Privacy and Security Tools for 2021

Comments

1. Rosemary's baby

   September 8, 2020

   20 of the best free tools for monitoring devices, services, ports or protocols and analyzing traffic on your network.
   [https://techtalk.gfi.com/the-top-20-free-network-monitoring-and-analysis-tools-for-sys-admins/]

   Reply

2. Tish V.

   September 1, 2020

   Canonical (makers of Ubuntu) has a questionable history regarding privacy…

   https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks

   And prism-break.org is not even recommending GNU/Linux distros based on Ubuntu because of reasons discussed here:

   https://github.com/prism-break/prism-break/issues/334

   Still, I’m going to try out Linux Mint though, either the Ubuntu-based or Debian-based and decide for myself.

   Reply

3. Rosemary's baby

   August 4, 2020

   What are the good tools to see about software you have installed then it’s phoning home or literality anywhere?
   I don’t know if good but i’m thinking these wouldn’t hurt in your knowledge.

   Wireshark is the world’s foremost and widely-used network protocol analyzer.
   Microsoft Network Monitor is a deprecated packet analyzer. It enables capturing, viewing, and analyzing network data and deciphering network protocols. It can be used to troubleshoot network problems and applications on the network. But, Microsoft quietly added a built-in network packet sniffer to the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, and it has largely gone unnoticed since its release.
   A packet sniffer, or network sniffer, is a program that monitors the network activity flowing over a computer down to an individual packet level.
   This can be used by network administrators to diagnose networking issues, see what types of programs are being used on a network, or even listen in on network conversations sent via clear text.
   While Linux users always had the tcpdump tool to perform network sniffing, Windows users have had to install third-party programs such as the Microsoft Network Monitor and Wireshark.

   This all changed when Microsoft released the October 2018 Update as then Windows 10 comes with a new “Packet Monitor” program called pktmon.exe. With the release of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Microsoft quietly added a new network diagnostic and packet monitoring program called C:\Windows\system32\pktmon.exe.
   This program has a description of “Monitor internal packet propagation and packet drop reports”, which indicates it is designed for diagnosing network problems.
   Similar to the Windows ‘netsh trace’ command, it can be used to perform full packet inspection of data being sent over the computer.

   ProcMon or Process Monitor, monitors and records all actions attempted against the Microsoft Windows Registry. Process Monitor can be used to detect failed attempts to read and write registry keys. It also allows for filtering on specific keys, processes, process IDs, and values. In addition it shows how applications use files and DLLs, detects some critical errors in system files and more.
   The tool monitors and displays in real-time all file system activity on a Microsoft Windows or Unix-like operating system. It combines two older tools, FileMon and RegMon and is used in system administration, computer forensics, and application debugging. Originally ProcMon was only available for Microsoft Windows. In November 2018, Microsoft confirmed it is porting Sysinternals tools, including ProcDump and ProcMon, to Linux. The software is open source.

   NoScript (or NoScript Security Suite) is a free software extension for Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, other Mozilla-based web browsers and Google Chrome, created and actively maintained by Giorgio Maone, an Italian software developer and member of the Mozilla Security Group.
   By default, NoScript blocks active (executable) web content, which can be wholly or partially unblocked by allowlisting a site or domain from the extension’s toolbar menu or by clicking a placeholder icon.

   In the default configuration, active content is globally denied, although the user may turn this around and use NoScript to block specific unwanted content. The allowlist may be permanent or temporary (until the browser closes or the user revokes permissions). Active content may consist of JavaScript, web fonts, media codecs, WebGL, and Flash. The add-on also offers specific countermeasures against security exploits.
   Because many web browser attacks require active content that the browser normally runs without question, disabling such content by default and using it only to the degree that it is actually necessary reduces the chances of vulnerability exploitation.

   Reply

4. Rosemary's baby

   July 29, 2020

   Here is one to consider adding to this topic. Or simply expand your browser fingerprint topic to every kind of possible fingerprinting type.
   Most people don’t know about device graph fingerprinting, where information about the types and number of connected devices can be used as a source of information entropy.

   There’s been a fair bit of academic work about the utility of IoT traffic shaping (like-https://arxiv.org/pdf/1708.05044.pdf) but again, no practical solutions. Example only, plug a connected glucose meter in your home and your ISP collects and sells that data to the ad ecosystem.
   Is there any products software/hardware which injects real device traffic in to your network and completely eliminates the situation that an eavesdropped has your true device graph.

   VPNs claim to provide privacy benefits because they cloak your IP address. The problem is that IP tracking stopped really being effective years ago with the rise of modern smart phones, because your IP address is changing constantly. Tracking companies have multiple ways of getting around that now – as this given above.

   Reply

5. anonymous

   July 15, 2020

   Sven,

   What is your view of the the EARN IT and LAED bills in the U.S. Congress? Will they prevent Internet users from having access to encrypted mail, private browsers or VPNs?

   Reply

   • Sven Taylor

     July 15, 2020

     Yeah it’s really bad news for technology and privacy-oriented companies operating in the US. However, I’ve never recommended US companies when privacy is a big consideration, as I explained in my Five Eyes article. So this further matches up with the trends we’ve seen, going all the way back to when Snowden brought these issues to the forefront in 2013.

     Reply

6. Max Mustermann

   July 12, 2020

   Dear Sven,
   Thank you for this amazing list! Do you have any recommendations regarding 2FA apps?

   Reply

   • Sven Taylor

     July 12, 2020

     Yep, we have a new post discussing 2FA here.

     Reply

7. J.M.

   April 16, 2020

   @Sven,

   Just tried to use Wire. It required a registration of email and phone number.

   I was reading elsewhere and you said you liked Wire more than Signal. Partly because of the number. Can you please expound on this for me? Thanks.

   Reply

   • Sven Taylor

     April 16, 2020

     I created an account a while back and it never required any phone number. Heinrich is working on a Wire review, which should cover the issue, and should be published within the next week. So we’ll look into it.

     Reply

     • J.M.

       April 16, 2020

       Ok. Thanks.

       Reply

   • sonar

     April 19, 2020

     Hey J.M. – Heinrich has got his Wire review out now.
     https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/wire/

     Reply

   • ralph

     August 17, 2020

     wire requires phone number if you are using it on your phone. you dont have to put your name. just use a handle, and email is required. desktop wire does not need phone. just email and a user name. any user name.

     Reply

8. sonar

   April 7, 2020

   Sven,
   Found this handy resource index and if you vet it’s offering of purpose, and like that it can consolidates people effort to have one resource to have at hand.
   Place it in your Tools category page so that it’s available and easily RP reader found. Also it can help people to understand if a Web Service is all that much of a desired, after a look to it, in how difficult it is to remove an account from some of these web services…

   A directory index of direct links to delete your account from web services.
   https://justdeleteme.xyz/

   Not only is it listing of a lot WEB SERVICES it offer’s, has a simple GUIDE, this can help people used as in knowing NOT to signup to some as the difficulty or the impossibility of some SERVICES to get their information REMOVED.
   Laid out alphabetically and are colour-coded to indicate the difficulty level of an account deletion.
   GREEN / easy – Simple process
   YELLOW /medium – Some extra steps involved
   RED / hard – Cannot be fully deleted without contacting customer services
   BLACK / impossible – Cannot be deleted

   Many companies use dark pattern techniques to make it difficult to find how to delete your account. JustDeleteMe aims to be a directory of URLs to enable you to easily delete your account from web services.
   *Got a site you think should be added? Fork the project on GitHub.
   [https://github.com/jdm-contrib/jdm]
   Thanks / Sven

   Reply

   • Sven Taylor

     April 8, 2020

     Interesting. Thanks Sonar.

     Reply

9. sonar

   April 3, 2020

   Your Internet Experiences Dominated by Unwanted Tracking and Advertising

   First let me get this out of the way, all cellphones/smartphones are tracking devices. Ha you say and a reply is Yes. But, that’s not going to be addressed today, other than your looking into Faraday bags.
   Faraday bags are named after the scientist known as Michael Faraday. The concept originated from the Faraday cages, which were built by Michael Faraday to block electromagnetic fields or electromagnetic pulses. Any electric technology that you have emits these pulses, and for the most part, they are harmless. But these electric pulses are still signals and can be used for communication.
   Some of Faraday blocks all major signals: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, WiFi (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz). Not all Faraday bags offer the same protection.

   Indeed, Have we entered into the age where electronic spying lurks around every corner of the web, quasi-craftily skulking in the dark shadows and slipping through the cracks to access our information that doesn’t rightfully belong to them. An image one may harbor is that of men in black trench coats and dark glasses.
   Though, I’m sure their out there, most of all beings in wait periods of the offline as well the online world we are all living now. Today although, we are actually talking about technology giants, internet companies, advertisers and information brokers that occupy the undertow of search in our Internet’s use of modern day contrivance as applied science fields.

   These companies that are riding that tide, as unity we must begin to turn. However, as a consumers grows more aware of how their personal information is being collected and sold, leads us to become more skeptical about whether the companies we have engaged with online. A theirs not really have our backs nor a users best interests in mind.

   These entities have fundamentally turned against all consumers. They have grown up in vast empires now, profitable and powerful by trading in our information — your own personal identifiable information. The information economy has become the surveillance economy because of them. You are marked as the bull-eyes on a target of their investigations. Your every post, click and purchase becomes you as in their product of income — and most people are unaware of this profiling for profit that’s long been going on.
   The neophyte rumblings have been growing louder as consumers are becoming more apprehensive of the threats to their online privacy and personal data, and increasingly doubtful to all internet companies having their best interests in mind.

   People are either a little concerned or very much concerned about the issues of personal online privacy when data is taken down without any users consent. Some consider themselves as being “privacy conscious”, where they are concerned about how their personal data is tracked and used online, or another privacy sect in sociology consider themselves a “privacy activist” as they are very concerned about how their personal data is tracked and used online, and want to take actions to curb it by some restraints in changing that for themselves and others.
   As most consumers don’t know where to start when it comes to protecting themselves in this electronic data age.

   Over half of Americans believe that tech companies are listening to them on all of their devices. Over three quarters of Americans agree that advertising companies should not be able to collect data about them without their consent. Mostly every American strongly agree that people have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by all kinds of online entities…
   Yet despite consumers fears and doubts, and their purported willingness to take some action, other data studies reveals they are unsure how to start or where to turn. A 2019 privacy survey from IBM’s Institute for Business Value found that while 81% of consumers say that in the past year they have become more concerned with how online companies are using their data. Most consumers aren’t taking any first steps action to protecting their personal data. Fewer than half (45%) reported that they have updated their privacy settings.

   The National Science Board has found similar evidence of a disunion between the consumers desires to protect their privacy and their ability to take a solid actions path in conservancy. Any studies as these are just a handful among the many that echo similar consumer sentiments, while these look only at how people feel, other data examined that were focusing on internet companies methods to glean users private information indicates the real story may be even more unsettling than most consumers have actually realize in their electronic data.

   The Internet or web has a dark chromospheric level and a few parts here we are to know these as:
   – Online price discrimination is real.
   Lets look at a afterthought as my age tells.The brick-n-mortar venue has been practicing inelasticity methods for awhile, say remembering when a pound or 3-pound container of coffee was just that in weight. Not a 10-12 ounce bag for the pound that was once sold as 16 oz. Then the 3-pound coffee containers today yields only 32-34.5 ounces, where it had been a full weights measured of 48 oz. Sugar is another example, the 5-pound bags now holds about 4-pounds of sugar. The container looks the same size and the price is close to what a full measure did cost but, the volume is quite less when studied.
   By economics terms only ‘inelastic’, to a person means their relatively unresponsive to changes, as their demand for the decrease in price compared to it’s decrease in proportional size.
   In practical strategies like of direct and indirect segmentation of people, there are used by companies to charge different prices to different sectors of consumers, through methods like coupons, or as buyers where student, military and even senior discounts happen and so on for catching a discount.

   When price discrimination occurs online, it’s much more hidden, and the majority of consumers are unaware that it happens. In fact, many consumers haphazardly believe price discrimination is illegal — even though it isn’t. In general consort, as the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 (called the Anti-Price Discrimination Act), it was written to control the behavior of product manufacturers and distributors, not at the consumer-facing enterprises level.
   A research paper concluded that while personalization of experience has become an important feature on websites in recent years, there is mounting evidence that e-commerce sites are using personalization algorithms to implement price steering and discrimination against all pricing knowledge.

   It mentions the few examples as-
   * Home Depot was found to steer users on mobile browsers toward more expensive products, and noted that Android users in particular were shown prices 6% higher than other groups (this varied by products).
   * Travel sites use device a type, (iOS versus Android) to present different offers to different users — Orbitz, showed iOS users more expensive hotels than Android users.
   * Many travel sites perform A-B price testing, as permanently by assigning users (via cookies), to different test categories. In this study found, that Expedia was steering users toward more expensive hotels.

   As Third-Party Tracking Is So Massive in Scale.
   As websites go, the owner or team playing in the advertising and tracking ecosystem requires a great deal of technical skills and legal expertise. Because of these two factors, most companies online do not engage in first-party tracking — that is they do not track a user’s activity themselves. Instead, the vast majority of websites contract with advertising networks and fingerprinting companies, allowing these third parties tracker to place different trackers on their own web sites to glean in valuable user data.
   When the company you are actually doing business with doesn’t really know what information is being collected, or how it is being used. It has massive implications to it’s users base and by relinquishing their WEBSITE control, online web companies have made these third-party trackers the powerful gate-keepers of user information. According to a research paper on online tracking. Website operators are often in the dark about third-party tracking technics on their own domains as well.

   If a website owners can’t control who’s digging around in it’s delivery to you, and with trackers as them diggers have potentially gained the right in selling off your personal data, how are you supposed to protect yourself?
   How do you know the steps in where your data ends up, or who ends up with it overall? Being able to track peoples internet usage today, including purchases, clicks, likes, sites visited and more, is akin to being able to view someone’s credit report. Third-parties trackers can access the consumer’s banking information, purchase history, demographics, political leanings, the number and ages of children, and frighteningly a lot more.

   Furthermore, the third parties trackers don’t hold or sit quietly on this highly profitable personal information. They sell it off many times to those that can use it. Scared, you’re not at all alone. That means eventually any third parties trackers are driving the web when it comes to tracking it’s consumers, news to you? Surprisingly, No I’ll admit as I have studied this for some time now.
   If you consider there are ten of thousand of third parties trackers present on at least two first parties sites of the top 500 most visited by U.S. web audience. Then say, perhaps unexpectedly you would relate them of the News websites having the most trackers in their effort to monetize on their content. Truly I say to you they are not alone in the tracking game.

   Welcome to the age of online Surveillance my friends.

   Reply

10. sonar

    March 30, 2020

    Lets Refresh – Understanding Online Tracking & Other Online Tracking Kinds:
    Here are a few common online tracking methods — how it works and how you can control it.

    Understanding Cookies – . . . What is a cookie?
    A cookie is information saved by your web browser, the software program you use to visit the web. When you visit a website, the site might store a cookie so it can recognize your device in the future.
    Later if you return to that site, it can read that cookie to remember you from your last visit. By keeping track of you over time, cookies can be used to customize your browsing experience, or to deliver ads targeted to you!

    Who places cookies on the web . . . ?
    First-party cookies are placed by the site that you actually visit. They can make your experience on the web more efficient using their site.
    For example, they help sites remember:
    – . . . items in your shopping cart
    – . . . your log-in name
    – . . . your preferences, like always showing the weather in your home town
    – . . . your high game scores.

    @ – Third-party cookies are placed by someone other than the site you are on. For example, the website may partner with an advertising network to deliver some of the ads you see. Or they may partner with an analytics company to help understand how people use their site.
    These “third party” companies also may place cookies in your browser to monitor your behavior over time. Over time, these companies may develop a detailed history of the types of sites you frequent, and they may use this information to deliver ads tailored to your interests. For example, if an advertising company notices that you read a lot of articles about running, it may show you ads about running shoes – even on an unrelated site you’re visiting for the first time.

    What are Flash cookies . . . ? It’s another storage area to consider!
    A Flash cookie is a small file stored on your computer by a website that uses Adobe’s Flash player technology. Flash cookies use Adobe’s Flash player to store information about your online browsing activities.
    Flash cookies can be used to replace cookies used for tracking and advertising, because they also can store your settings and preferences. Similarly, companies can place unique HTML5 cookies within a browser’s local storage to identify a user over time.
    When you delete or clear cookies from your browser, you will not necessarily delete the Flash cookies stored on your computer.

    What is device fingerprinting . . . ?
    Device fingerprinting can track devices over time, based on your browser’s configurations, settings and your system basics – fonts, language, time, extensions, etc… Because each browser is unique, device fingerprinting can identify your device, without using cookies. Since device fingerprinting uses the characteristics of your system and browser configuration to track you, deleting cookies won’t help.
    Device fingerprinting technologies are evolving and can be used to track you on all kinds of internet-connected devices that have browsers, such as smart phones, tablets, laptop and desktop computers.

    How does tracking in mobile apps occur . . . ?
    When you access mobile applications, companies don’t have access to traditional browser cookies to track you over time. Instead, third party advertising and analytics companies use device identifiers — such as Apple iOS’s Identifiers for Advertisers (“IDFA”) and Google Android’s Advertising ID — to monitor the different applications used on a particular device.

    Does tracking of other “smart devices” occur . . . ?
    Yes. More and more, consumer IoT devices, in addition to phones, are capable of being connected online. For example, smart entertainment systems often provide new ways for you to watch TV shows and movies, and also may use established technology to monitor what you watch – voice assistants.
    Look to the settings on your devices to investigate whether you can reset identifiers on the devices, or use another web interface (browsers app), link on to another device to limit some of the ad tracking.

    Controlling Online Tracking : : :
    How can I control cookies . . . ?
    Various browsers have different ways to let you delete cookies or limit the kinds of cookies that can be placed on your computer. When you choose a browser, consider which one really suits your privacy preferences best.
    To check out the settings in a browser, use the ‘Help’ tab or look under ‘Tools’ for settings like ‘Options’ or ‘Privacy.’ From there, you may be able to delete cookies, or control when they can be placed.

    Some browsers allow add-on software tools to block, delete, or control cookies. And security software often includes options to make cookie control easier. If you delete cookies, companies may not be able to associate you with your past browsing activity. However, they may be able to track you in the future with a new cookie. If you block cookies entirely, you may limit your browsing experience on the web. For example, you may need to enter information repeatedly, or you might not get personalized content that is meaningful to you. Most browsers’ settings will allow you to block third-party cookies without also disabling first-party cookies.

    @ – How can I control Flash cookies and device fingerprinting and online tracking . . . ?
    The latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer – let you control or delete Flash cookies through the browser’s settings. If you use an older version of one of these browsers, upgrade to the most recent version, and set it to update automatically.
    If you use a browser that doesn’t let you delete Flash cookies, look at Adobe’s Website Storage Settings panel, [http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html]. There, you can view and delete Flash cookies, and a choice gives you control whether you’ll allow them on your computer at all.
    Like regular cookies, deleting Flash cookies gets rid of the ones on your computer at that moment in TIME. Flash cookies can be placed on your computer the next time you visit a website or view an ad unless you block Flash cookies altogether.

    How can I control tracking in or across mobile apps . . . ?
    You can reset the identifiers on your device in the device settings. iOS users can do this by following Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Reset Advertising Identifier.
    For Android, the path is Google settings > Ads > Reset advertising ID. This control works much like deleting cookies in a browser — the device is harder to associate with past activity, but tracking can start anew using the new advertising identifier you’ve changed to. Reset often!
    You also can limit the use of identifiers for ad targeting on your devices. If you turn on this setting, apps are not permitted to use the advertising identifier to serve consumers targeted ads.
    For iOS, the controls are available through Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Limit Ad Tracking. For Android, Google Settings > Ads > Opt Out of Interest-Based Ads. Although this tool will limit the use of tracking data for targeting ads, companies may still be able to monitor your app usage for other purposes, such as research, measurement, and fraud prevention.

    Mobile browsers work much like traditional web browsers, and the tracking technologies and user controls are much the same as for ordinary web browsers, described above. Mobile applications also may collect your geolocation to share with advertising companies. The latest versions of iOS and Android allow you to limit which particular applications can access your location information.

    What is “private browsing” . . . ?
    Many browsers offer private browsing settings that are meant to let you keep your web activities hidden from other people who use the same computer. With private browsing turned on, your browser won’t retain cookies, your browsing history, search records, or the files you downloaded.
    Privacy modes aren’t uniform, though; it’s a good idea to check your browser to see what types of data it has and does store.

    @ – But note that cookies used during the private browsing session still can communicate information about your browsing behavior to third parties.
    So, private browsing may not be effective in stopping third parties from using techniques such as fingerprinting to track your web activity.

    What are “opt-out” cookies . . . ?
    Some websites and advertising networks allow you to set cookies that tell them not to use information about what sites you visit to target ads to you. For example, the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) offer tools for opting out of targeted advertising — often by placing opt-out cookies.
    If you delete all cookies, you’ll also delete the cookies that indicate your preference to opt out of targeted ads.
    Cookies are used for many purposes — for example, to limit the number of times you’re shown a particular ad. So even if you opt out of targeted advertising, a company may still use cookies for other purposes.

    What is “Do Not Track” . . . ?
    Do Not Track is a setting in most internet browsers that allows you to express your preference not to be tracked across the web. Turning on Do Not Track through your web browser sends a signal to every website you visit that you don’t want to be tracked from site to site. Companies then know your preference. If they have committed to respect your Do Not Track preference, they are legally required to do so. However, most tracking companies today have not committed to honoring users’ Do Not Track preferences.

    Can I block online tracking . . . ?
    Consumers can learn about tracker-blocking browser plugins which block the flow of information from a computer to tracking companies and allow consumers to block ads – on the servers end that deliver to the sites visited. They prevent companies from using cookies or fingerprinting to track your internet behavior. Still these aids see where you go which mean what you’re doing. To find tracker-blocking plugins, type “tracker blocker” in your search engine. Then, compare features to decide which tracker blocker is best for you. For example, some of them block tracking by default, while others require you to customize it as when you’ll block tracking and he ads.
    Remember that websites that rely on third party tracking companies for measurement or advertising revenue may prevent you from using their site if you have blocking software installed. However, you can still open those sites in a separate browser that doesn’t have blocking enabled, or you can disable your blocking on those sites, and yet again app’s and extensions can circumvent the block if in constant development.
    [https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0042-online-tracking]

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      March 30, 2020

      Great overview, thanks Sonar.

      Reply

      • sonar

        March 30, 2020

        Thank you Sven,
        eikelein, posted over in antivirus about his customers being – “home users, computer illiterate, often reluctant to learn and mostly above 45-50 years old.”
        I replied back he should guide them this way as not to being remote jockeys any further and for them to get some privacy exercise here, reading of the hazards to their digital world on this site they’ve not learnt yet and what counter methods there are to know. This is just an installment of overlooked – forgotten knowledge…

        So, I see people as not lazy but being generally lost in it all as the web has many bits and pieces of information, spread out, laying in wait to find. I just try to band much of it together for your readers, with this sites contained and related articles and guides contents.
        And yes mid 40’s up just as junior/high school folks need to refresh or pick it up. Internet use all boils down to data that is about you and people are profiting off of it as if it were a disease we had. That’s why it’s gotten so invasive to hit the power on switch and open the Internet.

        Reply

11. Kirstin

    March 24, 2020

    I’m wondering about how to set up a website with a hosting provider that will respect privacy. I’ve ended up in the position of constantly leaving website options that sync up with Facebook, such as Weebly or Meetup, and despite lacking much money would like an option that is more private. While getting a domain name is done, I have been looking at shared hosting for wordpress, and am confused by the idea that hosting providers such as SiteGround use Google infrastructure. I wonder if you know if this shared infrastructure means that privacy will be lost? I realize that probably if I spent more, that privacy would come easier, but I don’t have that much, so am looking at shared hosting. I very much appreciate your website as privacy is something I find very worthwhile.

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      March 24, 2020

      Mirimir was working on an Anonymous Hosting guide, but he had to take some time off for personal reasons. Here’s something from his draft post:

                  CPU  RAM  uplink price
      BitHost     OK   OK   OK     high  [Digital Ocean reseller]
      CockBox     OK   OK   slow   OK
      HostSailor  OK   OK   fast   OK
      VPS.BG      OK   OK   OK     OK
      

      A few other options are Bahnhof in Sweden and Orange Website in Iceland.

      Reply

      • sonar

        March 28, 2020

        I hope MIRIMIR fairs well and it’s not for a loss or ravage that he should need our thoughts and prayers at this time.
        …So good people don’t happen to bad things I hope his guild will start off as a Hosting guide at heart with a department on Anonymous use.

        A simply way of say, a domain name is a name that is used to identify an address on the Internet for a particular website and any e-mail addresses configured for that site.
        Most people find it hard to picture a website as more than a bundle of content. This often makes explaining the mixture of languages used and the way everything comes together, a difficult task for someone trying to do so.

        If looking for distinct image, because what makes up a website can be related and linked to the physiology of a human body.
        Head = |META| – |TITLE| / Body = |IMG| |A| |P| |ACRONYM|
        Assembly as mundane to the extraordinary, pittance needs be impressed of the vital overlay understood to built as an anatomical look delivered.

        Which the The Anatomy of a Website https://www.webfx.com/blog/web-design/anatomy-of-a-website/ would be a good link Mirimir could guide his readers.
        Mirimir if you catch this – please that guide be a full tantamount relationship. At any rate, looking forward to it and your good being, as well your quick return.

        Maybe covering NEWs facts.
        [https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/2018-01-09-issue-with-tls-sni-01-and-shared-hosting-infrastructure/49996]
        [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/07/namecheap_subdomain_security_hole/]

        Reply

    • sonar

      March 25, 2020

      @Kirstin
      Do have a look at [https://www.namecheap.com/wordpress/] EasyWP will be
      answering your privacy questions first in their Privacy Policy, the support is a great avenue as well.
      [https://www.namecheap.com/legal/general/privacy-policy/]
      Then with their given comparisons…
      Company – Fully Loaded Time – Time to First Byte – Price Per Month
      EasyWP . . . 0.7 seconds . . . . . . . 192 milliseconds . . . $3.88
      GoDaddy . . 0.8 seconds . . . . . . . 200 milliseconds . . .$9.99
      Bluehost . . 0.8 seconds . . . . . . . 396 milliseconds . . .$24.95
      Kinsta . . . . 1 .29 seconds . . . . . . 491 milliseconds . . .$30.00
      WP Engine.. 0.9 seconds . . . . . . .245 milliseconds . . .$35.00
      Based on price only as the first is of the linked to it’s information above.
      Then this may assist you for questions not realized yet-or come to mind [https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/category/2239/easywp/]
      Your data stays safe with us:
      We use our own servers so your data stays between you and us, far away from snoopy eyes. We even give you free WhoisGuard so spammers don’t trace back to you.
      Customer Approved:
      Our customer service is one of the most well regarded in the industry. With EasyWP you get 24/7 customer support available all year, for free.

      Reply

12. sonar

    March 16, 2020

    As the end of 2019, there were 3.84 Billion social media users worldwide.
    2.2 Billion Active Facebook Accounts
    800 Million Active Instagram Accounts
    330 Million Active Twitter Accounts
    260 Million Active Linkedin Accounts
    225 Million Active Snapchat Accounts

    Because our life as active web users, the elife mirror is recorded online, and a lion’s bounty we share of incriminating evidence ends up here. The Trojan Horse element, which misleads users of its true intent. The stratagem subterfuge effect if you will.

    Reply

13. sonar

    March 16, 2020

    Sven what do you mean by having this on the site and it based how to it?
    AS FEATURED IN:
    lifehacker, YAHOO!, PCMAG()COM, ZDNet, engadget

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      March 16, 2020

      It’s a list of publications that have discussed RP and linked to the site.

      Reply

14. MoisheP

    March 14, 2020

    Could you add a section on MS Windows telemetry blockers, such as O&O ShutUp10 and alternatives (https://alternativeto.net/software/shutup10/), e.g. effectiveness, ease of use, whether the app includes malware or unasked for installers, etc.?
    Thanks, and thanks for this entire site!

    Reply

    • sonar

      March 14, 2020

      at MoisheP,
      If your on win 10 I would not wait for a review to come on such products.
      Get the free | donation soft I offered mentioned down some in where
      sonar says says MARCH 3, 2020 in reply to h76D4Kf74 says FEBRUARY 28, 2020.
      Go ahead and check it out to whats offered as it’s to do list, and with an ability to roll back any changes it’s made.
      Then find a Block By Default third party Firewall that’s installed on but functions separate from the OS and could run jointly with wins baked in OS firewall. If you so wanted this. I’d not.
      Cause and effects:
      1) no telemetry from win 10 till next update and then run BB thereafter each time an update rolls out.
      2) control any in and out bound network traffic to the system by zones as rules for installed third party apps and parts of windows OS as you see any traffic happen – once the rule and zone are set you can forget them.
      3) simplest way for anyone not versed so will and less time invested for user.

      Reply

15. sonar

    March 11, 2020

    IS YOUR SMART TV – TOO SMART?
    •Be careful when you’re setting up your TV. Don’t agree to all the terms automatically, so you don’t miss the chance to opt-out of the data collection. If you’re reading this before you get started with a new smart TV, then consider yourself in the luckier set, because manufacturers make it harder to find and opt-out of their content-collection features once you’ve already consented to them. The way to change the settings varies for every TV, so you will need to look up the specs for your own model.
    •You can simply choose to go “dumb” and not put your smart TV online. You could then, for example, run your favorite streaming service from your laptop and connect it to the TV’s HDMI port. Of course you will still be subject to whatever innate tracking is happening within the streaming service you’re using, but you’ve somewhat limited its spread.
    •If you want to keep your TV smart and online, a VPN or Winston privacy box can help. Securing your home router with a VPN is a great way to encrypt your connection online, which will protect you against hackers and enhance your anonymity online thought that’s only on a software level. Winston is hardware between your modem and router and requires no VPN being used because of it’s encryption mesh network, and most ad blockers aren’t recommended as their inferior to winstons blocking methods.

    ACR: Everything is connected … a little acronym or automatic content recognition. This smart TV feature makes use of just a few pixels of whatever you’re watching and sends that information back to a massive database. This data about what you watch is then used to target you with ads inside and outside your TV viewing experience. Since your smart TV is probably linked to your home router, it shares the same IP address that identifies your specific household. That shared address means that you can then be targeted — using that TV data — across all the devices connected to your home network. In other words, the same ad you saw on your smart TV can easily reappear on your smartphone.

    Perhaps this practice sounds particularly scary because TV was preceded by the internet, and people remember a time when watching TV seemed to be more of a unidirectional relationship. But your smart TV can also be online, and so what’s happening behind the scenes when you watch TV is basically the same as when you go online on your laptop or smartphone — you’re being tracked and hit with ads and content geared to your perceived interests.
    The way your viewing data is collected is not all that different from the way sites like YouTube or Facebook target you, often by recommending you content. After all, who doesn’t want more of what they like? A content recommending service like Samba TV, which is used by Sony and many other brands, is just one such smart TV platform that uses ACR to offer a more personalized viewing experience, while simultaneously using that data to help advertisers target you.

    On an internet-connected smart TV, this collected content isn’t limited to digital information from shows that you stream via internet services like Netflix, but can also include pixel signatures from regular cable TV and DVDs. And that information can be transmitted from your TV back to the companies every few seconds.
    Pressure on companies for transparent data collection:
    Part of the problem here is something that’s been plaguing every facet of internet regulation: user consent and transparency. Smart TVs have been around for a while, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the FTC brought some real heat against the smart TV manufacturer Vizio, which ultimately had to pay $2.2 million for collecting viewing data without user consent. Since then, the regulatory eye has been more focused on smart TV makers. There is now more pressure on companies to be clear about what they’re collecting in the initial terms of service you see upon setting up your smart TV. But there is clearly still a problem.
    When users of Samba-enabled TVs set up their system, a whopping 90% of them consent to having their viewing data collected.

    Concerns about surveillance:
    Now, even the FBI is cautioning people to secure their smart TVs. But, as it turns out, law enforcement is a strange bedfellow with corporate wantonness. To sum up the security connotations of TVs, phones, and the multitude of other smart (IoT) devices that are available today, a recent Harvard University report states that we can look forward to “a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will ‘go dark’ and beyond reach”. In other words, the current data-mining business model many tech companies enjoy will make the Feds quite happy too.
    Like laptops and smartphones, some smart TVs have microphones and cameras in them (though the cameras have reportedly become scarcer in newer models). These cameras and mics pose the same problem that plagues every smart device that can see/hear you as well, namely that corporations can get an audiovisual window into your life and so can hackers. And while the FBI might be cautioning you against TV raiding by hackers, perhaps they should also caution you against TV raiding by the CIA — monitoring you through the camera or microphone while your TV appears to be off — something that the agency has been exploring according to Wikileaks-released documents.

    How can you protect your smart TV? In 2018 114 million smart TVs were sold worldwide. In the United States, around 45% of homes had at least one smart TV. And part of the reason smart TVs have been so accessible is that their tracking capabilities help keep prices down. As smart TVs and other smart devices become more tempting to buy, it’s important that the average user knows how to limit the invasion of data-collecting by their machines.
    Our devices have gotten smart (maybe too smart), but that doesn’t mean you have to be dumb about how you use them. The next time you set up a new smart device, make sure you consider what its capabilities are and what you can do to protect your privacy.

    Reply

16. sonar

    March 11, 2020

    IS YOUR SMART TV – TOO SMART?
    •Be careful when you’re setting up your TV. Don’t agree to all the terms automatically, so you don’t miss the chance to opt-out of the data collection. If you’re reading this before you get started with a new smart TV, then consider yourself in the luckier set, because manufacturers make it harder to find and opt-out of their content-collection features once you’ve already consented to them. The way to change the settings varies for every TV, so you will need to look up the specs for your own model.
    •You can simply choose to go “dumb” and not put your smart TV online. You could then, for example, run your favorite streaming service from your laptop and connect it to the TV’s HDMI port. Of course you will still be subject to whatever innate tracking is happening within the streaming service you’re using, but you’ve somewhat limited its spread.
    •If you want to keep your TV smart and online, a VPN or Winston privacy box can help. Securing your home router with a VPN is a great way to encrypt your connection online, which will protect you against hackers and enhance your anonymity online thought that’s only on a software level. Winston is hardware between your modem and router and requires no VPN being used because of it’s encryption mesh network, and most ad blockers aren’t recommended as their inferior to winstons blocking methods.

    ACR: Everything is connected … a little acronym or automatic content recognition. This smart TV feature makes use of just a few pixels of whatever you’re watching and sends that information back to a massive database. This data about what you watch is then used to target you with ads inside and outside your TV viewing experience. Since your smart TV is probably linked to your home router, it shares the same IP address that identifies your specific household. That shared address means that you can then be targeted — using that TV data — across all the devices connected to your home network. In other words, the same ad you saw on your smart TV can easily reappear on your smartphone.

    Perhaps this practice sounds particularly scary because TV was preceded by the internet, and people remember a time when watching TV seemed to be more of a unidirectional relationship. But your smart TV can also be online, and so what’s happening behind the scenes when you watch TV is basically the same as when you go online on your laptop or smartphone — you’re being tracked and hit with ads and content geared to your perceived interests.
    The way your viewing data is collected is not all that different from the way sites like YouTube or Facebook target you, often by recommending you content. After all, who doesn’t want more of what they like? A content recommending service like Samba TV, which is used by Sony and many other brands, is just one such smart TV platform that uses ACR to offer a more personalized viewing experience, while simultaneously using that data to help advertisers target you.

    On an internet-connected smart TV, this collected content isn’t limited to digital information from shows that you stream via internet services like Netflix, but can also include pixel signatures from regular cable TV and DVDs. And that information can be transmitted from your TV back to the companies every few seconds.
    Pressure on companies for transparent data collection:
    Part of the problem here is something that’s been plaguing every facet of internet regulation: user consent and transparency. Smart TVs have been around for a while, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the FTC brought some real heat against the smart TV manufacturer Vizio, which ultimately had to pay $2.2 million for collecting viewing data without user consent. Since then, the regulatory eye has been more focused on smart TV makers. There is now more pressure on companies to be clear about what they’re collecting in the initial terms of service you see upon setting up your smart TV. But there is clearly still a problem. When users of Samba-enabled TVs set up their system, a whopping 90% of them consent to having their viewing data collected.

    Concerns about surveillance:
    Now, even the FBI is cautioning people to secure their smart TVs. But, as it turns out, law enforcement is a strange bedfellow with corporate wantonness. To sum up the security connotations of TVs, phones, and the multitude of other smart (IoT) devices that are available today, a recent Harvard University report states that we can look forward to “a future abundant in unencrypted data, some of which can fill gaps left by the very communication channels law enforcement fears will ‘go dark’ and beyond reach”. In other words, the current data-mining business model many tech companies enjoy will make the Feds quite happy too.
    Like laptops and smartphones, some smart TVs have microphones and cameras in them (though the cameras have reportedly become scarcer in newer models). These cameras and mics pose the same problem that plagues every smart device that can see/hear you as well, namely that corporations can get an audiovisual window into your life and so can hackers. And while the FBI might be cautioning you against TV raiding by hackers, perhaps they should also caution you against TV raiding by the CIA — monitoring you through the camera or microphone while your TV appears to be off — something that the agency has been exploring according to Wikileaks-released documents.

    How can you protect your smart TV? In 2018 114 million smart TVs were sold worldwide. In the United States, around 45% of homes had at least one smart TV. And part of the reason smart TVs have been so accessible is that their tracking capabilities help keep prices down. As smart TVs and other smart devices become more tempting to buy, it’s important that the average user knows how to limit the invasion of data-collecting by their machines.
    Our devices have gotten smart (maybe too smart), but that doesn’t mean you have to be dumb about how you use them. The next time you set up a new smart device, make sure you consider what its capabilities are and what you can do to protect your privacy.
    THIS IS A DUP OF THE FIRST

    Reply

17. sonar

    March 5, 2020

    Fraudulent communications adopt many different forms and are the unauthorized actions of third parties. These messages, sometimes referred to as “phishing” or “spoofing,” are becoming more common and may appear legitimate at first by incorporating company brands, colors, or other legal disclaimers. Companies should take a hard stance against fraud and in the protection of their customers information seriously. To want as helping make sure you don’t fall victim to phishing or other types of fraudulent activity whether it’s through email, text, phone, or social media.

    Here are some tips to keep in mind:
    • Companies will not request personal information, financial information, account numbers, IDs, passwords or copies of invoices in an unsolicited manner through email, mail, text, phone or fax, especially in exchange for any sort of goods and services as free gimmicks incentives.
    • If you receive a message that appears to be from a company you use that you believe is fraudulent, send a screenshot of the message or forward it to their fraud investigation department. Requesting some conformation by them.
    • Learn more about how to avoid phishing scams in this article from the U.S. Federal Trade Commision: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams

    Reply

18. Other *privacy.com sites

    February 28, 2020

    Really enjoy reading your tools, reviews, etc.
    Do you have any thoughts about Winston (https://winstonprivacy.com/)?
    Also any thoughts/experience with virtual credit card services like privacy.com?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • sonar

      March 8, 2020

      at O*p.cm
      No but would like too. Please tell any associations you have of the two mentioned. Honestly if it’s a baiting or sincere query you make:
      Have many questions myself as one, can winston be run with a persons ad blockers and vpn’s just as well? Two, paypal discourages active VPN connections while then logging in to a users PP account to pay, any trouble with winston and paypal used tandemly?
      High price for the hardware of winston and then looks to have a subscription thereafter to use the hardware purchased. Turns me off!

      Reply

      • Dina

        June 13, 2020

        I am just a random user so there’s no way to know if you can trust me–but I have used the privacy.com free tier for a couple months, have had excellent communication and support, it’s easy to use and have had no problems

        Reply

19. sonar

    February 27, 2020

    hey ST
    Which os for desktops is best for the least amount of telemetry for a new install and beyond fair to new users?
    Too, since Win 8.1 end of support nears as the next in line and mates not going 10’s direction any advise today in how to think 4 years down the road to not loose the ground again in bad choice being made.

    Reply

    • sonar

      March 10, 2020

      Answering myself.
      Meet The Linux Desktop That Wants To Be An Ideal Upgrade For Windows 7 Users – ‘so I’d say applies to Win 8 8.1 users just as easily when they need it.’
      “Redmond is pushing 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10, many in the Linux community are vying for attention by pitching their respective distribution (aka Linux desktop OS) as a superior alternative to Windows 10. One such example is KDE Plasma, a desktop praised in the past for its surprising leanness and wealth of customization options.”
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2020/01/08/meet-the-linux-desktop-aiming-to-be-the-perfect-upgrade-for-windows-7-users/#6c3b857c22c8
      “Instead of migrating to Windows 10 and putting up with hours of updates, intrusions on your privacy and annoying ads built into your apps, install a Linux operating system with Plasma. In 30 minutes you will be up and running and you will have all the security and stability of a Linux system, with all the features and ease of use of Plasma.”

      Reply

20. h76D4Kf74

    February 26, 2020

    Event Viewer in Windows 10 seems to me, to have an awful amount of information available to any forensic analysis, beit direct access or remote intrusion. I want to know how to disable it and all logs.

    Reply

    • sonar

      February 26, 2020

      Then get rid of 10 and go back or jump on another platform.
      Get a soft like Spybot’s Anti-Beacon or Follow Windows 10 Build Tracker. To know as much as it becomes recorded there at ITProToday (use) com,
      we have maintained a set of build trackers to bring all of the build release information into one central location. They track public releases to assist you in monitoring what builds are available for enterprise testing. It’s a low down on versions within 10.
      Surely you can change services and tasks set to actively run by disabling them. Search long and hard for tested registry changes or just pick the best overall soft to do these and more to stopping 10’s telemetry.

      Reply

      • h76D4Kf74

        February 28, 2020

        Hi Sona, thanks for those suggestions. I can’t open the Windows 10 Build Tracker at IPProToday page because of my settings, and I won’t allow their cookies, especially 3rd party ones. I looked at the Spybot’s Anti-Beacon App but for me, it’s a bit too general for my purpose. Win 10 telemetry is monsterous and I’m working on that, in as much as I can, and have implemented a lot of Svens advice in his articles, but that’s not really the task that I am focused on right now, which is, removing all Event Viewer logs and then to disable it completely, so as to have no event logs whatsoever. I don’t know if this is possible … there are some things there that have multiple triggers to log, and although I clear them they pop up again, for example… the log of my clearing of them.

        Reply

        • sonar says

          March 3, 2020

          Yes windows overwhelms the OS in the amount of telemetry going on, so I looked back down in the comments here. Very bottom, the cat called HardSell mentions this Blackbird (free-donation) program (no installation) for taking care of this and runs on all recent desktop editions (Home, Pro, etc.) and versions of Windows (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10). https://www.getblackbird.net/
          I’ve seen a new 10 update rollout can change a lot back to their standard installed settings, where the user has set certain things to cut down and counter on the telemetry. So take a update of 10 and run the portable blackbird. I had downloaded this way earlier from another form talking about , they spoke then as it was a bat file extension and adding txt extension to it let you see what it was going to do. Must of put it in exe to keep their hard work secret from copycats and M$ itself.

          Seems he’s (HardSell) a strict policy on cookies too as he’s offered these. Then he runs two cleaners that work on cookies as well.
          Quote, Maxa Cookie Manager = DATED / but still works covering many browsers – cleans cache, history, timed auto cookie deletion, w/ cookie evaluation – white/black lists, last update was 12 February 2014.
          Adguard = ad blocker w/ personal privacy modules and stealth settings, really a lot more it has to offer than blocking ads.

          To me the (adguard) mention looks promising as your able to set your time values for self destructing 1st and 3rd party cookies.
          0 – means no cookies allowed at all and the sites that you’d login to, your able to delete it’s cookies minutes thereafter / as long as you don’t do anything that requires being logged in to do something. Where a password manager can get you logged back in – in a snap.

21. sonar

    February 21, 2020

    US federal grand jury has indicted four members of China’s military on charges of hacking Equifax to exploit the personal data of 150 million Americans.
    According the indictment, the four defendants conspired to hack into Equifax’s computer networks, maintain unauthorized access to those computers, and steal sensitive, personally identifiable information of nearly half of all American citizens

    Lawmakers and regulators failure in the U.S. government to safeguard the personal data of Americans has placed American consumers at risk.
    Today our country is facing cyberattacks from foreign adversaries and it is the personal data stored by companies that is the target.
    When these companies engage in lax security practices or freely disclose consumer data without consent, they are placing not only consumers, but also our nation at risk.

    There is a call for passage of the Online Privacy Act, H.R. 4978, and the creation of a U.S. data protection agency. Find out more here.
    https://lofgren.house.gov/media/press-releases/eshoo-lofgren-introduce-online-privacy-act

    Reply

22. oldpeculier

    February 12, 2020

    Sven,
    Regarding your Little Snitch paragraph only being available for MAC OS.
    There is now an Open Source equivalent port for Linux called Opensnitch, see github

    https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
    https://itsfoss.com/opensnitch-firewall-linux/

    Does take some effort in the Command line to install but well worth it.
    I have Opensnitch running on Linux Mint 19.3.

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      February 12, 2020

      Very cool, thanks for sharing! I’ll include it with the next update.

      Reply

23. Jylly Jakes

    January 6, 2020

    Hi,

    I have been reading your blog for only a few weeks and Thank you! for doing what you do. Do you have any recommendations for free software that mimics MSFT Office?

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      January 6, 2020

      Yep, check out LibreOffice. Another option is OpenOffice.

      Reply

      • J.M.

        January 8, 2020

        Use this for my NPO. LOVE IT! There is a learning curve and it is a little like the original Word, but it is amazing.

        Little things are bad but that is personal. One thing that bothers me is in the outline, the point III has a larger margin than others.

        Reply

        • J.M.

          January 8, 2020

          LibreOffice that is.

        • HardSell

          January 20, 2020

          Hi J.M.
          I was looking at software cleaners and followed some telemetry topics. Seen this-
          LibreOffice has it’s telemetry disabled by default currently, but is able to submit telemetry data to The Document Foundation when set up to do so. DON’T know if that’s on M$ side of the OS it taps into or it’s own thingy.

          Something could change this setting in an update and could be possibly turned on – true?
          Anti-Beacon was the product to allow users to unset it from within it’s user interface. Anti-Beacon Plus even addresses telemetry of popular browsers and some pre-installed manufacturer software.
          [https://www.safer-networking.org/products/spybot-anti-beacon/]
          Thought I’ll throw this out and the other ‘larger margin’.
          [https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/10973/permanently-set-default-page-style/]
          Peace 4 the planet ; )

        • J.M.

          February 18, 2020

          @HardSell,

          Sorry, just saw the reply. If you catch this, thanks for the info.

          Hope you’re doing well.

      • Alan

        January 9, 2020

        Hi,
        why don’t you do a review about privacy aspect of office softwares such as OnlyOffice, Softmaker Office, WPS Office, Google Docs?
        it would be great.

        Reply

        • J.M.

          February 18, 2020

          Alan,

          I would run, fast and far, from Google Docs.

          I use Libre office and Apache Open Office may get a personal test run, I am not sure.

          I heard rumor that Proton Technologies (Protonmail and VPN) is planning on ProtonDocs.

          I will wait to see on that. But it could open some new doors.

24. PreferNotToSay

    January 4, 2020

    Waterfox browser may not be in development anymore.
    I use Palemoon, but didn’t know it was better for privacy. Can you elaborate on this? And also, you might want to have a look at PL’s add on list ( they are continuing with supporting the ones made using old software, XUL, I think) and recommend which can be used to enhance privacy on PL.

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      January 5, 2020

      > Waterfox browser may not be in development anymore.
      Any sources on this?

      Reply

    • vanp

      January 9, 2020

      Of course it’s in development. What are you talking about?

      Reply

25. HardSell

    January 3, 2020

    Sven,
    Though we’d see and as well a readers replies abilities over the stated idea below, to throw up this part again.
    Taken from the link – see the following thoughts in full.
    https://restoreprivacy.com/privacy-tools/#comment-64434

    Recap:
    [As basically a new means of supporting this site’s contents for everyone.
    Importantly – you don’t have to check and moderate this separate RP members support site as much for spam, bots, shrills posts as these support members are cleared in most of the checks you’d make against them on the backend.
    Well being as registered RP support members and have a good standing, their posting reputations, {maybe a Pin you’d assign} you’d know them safer.

    Help me out people – what’s your thoughts here.
    Thumbs up or not ?

    > Sven Taylor says JANUARY 2, 2020
    Not a bad idea, Hard Sell.
    Some have suggested setting up a forum or a ‘RestorePrivacy’ subreddit, but I don’t care for reddit too much.
    I’m still looking at different options. Thanks for the suggestions!]
    _

    This class of readers in your site could be called Ambassadors.
    That help you advocate for privacy – hence privacy ambassadors in support of the main site’s contents w/ account perks.
    I’m out of any more replys to this so don’t direct to me.
    @@@ what are OTHER READERS thoughts of this and maybe any of their ideas – directions to see the site’s development of a strong support foundation in the roaring digital 20’s.
    Thanks all

    Reply

26. HardSell

    January 1, 2020

    Anyone outside California know about this-
    The new law — the California Consumer Privacy Act, A.B. 375 — affords California residents an array of new rights, starting with the right to be informed about what kinds of personal data companies have collected and why it was collected.

    The law notably establishes a broad definition of “personal information,” drawing in categories of data including a consumer’s personal identifiers, geolocation, biometric data, internet browsing history, psychometric data, and inferences a company might make about the consumer.

    Perhaps, firms are contending with the law’s requirements could threaten established business models throughout the digital sector. For instance, companies that generate revenue from targeted advertising over internet platforms — such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google — must, as the law is currently written, allow California residents to delete their data or bring it with them to alternative service providers.
    These measures might significantly cut into the profits these firms currently enjoy, or force adjustments to their revenue-growth strategies.
    https://hbr.org/2018/07/what-you-need-to-know-about-californias-new-data-privacy-law

    California Raises the Bar on Data Security and Privacy
    https://corporate.findlaw.com/law-library/california-raises-the-bar-on-data-security-and-privacy.html

    California has lead the nation in matters like these before, and the nation followed suite some time later.
    Man I hope it’s sooner than later now as it officially 2020.

    Reply

27. HardSell

    December 31, 2019

    Dear Sven & family – site crew and it’s readers,

    May your New Year be totally blessed and secure as you go through the yearly cycle of life once more.
    Thank you very much for a sane site in helping people to understand a private digital hygienic’s and/ for calming /boosting their sanity by being plugging into the intrusive eye’s of the world web matrix’s.
    As well the platform here to interact with other readers of the world over gaining /sharing in different insights.

    As we grow older – the Internet grows as a life’s necessity staple for business and Governments connected by commerce (or war/terrorism), and now advancing to eCommerce / legal authority treaty’s /etc in relations being digitally involved.
    Weathering the ages then, will the internet have us all, leg ironed to it (monitored), able to even exist as a monetary unit in an aging and populous growth system, stemmed by a digital world and economics ecosystem. 
    The Internet – – is a loaded GUN and your site I believe helps your readers realize how big it’s load can spread as we read of the casualties. (Toll exacted)

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ! ~ ~ ~ ~

    Allow me to reflect-
    The thing with age and time as your path in life slows you down to a retirements faze, everything else speeds past so much faster as it seems!  Time doesn’t really change but the value of it in your life does,
    because of our maturing perspective to TIME and as it becomes short for life itself. These changes witnessed as we age throughout the stages of life itself.
    The internet cheats us out of time – not in giving us more of it, think about US life in the 40’s-70’s of the personal time one did have – to today’s life style.

    Yes an hour can seem like a lifetime at times, when your schedule pulls you in many directions in the prime seat of your life.
    I’d just ask you to remember back, hearing the many times as a youth = your not old enough, or wait till your as old as your brother/sister.
    Then with reaching an age to sports, scouts, driving, graduating school, and voting… 
    All being age confinements govern by time – to an youth’s aptitude/cognition as in the responsibility and appropriateness levels for a hands on experience in a REAL WORLD reality to the conditions it present.

    Where’s the mental health value for today society’s youth to land, when these age related hands on staged life event values of real life lessons to be learnt.
    All as being stripped away with ability in simulations to alter life values in their youthful perspective to their real life – as to what’s known by them.

    By their changing reality as it’s known by them with virtual augmented and mixed environments way before even having reached a maturation to weighing it all out in known differences.
    That a parents govern authority also stands to verify in the youths real hands on perspective of and to life.
    But most parents see the internet as a baby setter for their youth today, and miss out on the harm factor it presents mentally/socially for the young and growing. 

    Aren’t we in fact seeing more and more mental health issues air today which has connections back to the digital age and internet? Films and games are right up there too. Those supposedly have age rating limits – do they work?
    Then, as one person can have millions+ of people following or hedged with every post they make now – delivering one a sided view, thought, idea being echoed X’s times the following.

    As the internet’s reach and ability to spread any word is to fast as in the “soap pods” challenge we seen this past year.
    At that kind of thing – in my day, was trapped at the local level in such a challenge – not going out worldwide everywhere.
    Further, that kind of harm and alarm would of reached out much slower just some 10-25 years ago.

    Today it’s in almost every last neighborhood as soon as known – that’s harmed by the web, for lack of insights and the young users ability to accept their responsibility for the faceless victims that the internet reach harms and is harmed by for mere prank-sport-evil as being a bored youth.

    To me it’s also stripping away the imagination and creativeness of any hands-on learnt abilities in today’s youth… The internet as offered – is a one size fits all mode relying on parents to govern their youths, while taking or making it all a much harder task in process to accomplish for parents that care to raise their children with guidance.

    Toy’s are for a purpose as the child couldn’t operate a real like item without harm coming to them. The internet is not a toy… So why is a real gun loaded as the INTERNET in the hands of our children ??????????????????

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      December 31, 2019

      Happy New Year to you as well, HardSell. Yes, tech has gone too far and I believe children are much better off avoiding screens and gadgets. Mobile phones and social media are addicting, and this is intentional. Children should learn how to type and basic computer skills, but this push for tablets and total WiFi connectivity with everything and every device is just insane. Every device that can connect to the internet can be hacked. The whole “Internet of Things” idea allows hackers and corporations to get 24/7 access to your personal life and data – but many people fall for this scam. And again, all of these devices can be hacked and the appliance companies will NOT be on top of security updates for their firmware as these devices age and get replaced with newer models. [end of rant]

      Reply

      • HardSell

        January 1, 2020

        Yeah I do that a lot too (rant).
        I was taught given any serious situation I was involved in with another person(s), to use my logic in 3 options to observe with looking out for self preservation…
        1) follow – till (astray from right)
        2) lead – when awry (amiss proper direction)
        3) GTFOOTW – get the fudge out of the way, if the prior two options are non-negotiable.

        Maybe for “Rants” something like a community news topic where it’s open to anything (proper) by anyone, – – live chat box ? . . . . tab on site opens to live view (100-200 character count comment box)- live and 48-hrs recent conversations window ???
        Be a Cool tool for the site – yes ?
        First lets understand it’s the posts that are logged for 48 hours only and deleted, not the account set up to make posts or it’s info and activity needed to maintain the proper site this accounts made on.

        That would probably need an RP comment account structure being setup on the site (See below), which might not be a direction you’d want to go, or the kind of linking info (email verification) people want to give you as for having a posting name guaranteed and used only by them.

        It’s never been pointed out that I’ve seen – but can anyone use a name already having posts made under it and impersonate them.
        I’ll submit this as commenter ‘Sven Taylor by HS’ and if you let it post as is – we’ll see then if that would be possible – to have impostors posting as someones name used prior on here.

        Last thought, keep the site as is but offer the ‘Chat Box’ tab to where it opens the live window overlay visible to everyone on the site who’s interested to see.
        This could all be done from another site you’d make for readers wanting to use this feature in making live chat comments that run visible here.
        I could see something used as like the software/commerce sites offering customers of the live chat function – except this is an open end running session for all users logged in.
        Verification of email address for a IP address needed for the 48 hours retention of each comment.
        (so you use it daily and your IP is in the system constant) – VPN

        I’d see you would have guaranteed additional expenses. So offer free use of it up to X posts monthly, anything over X it’s a dollar a month $12. to signup for a year as the whole only option.
        Also this would be another avenue to donate to the Restore Privacy site.
        Don’t fill the account info – but a donate button offered.
        (Posteo/VPN.ac, either one I think it was stated – CC and account info where never link-able.
        That’s an idea.
        A min of $12 is required but users can enter another amount for the year if wanting to make a donation on top of min…

        The mission statement here would stay intact as it reads in purpose. Though, a CB snap-in of sorts is used for people wanting their posting name as well as the ability to make live comments on Chat Box and supporting the RP site possible.
        The CB set-up thingy might be a challenge, as it might be just a reflection here as all comments are being made while logged in from the other site needed to keep everything towards this sites privacy separate.

        It’s only for people interested as I’ve pointed out.
        Then people interested have to be verified to offer such a feature to them.
        As well for payment and that side of the separate site’s liability.
        Hope this gets alot of hits and reply’s. ; )
        HardSell – Sir thanks

        Reply

        • HardSell

          January 1, 2020

          Hi Sven,
          “It’s never been pointed out that I’ve seen – but can anyone use a name already having posts made under it and impersonate them.
          I’ll submit this as commenter ‘Sven Taylor by HS’ and if you let it post as is – we’ll see then if that would be possible – to have impostors posting as someones name used prior on here.”

          Well it was changed (reflecting me), so it was a reply and not a new comment, and then I did give a heads ups of what I was trying.
          I might see again at another time – if it’d be different without any heads up given.

          That account mentioned before – could offer avatars choice/upload as with the guaranteed users/posts name.
          Thanks

        • Sven Taylor

          January 1, 2020

          The email address entered helps to prevent that from happening. The email is visible on the backend, but not to visitors.

        • HardSell

          January 2, 2020

          Thanks Sven
          Sites do/must advertise or sell users info or offer up links to % of a sale to existing online today – none mostly of which your doing. Your content is not LOCKED behind a paywall scheme. You don’t do anything invasive as in the majority of sites to learn of our identity.
          I’M NOT saying to change any of that……
          I’am saying, let us help you be creative to exist and possibly in offering this site for a long time to come! That’s all I’d want us to see.

          I know it’s not good to discuss everything to much in the open… Then some comments can have tons of replies to the one – ratio. (guilty…here myself)
          All taking up the time you’d spend elsewhere on/for the site.
          Leads to very little compensation / productivity all the way round I would see for yourself.
          After the first reply’s made (a to b – b to a) – it’s not reply’s anymore but a conversation that has started up.

          Warn people of a change (trial) in 2020/2021 as one reply to one comment per day’s (24hrs) ratio to guests – will you offer them – – to free up some of your daily time needing invested.
          And for this site to be as it was intended as more of an informative one in purpose – than as a medium for socializing about privacy and security with the breaking new related, as its turning out now.

          I’m kind of saying too, it don’t have to be that way for everyone – just the unregistered guests on here.
          Not as in a paywall but a supportwall membership you’ll offer to any people interested, and to a way of lessening your time involved here as I purposed this. Allowing us to have a part, be a part with some benefits beyond a donations goodwill.

          Registering/verification with the other site (mentioned), for use of a live running chatbox offered on here your Restore Privacy homepage.
          This other site (membership based) in offering your readers to become paid support members of RP as in a locked up a users name choice and having an avatar’s (choice) – – could also be used for PM (personal messages) between paid support membered users. A privacy – security socializing medium for that support audience.
          Then the FULL comment section resides there as well, to where what’s seen on the Restore Privacy site (here) – becomes minimized as like you do in any months archive. So the new month brings no old comments/replies as shown on the main site.

          As basically a new means of supporting this site’s contents for everyone. Importantly – you don’t have to check and moderate this separate RP support site as much for spam, bots, shrills posts as these support members are cleared in most of the checks you’d make against them on the backend. Well being as registered support members and have good standing reputations you’d know it’s safer.

          Help me out people – what’s your thoughts here.
          Thumbs up or not ?

        • Sven Taylor

          January 2, 2020

          Not a bad idea, Hard Sell. Some have suggested setting up a forum or a ‘RestorePrivacy’ subreddit, but I don’t care for reddit too much. I’m still looking at different options. Thanks for the suggestions!

28. HardSell

    December 28, 2019

    Ohhhhh Shiiiiiiiii_t

    Google announced “quantum supremacy” a couple months ago, which is a technological achievement that has HUGE repercussions !!!!
    Not only for the company and its role in the World, but FOR ALL OF US INDIVIDUALS who want to maintain a sheer semblance of the right to privacy.

    Google researchers have developed a computer called Sycamore, which is exponentially more powerful in its processing power than a “standard” supercomputer.
    The workings behind Sycamore are what make it such a breakthrough, since it uses an algorithm that would take 10,000 years to give a similar output on a classical computer – – but it’s only 200 seconds on Google’s processor.

    We should all be very concerned that with an industry leader of such a questionable (flip/flop) track record on data protection, privacy and political neutrality – along with a continued abuse towards market dominance,
    now in fact has it’s very hands on the world’s most powerful computer.

    These alike privacy issues came to a head around the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where Facebook was implicated in allowing a Russian-linked firm to harvest a huge amount of personal data, including political preferences, and allowing that knowledge to be used to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election.
    Now that the processing power available to manipulate and use large amounts of data has increased, the stakes are raised in what big data can be used for.

    The Big Tech industry, however, doesn’t seem to accept these growing dangers. The implicit aim of Big tech companies is to 1)acquire more users, 2)more data, and 3)ultimately more advertisers.
    The symbiotic relationship between these three factors underpins most any tech companies’ business models, including the current wave of startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

    This will not change.
    But what must change is the privacy regulations roll around data, it’s security as a standard set and its implementation with a solid body of enforcement. Regulation is, by and large, already present:
    in almost every developed country, it is illegal for someone to hold data without a range of rigorous checks and balances on how it is sourced, held and transferred between parties.

    A range of international treaties, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU-US Privacy Shield mean that data can only achieve “freedom of movement” by fulfilling Strict Criteria.

    The largest data owners like Facebook and Google tend to follow these rules closely, meaning that the main concern is not control of data, but the data’s actual power.
    Big data can already predict an individual’s consumer habits and personal desires to a somewhat eerie extent.
    As processing power grows exponentially, will we have Facebook ads that can penetrate deeper and deeper into our lives and consciousness?
    What will be the effect on our mental health?
    Our family relationships?
    And at the macro level, our economies as a world macroeconomics?

    None of these personal, society and socially deeper questions appear to be being asked by either the industry or the regulators. Inevitably, they will become relevant as quantum processing power increases.
    It is a matter of when, not of if – when people rise up against and push back.

    There is still time for our governments to play catch up and protect consumers. Although Google’s Sycamore is advanced, it is still not capable of fulfilling every data scientist’s deepest desires. The Sycamore chip is a 54-qubit processor. That is relatively limited, and is one of the many reasons that the discovery is not practically useful.
    Researchers want a 100-qubit – or even 200-qubit – system before they are really able to put it to the test and see whether the dreams of quantum computing are realized.

    Rather than in just controlling the data’s transfer, it is time for a wider conversation about the data’s usage. Which uses of data – regardless of who owns it and how it has been sourced – are ethical and safe when it’s profiled on an individual?
    And then which are unethical and dangerous uses?
    Instead of moving from the outer edge of the circle inwards – we should be focused on an overview of center outwards as well. Both encompassing the examination like a gridiron marked off into squares or a network of squares.
    Proofing in other words, somewhat like livestock plants or drugs research is done with checks and balances.

    As lawmakers like US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem to enjoy grilling tech executives like Mark Zuckerberg on the minutiae of data usage, I hope we do not lose sight of the bigger picture.
    The stakes are too high, and the processing power is now too great for us to be complaisance. Hope you see and agree…
    Inspired by:
    https://www.euronews.com/2019/10/28/big-tech-achieving-quantum-supremacy-for-the-first-time-is-bad-news-for-our-privacy-view

    Reply

    • HardSell

      December 28, 2019

      Somewhat related:
      US, UK reach deal to make it easier to get electronic data
      The deal would let American and British authorities seek electronic data in investigations directly from technology companies based in the other country, instead of the time-consuming process of going through the government.
      [https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/political-news/us-uk-reach-deal-to-make-it-easier-to-get-electronic-data/]

      Reply

29. HardSell

    December 26, 2019

    Interesting news:

    New computer chip allows information to be sent using a one-time unhackable Future-proof communication security.
    While current standard cryptographic techniques allow for information to be sent quickly, they can be broken by future computers and quantum algorithms. However, according to the international research team, their new method for encrypting data is unbreakable and uses existing communication networks. It also takes up less space on these networks than traditional encrypted communications.

    Associate professor of electrical engineering at KAUST and leader of the study, Dr. Andrea Fratalocchi explained why the team’s new security system will be essential in the quantum era.
    https://www.techradar.com/news/new-uncrackable-security-system-may-make-your-vpn-obsolete

    Reply

    • HardSell

      December 27, 2019

      Related:
      https://www.scotlandis.com/blog/new-security-system-to-revolutionise-privacy/
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/12/20/scientists-develop-absolutely-unbreakable-encryption-chip-using-chaos-theory/#648edf915ba8

      Reply

      • J.M.

        December 29, 2019

        @HardSell, @Sven

        I read that they are saying it is a single communication. As easily as possible, does that mean you use the chip once and then need a new one?

        I honestly do not understand. I was able to piece together the Chaos Theory and a few other things but that is the one area I did not know.

        Reply

        • HardSell

          December 29, 2019

          Heck J.M.
          It’s over my head, but no, the chip is probably the expensive part.
          For now as it’s all so new – that may change as everything does cheapen as it’s adapted and adopted too. It’s a wonder what a nanostructured materials is to look like when used with the word crystal.

          Fetching any mental picture I can by reading it again.
          It’s as greek to me -as- them there ‘password managers’ you use on sites without any need of a pre-made password for it / the concept there lost me too…

          Looking at the parts-
          https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lpor.201600086
          “an all‐optical laser‐driven transition from order to chaos in integrated chips on a silicon photonics platform. A square photonic crystal microcavity at telecom wavelengths is tuned from an ordered into a chaotic regime through a perturbation induced by ultrafast laser pulses in the ultraviolet range. The chaotic dynamics of weak probe pulses, with high spatial accuracy.”
          -and-
          https://www.scotlandis.com/blog/new-security-system-to-revolutionise-privacy/
          “The proposed system uses silicon chips that contain complex structures that are irreversibly changed to send information in a one-time key that can never be recreated nor intercepted by an attacker.

          Keys generated by the chip, which unlock each message, are never stored and are not communicated with the message, nor can they ever be recreated, even by the users themselves, adding extra security.”

          – Ok what mental picture can I get, I need to see an image of the square photonic crystal microcavity.
          What I do fish out unknowing – is maybe like a sea sponge and it’s pores when filled with h2o and squished at different hand pressures and content levels.
          Each squish represents a generated new key and message sent.

          The Key or Key pairs is what vagues me to, would that be omnipresents as something to alpha and omega one timer.
          Since no mention of exchange or key banks – they must be created in use for one time – once only.
          Since all email server to server transmissions (generally most), are one time and one way direction transmissions I can see the transit encrypted.
          When it lands at the destination then further mailbox storage encryption is needed as it seems to me. Then what is quantum proof encryption for now, other than no server storage but local on the device.

          Could the transmissions encryption abstractly laymen wise be seen as if your holding up a mirror to a bigger mirror.
          That tunneling affect is the encrypted tunnel.
          By the elements in the photonic crystal, at telecom wavelengths having tuned ordered into a chaotic regime through a perturbation induced by ultrafast laser pulses in the ultraviolet range.
          So move the held mirror a fraction and a new keyed tunnel for a new message is realized.

          That’s a headache to think about for sure.

          Related:
          In quantum optical devices, microcavities can coax atoms or quantum dots to emit spontaneous photons in a desired direction or can provide an environment where dissipative mechanisms such as spontaneous emission are overcome so that quantum entanglement of radiation and matter is possible.
          https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01939
          http://copilot.caltech.edu/documents/71-high_q_prb_rapids.pdf
          https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234959441_Square-lattice_photonic_crystal_microcavities_for_coupling_to_single_InAs_quantum_dots
          https://ir.nctu.edu.tw/bitstream/11536/26240/1/000285749500104.pdf

    • J.M.

      December 29, 2019

      @HardSell,

      I appreciate the thought and it helps. So it is not the chip that is one time use but the output.

      I think the interesting concept is that Chaos Theory is being used in a practical way. The very aspect of Chaos Theory in itself is a powerful multiplyer for privacy.

      It basically would render the quantum computer unable to compute the code. If the computer processes one part, it will corrupt the second part. Straightening out the second will mess the third. By the time the code is worked through the first parts would be scrambled again due to chaos.

      I will not pretend to understand more than that but it does give plausable concepts to securing keys and data.

      I should say that I do not believe that Chaos Theory will replace the 2nd law of Thermodynamics (hence one is a theory and the other is a law) in matters of science as some hope it will, but in computer modules and data retention and security, Chaos Theory may be very powerful.

      Or, I could be missing how Chaos Theory may be used and not know what the plans are.

      Reply

      • HardSell

        December 31, 2019

        Hey Thanks
        I like that 1-2-3\1 example you gave.
        I skimmed over the links posted and the quantum dots part was referred to as having cross applicably in a large industry.
        If one stops and thinks about the scale of nano (to me) the human eye cant see the nano dimension.
        So anything with a screen could benefit as it’s a delivery means of light in a sense. But thinking about resolutions of how the screens detail could be built in the nano dimensions or multiples in unison of nano structures to give us 10D dimensions level or whatever a holo display would be.

        Going far out in my thoughts tying to gather in a ?, what isn’t possible about this technology that couldn’t led to hologram displays and communication purposes via holo over optics. The chaotic regime scrambles the information in transit only as I UNDERSTAND – thus once it reaches the point of delivery it’s released from the scrambled state to display. It’s sent through a light form so why can’t the information be displayed other than digital texts.

        Once there is understood how to create a field harmless to users to display holograms by quantum properties – why not ?
        One thing right there with it all is the original string theory that focused only on boson particles. And what I recall of strings is their layered or stacked in fashion where multi-dimensions of the same matter can exist.
        What’s So Special About a Boson?
        Bosons are sometimes called force particles, because it is the bosons that control the interaction of physical forces, such as electromagnetism and possibly even gravity itself.
        https://www.thoughtco.com/boson-2699112

        Reply

        • J.M.

          January 1, 2020

          Interesting.

30. HardSell

    December 19, 2019

    Hey SVEN, HEINRICH, MIRIMIR
    Any statistics for this holiday seasons in electronic sales that have the potential to being hacked ???
    Been a lot in the news of security cams being hacked lately (lest around here).
    Got any words of wisdom in those new gifts for people to heed warnings of ?

    Sven, will Heinrich and Mirimir answer in their articles/reviews or is it their part just to add content to the site?

    Reply

    • Sven Taylor

      December 19, 2019

      Well, not anything really new regarding holidays, but I’ve seen a lot of news lately about ransomware hitting different cities and government agencies.

      They’re mainly focused on content.

      Reply

      • HardSell

        December 27, 2019

        Maybe we can get Heinrich and Mirimir interested to look at https://restoreprivacy.com/privacy-tools/#comment-63787
        Where the prospects could possibly tie in with current concepts being broken by future computers and quantum algorithms.
        Again maybe to inspire either one to have a full look as 2020’s date will be on everything shortly.
        Most of what the site has covered (in encryption’s use) is then affected beside the more specific articles to-
        https://restoreprivacy.com/let-pgp-die/
        https://restoreprivacy.com/email/reviews/tutanota/

        This Professor Andrea di Falco of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews is interesting as his name is mentioned alot here-
        https://phyesta.supa.ac.uk/staff/109998/publications

        “It can be used to protect the confidentiality of communications exchanged by users separated by any distance, at an ultrafast speed close to the light limit and in inexpensive and electronic compatible optical chips.”

        Keys generated by the chip, which unlock each message, are never stored and are not communicated with the message, nor can they ever be recreated, even by the users themselves, adding extra security.

        Dr Aluizio Cruz, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Unconventional Processes of Sciences (CUP Sciences) in California and study author, said: “This system is the practical solution the cyber security sector has been waiting for since the perfect secrecy theoretical proof in 1917 by Gilbert Vernam.

        Dr. Al Cruz agrees that it is true there is no such thing as uncrackable software but says, “what makes this method of cryptography so different from anything else out there is that the encryption is done using physical measurements of properties of nature, such as light.” Because it is “all hardware and physics,” Dr. Cruz says, “it would require advanced degrees in physics to even begin to understand what is happening inside this chip.”

        Again, Dr. Cruz reiterated that there is no code to manipulate, and the limited software is ROM based, so traditional methods of hacking encryption are irrelevant. “At the same time,” he says, “the embedded math is based on axioms of the law of physics such as the second law of thermodynamics and chaos theory, so even if a malicious actor were to gain physical access to the chips, copy them or otherwise tinker with the components, it would prevent the encryption scheme from working, but would not reveal the key (which is never stored or shared anyway), nor would it provide any other avenue for cracking the code.”
        https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/12/20/scientists-develop-absolutely-unbreakable-encryption-chip-using-chaos-theory/#648edf915ba8

        “It’ll be a key candidate to solving global cyber security threats, from private to national security, all the way to smart energy grids.”
        https://www.scotlandis.com/blog/new-security-system-to-revolutionise-privacy/

        Reply

        • HardSell

          December 28, 2019

          Related:
          https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lpor.201600086
          https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6528/aa593d