Privacy Blog

"Friends don’t let friends get spied on.' – Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation and longtime advocate of privacy in technology.

Telephone Security

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How to Get the Most Out of Signal and Encrypted Chat

Of all the popular text messaging, voice conversation, and 2-way video services available today, Signal is probably the one that offers the best privacy, using end-to-end encryption on all information sent and received. Assuming you are interested in such privacy concerns, you will want to read Brian Barrett’s article, How to Get the Most Out of Signal and Encrypted Chat, in the Wired web site at: https://www.wired.com/story/signal-tips-private-messaging-encryption/.

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Signal Launches Face-Blurring Tool as US Protesters Embrace Encrypted Messaging

Law enforcement officials across the U.S. have already revealed that they will leverage facial recognition technology to retroactively target protesters following the killing of George Floyd, with police asking the public for footage and photos. Against this backdrop, Signal is introducing a new feature that can automatically obfuscate faces shared within the encrypted messaging app, as the company says it’s “working hard to keep up with the increased traffic” from […]

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FTC Fines Four Operations Responsible For Billions of Illegal Robocalls

I hadn’t thought about this issue until I read that four companies that made billions of illegal robocalls have now been caught and fined. I don’t think my phone has received a robotic robocall for the past several days. (I never answer calls from phone numbers I don’t recognize. If the caller hangs up without leaving a voice message I assume it was a marketing caller, probably a robo-caller.) The […]

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NSA is No Longer Using Mass Phone Surveillance Program Exposed by Edward Snowden

The NSA reportedly hasn’t been using the system used for mass phone surveillance for the past six months. So did the agency earlier claim that data collection is vital to national security? Maybe it isn’t so vial after all? After all, the nation’s top spy agency can’t be bothered to even use it these days. Then again, perhaps that agency has found BETTER WAYS to spy on citizens???

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Why You Might Want to Give Up Your Landline Phone

Millions of people are cutting the cords of landline phone service and have switched to cellular or VoIP (internet calling) services. You might think, “That’s nice, but I like my wired landline phone. I plan to keep it forever.” I bet you will change your mind before long. You may not change it today, but I suspect you will change within a very few years. When you do, you probably […]

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Google Adds Always-On VPN to its Project Fi Cellular Service

I have been an enthusiastic customer of Google’s Project Fi cell phone service for more than three years. I also always have a VPN (that I pay for) running all the time in my cell phone. You can read my past articles about the Project Fi cellular service by starting at: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aprivacyblog.com+%22project+fi%22&t=h_&ia=web. I received a pleasant surprise today when I learned that Google is now offering a FREE VPN to […]

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Police Decrypt 258,000 Messages After Breaking IronChat Crypto App

Your public servants at work: spying on you. Police in the Netherlands said they decrypted more than 258,000 messages sent using IronChat, an app billed as providing end-to-end encryption that was endorsed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. In a statement published Tuesday, Dutch police said officers achieved a “breakthrough in the interception and decryption of encrypted communication” in an investigation into money laundering. The encrypted messages, according to […]

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Skype Now Offers End-to-End Encryption

Skype users can now make encrypted voice calls and text chats. The end-to-end encryption used by Skype means that your chats are encrypted from one end to the other, ensuring eavesdroppers can’t intercept your messages or listen into your conversation. It has taken a while for Skype to offer the feature, but it’s better late than never. However, be aware that encryption is an OPTION. Unfortunately, the default remains the […]

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Skype Alternatives

Skype is a telecommunications application software product that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the Internet and to regular telephones. It is one of the more popular methods of making voice calls (emulating telephones) over the Internet. Microsoft purchased Skype from a privately-owned company in May 2011 for $8.5 billion. At the time, Skype was very […]

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