Posted on 06/17/2013 11:15:49 AM PDT by ShadowAce
PRISM and Boundless Informant. Don’t you just love names like that. They have a nice ring to them. But do not be fooled. Those are bad for your privacy and, with time, even worse for a true democracy.
But thank heavens for Free Software and those making them available. With much gratitude to them, here are two Free Software services that can help you deal with PRISM and Boundless Informant. Maybe not completely, but a little something is better than nothing.
1. Tor is a well-known anonymizing service. Many privacy-conscious people already use it. According to the official description:
Tor software’s job is to conceal your identity from your recipient, and to conceal your recipient and your content from observers on your end. By itself, Tor does not protect the actual communications content once it leaves the Tor network. This can make it useful against some forms of metadata analysis, but this also means Tor is best used in combination with other tools.
So while Tor by itself is not a complete solution to the problem that PRISM and Boundless Informant and other mass surveillance programs pose, it’s a very important piece to the solution. Other applications that can help make Tor a more complete solution are: Enigmail, TorBirdy, and HTTPS Everywhere. Read more about Tor and PRISM here.
2. Open Whisper is a Free Software project that creates “tools for secure mobile communication and secure mobile storage.” So far, the project has published two Android applications – RedPhone and TextSecure. They are available for download for your Android devices from WhisperSystems.org.
RedPhone is said to provide “end-to-end encryption for your calls, securing your conversations so that nobody can listen in.”
TextSecure is a replacement for the default messaging applications and encrypts messages on the device, that is, locally, and over the air.
I liked "Echelon" better.
Carry on.
Thanks for posting this. Helpful stuff.
Oh yeah and, too bad our gubmint is so obsessed with tracking down pro-Israel groups that it allowed the Boston bombings to happen.
IT still doesn’t solve the problem of emails.
For that, you can go commercial (PGP Desktop Professional) or Open-Source (Gnu Privacy Guard) PGP is easier to set up, GPG is free. . .
Secure Calling and Instant Messaging for iOS and Android devices. https://mocana.com/for-device-manufacturers/keytone/
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Has PGP been cracked though? — That is the question.
Were I the NSA (or other GovAgency) and it was, that would be one secret that I’d kill to preserve — indeed, a ‘scare’ flocking people into using the perceived-secure encryption would be a good thing (from the warped GovAgency perspective).
OTOH The NYT and our own senators couldn't wait to tell the muzzies how we were tracking and killing them...
TOR is slow but Im not that much in a rush.
His idea was: What if everyone in the country, or those that believe the NSA is out of control, were to have a send a naughty word day? Or a naughty word week?
Don`t these systems still use keyword identification software? So in theory, they only need to include certain keywords into their communications for that day.
As that blogger mused, "I wonder how the system would cope with millions or billions of e-messages in one day or week that all raised flags?"
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Hmm—do you trust everyone else to do the same on the same day you do it?
“I wonder how the system would cope with millions or billions of e-messages in one day or week that all raised flags?”
Fact is that, if millions knew of the “word of the day or week”, that the government would also know about it, and disregard it as just an inconvenience.
If what the NSA says is true, it’s the pattern of communications that they’re after, and not some gimmick by someone to send them off track. A one day intrusion into the system is not a pattern for a one suspect or a suspicious group.
WOW! The Netherlands and Holland, both. That’s pretty good.
So it’s come to this.
You don`t have to use the same word, in theory, any word that kicks the system into gear would work, two or more in the same message would be even better.
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