Security/privacy guide

2023-08-21T01:22:50Z

Celestia: page created

== Major points ==
=== Operating systems ===
* Windows and macOS are proprietary (code is owned by a company), and will take your data regardless of privacy settings. It's recommended to use any Linux (or Linux-adjacent, such as BSD) distro. Linux is fully open source (with the exception of proprietary 'blobs'<ref>Blobs are pieces of compiled code, meaning the source code isn't available to be viewed.</ref> needed for certain device drivers), meaning its code can be held accountable, leading to little to no telemetry on Linux distros.
** Ideally, you wanna use a security-focused distro such as Qubes OS or Whonix, and learn their methods for ensuring your own security and privacy. It's also not recommended to go with Ubuntu due to Canonical's (company behind Ubuntu) somewhat suspicious track record with telemetry and proprietary-esque decisions.
** If you have to use a proprietary OS for reasons such as work or games that can't run on Linux, it's essential to make changes to reduce how much data they can collect. For Windows, you can instead use [https://github.com/ntdevlabs/tiny11builder tiny11] and/or a debloating tool with options to reduce telemetry, such as [https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater Windows10Debloater.] Be aware that these are nowhere near silver bullets, only band-aid fixes for an inherently flawed system.
* It's essential to use full-disk encryption when installing a distro. Most beginner-friendly distros, such as Pop OS! and Linux Mint, will offer it in their graphical installers. If you're instead going with a less hand-holding distro, such as Arch Linux, you will have to set up [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Unified_Key_Setup LUKS] (method for full-disk encryption) [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_entire_system yourself.]
** It's also possible to use LUKS for partial encryption, which can be done for specific files/folders if your system doesn't have full-disk encryption yet.
* If you plan to use Tor, it's '''highly''' recommended to use it through [https://tails.net/ Tails.] It's meant to be run off removable media such as a USB, with all user storage being on RAM rather than the USB itself. Do '''not''' run it through a VM, having RAM act as storage is important as it will get wiped completely upon shutdown, rather than lingering around, as when you delete files on persistent storage like a HDD or SSD.

=== Hardware and storage ===
* If you store sensitive info that may need to be wiped, you should store it on a HDD, not an SSD. You should also use file-shredding tools, such as the `shred` command on Linux. Normally when you "delete" files on any OS, the data doesn't actually disappear on the drive, it's only marked as empty so that eventually other data can overwrite it. Using file-shredding ensures the data will be overwritten, leaving no trace of the original data.
** HDD's are recommended for storing sensitive info because when you shred files on an SSD, due to how they are designed, data is likely to not get overwritten; aswell as reducing the SSD's already shorter lifespan in comparison to HDD's.<ref>https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/593181/is-shred-bad-for-erasing-ssds</ref> HDD's do not have this design side-effect, so it's safe to shred files on them.
* Consider using [https://libreboot.org/ libreboot.] BIOS/UEFI software is proprietary, and libreboot aims to resolve that, although it is risky as you can completely brick your motherboard by trying to install/update it, and it's not supported on all systems. If you plan to try it out, it would be a good idea to experiment with it on an older system first so you don't brick your main system, aswell as ensuring your own systems compatibility.
** Also be aware of Intel's ME/AMD's PSP. These are part of the CPU itself, with proprietary software running on them, encrypted/signed by their manufacturers and not allowing the system to boot without them running. Theoretically, anyone with access to the signing key (or zero-day exploits) could run malware on them, completely ruining the security of your entire system. Whether or not these can be avoided varies wildly depending on hardware.<ref>Relevant info from libreboot's site https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intel</ref>
* Consider going with AMD GPU's over NVIDIA if using Linux. AMD GPU drivers on Linux are open source,<ref>https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU Sidenote: There still exist proprietary blobs within the drivers, but it's still far better than what NVIDIA has.</ref> whereas NVIDIA has only provided the code for kernel modules, with the drivers developed by the community still in an alpha state. AMD GPU's are also known to generally work better with Linux, experiencing less issues compared to NVIDIA, thanks to the open source drivers.
* Consider jailbreaking/rooting your phone and making it collect less data on you. If you have an Android phone, you can go as far as replacing Android with a mobile Linux distro for full control over your phone.

=== Browsers and online services ===
* '''Email is inherently insecure.''' There are forms of encryption available, but these usually only work for emails exchanged within the same email provider, as most email providers don't support it; and even then, making the emails unreadable to the email provider isn't guaranteed. The best advice for email is to pick a non-corporate provider you trust, and use multiple emails to make yourself less profileable by way of the same email signed up to multiple services that collect data. This message on the front-page of [https://cock.li/ cock.li] aptly describes the ideal attitude to have towards email.
<blockquote>
'''How can I trust you?'''
You can't. Cock.li doesn't parse your E-mail to provide you with targeted ads, nor does cock.li read E-mail contents unless it's for a legal court order. However, it is 100% possible for me to read E-mail, and IMAP/SMTP doesn't provide user-side/client-side encryption, so you're just going to have to take my word for it. Any encryption implementation would still technically allow me to read E-mail, too. This was true for Lavabit as well -- while your E-mail was stored encrypted (only if you were a paid member, which most people forget), E-mail could still technically be intercepted while being received / sent (SMTP), or while being read by your mail client (IMAP). For privacy, we recommend encrypting your E-mails using PGP using a mail client add-on like Enigmail, or downloading your mail locally with POP and regularly deleting your mail from our server.

Also, there's this quote from /g/:

''Administering a mail host is sort of like being a nurse; there's a brief period at the start when the thought of seeing people's privates might be vaguely titillating in a theoretical sense, but that sort of thing doesn't last long when it's up against the daily reality of shit, piss, blood, and vomit.''

''Now that I think about it, administering a mail host is exactly like being a nurse, only people die slightly less often.''
</blockquote>

* Prefer open-source and encrypted social platforms/protocols when possible. Examples include [https://www.fediverse.to/ Fediverse] (which I can safely assume you're already using), [https://matrix.org/ Matrix], and [https://xmpp.org/ XMPP.]
** Telegram isn't recommended due to requiring a phone number for an account, which is obviously sensitive information you shouldn't freely share.
** Also consider using alternative homeservers to Matrix's default one, such as [https://chat.yesmap.net/ yesmap.net.] Be aware that you may run into issues with key backup or long login times if there are many messages that need to be decrypted.
* Use open-source and privacy-focused browsers, such as [https://librewolf.net/ LibreWolf.] Alternatively, you can manually harden other browsers such as Firefox or [https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium Ungoogled Chromium.] This will require learning more about browser specifics, like [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC WebRTC.]
** Never use Google Chrome. Also beware of Chromium-based browsers, such as Opera (GX) or Edge.
** Consider disabling/restricting javascript, as there are many ways to be fingerprinted using it. However, outright disabling it will cause most of the modern web to break, so it's usually restricted to when using Tor.
* Use a privacy-focused search engine such as [https://duckduckgo.com/ DuckDuckGo] or [https://searx.space/ SearX.] '''Never use Google directly,''' if possible.
* If using proprietary platforms such as Discord or Youtube, try to only use them through a hardened browser, and encourage others to move to platforms like Matrix for communication. When using Google services, use an email specifically made for Google only to isolate it from other services you may use.

youjo.love wiki - User contributions [en-gb]

Security/privacy guide