The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance

A lot of practical steps, which is nice to see in an article like this.
- That iphone drama might actually lead to proper interest from normie core?

I doubt somebody running from a government is taking their tips from wired.com
- I read through the whole list, and monero was the only decent privacy recomendation I could find. Everything else was US-hosted. A lot of it was just recommendations from Apple and Google on "privacy" services they offer.
  No mention of syncthing, matrix, xmpp, even with sections dedicated to those categories.
  
  I read that monero is different from other cryptocurrencies and makes it harder to identify the individual to/from whom a transaction in is sent
  What is the difference and why do other cryptocurrencies not implement it?
- You're right, ha, I'm totally not.. they, I mean they are totally not! You got it guy! Everyone listen to this guy! I'd go as far as to say anyone reading this article is innocent of ALL crimes!
  
  People commenting however...
- Don't challenge me

Too bad private email access is essentially dead. Any service not requiring another email or phone number to sign up gets quickly shut down. A casualty in the war on whistleblowers.
- email is never private, if its that sensitive it just shouldn't go on the internet
  
  Exactly; email is digital post cards and always has been.
  Of course, that means I can encrypt a message and use someone else’s email account to send it :)
- You can sign up for Proton mail without providing email or phone number, as far as I recall.
  
  Nope. Try doing it through a Tor node.
- Proton requires email?
  
  Not in my experience
  
  Yes, tho it days it dosent store it, ill leave it up to you what you do whit that.

I'm glad they mentioned Monero in the article, but sad that they mentioned it alongside Zcash since Zcash is not private by default and not many people opt into the privacy and Zcash has shown willingness to be bad to their users by helping exchanges. Primarily because they are run by the Electric Coin Company, which is registered in the United States, and therefore they have to obey the laws of the United States. So, Zcash is not a good option.
- I also have not seen Zcash accepted as payment nowhere nearly as frequently as Monero.
  
  Same
- Shielded addresses & transactions are private using zero-knowledge proofs like Monero. You can also have transparent addresses & transactions like how Bitcoin operates on Zcash as well which is true. But there isn’t a default, some wallets autoshield by default making your comment misinformation.
  
  Some wallets shielding their transactions by default is still not nearly as strong as everything being shielded by default at the protocol level, but they couldn't have that because then they would not be on exchanges.

Switch phone service to VoIP, cancel cell service, all tracking capabilities is gone.
- A lot of organizations now block VOIP numbers thanks to stringent KYC laws.
  
  It is possible to get a real cell number from a big name carrier and then port the number to VoIP company to use VoIP service with an original cell number.
- Iirc any cell phone is still capable of dialing 911(or equivalent) even without a sim. So id imagine carrier towers and gps could still find it. You'd basically have to keep the device in a ferriday bag. Which complicates actually using it.
  
  That is correct. Any cell phone sold in the United States by law is supposed to be able to dial 911 no matter whether they have a SIM card inserted or not and no matter whether they have service on a SIM card or not and also no matter whether one specific carrier in your area has no signal it will use the others instead. You may be a Verizon customer, but if you dial 911 and an AT&T tower picks up the call first, the AT&T network will serve that call instead.
  
  One clarification: carrier towers can still find a phone; GPS is passive; your phone locates itself in relation to the GPS satellites.
  Most phones are also broadcasting WiFi MAC IDs and Bluetooth MACs, plus hardware and capability strings over Bluetooth. And then any apps you’ve got loaded may also be calling home with your location unless you have that disabled and rotate your ad ID regularly.
  [edit] also worth pointing out that even if you turn a smartphone “off” it still pings the local cell towers with its IMEI regularly. Surprised me the first time I witnessed that.
  
  Why does a phone need to be in a ferriday bag when phone does not have a SIM card because it uses web-based VoIP service? The phone only needs an internet connection, like wi-fi, and can't talk to cell towers. Remove SIM from phone, connect phone to wi-fi to get online to access phone service through the internet, GPS can't function. If a phone without SIM calls 911, it will go through, but dispatch sees no number, no location, no name.
- You're just shifting trust though - may be good in some cases, but not universal. Aldo does nothing about the cell tower connections tracking the location.
  
  How can cell towers track your location if phone does not have a SIM due to using web-based VoIP service?

Just saw this. Feel like the alternate title could have been "When digital privacy went mainstream", "I was into privacy before it was cool", or finally "No I am not wearing a tin foil hat!"