Recently, and not at all related to the current political climate (well, maybe...), I've become interested in various aspects of data security and ways to regain control. I know it might seem somewhat ironic to be writing about this subject on a page hosted by Google, but this is intended to be a public exploration of the tools I am using to define and secure the line between public and private data.
There used to be an expression "Don't put it on the internet if you don't want it to be public." but with automatic backups, cloud storage, smart phones, and social media apps that constantly access our text messages, photos, GPS coordinates and more ("to provide a better user experience"), there are very few aspects of our lives that don't end up online. Yes, it's all claimed to be securely stored, but one only needs to look at Yahoo to see how bad a company can be at protecting it's users data. 1.5 billion user accounts exposed over the past 3 years, accusations of mass email scanning, and Optic Nerve, just for starters.
Even if living off-grid in a remote cabin somewhere isn't your thing, all hope is not lost. Here are some of the projects, apps, technologies, what-have-you that I have been putting to work.
Signal Messenger from Whisper Systems
It's easy to use, it's free, it's open source, it's peer reviewed, just use it already.
ProtonMail Encrypted web-based email
Again, easy to use, free, open source, audited, based in Switzerland.
NextCloud Self-hosted cloud storage (and more)
Not quite as easy (yet) but it's open source, linux based, secure and encrypt-able, and runs on the server of your choice. I have the NextCloud Box, which is the same, but runs on a Raspberry Pi and sits on my bookshelf.
Keybase.io Public key and identity management, plus encrypted file sharing.
This is a bit more complicated and I'm not great at explaining it yet, but it's a system for managing my own and other users public encryption keys, verifying identity and ownership of social media accounts and domain names. It also incorporates an encrypted file system for storing data securely and privately sharing it with other users.
Enigmail extension for Thunderbird
Fairly simple to set up, allows you to easily encrypt and decrypt emails using your PGP keys, either from keybase.io or otherwise generated.
That's it for now, but as I figure these things out and find more to explore, I may get around to updating or otherwise adding information here.
Disclaimer: Nobody's perfect, Your mileage may vary, Do not look directly into beam, Buckle up, Don't drink and drive, Tip well, Live long and prosper, and Don't Panic
keybase.io/notjustbill
