Opt out of PRISM

Well not quite but here's a boat load of info/links/apps etc etc, to assist in lower or non tracking etc Some i already use

 

Nice list.

 

Yes, it's a nice list.

I don't see anything about VPNs, however.

Also, Torbutton is deprecated, I believe.

 

Prism does not even bother me, and it should not bother you either. Its not even difficult to get around at all and takes no upkeep.

 

I think, that it would be great, if people would write down some alternatives. I recently found those, not very well known/used.

Yandex ( Russian - 1990 ): email, browser (Chromium based), cloud storage (10GB free).
Mail.ru ( Russian - 1998 ): email (some english translations), browser (Chromium based, non-english), cloud storage and IM (non-english).
FoolDNS ( Italian - 2010 ): blocks malware, phishing and only bad ADs, not all, so it is kind of compromise, if you want to support webpages.

 

The list has some interesting ideas, but most of the solutions are too idealistic or dependent on others, so they become hard to implement. For instance:

1. Switch to an open-source OS. Great idea, until you want to play certain games.
2. Switch from Google/Bing/Yahoo search. Good idea, until you find out how limited the results of the alternative search engines are.
3. Switch from PayPal. Again, the alternatives are not widely supported by online stores, so it is rather pointless.
4. Switching cloud storage to a self hosted version. Good idea, but requires a server that you must maintain (and pay the electricity bill for it).
5. Switching away from Google+/Facebook. How many of your friends do you think that will switch just to be on the same social network as you are?

I'm not saying that switching is a bad idea, but everyone should try to evaluate for themselves the risks implied by their actual configuration and decide accordingly what to do.

 

You can use OwnCloud at any web host. Dreamhost has a one-click option where they do it all and your set to go. You control your data instead of all the fine print with Dropbox, Box.com, etc.
http://lifehacker.com/5993596/how-t...storage-service-in-five-minutes-with-owncloud

 

Great points Nebulus, basically as long as people will use Windows made by Microsoft (we have to), which was the first company to please NSA, everything else is secondary.
Someone might also point out, that Startpage uses Google search, but Google's own study revealed, that based on the searches, they can identify user with 75% probability.

 

this is very easy: just use Startpage or duck duck go.

 

I know, but the whole point of this was to have the storage under my control, and not under a third party's control.

Interesting point! The advantage in using Startpage is that Google will not be able to link the searches to your IP address; as for the tracking, I don't know if it is really possible to avoid having a kind of "search profile"...

 

Thanks CloneRanger, many in their I never heard about, cool list

 

@ Warlockz

Pleasure, hope you make use of some of them I wasn't aware of all of them before either.

 

Nice list, some interesting programs on there.

 

Anyone have a link to the

concept? Browser/machine profile, perhaps?

If searches are anonymized by e.g. Startpage, then a few requests from a consistant list would establish one (or more) search avatars, yes?

There was a FF addon that obfuscated by random search requests, but I think it faded.

 

Which will generally do more to protect/hide than nearly anything else in that list. Most of that stuff doesn't mean much when the claws are as deep as they are.

That it is. It's been mentioned numerous times on Tor's mailing list that Torbutton is not to be used on newer versions of Firefox (I believe v4.0 marked the big change) and that the Tor Browser Bundle was what people should be using.

I'm surprised to see the EFF not make that distinction.

 

I find ironic that such website exists. Why? If the idea is to "opt-out" of PRISM, then wouldn't the NSA quite easily know you're visiting -http://prism-break.org/, considering it's provided over HTTP and not over HTTPS. Before you could even search through all the different apps/services, you'd already been added to the person of interest list.

 

i assume the NSA can see who's sending encrypted emails and IMs, and encrypting their calls too, but at least they cannot data mine those people as easily or completely. imo encrypting your communications as much as practicality allows is prudent.

 

I agree with you, but that's not what I meant. I was actually talking about -http://prism-break.org/ not being provided over HTTPS. If the idea is to make others not be so easily seen by the NSA/other, then from the moment you visit the website, they (NSA, etc) probably already know it, and could easily just assume you got something to hide and make of you a person of interest.

I mean, the website mentions:

Opt out of PRISM, the NSA’s global data surveillance program. Stop reporting your online activities to the American government with these free alternatives to proprietary software.

Well, by providing their website over HTTP, they're already making you report where you are. Hence the irony.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Yes, I'd never visit such sites unless I were using Tor, or at least a couple VPNs I've never even visited Wilders except through VPNs.

 

HTTPS would encrypt the web traffic, but server logs will still show when you made the connection, and the IP you made it from. Then you can factor in "direct access", available logs/records, fingerprinting algos...but all to see people who are gonna look at a list of programs & service and go, "I've never heard of ANY of these."

Not to mention that few things you can do will actually be 'effective' and they're 1. not something you just quickly redirect your browser to or grab from an addon gallery and 2. have their own set of unknowns.

I agree with you, irony is amongst us.

 

Bear in mind that when visiting a site via HTTPS your visit could be detected by TBD intermediaries based on SYN destination IP Address, SSL/TLS handshake messages, and/or OCSP check requests.

 

Easy way to opt-out of PRISM:

Completely get off the Web
Go old school, use a typewriter
Send snailmail

 

By the way, TOR is missing from the Darknet list, and TorChat is missing from the Instant Messaging list.

 

RedPhone & TextSecure can only be used in the usa, unless the developer has finally fixed it so it can be used anywhere in the world.