5 Ways to Thwart Spies

[Brad]

Nice little article keeps it simple.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/16/5-ways-to-thwart-nsa-spying/

Of course you really are not going to stop any government, intent on spying. It's like putting locks on your house, anyone determined enough will get in, but you make it such a pain in the butt that most thieves will just find something easier, like your neighbors house. 

One of the real finds from that article was Privacy Badger, which sounds interesting.
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

[ergophobe]

Thanks. That does have some good tips in a short space.

[BoL]

They mention DuckDuckGo. I see their traffic is building up nicely: https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html

[Brad]

They mention DuckDuckGo. I see their traffic is building up nicely: https://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html

Wow, they got quite a boost just by being an alternative, not the default, in both Safari and FF.  I use DDG and like it.  Another good privacy alternative is http://startpage.com which is straight up Google without user customization or enhancement. No logging.

[ergophobe]

I sometimes use one of the proxy services, but mostly for research, not privacy

http://hideme.be
http://anonymouse.com
http://hidemyass.com (they might be defunct)

[bill]

Privacy Badger is a good one.

You should use the following as well:

• NoScript (FF) - SafeScript (Cr)
• Disconnect (FF & Cr)
• µBlock (FF & Cr)

That may break some pages, but it will massively curtail your tracking footprint.

Then you may want to run your browser in a sandbox. You can use Sandboxie or stick things in a virtual machine.

[Gurtie]

although there are lots of 'only 5%' '0nly 10%' statements in there, I'm amazed it's that high a % of people are taking those actions. Do you 'mercans feel that's a representative sample?

[Brad]

although there are lots of 'only 5%' '0nly 10%' statements in there, I'm amazed it's that high a % of people are taking those actions. Do you 'mercans feel that's a representative sample?

It seems high to me.  I think these surveys get skewed towards techies, not the great unwashed masses.

[ergophobe]

I feel like every time I've tested NoScript it breaks a ton of sites and I disable it.

[rcjordan]

>not the great unwashed masses

There was a headline floating around earlier this week that said over 30% of US users had taken some security/privacy precautions since the Snowden whistleblowing.

[Brad]

>>30%

Good to know the message is getting through.

[bill]

I feel like every time I've tested NoScript it breaks a ton of sites and I disable it.

Yes it does. That means it's doing its job.    You can train NoScript on sites you don't want to break and then export/import those settings to other machines. After a while you get used to the pattern of permanently or temporarily giving permissions to new sites, but your regular sites work just fine. Instead of turning it off completely, open sites you don't want broken in Incognito mode or another browser.

Newer versions of FireFox and Chrome have a NoScript type function built in. You can deny JavaScript and other scripting on a site-by-site basis, but it's easier to use NoScript/ScriptSafe in my experience. That's the way to remain secure on the Interwebs, and even the browser manufacturers know it.

[rcjordan]

Somebody should have mentioned rss feeds as a security alternative, or at least reducing exposure.  I'm only visiting about 10-15% of the sites I'm pulling (headlines & snippets in the rss, then go to the page if it interests me).

[ergophobe]

I know, I know.

I go out into the outside world and I'm the security nut that people roll their eyes at, then I come here and think "Crap, I'm totally at risk."

[bill]

I'm a heavy RSS user, and you're right about the security aspect. It's good to be reminded about that. You can pull in a ton of information and read snippets without any tracking whatsoever. When you click through to the article that's when I'm a bit more careful. For certain topics I'll open the link in a Tor browser or virtual machine.