Category: Security

The e foundation privacy phone & mobile OS

On By Chris SalmonIn Android, Chris Salmon, Computing, Internet, Linux, Privacy, Security, Social MediaLeave a comment

Recently I wrote that I was going to work on developing my own privacy-oriented, silicon-valley-free version of the Android mobile OS. Well, it turns out that a better guy than me is already way ahead of me on the same project, and he has a team. In fact the beta version of his phone is already out:

/e/ First Beta is Here

“At the end of 2017 Mandrake Linux creator Gael Duval announced an ambition to create a smartphone OS, one that didn’t rely on Apple or Google, with ‘my data is my data’ as his mantra. He saw the loss of respect for user data privacy, and the concentration of data power in the hands of a few giant corporations with its surveillance risks, and could see that something new was needed.

Today the e foundation, created to support the mission, announces the first beta of the /e/ mobile OS, for early testers to trial on a range of mobile phone models. They plan to have a stable version for general release by early 2019.”

Go to the /e/ foundation to read more.

So this obviates the need for me to develop my own Android version all by myself. I still will probably do it, just for fun, to learn, and to keep my computer skills sharp. In fact, I may just do some volunteer work for the e foundation.

Intro to Tor

On By Chris SalmonIn Chris Salmon, Privacy, Security, Social MediaLeave a comment

Tor is an acronym for “the onion network,” a network anonymity technology that originated Tor is an acronym for “the onion network,” a network anonymity technology that originated with the Office of Naval Research funding research back in 1995. The basic idea is simple, a network such that each node only knows about its neighbors one hop away, and all traffic goes through at least 3 nodes, thus hiding the origin endpoint of a packet’s route. That hides the source address of the traffic and the users location. Encryption hides the content of the packet through a key exchange. Tor, Orbot, and the Tor Browser for android are an important part of the toolkit I’m developing to prevent collection and sale of my personal data by Google and others with ad based business models. Here is s brief intro

In order to protect myself from having my private data stolen and used to extract money from me, I need total security for all aspects of my internet usage.  That means the operating system and all software running on it, the browser, my WLAN, my phone and all of its software, my border router, my IP address, the contents of my network traffic, my location, everything must be protected from ad-based business model tech companies.  So this will take several pieces of software and some configuration time.