Privacy Protection: Tin Foil Hat Edition
Most of us through our daily digital lives go about it with an air of innocence as we
send emails, chat with friends through instant messenger, and text message eachother on
our phones.
When I say to some friends to secure their communications they exclaim:
"We are anonymous due to the sheer volume of traffic, how would someone single me out to even
pay attention to what I'm saying"
This assumes that a human being is even looking at all. If I'm on the line and want to find something out
about what 100k people are chatting about I'd use a program and give it keywords to look out for. These can
be words like "money", "investment", "sex", ...the list goes on...
If one are more enterprising enough one might try data mining techniques. This way one can sift through
messages with automation, looking at millions of messages with a program that will flag certain emails or conversation
streams and present with a convenient list of who to start looking at. Then, you can be singled out.
If you have nothing to hide, then there's more on the flip....
"I have nothing to hide"
You may believe that to your very core and even pass a lie detector test while saying it.
This says nothing of whether a person reading your opinions off a blog or hearing your opinions in
a conversation might disagree with you so much that they want to spite you somehow.
Also, people don't realize that as they chat, email, and surf they are inadvertently writing a digital
diary of their lives that can be easily read and stored.
After all, part of Kobe Bryant's case was about
evidence that was taken from his cell phone messaging. Why people didn't roar a collective "wtf?" about
that I don't know. He may have done wrong, but the hidden demon in that story was not only can you
read a message someone has sent about a private matter, it's being stored somewhere as clear text and
can be TIVO'd backwards to see what you said and not just SAYING.
Speaking of Tivo, did anyone notice
the bigger story behind the Janet Jackson breast incident when it was noted that everybody paused and replayed
that incident? How about the fact that the Tivo corporation is even getting that data. Its amazing how the
real shocking stories hide behind the fake ones. (Try to count the layers of hidden meaning in that sentence!)
If you want to hear a better rant than mine, then read
this.
There really aren't enough laws to prevent (or detect for that matter) all forms of electronic eavesdropping.
There are many ways to protect yourself, but to prevent from writing a novel on this I'll just concentrate on chat protocol
and an open source way of securing it.
Here is a really good one for chats,
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Gaim 1.5.0
A multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client.
install
this first (Note: other people you want to secure messages will have to use this program, however
you still can talk unsecured with all the rest of the people on your buddy list):
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
and then the plugin for security is at:
install
this next:
Launch Gaim and then go to preferences -> plugins -> Gaim Encryption and turn on encryption.
-------------------
Another solution:
Simp Lite is a free version from Secway for securing chat:
for Mac users its a little more difficult because people like their iChat.
You can compile gaim for Mac but I'm still struggling with it.
Adium and
Fire have encryption in them, however you have to get your friends to use them too.
A commercial solution is Intego's iChat Barrier (I am not promoting products, but I haven't seen
a freeware plugin for ichat yet)
You might ask, "How do I know this is working?". Well I'm glad you asked. You can message me at
aitoaster on Yahoo messaging and test it against my install. Or try it with a friend!
Let me know if you like/don't like the gaim program. Also let me know of products you have tried.
Protect your privacy. Nobody else will.