Quote of the day—Bruce Schneier

Companies like Facebook are the largest surveillance organizations on the planet, and they need to be recognized as such.

Bruce Schneier
October 24, 2017
An interview with Bruce Schneier on the Internet of Things, global surveillance, and cybersecurity
[I could tell you a lot more. There is stuff that will make your skin crawl. Ask me in person sometime.—Joe]

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8 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Bruce Schneier

  1. I have been a subscriber of Bruce’s monthly email for a long time. He’s right that his kind of security requires government mandates, but that can mean unintended consequences. Likewise, even when there is consumer demand for content security, such as the demand by mostly liberals that fake news be eliminated, the companies have responded by censuring conservatives.

    I don’t like government or private mandates, nor do I think that are a solution. We do not need more government rules and gatekeepers. I prefer to see the internet remain the wild, wild west and be unregulated. It is buyer beware environment, but an informed user can make choices to minimize surveillance. Such as using Firefox for your browser, gab for Twitter, minds for Facebook and other more open source alternatives. Where appropriate it is also possible to encrypt your email (Proton mail is one choice).

    Beware of all free on-line services and demand open source local solutions that you can control. And insist on owning your data. The big tech companies are currently our enemies. Use market forces to change. And be willing to pay for safe on-line services.

  2. Since I can’t ask you in person, can you generically give us some tips from your educated perspective for how to prevent this type of surveillance?

    • Don’t use their services.

      If that isn’t the type of life experience you want then it depends on what type of protection from the surveillance you want.

      If you don’t want them knowing every place you have been then then don’t use their apps, always use a proxy when you access them via the web. That will avoid them not knowing your location (in the case of the apps, down to a few meters).

      If you don’t want them knowing some particular interests then never click on links to those interests. If you see a headline or something that you want to read about then use an anonymous window in your browser to search for that headline outside the Facebook/Twitter environment.

  3. I will throw this wuestion out there. How to get thr googlag of my phone? Apple is probably just as bad.
    Are there any linux smatphones and apps?

    • You should be able to install Firefox on both iPhone and Android. Then use DuckDuckGo as your search engine. I am using Firefox on my Android phone.

      Yes there is a Ubuntu Touch release (see
      https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/). However, I cannot vouch for usability or carrier support. I suspect the experience is experimental at best with limited apps.

  4. Both AdBlock Plus and Ghostery run on FireFox (I’m using the developer version). I also tried Brave, but found that it is still not ready for prime time.

    And I do agree that a VPN and private mode are a also a good idea.

  5. My go-to browser for when I want privacy is TOR. Don’t know if that exists on smartphones (don’t have one of those) but it works fine on my laptop.

  6. Pale Moon (palemoon.org) is a fork of Firefox; I believe using it denies some default traffic and advertising to Mozilla but am not sure.

    Brave is showing steady progress although it still crashes now and then.

    I set my browser to use Tor directly (port 9050 if using expert bundle). If you use Tor, often Cloudflare or a similar service will block you. I go to a proxy page and enter the address I want to visit and this usually circumvents the block. You may have to try several proxies to find one that works.

    You should not access your bank or other critical services over Tor or through a proxy.

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