LarrySanger.org

Category: Privacy

  • How I chose a NAS

    A network-attached storage (NAS) device is your own Internet server—your very own “cloud”! I decided to get one for my own reasons. But which, and configured how, exactly? Here’s what I came up with for myself. After dropping Dropbox, and then ditching Resilio Sync, I decided to get a NAS. To pull this off, it…

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  • Cloud smackdown: NAS vs. Resilio Sync vs. Zero-Knowledge Cloud!

    In my ongoing effort to lock down my cyber-life, I jettisoned Dropbox three weeks ago, and I’m quite happy I did. But I’m not done with the reconfiguration. So, if you have the patience and credulity, you may listen in while an amateur deliberates about the choices… People more expert about this stuff than I…

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  • Zuckerberg Is Wrong: Don’t Regulate Our Content

    Last Sunday, Mark Zuckerberg made another Facebook strategy post. (This is his second major policy post in as many months. I responded to his March 6 missive as well.) Unsurprisingly, it was a disaster. I want to shake him by his lapels and say, “Mark! Mark! Wrong way! Stop going that way! We don’t want…

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  • How I replaced Dropbox

    Updated April 2 at bottom. My main beef with Dropbox is that it’s not secure, not adequately encrypted, and there’s been a little too much indication that Dropbox is spying on user data. Ever since I decided to lock down my cyber-life, I had Dropbox in my sights. It was going to be a pain…

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  • How and why I got a VPN

    As part of my ongoing efforts to lock down my cyber-life, I finally decided to investigate VPNs (virtual private networks) and subscribe to one, if it seemed to be a good idea. Well, it is a good idea. So I got one, and it was pretty cheap. What is a VPN, anyway? A virtual private…

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  • A reply to Mark Zuckerberg’s “Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking”

    Yesterday (March 6), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined Facebook’s new “vision and principles around building a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform.” The essential problem isn’t that they need a new app; rather, they need to reform their existing one. Rather than acknowledging the elephant in the room—that users are deeply incensed that their privacy…

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  • My Facebook #DeletionDay goodbye message

    Here’s what I posted as my last long message to Facebook. Folks, as previously announced, tomorrow will be my #DeletionDay for Facebook. It’ll be the last day I’ll post here, and I’ll begin the process for the permanent removal of my account. (Among other things, I’ll make a copy of my data and my friends list.)…

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  • How deep should one go into this privacy stuff, anyway?

    Probably deeper than you thought. Here’s why. If you are convinced that privacy actually matters, and you really want to lock down your cyber-life, as I am trying to do, there are easy options, like switching to Brave (or Firefox with plugins that harden it for privacy). I’ve done that. Then there are more challenging…

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  • How and why I transitioned to Linux—how you can, too

    First published Jan. 17, 2019; updated Nov. 15, 2019 Let me briefly tell my Linux story. If you’re thinking about moving to Linux, and wondering how you’d do so, it might give you some pointers and inspiration. The back story My first introduction to the command line was in the 80s when I first started…

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  • Why does information privacy matter, again?

    It’s not just because you are a criminal and the coppers might catch you. Or because you really, really hate big corporations who just want to sell you stuff more easily. Or because you’re paranoid. If that’s as far as your thinking goes, when people start talking about “privacy” on the Internet, you really need…

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