Author Topic: Email privacy and security survey (Read 19879 times)

nosh · « **Reply #25 on:** August 17, 2013, 01:54 PM »

I'm like a lot of you here. I know what it is but haven't really felt the need to use it. Besides, I know very few people who would be capable of doing so.

A couple of interesting & relevant passages from the NYT article: [emphasis mine]
How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets

Poitras had been working on a documentary about surveillance, and she occasionally received queries from strangers. She replied to this one and sent her public key — allowing him or her to send an encrypted e-mail that only Poitras could open, with her private key — but she didn’t think much would come of it.

The stranger responded with instructions for creating an even more secure system to protect their exchanges. Promising sensitive information, the stranger told Poitras to select long pass phrases that could withstand a brute-force attack by networked computers. “Assume that your adversary is capable of a trillion guesses per second,” the stranger wrote.

This bit sums up the average person's attitude when it comes to dealing with "complicated" software. I'd expect someone in Greenwald's position to have a bit more patience. Kinda funny if your sense of humour is twisted like mine...

Poitras was not Snowden’s first choice as the person to whom he wanted to leak thousands of N.S.A. documents. In fact, a month before contacting her, he reached out to Greenwald, who had written extensively and critically about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the erosion of civil liberties in the wake of 9/11. Snowden anonymously sent him an e-mail saying he had documents he wanted to share, and followed that up with a step-by-step guide on how to encrypt communications, which Greenwald ignored. Snowden then sent a link to an encryption video, also to no avail.

“It’s really annoying and complicated, the encryption software,” Greenwald said as we sat on his porch during a tropical drizzle. “He kept harassing me, but at some point he just got frustrated, so he went to Laura.”

Renegade · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2013, 09:18 PM »

Yep. And that's where people like me fit into the picture. Without users who are at least reasonably competent how can developers get useful feedback? There's just too much trial and error on both sides which can only be solved if they meet in the middle. Lots of developers are already there waiting. The public, on the other hand, needs some herding.
-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 01:49 PM)

There's only so much that tech-savvy people can do. "Herding" needs to be done at the application level with easier setup and usage.

If secure communications were as easy to use as email, that would be half the battle won. The rest would only be marketing.

It's not just email either. To paraphrase one of my favorite (made up) Einstein quotes, we cannot solve our problems using the same thinking that created them.

Email, passwords, and even independent security authorities are obsolete. They're modeled on outdated corporate processes and technical limitations that no longer apply. Building replacements requires a completely different perspective based on current needs and technology. It's sort of like the transition from horseless carriages to cars.
-Vurbal (August 17, 2013, 01:49 PM)

I like that 'quote'.

They've in part made themselves obsolete by collaborating with the enemy. It's as sad as it is pathetic.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #27 on:** July 13, 2015, 08:11 AM »

Trying WOT but I cannot get it to show the indicator next to the address bar. Which kind of limits the utility. I turned Classic Theme Restorer off and remove buttons from the Toolbar. Nothing seems to work.

I am running FF 39, Cyberfox 39, and 32 and 64 bit FF nightly builds. Not one will show the WOT indicator except in search results.

Edit: Never mind. I had to drag the button on manually using Customize.

tomos · « **Reply #28 on:** July 13, 2015, 08:42 AM »

^ this WOT?
(that's from mid-2012 - I've no idea what it's like today)

or
this and following post:
https://www.donation....msg343625#msg343625

MilesAhead · « **Reply #29 on:** July 22, 2015, 03:32 PM »

^ this WOT?
(that's from mid-2012 - I've no idea what it's like today)

or
this and following post:
https://www.donation....msg343625#msg343625
-tomos (July 13, 2015, 08:42 AM)

This one
https://www.mywot.com/

It is just a FF AddOn that shows blank=unknown green=ok red=bad etc.. I haven't signed up to post reviews/opinions. I figure it is better than no warning at all.

tomos · « **Reply #30 on:** July 22, 2015, 03:44 PM »

^yeah, it's the same one - at the time there were problems with it tracking your activity *after* uninstalling it. I would presume they fixed that since due to the bad press, but probably worth researching.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #31 on:** July 22, 2015, 04:13 PM »

^yeah, it's the same one - at the time there were problems with it tracking your activity *after* uninstalling it. I would presume they fixed that since due to the bad press, but probably worth researching.
-tomos (July 22, 2015, 03:44 PM)

Trouble is it is hard to keep the tracking to zero. If you use ToolWiz TimeFreeze or some other sandbox, fine, the stuff is erased when you reboot. But they are still gathering the data while you surf. It is really annoying.

There should be some kind of class action suit where they would have to pay us for this data. It might slow them down if it cost them a few bucks. Plus if they are going to spy on you at least you could subpoena their own data as proof they owe you money!!!

app103 · « **Reply #32 on:** July 26, 2015, 12:36 AM »

Trouble is it is hard to keep the tracking to zero. If you use ToolWiz TimeFreeze or some other sandbox, fine, the stuff is erased when you reboot. But they are still gathering the data while you surf. It is really annoying.

There should be some kind of class action suit where they would have to pay us for this data. It might slow them down if it cost them a few bucks. Plus if they are going to spy on you at least you could subpoena their own data as proof they owe you money!!!

-MilesAhead (July 22, 2015, 04:13 PM)

You want WOT to pay you because you voluntarily installed a browser plugin that looks up and displays info from their database, based on the pages you visit? You think that is spying on you? You are annoyed by this?

It does have to phone home info to WOT for it to work. How else do you expect it to display the correct color icon (good, bad, unknown)? Where do you expect it to get the rating info from?

If you don't want WOT to know where you have been, why did you install it?

tomos · « **Reply #33 on:** July 26, 2015, 03:32 AM »

^ I think you got the wrong end of the stick there app -
I was the one who was saying he should check out WOT to see if their problems as per end 2013 (where it continued tracking after uninstall) were resolved or not (see post #28 above).
Miles didnt seem too bothered by it all ;-)

app103 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 26, 2015, 05:21 PM »

^ I think you got the wrong end of the stick there app -
I was the one who was saying he should check out WOT to see if their problems as per end 2013 (where it continued tracking after uninstall) were resolved or not (see post #28 above).
Miles didnt seem too bothered by it all ;-)
-tomos (July 26, 2015, 03:32 AM)

I don't believe the issue back in 2013 was any nefarious attempt at continued "spying" after uninstall. More likely it was a bug where it just didn't uninstall completely.

Poll

Q1: Do you know what PGP is? (no fair cheating and googling it if you don't know) Q2: Do you always use it?