Aren’t you just really tired of being under surveillance and using tools of convenience and believing that you have no choice but to give up your privacy so that the government, deep state and other businesses can profit from it and use it for other nefarious purposes?
Anonymous Web Browsing
You probably won’t want to hear this, but if you are serious about privacy, you should welcome the change. If you are not already using an Android, get yourself an Android phone now. This hardware works best with the encryption software I’m about to introduce to you. Once you have your Android, you just need a little understanding and a few free applications.
Orfox is built from the same source code as Tor Browser (which is built upon Firefox), but with a few minor modifications to the privacy enhancing features to make it compatible with Firefox for Android and the Android operating system. Orfox requires the Orbot application for Android to connect to the Tor network, so you’ll want to install Orbot first, and then Orfox. You can find the free downloads with the www.qwant.com or www.duckduckgo.com search engines, and avoid the CIA’s “google” surveillance.
TOR is an acronym for “The Onion Router”, a metaphor describing how your Internet connection is routed through many layers or servers to hide its I.P. (Internet Protocol) address. This is much like hiding your phone number by entering *67 before you call someone.
The TOR software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked. Isn't it ironic that we are using the Google Play Store to down encryption software to block Google (the CIA) from its surveillance.
Phone Calls
This covers web browsing, but you will probably want to make anonymous, encrypted phone calls as well.
You will want to use open source software because it is always being developed by the smartest people on the planet and they do it because they have a passion for it, and not because it’s just a paycheck such as a corporate employee. Linphone is the name of the open source application. It is subject to peer review by anyone, at anytime. Ghost Call is the service that provides this at no cost to its users, that’s right, the best privacy software is free! Ghost Call does the call setup and manages your presence; of course TOR exits support Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), so use TOR if you don't want your public I.P. address exposed to Ghost Call. In other words, download Orbot and Orfox first and use that software to visit the Ghost Call website at https://ghostcall.io/ You will get your very own “Ghost Call” phone number as well.
Your calls are only encrypted with other Ghost Call users and you have the choice on each call to authenticate (verify that your call is secured against any unknown third party). Now that you have “ghosted” your smart phone, why not do the same to your desktop?
Desktop
Earlier in 2017, Microsoft’s top lawyer challenged the NSA over its virus known as “WannaCry”, saying that problem was the agency’s creation because it built and stockpiled such malware for its own use. Now WikiLeaks has revealed more government-created malware and this one is a nasty piece of work.
Codenamed “Athena,” the spyware targets all version of Windows from Windows XP to Windows 10, and was released in August 2015. It was created in part by a private New Hampshire-based cyber security firm called Siege Technologies.
According to WikiLeaks, Athena allows whoever controls it to completely take over a computer, steal data and send it to CIA servers, delete data and upload even more malicious software.
“Once installed, the malware provides a beaconing capability (including configuration and task handling), the memory loading/unloading of malicious payloads for specific tasks and the delivery and retrieval of files to/from a specified directory on the target system. It allows the operator to configure settings during runtime (while the implant is on target) to customize it to an operation,” WikiLeaks said.
After reading this, I realized that Windows had zero encryption and in fact, was a surveillance tool in itself. This is when I decided to escape from Windows and Microsoft altogether. I had already stopped using the Microsoft Office Suite and replaced it with Open Office, and now with the latest version, LibreOffice. I knew someday I would escape Windows, but I had been procrastinating until I read this news.
After some careful research of many really good options, I decided that the best option was Ubuntu, an end-user friendly version of Linux. I also decided I would add some speed into the mix and replace my hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD). Installing a different hard drive is optional, but if you replace your hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD), you will gain about 30% more speed in accessing files and programs from the hard drive.
While it is an option at the time you choose your password during installation, using Ubuntu means there is no need to encrypt the home folder. You already have FullDiskEncryption (FDE), encrypting the home folder will just needlessly slow down your computer. You will notice a substantial decline in performance by using this feature, especially if you have an older processor without an AES-NI (pre-Sandy Bridge).
Ubuntu, as of September 2017, uses AES-256 (when XTS mode is in use, the key size might be 512-bit, and later split into two 256-bit keys). But depending on your kernel build, sector sizes, encrypted volume size, advanced modes of operation supported by Ubuntu (ESSIV, XTS, and LRW) can vary, and with it the actual security of such full-disk encryption.
You can trust the FDE will protect your computer, provided you have a good password and follow a protocol to change and protect it on a regular basis. If not, then why bother with FDE? Just encrypt the home folder or don’t encrypt at all. The encryption done by Ubuntu (aes-xts-plain64) is ridiculously secure; it can withstand all threats up to the level of state agencies, as long as the password is strong. There is no benefit to separately encrypting the home folder for security. If your FDE password is somehow compromised (unlikely), then the same could be done to your home folder. If someone is torturing you to get your FDE password, believe that he will also torture you again to get your home folder.
Ubuntu is installed with Firefox but I would suggest using the Brave add-on or Slimjet for additional browsing security. I also switched from using Skype to qTox and from Youtube and Facebook to www.gab.ai, minds.com and steemit.com for blogging and social networking.
The only other recommendation I could make to you is to subscribe to a virtual private network (VPN). It’s not really essential, but it is inexpensive (about $5 a month) and does add just another layer of security and privacy. And, protect yourself from the 4G and 5G radiation, remember "giga" is billions of cycles of radiation per second, it penetrates human tissue and adversely effects it. You will want to carry your phone in an EMF shield. I also store it at night in a "Faraday cage", shoe box, double-lined with aluminum foil, stored in the microwave, the only thing I use my microwave for these days.