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Mini Blog ArchivesOnline Security & Privacy 101
Mini Blog2025/09/12The topic of so-called "AI" - really just albeit quite powerful Machine Learning/Large Language Models or ML/LLMs - simply will not go away and lie down and die. This is a reality we have to deal with, both as individuals as well as as society as a whole. It is also what directly and indirectly underlies todays post.
Much is made of the threat of LLMs to employment as well as to creativity and the livelihoods of those in creative professions. While these are very real dangers, that indeed are already starting to have an impact in the real world, they are - or at least, could potentially easily be remedied or at least mitigated through societal changes that are however very unlikely to ever come about while we are living not merely under a (hyper-) capitalist system but moreover a hyper-surveillance capitalist system that benefits some of the already wealthiest individuals and corporations on the planet and no-one else.
LLMs pose a great number of other threats, too, that we hear little about. These include the complete and utter destruction of privacy, freedom, freedom of expression/speech, civil liberties and human rights, and democracy itself, and the establishment of the most extreme totalitarian regimes in history. The ever increasing use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies among other things point the way, as does the high probability of LLMs rendering current cryptography obsolete much sooner than Quantum computing could.
We hear very little about manifest side-effects of LMM technology if at all. The world's environment including climate is already looking like a runaway catastrophe that is getting exponentially worse while nothing - apart from a lot of talk and the odd little band aid - is done to mitigate it. LMM technology not only uses up vast quantities of rare mineral resources including highly toxic materials, it also requires vast amounts of energy, equally vast quantities of precious fresh water, and simply humongously vast data centres that occupy the equivalent space of whole cities. This is already directly affecting whole populations in various parts of the world, where e.g., some are deprived of potable water!
It should be patently obvious to anyone with half a brain and half a heart that this current state of affairs, of LMMs and the US multi-national "Big Tech" corporations - both software and hardware ones - and their surveillance capitalism simply cannot be allowed to continue as at present, in the interests of freedom, democracy, privacy, and even peace.
We as individuals can do much to contribute to changing this and indeed we have a duty to do all that we can. First and foremost, we can and must do everything possible to defend and preserve out online privacy and security, and our independence from US Big Tech. At present, the only comprehensive, secure and 100% private software available for all platforms is
Proton. Not a perfect state of affairs, but it is not only the best but the only real defence there is. That is not to say by any means that there is not a lot of criticism one could and indeed has to levy at Proton, however. Foremost has to be its continuing failure to deliver long promised Linux parity of Proton's apps with Windows and macOS, which to myself as a preeminently Linux user is particularly galling and frustrating.
Over the last couple of months or so in particular, Proton published a slew of posts on their
Blog highly relevant to today's topic here, a number of which we shall link here shortly. However, I have to add that Proton's position taken there, no matter how relevent and valid, rings somewhat hollow and downright hypocritical in view of particularly their use of the non-privacy focused and non-secure Uservoice feedback/discussion forum and the Zendisk user support system, both of which are US companies based in San Francisco, further their having some user data processed in the US, as well as their encouraging users to use social media for discourse with Proton. These are all simply inexcusable. Nonetheless, for the time being those of us seeking to defend and preserve our online privacy and security are quite dependent upon Proton until some genuine privacy focused, secure, and fully open source competition comes along, which alas does not seem likely to happen anytime soon.
To get the ball rolling in respect of aforementioned Proton blog posts, we have
US Tech Dominates - not only Europe but much of the world. Next,
European alternatives to Big Tech, albeit with a few rather odd recommendations in re: search engines and browsers such as Brave - an outfit that relies on advertising for its revenue!
Of interest primarily to Swiss residents is
Support Swiss businesses and break free from American tech - also includes discounts on Proton apps.
What is a large language model? gives a good overview of that topic. Then there is
Facial Recognition Technology - Your face as a commodity! Not unrelated is
Meta AI may be scanning your camera roll photos without your consent! More danger comes from
Microsoft, and Word files being saved to OneDrive by default. And further in the same vein
EXIF Data Explained and their implications when sharing photos.
Finally from the Proton Blog, some product news.
Lumo 1.1 it out and now smarter and faster according to the blurb. Well, at least it
is secure and private! New is the
Proton Authenticator, secure 2FA "Your Way".
In closing, the best thing people can do to preserve their online security and privacy would be to abandon using Windows and macOS, and instead switching to a Linux OS, preferably one with a firewall. Plain vanilla Ubuntu Desktop is particularly recommended for Linux virgins, and also Fedora Desktop for the more confident. Both require only minimal configuration.
N.B. - Late in from the Proton Blog, of prime interest in the context,
Salt Typhoon Hack, and how it affects everyone in the US and many beyond!
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All rights reserved2025/08/10It has been a very momentous couple of months, particularly in regard of privacy, freedom of speech/expression, freedom in general, civil an human rights, and the rowing threat of authoritarianism supplanting democracy. The UK's 'Online Safety Act' which has been condemned by a number of prominent free speech etc. advocates as an authoritarian measure that in effect is one of the greatest threats to online freedom of speech/expression. It also makes the UK just about one of the least free, safe, and private countries in Europe, where encryption is coming under ever greater threat and where we may yet see and end to secure and private VPN services and encrypted email services. Things really do not look rosy at all!
The question then arises, what can you, the individual, do? Well, you could contact your local MP to complain about the erosion of your civil liberties, your human rights, and your right to privacy and freedom of speech/expression. All fundamental to a functioning democracy. And if you do not have them already, then it is high time you equipped your online devices with E2EE - end to end encrypted - email, Proton Mail still being the best around and with the largest user base, plus safe and truly private VPN (again, Proton!), cloud storage (Proton Drive), a privacy first Password Manager (Proton Pass) and more! All anonymously, using anonymous payment methods if you are buying paid versions.
If that was not enough turmoil, still more has been created by the largest privacy focused software house, the ubiquitous Proton, themselves. Make no mistake, Proton has grown into a major corporation, albeit governed by a non-profit Proton Foundation. How major Proton has grown you might gather from the fact that they are spending $100 million on relocating the majority of their Swiss infrastructure - including one has to presume their offices - into the EU (country not specified)! That has to be a very strong indication that they are fully expecting the proposed Swiss anti-privacy legislation to become law and that Proton have lost confidence in successfully challenging this legislation. Under these new laws it would be impossible for Proton to operate in Switzerland.
However, just what makes Proton think that they can successfully operate with their 'no logs' and other privacy policies within the EU remains a complete conundrum. The EU is little more than a thinly disguised club serving the interests of 'Big Business' and Big Tech, with concepts of civil liberties, freedom of speech and expression, freedom, and privacy seem to have been taken over from somewhere around the 19th and first third of the 20th century. Most EU countries' legislation with regard to privacy is only marginally better than that of the US. Within western Europe, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and France, among others, are some of the worst offenders in this respect. As for eastern Europe, i.e., the former countries of the Soviet block, how trustworthy they are in this regard seems highly questionable at best. Sweden and particularly Iceland perhaps stand out as somewhat better placed in respect of privacy laws, but still far from as comprehensive and strict as current Swiss laws. So, where to now, Proton?
Moving into the EU it becomes highly questionable whether Proton will still be able to guarantee its users' privacy. How far Proton's commitment to this goes has been somewhat questionable in any case, given its use of non-encrypted, US-based services such as Uservoice and Zendesk, and processing of some data farmed out to the US and other non-secure, non privacy committed countries. Not good. One cannot help but wonder whether Proton is selling its users out, alas.
Proton is certainly selling a large portion of its users short. And that is us Linux users. I use Linux for about 85-90% of my computer use, the rest being Windows. Even that I only use in conjunction with one or two Linux VMs. We have been promised Linux parity with Windows/macOS for a very long time now. Has it materialised yet? Has it hell! We are still landed with what can only be described as an extremely pathetic excuse for a GUI VPN with limited capability. Still no Proton Drive desktop app. And so on and on. Well, like a lot of other Linux users I am very seriously considering not renewing my Proton subscription when it expires, and am equally seriously looking for alternatives. I have taken another look at Nord VPN and its Linux app is streets ahead of Proton's and seems a bit like a Proton VPN clone although it does not have all of Proton's Windows app features, but most of them. No logs policy, too. Only snag AFAIC is that Nord is based in Lithuania. Proton Pass is rather limited in some ways and so a good alternative is KeePassXC. I haven't found any alternatives for Proton Mail, Calender, Drive, or Wallet so far but I'll keep looking.
Proton can spend $100 million on relocating to the EU and resources on new mobile apps and adding new features to Windows/macOS ones. It can even expend resources on developing an - albeit somewhat impotent - 'AI Assistant' called Lumo! As though that really was an urgent necessity. But can Proton be bothered to give us Linux parity with Windows/macOS?! Can they hell it would seem! This state of affairs is wholly unacceptable and nothing short of a disgrace and an outrage.
Equally, one has to wonder why Proton has chosen to completely neglect TOR users. Try logging in to Proton via the Proton TOR address and TOR browser - virtually invariably you'll be met with a captcha that is almost impossible to complete if you have any kind of disability that prevents you from having precise control of the cursor, moreover in the very short time allowed. Suppose you get through that and also suppose you have Proton Sentinel enabled. You're then hit with having to connect to your recovery email to retrieve a TOTP! So no more Sentinel here. Or take Proton Drive web app - virtually unuseable as try any up- or download and you almost invariable get a message of 'Network issue'! Well, there certainly is no network issue at this end so it's most likely down to Proton's TOR connection. Web apps like Proton Pass do not work at all under TOR and need another browser like Firefox. This whole thing is just shameful.
In view of all the above - and of what follows - one really could be forgiven for wondering whether Proton was run by a bunch of clueless rank amateurs.
What follows concerns Proton's new
"AI Assistant", Lumo. ('Luno' might be a more fitting name.) Yes, it is safely private. Proton deemed it necessary to provide a fairly lengthy intro to this, starting with the blindingly obvious :
"The name Lumo is inspired by the Latin word “lumen,” which means “light.”," which even a reasonably well educated sixth former would have known. They then continue with some ridiculous assumptions such as "This choice isn’t just about aesthetics; it holds deep significance. Just as light guides us through darkness, Lumo is designed to be a beacon of clarity and trust in the digital world. It helps us navigate the path of privacy while leveraging the tools of the future.
"We wanted a name that would resonate with everyone — something simple, direct, and easy to pronounce in multiple languages, just like the name we might give to our own cat."
Well, that name and analogue of the cat certainly do not resonate here. On the contrary, this whole patronising article was enough to make me want to throw up. No, such metaphors do not resonate here in any way. And that ridiculous cat icon, that ugly, cartoon-style, infantile doodle of a grossly fat cat really offends my sensibilities. Furthermore, "After all, we trust our pets to keep our secrets and be discrete, and they convey a sense of caring, which is also at the core of Proton.
That’s why Lumo is a cat — curious, intelligent, and attentive." is the most ludicrous load of twaddle I have had the misfortune to encounter in a good long while. Cats are among some of the least intelligent species around. They care about nothing and no-one but themselves, are curious only in the sense of 'is it edible', and attentive only in the sense of marking their human keepers as their territorial property. And only when it suits them and they have nothing better to do.
Dogs - and many other canids - on the other hand are highly intelligent, gregarious, curious, and more besides. They are not called 'man's best friend' for nothing! Their wolf ancestors were so intelligent they worked out that it was a far easier living to feed off the remnants of human food than having to hunt, and further had the intelligence to gradually domesticate themselves and even develop a kind of simple language that humans could understand and that they could use to communicate with those naked apes. It's called barking. Dogs are highly communicative, as well as highly empathic, able to pick up the finest nuances of their humans' moods and well-being. Moreover, they not only have a highly developed sense of loyalty but are capable of unconditional love, even towards a member or members of another species, i.e., man.
So, to attribute qualities to cats that they plainly do not possess is absolutely laughable. Moreover, they are effectively vermin, killing European - as well as elsewhere in the world - song birds and other birds, bringing many to the verge of extinction. Perhaps then the use of the cat comparison for LLMs might not be entirely inappropriate after all. They are the thin edge of the wedge.
Instead of wasting resources on developing this 'AI Assistant' Proton had better have used them to strengthen their encryption all round to 'post quantum' strength, because chances are that LLMs will be able to penetrate current cryptography before very long and certainly well before quantum computers could do so.
More anon.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/06/21Just a quick, short-and-sweet post this time. To begin with,
'Windows & macOS 101 Supplementary I - Advanced Users' has been edited and amended in order to clarify a few matters.
Further, a couple of items that should have been included in the last post but did not make it.
The first concerns
ESET and its A/V and security software. There has been a further recent re-branding, and ESET Smart Security is now ESET Home Security. It comes in 3 'flavours' - Essentials, which is now identical to the old ESET Internet Security, and Premium and Ultimate. Essentials is all that is needed, and currently if you purchase ESET Home Security Essentials the install file is actually still called 'eset_internet_security_live_installer' and everything is identical in every way to Internet Security. The other two versions just add a few features that are better provided by Proton and other open source vendors.
Returning to the subject of Proton VPN and the new GUI displaying the user's real IP, country, and ISP, this apparently does not mean that Proton has in any way abandoned its strict 'no logging' policy. However, the app acquires this data and stores it for display in the GUI when no connection exists. Unnecessary and potentially dangerous nonsense all the same.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/06/09The
Windows & macOS 101 - Supplementary II : General Users is now live!
Further on the subject of the new Windows version of Proton VPN, i.e. v.4.x, one can only wonder just how blind Proton really is while planning and developing their software. I now am reliably informed that rollbacks would not be possible in re: the VPN app (and who knows what others, one wonders!) for a variety of technical reasons! With as critical an app and service as VPN, it seems incomprehensible as well as unpardonable not to have the ability of rollbacks to a previous, known stable version. Even the miserable Windows has this option!
A further disturbing issue in relation to Proton VPN (Windows) has come to light. The new, v.4.x GUI, at first only displayed a Swiss IP and location - presumably some kind of Proton pre-set - when the app started while there was no network connectivity let alone VPN connection. Now it seems to consistently display the user's real IP address, location (country), and ISP until a VPN connection has been established! One is left wondering just how secure these data are from leaking or otherwise being transmitted or intercepted. And furthermore, whether this means proton is now logging users' real-world IPs. In any event, this display seems completely unnecessary from a user's perspective - it serves no useful purpose whatsoever. It certainly feels like a very worrying, disturbing development and one cannot help but question just how private and moreover trustworthy Proton really is, I am sad to have to say.
Finally today, we at last come to the promised further informations about
Proton Wallet, the Proton Bitcoin app and related topics. While in principle, this app is an excellent idea, enabling simple and private
Bitcoin transfers via email among Wallet users, in practice its usefulness is rather questionable as Bitcoin
purchases can entail having to divulge extremely sensitive personal private data. Not a good idea at all.
All the same, let us start with a few basics.
Getting Started - just what it says on the tin. Then there is
Creating and Deleting Wallets deals with exactly that, while
Creating and Deleting Bitcoin Accounts is concerned with Bitcoin accounts.
Next, we get to the topic of
Buying Bitcoin. This is where we hit the snag of divulging highly confidential personal information. Proton is so far partnered with three organisations. Of these,
MoonPay appears to offer the widest range of payment options, including - in some jurisdictions - PayPal. Proton also link to Ramp and Banxa. Another option may be to open an account with a crypto exchange - Proton suggest
Coinbase,
Binance, and
Kraken. Of these, I certainly would avoid Coinbase myself. You may want to cunduct your own research into what might or might not be suitable crypto exchanges for you.
Having purchased your Bitcoin - or BTC for short - from an exchange, and once confirmed on the exchange, it is easy enough to transfer your BTC to your Proton Wallet. For details of the whole process, see the above link to Buying Bitcoin.
There is one other way to buy Bitcoin - the only one that seems to promise to be truly private. The snag is that you have to be in Switzerland and at a railway station with a ticketing machine - see
Buying BTC at Swiss Railway Stations. Of course, these machines would also have to be able to accept cash for the transaction to be truly private - whether they do is not apparant from Proton's blog post.
To close this Bitcoin/Proton Wallet exploration, we have
How to import external Bitcoin wallets to Proton Wallet,
How to send and receive BTC using a Bitcoin address,
How to see Bitcoin address lists in Proton Wallet, and
How to speed up BTC transactions - all dealing with what it says on the tin.
Further information still can be found in additional Proton blog posts - links can be found on the posts linked here.
More anon.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/05/06Regrettably, work on the Supplementaries to the article 'Windows & macOS 101' has fallen behind a little along with much else. However, at least the first of these, 'Supplementary I - Advanced Users' is now ready and available
Here, while the second will follow ASAP. Some of the other articles have been updated silently already.
Also delayed is the previously announced further information on Bitcoin and Proton Wallet, which will now have to wait until next time.
In the meantime, more pressing issues concerning
Proton are once again rearing their ugly head.
The latest Windows versions of
Proton VPN, i.e. v4.1.9 onwards, are really more than a little close to unusable compared to the last previous version 3.5.3, as explored a couple of posts ago. It is absolutely driving me to distraction! In particular, the latest couple of versions seem to have a nasty bug in the startup of Proton VPN. Unless your system is connected to the internet at login, when Proton VPN starts it just goes bonkers hunting for a connection in order to 'sign in'! Now this is not the way that I work, nor a few other people I know, when using Windows. I normally start working offline, and only go online when needed. Even while the connection is still being established with Permanent Killswitch still active, I would ask Proton VPN to connect to one or other of my Profiles. Likewise, when no longer needing to be online I would physically disable the Windows connection, and only then disconnect from the VPN. All working absolutely like a charm up to and including version 3.5.3. Not now. You cannot do anything in Proton VPN until it has actually signed in! So in the meantime, your system is exposed to the tender mercies of an open internet connection under your ISPs IP address.
Proton should provide a rollback to 3.5.3 while they have a complete rethink and sort out this unholy mess that is version 4.1.9 onwards! It just won't do!
Unfortunately, I have not so far seen a viable alternative to Proton VPN - especially not one available in both Linux and Windows versions - but I somehow feel inclined to continue looking.
Despite all Proton's many flaws and failings, at present there really is no alternative for online privacy and security focused software.
Still on the topic of online security, ESET seems to be in the process of replacing ESET Internet Security with ESET Smart Security. Alas, not only is this priced more highly than the former but also appears not to include the Firewall componont. So while it is still available, I would recommend that you grab an ESET Internet Security download and value-for-money license if you do not have it already.
More anon.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/03/24Work on the two Supplementaries to the article 'Windows & macOS 101' will be resumed next week it is hoped. We will start with final drafts, and then revising some of the articles to reflect the changes that the Supplementaries will introduce. There will, unfortunately, be further interruptions to this task due to having to take a little time for personal reasons but it is still hoped to complete everything around the end of April/beginning of May.
The "War on Privacy" seems to be ever increasing in scope and intensity, and on all fronts, both legit and illegit. It is therefore vitally important that users should be as well informed in these affairs as possible. Hence, we shall provide a few more starting points from the Proton blog here.
If you receive an unexpected/unexplained package or parcel, this may well be part of a
Brushing Scam. Find out what it is.
Apple revoked advanced data protection (ADP) in the UK – now what? This scandalous action bodes ill for encryption in the UK particularly but could set a precedent also for elsewhere.
In consequence of the last above is this post from the Proton blog,
"The UK government’s war on encryption is a global threat"Never forget the role Big Tech plays in furnishing governments with your data -
"Authorities worldwide can see more than ever, with Big Tech as their eyes".
And then there is Google...
...and Device FingerprintingThe first line of defence of online privacy and security is a trustworthy, reliable, privacy-focused, non-logging, fast VPN. There are none that qualify more here than Proton VPN - probably the largest, fastest at that, whether you look at the free version or the paid for one. There just is none better. Let us have a quick look back though at the published
Proton VPN winter roadmap 2024/25.
No explicit mention there of a completely new UI for Proton VPN Windows version, nor of the changes in facilities/features. To put it bluntly, with v4.1.7 of the Windows app, Proton have decidedly once again shot themselves and the more intelligent users in the foot. It is quite simply an unmitigated disaster. Proton sacrifice a clear, logical UI with easy to use, intuitive functionality in favour of 'eye-candy sexiness' with reduced functionality and unintuitive facility. Gone seems to be TOR-over-VPN, Permanent KillSwitch appears to have been renamed 'Advanced' Killswitch - at least, one hopes this is the same functionality! - total download and upload for current connection has been replaced with a simple 'Volume', and gone is the alphabetical list of profiles for selecting one to edit or add a new one, gone also the indication 'Permanent KillSwitch Enabled', and gone also the immediate indication of server load/availability for each profile, and more. New users will find it much more of a learning curve also. And still nowhere near to full feature parity for Linux, nor overall parity among the various apps and platforms. It is quite frankly incomprehensible as well as inexcusable that Linux is still being treated as the 'poor relation' by Proton.
Still, in spite of all the aforesaid, Proton VPN is still the best and safest, most private VPN there is. I would not trust Norton VPN or NordVPN at all, nor Mullvad VPN come to that, thank you very much. In that spirit, a couple more Proton blog posts.
"What kinds of censorship can a VPN bypass?", and specifically also Proton VPN.
Finally,
Common VPN Myths and why they are misleading.
Readers should always consider themselves encouraged to view any links here such as those to Proton blog posts as just a starting point and are positively encouraged to explore the Proton blogs further.
Next time, a little more about Proton Wallet and Bitcoin, following some queries elsewhere.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/02/16Today we once again have to turn to the topic of online privacy and security. One really cannot emphasise the importance of anybody using any kind of device online stepping up to the mark and most vigorously defending their privacy and security online. Nothing less than privacy itself and freedom of expresssion, and indeed democracy and freedom themselves, not forgetting civil and human rights, are at stake.
Today, society as a whole, and specifically western society, faces a multitude of dire threads to all the above as never before, threatening to tear society apart. On the one hand, there are the general threads within the wider society. Politically, there are identity politics, Political Correctness, cancel (anti-)culture, wokeness, the rise of populism and the extreme right, not to mention the loony right, and the emergence of the hyper-rich oligarchy. On the other hand, there is Big Tech and its mega corporations, now gaining ever greater data harvesting power through the development of ML/LLM - Machine Learning/Large Language Models - so-called AI. This last has still far wider implications, both in terms of online privacy and security of the individual online user and on the political side.
We are not far from the total surveillance state already. Whether you use any kind of PC, tablet, smartphone, smart speaker, smart TV, modern car, Internet of Things or other smart device, they all generate data, lots of data.
Your data. Ultimately, if you are a fairly typical internet user, these data can tell everything there is about you - your daily routines, what you use and when, where you move, what your politics are, your likes and dislikes, even what you think and more. This is not only making it possible for Big Tech to precisely taylor ads that match your interests, buying patterns,and more. But moreover, this can provide governments with an incredible wealth of data, and not only them but potentially any corporate and even criminal actors. Your life on a silver platter, as it were. Zero privacy.
In view of all the aforesaid, it is absolutely imperative that all internet users should do their utmost to preserve their online security and privacy. For PC users, their interests would be best served by in the first place switching from Windows and macOS to Linux. Beyond that, they should also adopt the wholly privacy and security focused
Proton apps, all of which are available in a free-of-cost version and mostly for all platforms.
We have explored most of these in the past already in this blog, but here are a few Proton blog posts that should be of further interest. First, we have
Email password 101: Fully secure your inbox with 2 simple solutions, in respect of Proton Mail.
Then, concerning Proton Pass, there is
How to send emails from your aliases about, well, exactly what it says on the tin, that is, sending emails without disclosing your real email address by sending them from an email alias available from Proton Pass.
Last but not by no means least from the Proton blog, the Bitcoin wallet app
Proton Wallet brings safe Bitcoin self-custody to everyone is now available to everyone since 10th February. (It was previously only available to business accounts and if memory serves the top premium accounts, and then eager users who had joined a waiting list.) The app itself is a pretty excellent one, but the one thing that's not so good is that purchasing Bitcoin (aka BTC) may entail having to reveal extremely private details about yourself and/or your finances, but that last part applies to whatever way you choose to hold your BTC, and whatever vendor you purchase from. An alternative might be to get a friend who already holds BTC to buy it for you, paying him/her in cash, or similar arrangements.
If you do buy BTC directly yourself, then be advised that transactions can be quite slow. But, as
How to speed up Bitcoin transactions reveals, there is a way to speed up the process. And it will not necessarily cost you a lot.
Whether you go to Linux or stay with your present OS, do join the great privacy and security revolution
now, before it is too late and we all end up living under totalitarian rule. Without privacy - and freedom of speech - there can be no democracy. Cancel culture and wokeness are wholly un-democratic and would deny everybody else the freedom of speech. Their proponents need to realise that freedom of speech belongs to everyone, and that with it comes the right to be offended. (If you do not like being offended then you had better go and live in some remote and isolated cave.) Stand up and be counted, and ensure your online security and privacy and fight to preserve privacy, freedom of exxpression, freedom, democracy, and our civil liberties and human rights.
© nexter
All rights reserved2025/02/01Work on the two Supplementaries to the article 'Windows & macOS 101' will be resumed shortly now. In the meantime, we have to linger a bit longer with the general subject of online security and privacy as well as privacy, freedom, democracy and civil and human rights in general.
Never before have all of these been in greater danger than now of being eroded and even taken away from us. It is therefore more important then ever that we defend ourselves and our rights as vigorously as possible, starting with our online security and privacy. We live in a very dangerous world today. On the one hand, there is the rise and rise of so-called 'AI' speak Machine Learning/Large Language Model, and Big Tech's violation of its users privacy. And on the other hand, we have narcisist politicians and the rise and rise of the hyper-rich Oligarchy. All serving nothing but self-serving interests. If you think these people give a flying fart about you and your privacy and other rights, you are as deluded as they are themselves. Wake up and join the fight for online security, privacy, and freedom of expression - your future depends on it.
Fortunately, we have two great allies in this fight for online security and privacy, and privacy, freedom, and democracy in general. The first is open source software in general and the Linux movement and community in particular, and the second is Proton and its open source privacy focused software that is available to all on all platforms. In this context, Proton's Blog is a most valuable resource and a veritable gold mine of information. We explore some of their mostly recent blog posts in what follows.
What Trump's control of the FBI and NSA means for your Privacy is precisely about what it says on the tin. Although this most immediately concerns US citizens and residents, wider implications cannot be discounted or ignored.
Proton also explores what this new year might hold for the internet generally in
Our predictions for the internet in 2025. It makes for some worrying reading.
If you are a TikTok user and thinking of switching or indeed have switched to RedNote, then this post is a must for you -
TikTok ban: Switching to RedNote? Your privacy is at stake. Best advice - even as regards social media in general - would be, stay away altogether if you possibly can.
Just for balance and comparison, there is
A privacy analysis of Meta’s new Threads app. Certainly fares no better. None of the popular social media are safe or could even remotely be recommended.
Not to be ignored but at your peril is so-called AI - Machine Learning and Large Language Models, as already referred to earlier. And just in the last few days the cat was really let loose among the pigeons, in a manner of speaking, with the Chinese DeepSeek chatbot outstripping ChatGPT downloads on Apple's AppStore and sending tech shares tumbling, losing some 600+ Billion US Dollars in one day - a new all-time record.
DeepSeek or DeepSneak? takes a timely look at this chatbot. Like virtually all ML/LLMs, definitely to be completely avoided!
What is your digital footprint and how can you protect it? is full of good, solid advice to help you protect your online security and privacy.
Deeply worrying is this survey conducted for Proton by YouGov -
Majority of Dutch people are concerned about privacy, one third don’t protect themselves. Fortunately, the population of the UK came out somewhat better in a previous similar survey for Proton, but even here there is an urgent need for much more widely disseminated information and education in matters of digital security and privacy.
Do not be caught out like the people in those surveys. Fight back for your privacy and security. The important first line of defence is a good VPN, and there is none better than
Proton VPN. By now one of if not
the largest and most popular VPN services in the world, Proton doubled its server fleet to over 11,000 in 110 countries in the last seven months. You simply cannot get a better, faster, more secure and more private VPN anywhere than Proton VPN, be that paid for service or even Proton's free service. So, what is stopping you?
© nexter
All rights reserved 2025/01/16In today's first post of 2025 we continue with the subject of secure passwords from the last post of last year. Secure passwords are not easy to be guessed or hacked through a 'Brute Force Attack' and other means. A secure password will not be easy to remember, and it is not advisable to put it into any kind of unencrypted text file, or on a written stick-it note attached to your PC or monitor.
Instead, you ought to use a secure, private, end-to-end encrypted Password Manager. These not only generate and store passwords for you but also let you configure log-ins for all your online accounts and let you log in easily and conveniently. There are two that I can recommend.
The
Proton Pass Password Manager is convenient and easy to use and is available for all platforms. Ideally, you should use the desktop app, installed on an encrypted external drive or memory stick. Unfortunately, however, at present Proton Pass still has some limitations that I find I cannot live with, personally. The most severe of these, for me, is that it only supports creating passwords of up to 65 characters in length, and not the full set of extended ASCII characters.
I always use the longest, most complex passwords permissible. For device encryption the limit is generally 128 characters but full extended ASCII characters are acceptable. Websites vary widely in the kinds of password they will allow. Some will allow as little as 24 characters and no extended ASCII characters, some like Proton will accept 128 characters with full extended ASCII characters, and a few will support 512 characters with full extended ASCII characters supported. Canonical's
Ubuntu Website is a shining light in this latter category, for example.
For fullest support for passwords of up to 512 characters with full extended ASCII character support, I highly recommend
KeePassXCPassword Manager, like Proton's fully open source, and likewise easy and convenient to use, available on Windows, Linux, and macOS desktops. I tend to use both this and Proton Pass on both Linux and Windows.
While e.g. a 512 character password including full extended ASCII character support will take even a bunch of today's most powerful supercomputers trillions of years to crack, it is always a good idea to make your log-ins as secure as possible, and, where supported, I would recommend readers to take a long, hard look at 2-factor or 2FA or MFA log-in. An alternative - where supported - is PassKeys, supported by both Proton Pass and KeePassXC. We already explored this latter topic in last year's blog.
Strong, secure passwords are more important now than ever, as anything less will become easy pickings for so-called 'AI' - really, ML (Machine Learning) and LLMs (Large Language Models) algorithms, but pretty powerful nonetheless.
We are at a critical crossroads at present with regard to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom writ large in the wider meaning, and general civil and human rights. This makes the fight for online privacy and security all the more important and urgent, lest we all be swallowed up by the all-powerful autocratic surveillance state that would put George Orwell's 'Big Brother' completely in the shade and paling into total insignificance. The impact of Ml/LLM so-called 'AI' can hardly be over-estimated, especially in view of the US Oligarchy and the stated aims also of the UK's Labour government with regard to said 'AI' and its planned extensive use. The prospects are truly horrifying.
It is thus vital that we all make the widest and wisest efforts to protect our online security and privacy, for a start. The importance in this respect of the Linux community and Linux OSes, and the
Proton privacy apps and other privacy-focused apps cannot be overstated. Protect yourself and join the fight for privacy, freedom, and democracy, as well as for our wider civil and human rights, before it's too late.
More anon.
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All rights reserved© nexter 2025
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