anyone dunking on the article, this is pretty far away from a how-to-lilst; it's more of a "think about these things if you haven't up until now" and as such a net positive. wrong community for it, though.
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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Privacy
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A lot of practical steps, which is nice to see in an article like this.
That iphone drama might actually lead to proper interest from normie core?
I doubt somebody running from a government is taking their tips from wired.com
I read through the whole list, and monero was the only decent privacy recomendation I could find. Everything else was US-hosted. A lot of it was just recommendations from Apple and Google on "privacy" services they offer.
No mention of syncthing, matrix, xmpp, even with sections dedicated to those categories.
I read that monero is different from other cryptocurrencies and makes it harder to identify the individual to/from whom a transaction in is sent
What is the difference and why do other cryptocurrencies not implement it?
The core focus of early crypto was decentralization, not anonymity. Bitcoin is totally decentralized, but the entire premise is the blockchain contains a permanent irrefutable ledger of transactions. Basically everyone knows if Wallet A paid Wallet B. If you refill your wallet with anything remotely traceable, that means everyone knows YOU paid Wallet B, and similarly if wallet B has any ties to the real world, the lines are easy to connect.
That's not to say you can't use it anonymously, but that was not the intent and thus it does anonymity poorly.
Monero is built as a privacy first crypto. Essentially it's like cash in many ways. You spend it in the shop and nobody knows where the cash you're handing over came from. When you get your change at the till you know nothing about who had the cash before you that you just got handed. It's just money.
This is all handled by a bunch of very complex cryptography. If it comes to it there are ways to prove you sent the money etc but only you have that capability to decide to share.
Don't challenge me
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Too bad private email access is essentially dead. Any service not requiring another email or phone number to sign up gets quickly shut down. A casualty in the war on whistleblowers.
email is never private, if its that sensitive it just shouldn't go on the internet
Exactly; email is digital post cards and always has been.
Of course, that means I can encrypt a message and use someone else’s email account to send it :)
You can sign up for Proton mail without providing email or phone number, as far as I recall.
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Switch phone service to VoIP, cancel cell service, all tracking capabilities is gone.
A lot of organizations now block VOIP numbers thanks to stringent KYC laws.
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That's just wrong when you're dealing with the government
You're just shifting trust though - may be good in some cases, but not universal. Aldo does nothing about the cell tower connections tracking the location.
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Iirc any cell phone is still capable of dialing 911(or equivalent) even without a sim. So id imagine carrier towers and gps could still find it. You'd basically have to keep the device in a ferriday bag. Which complicates actually using it.
That is correct. Any cell phone sold in the United States by law is supposed to be able to dial 911 no matter whether they have a SIM card inserted or not and no matter whether they have service on a SIM card or not and also no matter whether one specific carrier in your area has no signal it will use the others instead. You may be a Verizon customer, but if you dial 911 and an AT&T tower picks up the call first, the AT&T network will serve that call instead.
One clarification: carrier towers can still find a phone; GPS is passive; your phone locates itself in relation to the GPS satellites.
Most phones are also broadcasting WiFi MAC IDs and Bluetooth MACs, plus hardware and capability strings over Bluetooth. And then any apps you’ve got loaded may also be calling home with your location unless you have that disabled and rotate your ad ID regularly.
[edit] also worth pointing out that even if you turn a smartphone “off” it still pings the local cell towers with its IMEI regularly. Surprised me the first time I witnessed that.
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I'm glad they mentioned Monero in the article, but sad that they mentioned it alongside Zcash since Zcash is not private by default and not many people opt into the privacy and Zcash has shown willingness to be bad to their users by helping exchanges. Primarily because they are run by the Electric Coin Company, which is registered in the United States, and therefore they have to obey the laws of the United States. So, Zcash is not a good option.
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