![]() Bitcoins can be exchanged for “mining services” (payment processing bitcoins via personal computer power), other currencies, products and services. It is an open-source, peer-to-peer digital asset and payment system, where owners sign transactions using a private key. Trading a digital currency like Bitcoin can mask the user’s identity through a dizzying complex of address swaps, multiple inputs and “mixing services” that exchange transaction histories.īitcoin, the first decentralized digital or “cryptocurrency”, was released by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Private financial transactions are no longer the sole purview of oligarchs, the Mafia and Swiss art dealers. A Tor server operator in Austria found himself liable for the very dodgy traffic passing through his system. Originally known as the “Onion Router”, it has achieved notoriety through various high-profile busts of pedophilia and human and drug trafficking rings. Tor – mostly funded, ironically enough, by the US Government to encourage democracy in authoritarian states – is free and open software that allows users to browse the Web anonymously. But online, there are no curtains, which is why many (possibly slightly paranoid) individuals prefer to communicate via the “underground internet” also known as the “deep web”. Few want to be seen doing half the stuff they do in private. AdvertisementsĬaveat Emptor: Some of these phones are being made by the same defense contractors and companies most likely building tools to spy on us – which might be of some concern. It costs €170 with three months of unlimited text and voice, and 500MB of data. €2800) Blackberry with SecureVoice, as used by President Obama Teorem (and the Teopad), built by the Thales Group and in the French President’s suit pocket (POA) and the FreedomPop Privacy Phone, based on the Galaxy S2, also known as the “Snowden Phone”. €600) Sector Edge from General Dynamics (ca. Other phones available worldwide include: The Boeing Black, created by aerospace and defense giant Boeing (ca. This one is marketed as “the first smartphone to deliver privacy without compromise for personal and business use and without sacrifice on the powerful functionality and seamless usability of today’s most cutting-edge smartphones.” Wired magazine gushes, giving it a 7/10: “The phone… gives you a level of privacy control that far exceeds that of regular Android phones.” The Android Blackphone 2, from the Swiss company Silent Circle, helps you to set the most granular permissions of all your apps, and routes your communications encrypted via Silent Circle’s private cloud VPN. You don’t need to be 007 to get your own already secure, Q-approved device. For around €1000, you can get a phone that is already fitted with advanced security features, deep permissions management, and encrypted voice, text, and video chat built in. Turning Location Services on and off daily? Most of us can’t be bothered to fiddle constantly with various security settings on our smartphones or laptops, or decide between encryption apps. Designed by cryptographers Ian Goldberg and Nikita Borisov in 2004.Īnother good option is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for emails, a data encryption and decryption computer program that increases the security of e-mail communications, which was created by Phil Zimmermann in 1991. Then there is OTR (Off-the-Record) messaging, a method for private, secure communication that allows two people to conduct encrypted conversations via instant message programs. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation, eff.org) has a handy scorecard. ![]() Use with an awareness that whatever you can do, they can do better. Since the 80’s, developers have produced a range of apps to make messaging and emailing more secure against big data eavesdroppers. While it’s unlikely you will attract your own personal agent, like Gene Hackman in The Conversation, in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden revelations, and with new terrorism data collection legislation, there’s a growing chance your chats and messages are going somewhere they shouldn’t. If you chat on Viber, WhatsApp Facebook, Snapchat, or Yahoo! Messenger, it is quite possible someone is listening. Here are some of the options on the market that promise to put a virtual glove over your private and business communications, and keep what you say, write and do more private than simply checking public or friends on Facebook. ![]() Thankfully, there are ways to put your mind at rest. “I want to be left alone,” she insisted – a request that is becoming harder and harder to satisfy in these days of data-hungry apps. Greta Garbo understood about privacy: She didn’t want to “be” alone, as the Hollywood myth-makers would have it. Fear of Big-Data snoops sifting through your chat history, photo streams, and following your private trips across town?
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