with the knowledge that privacy-is-possible.