Tag: encryption

My Personal Privacy Framework

Posted on by Dustin Fontaine

My Personal Privacy Framework

 

We live in a data-centric world, with constant services vying for our attention (or subscriptions). We know that data is being collected and given to various affiliates or government agencies, and it can be mind boggling to try to keep up with it all. Some people on the other hand, don’t care or are convinced they cannot do anything about it.

Now I’m not entirely naïve to think that you can be completely private without foregoing cell phones, TV, and everything else that modern civilization has to offer. You can however, take steps to control your data and more or less have a say on who sees what, if at all. This is a happy medium to me, and I’ve taken it upon myself to perform all the steps I outline in this post. You can take what you like or leave it be, whatever is good for you. I’m going to briefly mention each item and link so you may need to conduct your own research on these items to learn more about them.

Big Item: The Mobile Phone

If you have an Android or iPhone – which you likely do – you are already at significant risk. Google and Apple collect data about basically everything you do on your phone. You can however, obtain an Android phone without the Google services. This will require a lot of research beforehand and ultimately there are two wants: 1, a very active development community and 2, a vendor that actively maintains updates (which in turn, incentivizes the community). 

Typically I like to go for OnePlus phones, but I usually buy them used from Swappa. You can do some reading on your desired devices over at XDA to get an idea of how active the development is. You’ll then either want to flash one of the many roms you find there, or LineageOS. You can also opt for a Google Pixel (NOT VERIZON VARIANT), and install GrapheneOS.

At this point you’ll want the F-Droid Android store primarily but if there are certain proprietary apps you need to use, you can use Aurora Store to replace the Google Play Store – and you’ll likely want to install microG, which is an emulation of Google services. (Best to use the Magisk route then install the apk’s.

Of course there is still a certain amount of tracking just because you have to connect to cell towers in order to receive service and are subject to your agreement with that provider, so be aware of that. Of course if your ROM randomizes your MAC address that is one more thing to note.

Big Item: Email

Most big free providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL) will not encrypt your data and will likely read your emails to offer you advertisements *Ahem, Google*, but there are a few freemium options such as Protonmail and Tutanota that are zero-knowledge and have small mailbox sizes for free accounts you can try out. You can also use your own domain if you have one with their premium accounts so that is pretty cool. You can also self-host your own mail server.

One thing to note, business and enterprise Microsoft 365 are encrypted both in transit and at rest using Bitlocker – which TrueCrypt was retired in favor of. The cheapest option being M365 Business Basic at $6/month. It’s not entirely zero-knowledge, but it’s a happy “good enough” solution if you don’t want to build it.

Big Item: Cloud Storage

If you use the same big free provider for cloud that you do email, you’re subject to the same pitfalls. You can either self-host with Nextcloud or sync with Syncthing – or you can use a zero knowledge provider such as Sync or pCloud.

One thing to note, same as above, Onedrive for Business is encrypted in transit and at rest. Onedrive is included with most M365 plans.

Big Item: Password Manager

I’ve covered this in the past, but really if you don’t have one, get one. Don’t forget about delimiters in your logins  if the service supports it, and set up MFA. 

Other Items

Notes

Nextcloud has its own Notes app for basic notes and categorization. Joplin is a sync-able application that uses Markdown and supports nested folder structures. OneNote also makes a good contender and if you’re using Onedrive for Business it will be encrypted. 

Youtube

You can actually still use Youtube, just use a FOSS app like Newpipe or Skytube as your app of choice. Then on the PC, use container tabs or private browsing.  

Web Browser and Internet

Firefox, this is without a doubt the best – you can install the Container Tabs addon, which allows you to create containers to isolate cookies that various sites like to use to spy on your other activities. There is even one dedicated to Facebook. You could start by just categorizing things, not get too specific with every single website – banking, shopping, email, school are all good places to start. There is also always the option of private browsing. 

You might also consider a VPN, however there is much debate on what providers are actually trusted. Some educated recommendations would be Mullad, ProtonVPN, IVPN, and Private Internet Access.

Maps and Navigation

Okay you got me here. There are plenty of other navigation apps such as Magic Earth and OSMand. For actual navigation they do pretty well, but if you are looking for food in the area or any other random thing you’d typically use G Maps for – you’re best off opening a private window and just using that. Or you can temporarily install the Maps application if you really must. Using MicroG, navigation does work, just don’t ever update it or sign in, or save your home address, etc.

Chat and Social

Okay so, if you MUST use Facebook and other platforms, there are apps that limit how much data is being shared while still providing basic functionality in F-Droid. I myself use Frost, which does a good job of letting me do everything I need – though I don’t use the calls and video chat functions, and they don’t work on this app. There are other types of services as well such as Mastadon, but good luck getting everyone you know on it – and those you have yet to meet. You can also try getting people on Signal or Telegram.

Conclusion

So that for the most part is how I live my life. Feel free to ask me of any specifics that are not covered here or if you are considering a service in particular (I may or may not have referral links).

I’m also going to plug two more sites for further reading:

Privacy Tools website

Awesome Privacy List

 

 

 

 

File Encryption And The Cloud

Posted on by Dustin Fontaine

File Encryption And The Cloud

 

Before I get too far, let me just elaborate a little bit on what encryption is.

Think of a regular, everyday safe. You put your important documents or other items in it, then lock it. Now only someone that knows the combination (or has the key) can open it. File (and disk) encryption works pretty much the same way, you would encapsulate your data into a single file, or array of files that all have names something along the lines of cneu2382865j24 and nobody knows what that is and can’t access it if they don’t have the password to it.

Now I am assuming you, like many other people in this world want at least some resemblance of privacy, especially on your data. This can include anything from important legal evidence to honeymoon photos. Just things you don’t want others to see in general. The problem is, if you choose the cloud to  back up your data , you are in a conundrum. Ed Snowden mentions in his book that they really do look at all those pictures you send to your sweetheart. So how do you keep your data safe from prying eyes?

Switch Cloud Providers

The first option is to use what’s called a Zero Knowledge cloud provider. These providers encrypt your data by default meaning that garbled name you saw earlier is what they see on their end. You log in via your password, which opens the content to you over a secure connection. You can still share and upload and use apps on your various devices the same way you normally would.

Some providers

Encrypt Your Files With Existing Cloud

The next option is to encrypt your files then put them in the cloud. Now there are a few benefits and drawbacks to this approach and I want to make sure I cover them here. Bear in mind, this is a way to securely store the file, like you lock it away until you need it, not something that is frequently accessed.

A great upside is you get to use the same cloud provider you already pay for. This is huge if you already use a larger part of the service like Office 365 and want to still get use out of your 1TB storage on OneDrive. Even if you use a free service – if your data is small enough you can still store it.

The biggest downside is you don’t manipulate the data in your cloud provider though this is expected by design, if you share a link they get that same jumbled mess of a name and can’t do anything with it – unless of course you share your password with the recipient. You will also need to be on a platform that can access it, which I will cover in the instructions portion of this post below.

Another thing to be aware of is your storage limits. If you have a paid plan that gives you 1TB of data and you let it expire to a 5GB free plan, and your vault is say, 15GB, you will run into issues trying to sync it. Be sure to set your vault to a reasonable size.

I’m Sold! How Do I Do It?

I’m someone who likes to make things as universal as possible, portable even. I try to think of ways that a calamity might occur in which I am unable to use a service or product in the future, such as a company closing down or other scenario. I picked Veracrypt because it’s Open Source, so even if the maintainer shuts down, you’ll still be able to find it on some public archive site.

So now, download Veracrypt . Again, just to be forward thinking, save a copy of the installer somewhere ( also replace the most updated copy when your software updates). There are install options for Windows, Mac and Linux so you can share your data between just about anyone on any desktop platform.

I’ve set up the following folders to work with as an example, just imagine My Cloud to be the embodiment of whatever cloud storage you use, and adjust your settings to that folder.

Now you want to install Veracrypt, I’ve gone through this process myself and for basic storage purposes, you can leave all the default values and hit Next.

Once you open the software, you will create your volume, which you an think of as kind of a digital equivalent to a jump drive or external hard drive. It’s portable and you can carry it wherever you want – digitally that is. Again, these default values are perfectly fine for our purpose. During this process, you will want to pick a location for your volume, browse to your cloud folder and give it a name. Use the default encryption options, these are fine.

The next few screens are important though. You will create the size of your volume. This will be dependent on your size of your data, and you will want to be aware of your cloud storage limit. I’m making the example volume 10MB. Then set your password or passphrase (you are using a  password manager  right?).

 

Create Your Volume

(Slideshow)

Next be sure to actually mount your volume (this is akin to the act of plugging in your USB drive), I picked letter V for Veracrypt but as long as it’s not already taken, you can pick any letter. Then the drive will show up and you can place your documents into it to save within the encrypted volume.

(Slideshow)

Don’t forget to dismount when done!