Yes, they refused to tell me what third party vendor is smearing us. They want to act like it's some big secret that they use a third party which is a dumb bot just banning entire IP ranges
If you use SimplifiedPrivacy’s SimpleX servers PLEASE read this.
We are migrating the SimpleX chat and SearX search off our official domain name and onto a burner one. These are the new SimpleX servers:
smp://5TTeFvM5KIUDVsIcLD6n0xxq2tczKciMy6mdurzpPLw=@smp.chameleon.to:15223
xftp://Lwwsu2vmkIKixxD5j4Skx8MDpxao5_pbfgE0Xj4RZ-I=@xftp.chameleon.to:15443
Update your conversations, we’re leaving the old ones active till wednesday. So you got 2 days.
Once we kill the old ones, your old conversations using that URL won’t work.
Here’s the new Search engine SearX:
https://searx.chameleon.to/
Our main website and pages will remain unaffected.
Reason:
This is due to the corrupt and evil centralization of the internet, in which rotten entities such as Spamhaus and supposed “security” AI, will automatically blacklist entire IP ranges because the cloud host doesn’t KYC customers and some random hacker ruined the entire IP block for unrelated customers. Rather than abandon the VPS, we’re switching the domains, and allowing the burner to be banned by web browser certificates. Which shouldn’t affect your use, if it hasn’t already.
I have tried to fight this move as long as possible, and personally wrote to 6 AI firms to reverse blacklists, including Quad9 over the past 2 months. But I can’t do a full-time job of defending this no KYC cloud that isn’t even mine just because I’m renting from it.
This entire incident has again solidified our commitment to reduce reliance on government domain names, and push for freedom across Session, Tor Onions, IPFS, Eth push, and of course Nostr.
Thanks for your support, and we look forward to your continued traffic and love
We’re issuing an official redaction of our criticism on Cloudflare running malicious Tor exits, when they are in fact running advanced data analysis Tor onions that don’t show up in the URL bar. Quote “Human Tor users and bots can be distinguished by our Onion services, such that interactive challenges are only served to malicious bot traffic.” Our new article goes over how the error happened and sets the record straight with an open source investigation into Tor exit decentralization for community benefit:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/cftor/
Not all sites have these onions and may be configured differently. That was their STATED objective. It's possible the real objective is data analysis to identify people, but this is UNPROVEN rumors
Would the person you know take an interview with us? It could be anonymous, as long as they did some kind of proof that they did work there. If so, DM me or other encrypted messenger
Pro/Con Crypto-to-Crypto “No KYC” Swap Websites
Get your anonymous Nostr Lightning for cheaper than a BTC layer 1 channel here!
These are all sites for Monero->BTC Lightning, and others. These are NOT real atomic swaps, that will be a different post. Atomic swaps usually cost more and can’t be in a web browser.
Fixedfloat.com
0.5% fee
Pro: Reliable site has been around awhile. Large variety of selection and good prices. Support team is quick to respond.
Con: They use a Cloudflare which can be avoided if you go through Trocador. The Google analytics can be blocked with uBlock Origin. Careful on the chats, they use third parties as well. They block Tor and USA IPs. Even a USA clock is banned. I’m in international waters and encourage honesty, but any human can observe with publicly available information, that this means some people may hypothetically have to change the timezone on their local PC.
Exch.cx
0.5% fee
Tor Onion:
hszyoqwrcp7cxlxnqmovp6vjvmnwj33g4wviuxqzq47emieaxjaperyd.onion
Pro: I like this site a lot. No Cloudflare or Big Tech. Low fees and fairly good selection. Well advertised on BitcoinTalk, so they got a reputation to protect. Tor onion.
Con: They get DDoS’ed a lot, but check back in a few hours if down. Remember, you pay the 0.5% fee PLUS the cost of sending it on the blockchain itself. With Monero or Lightning that’s near free, but for Bitcoin layer 1, be careful not to do too low fees (the lowest setting) or you’ll get stuck a full day or more. (Btw if you get stuck, do a child-pays-parent transaction). Also I’ve had issues reaching their support team.
Coinswap.click
Under 1% fee (they don’t say)
Pro: No Big Tech. No Cloudflare. No Google. You can uBlock the third party bootstrap CDN without issues. Fees are decent on XMR->BTC Lightning. This is not as low as Fixedfloat or CoinEx, but it’s barely more expensive.
Con: This is a good site, I like it! I wish they were more upfront about the fees, instead of making me calculate it. But they were not bad.
ChangeNow.io
Fees vary based on quantity.
Pro: Large variety of cryptos. Well established reputation.
Con: ChangeNow varies their fees based on how much quantity you’re doing. Obviously the more you do, the lower the fee. If you’re thinking of using them, check Trocador to compare it. The variations are fairly small though. ChangeNow also uses Cloudflare and Google.
StealthEx.io
Pro: Decent variety. It’s “another alternative”
Con: Unclear pricing. Cloudflare, AWS, Google. These idiots use all big tech with the word “Stealth”. You can uBlock Origin block the Amazon CDN, and it still works, but you can’t load the post-transfer progress status page. Please, try it with a penny first. I’m not responsible.
TradeOgre.com
Pro: This is like a real exchange with visual GUI of liquidity and not a swap site, even though it is crypto-to-crypto only with no KYC. They got a decent selection and some privacy coins such as Oxen.
Con: They use Cloudflare, and it will block Tor. Not a cheap Bitcoin withdrawal fee, I paid like double the middle rate of Electron wallet.
WizardSwap.io
2.5%
Pro: No Big tech. They got a Tor onion too.
Con: High fees.
Boltz.exchange
Pro: Eh… more variety?
Con: High fees, again with Cloudflare and big tech.
SimpleSwap.io
Pro: Huge selection, they got like as much selection as some KYC exchanges.
Con: They don’t tell you the fees, you have to calculate it yourself and they’re horrible. I got quoted like 7% on a Monero cross. These guys should be shot at sunrise. Plus they got mad big tech.
Trocador.app
Free fees, but it’s just a front-end
Pro: Acts as a no-fee No-JavaScript crypto-to-crypto swap front end for different exchanges, so you get the best rate and change counterparty risk to Trocador. They use the word atomic swap, but in a browser this doesn’t eliminate counterparty risk, it just changes it from the exchange to Trocador. Some people will criticize me that it’s open souce, but you can’t audit their cloud website. If it’s done through an open source wallet WITH atomic swaps, THEN it’s eliminating the counterparty risk. Trocador doesn’t add fees so this is a great site.
Con: It’s supposedly “many exchanges” but you usually get FixedFloat. But since FixedFloat uses CloudFlare and Google, it’s good to not go direct for privacy and to prevent FixedFloat from being able to bounce with your funds. Also Trocador could be gathering info maliciously, I have no way of knowing.
Intercambio.app
I’ve never used it, no opinion. I just saw random people post it
Summary of the “No Cloudflare” & “No Big Tech”:
Trocador.app (front end)
Exch.cx
Wizard Swap
Coinswap.click
Summary of the cheapest ones:
Trocador.app (front end)
TradeOgre
FixedFloat
Exch.cx
Coinswap.click (barely cheap)
ChangeNow if you do volume
Summary of both not private and not cheap, these suck:
StealthEx
SimpleSwap
Boltz
In another article, we’d discuss “real” atomic swaps.
Real atomic swaps are always downloaded software, it can’t be a wallet.
Some of these are brand new, still in development, and I can’t vouch for.
Samourai Wallet XMRBTC
Particl.io
DarkFi
Komodo Wallet
Unstoppableswap.net BTC->XMR
Elizabeth Binks XMRETH
If you got a lot out of this, please smash the share so others can learn.
Money is replaceable, I love you bro
VoIP 101: Hiding your location
SMS and regular phone calls are horrible. It’s completely insecure, location dependent, isn’t good at international calls, and there’s NO BENEFIT over end-to-end encrypted messengers. Only through pure propaganda has the population been conditioned to accept this surveillance and control. But IF you HAVE to use SMS then use VoIP.
What is VoIP?
VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It’s regular phone calls and SMS but through the internet, instead of a cellphone tower.
What are the benefits to VoIP?
There’s a lot of benefits:
1) It’s cheaper, especially in international situations
2) It hides your physical location
3) When you travel to another country, you can keep the same number. VoIP is great for business.
____________
Why isn’t VoIP more popular then?
Propaganda. Why isn’t cryptocurrency more popular?
____________
What are NOT the benefits to VoIP?
It does NOT hide or encrypt the messages. Phone companies can still read what you write and hear what you say. When you pay for VoIP with cryptocurrency you hide your identity up until the person you’re talking to says it or texts it.
____________
What is JMP.Chat?
This is one of MANY VoIP providers that resells Twillio service. Twillio is a large enterprise-focused VoIP provider. Some other “privacy” providers, (such as Hushed), will resell Twillio for Bitcoin, but what’s unique about JMP Chat is that you don’t interact with Twillio or even JMP directly. Instead, they allow you to assign your service to an XMPP or Matrix account on a completely different server that you can self-host. This is more decentralized and slightly more private, in that JMP Chat can’t even see your VPN IP. They just see your XMPP or Matrix server. But other than that, they can still read and hear everything.
____________
I’m confused, who can see what exactly?
If you assign JMP Chat to an XMPP server, then they don’t even see your VPN IP, they see the XMPP server.
You → VPN → XMPP Server → JMP Chat/Twillio VoIP → Receiving Regular Phone Carrier
So here’s what each person sees:
The computer’s ISP or cell data provider giving you service just sees a VPN tunnel.
JMP Chat & Twillio see ALL content, but just your XMPP server’s IP.
The person you’re talking to just sees a regular phone number.
So all you’re really hiding compared to SMS, is your physical location from the phone number provider.
____________
Should I bind JMP to XMPP or Matrix?
Definitely XMPP because JMP is doing it with XMPP and then offering a BRIDGE to Matrix. So it’s not going to be as good an experience quality-wise with Matrix. If you want audio calls then definitely XMPP, because Matrix can’t even do JMP phone calls.
____________
What XMPP Client do you recommend?
If you’re using Linux,
Then Dino. But Gajim is a 2nd option.
Gajim audio calls work for Linux only, and NOT on Windows.
If you’re using Android,
Monocles has good texting sync with Linux Dino.
But Cheogram is excellent on it’s own.
If you’re using Windows,
Gajim is great for texts, but can’t do audio call for Windows. You have two audio call options:
Option 1) Mov.im in a Web browser, the pro is this is easy. The con is they see your password because it’s in a browser.
Option 2) Unofficial release of Dino for Windows, which I haven’t personally tried and may have problems:
https://github.com/LAGonauta/dino/releases
If you’re using iPhone,
You have two choices
Option 1) Snikket’s iOS app,
https://snikket.org/app/ios/
Option 2) Siskin, which Snikket is based on,
https://siskin.im/
If you’re using Apple/Mac computers,
Your 2 choices are:
Option 1) the same mov.im in a browser as Windows
Option 2) Beagle.im
____________
Conclusion
At Simplified Privacy, we HIGHLY recommend VoIP. You NEVER want to use service from the cellphone tower. However, even VoIP SMS sucks when compared to real XMPP, Signal, Session, SimpleX, or even Telegram’s end-to-end.
No, you do NOT have to give up service. Using XMPP for VoIP is the number you’d communicate with. This can be TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the number you get literal service from.
For legal purpose I’m really in international waters,
But let’s say hypothetically I’m standing in Texas with a Texas SIM card getting service on my iPhone.
I can then use XMPP to text or call with a Miami Florida NUMBER, even though I’m nowhere near there. If you don’t use the number you’re getting service from, you’re hiding your location.
AI backfires on Big Tech
Google and Microsoft mouth off about AI helping the consumer save time, but new academic studies show that generative AI has degraded the quality of Google and Bing’s search results. Leipzig University and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar released a paper entitled “Is Google Getting Worse? A Longitudinal Investigation of SEO Spam in Search Engines”, which clearly demonstrates that AI has rotted the results with massive amounts of low quality spam. Users are less engaged and less able to find relevant products. [1]
Therefore, Simplified Privacy argues that AI has backfired on Google and Microsoft, and these rotten organizations choke on their own tyranny. They ironically make themselves irrelevant.
Not only has academic research proven the rot of Google search, but even influential and relevant SEO experts confirm the skew to spam. Search Engine Journal discusses how Google’s algorithm gives new domains a chance, to see how they rank. Then AI can constantly register new domains and pumps out massive amounts of dribble to fill those “new results”. Search Engine Journal categorizes it as an attack. [3]
Other mainstream sources confirm similar findings, and speculate on the potential reasons. Business Insider, in an article entitled “Google search is bad and getting worse. Here’s how search is evolving in the era of AI.” points out how Google isn’t even focusing on improving search. Quote:
“Google has economic incentives not to worry about being the best search engine. Any publicly traded company with a money-printing machine guaranteed to work predictably for the next few years would focus on reducing cost, and finding the next honey pot.” [2]
Simplified Privacy questions the legitimacy of closed-source AI from known “pro-authority” Democrats doing research for people because of the potential for bias. AI does the critical task of evaluating different sources, which allows the user to have discretion and evaluate both the information and the sources for potential bias. Not only can the user see the sources, but also the skew from the search engine itself may be more obvious. On the other hand, AI narrows this down to just one choice in which the user is dependent on the AI’s world-view.
Well-respected journalist James Corbett of the Cortbett Report has similar views. He points out how the push for AI search has massive implications for propaganda and reducing the available knowledge that people can consume. He discusses the danger of a single search result and getting humanity dependent on technocratic experts to dictate reality to us, given their history in creating false narratives such as Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or the effectiveness of the “vaccine”. [4]
Internationally recognized Agora journalist Derrick Broze reaches similar conclusions but goes even further. He warns of AI being used to push the idea of collective consciousness and trans-humanism. In his view, the push will be to have AI inserted into the human brain with the goal of blurring the difference between your individual goals and society. Then pro-authority figures can push you to sacrifice your freedoms for the supposed greater good. [5] Please note that I’m rephrasing his ideas to be more direct.
And why don’t other people know about this? Because they can’t find it in search. Unless of course… you share it.
Sources: https://simplifiedprivacy.com/ai/
People often confuse privacy and security.
Corporations protecting themselves from random citizens is security.
Citizens protecting themselves from large corporations or corrupt governments is privacy.
Privacy is everything associated with security PLUS a distrust in a third party to do that security.
Therefore, privacy is much more difficult than security. Because pure security can be just hiring a company to do the work for you.
Pure security can be closed source, and therefore has a better business model and corporate resources. Security usually gets the funding, since it’s required for corporations to function. While as privacy not only has an inherit distrust of third parties to do the work for them, but also the individual citizen has less resources than the large powers it seeks to protect against.
Because security blindly trusts third parties, this tends to centralize it to economies of scale.
On the other hand, privacy flourishes when it’s decentralized, to hide information from a single power that can be corrupted.
I hate to break the news to you, but the vast majority of the services (VPNs, emails, cryptos, cloud services, password syncs, commerce front-ends, decentralized or private social networks, ect.) are scams. They aren’t scams because of a technical flaw in encryption. But because they are labeling it freedom or privacy, when it’s really just security.
Ultimately it’s truly much harder to sell privacy, because it requires motivating the individual to self-empower or learn something. Now I don’t know what you’re dealing with. I don’t know what adversity you want to overcome. But if you need help, I’m here for you. Even if you don’t know a lot of technical stuff. Even if you don’t have a big budget. If you’re ready to take your freedom to the next level, reach out.
Nostr DM / Session ID: Support / Signal +855 68 504 905 / SimpleX on site
They wish to digitally cage us
DNS
Domain names are not owned, it's just an entry in the pseudo-government database
It's the government's opinion. I will not comply, I'm using Session, Nostr, Tor Onions, & IPFS
Fiat Money
Bank Fiat is not owned, it's just an entry in the pseudo-government database
It's the government's opinion of my wealth. I only accept cryptocurrency
Shove those bank notes where the sun don't shine.
SMS
Phone numbers are not owned, it's just an entry in the pseudo-government database.
Completely unencrypted and location dependent. What is even the purpose of phone numbers other than control? I will not comply, I'm using XMPP, SimpleX, Session, & even Signal
Email
You need an email to register a domain name, to then self-host email.
But if free email is vulnerable to make me want to self-host to begin with, then they can abuse the free email to pretend to the cloud company it's me, and then use that to get in to the self-host server. Wtf is this chicken-egg attempt to backdoor in?
Files
People used to their own computer files. Now they are bitch slaves to Google docs, streaming services, and cloud companies that gatekeeper everything you make, watch, and do. I will not comply, I own the files to my work. Sync-thing, NextCloud, CryptPad, & others.
Computers
Google's Chromebook is an open power-grab to deprive children of digital autonomy and create a system of dependence. By lacking the means to do tasks on their own hardware, Google has gotten government schools to indoctrinate your kids by getting them hooked on the pseudo-government cloud.
I stand here today to tell you that you do not have to obey.
I stand here today to tell you that you have more power then you realize.
I am nothing special. A humble peasant in the vast universe.
But I have learned the basics, and you can too.
Join the rebellion. DM the bot, Session ID: Simple
Fair enough. You make a good point. I personally prefer XMPP, but I'm not going to be able to talk anyone out of SimpleX with what you gave me. if gates owned 90% of it, then yeah. I don't understand how SimpleX even makes money
Weekly Recap!
You’re not even going to believe that this company can see all your passwords and everything you’re doing. But once you understand it, you’ll be better able to compartmentalize and isolate the pieces of your life. Don’t stay trapped in the Matrix, our article on Cloudflare can tune you into how the internet really works, so you can bend it to your terms:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/cloudflare/
Where can you pay no tax and get more freedom?
What if I told you that your dream society, one without government oppression and using cryptocurrency as money, was not only possible, but already exists in 12 locations that you can visit or move to today. Don’t miss out on this Real World Agora list:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/realworldagora/
Many websites leak your data to Big Tech without you even realizing it. In this rock solid guide, we go over a strong browser plugin that can shield your data and put you back in control. Don’t let your data be sold by corrupt vultures, but instead regain your privacy with this free, easy, and simple to use open source extension. Meet uBlock Origin:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/ublock/
Huge thanks to everyone whose been tuning in or sharing! We got this
One great first step is one-time burner emails to isolate activity. When you sign up for a site, Cloudflare is seeing the email and comparing it to other sites. From this they know everything about you. So using a service such as AnonAddy, SimpleLogin, or even just literally different burner emails.
My friend, I understand that you hate altcoins. I understand that you view them a vulture and a leech on Bitcoin’s true role in our society. But I urge you to protect your own privacy FOR YOU. Not for promoting a shitcoin, not for promoting a vpn, but for your benefit to pay with one of the other coins that Mullvad offers. Swap BTC lightning to XMR or BCH once a month for the $6. This is far better than government money
Mullvad uses Gmail
The VPN company Mullvad mouths off “privacy is a right”, but deep down they really don’t give a shit. They don’t even bother to host their own emails for critical technical support, and point their MX email record to Google. (See attached image)
This is a potential privacy risk because many times people will not bother to use PGP and the technical support will ask for their account number. And you’re assuming the people who need VPN technical support even know how to use PGP, and they likely aren’t hiding their IP address because they need support. Often people may use their real email, so they don’t miss the reply on burners, and that leaks their name. Now Google, and therefore the government, know your mullvad account number…
From here, the government can sign in to Mullvad’s site as you, and see the timestamp of first sign-in on each device with the wireguard public key. Although Mullvad masks it will bullshit names, the government can sign-out of the device so when you re-sign in thinking it’s a random technical error, they now know which is which. This enables at a minimum, the identification of your other devices. Maybe you signed in at another location? For example your cellphone.
When you’re out using WiFi anonymously at a public location, the government signs you out of Mullvad. So then when you sign back in, they identify the public location traffic as you. If this is not enough, now the government knows which account to demand a court order for. What are you going to request technical support? Sounds like more info gathering.
Even if none of this is relevant to you. The basic fact remains that Mullvad is using primarily Google to talk to customers, and the customers aren’t even aware of it because it’s a vanity domain. I don’t think people realize just how difficult it is to avoid Google. It’s not voluntary dude, these companies are forcing me out to the fringe of society, to not have everything I’m doing piped into a company I so vehemently hate.
Google is literally paid by the US government to manipulate search results through their Jigsaw division and Moonshot CVE. They aren’t just doing ads dude, it’s a for-profit propaganda machine.
Other privacy influencers always recommend Mullvad, and for the most part I do agree with this for the “average joe”. But let’s keep it real here, if you check the servers, they use many of the same 3rd party providers. Mullvad, IVPN, and TorGuard all use M247 for New York and Los Angeles. So if you connected to LA Mullvad, then switch to LA IVPN, thinking you’re getting a “new identity” you’re not. It’s NSA passive surveillance on the size of data packets going in and out of places like M247 that reveal you, and NOT Mullvad backstabbing you.
Does using Gmail mean Mullvad is compromised? No! You’re twisting my words…
What I’m saying is that very few people genuinely care about privacy, and when you realize just how involuntary Google is, only then can you actually take steps to free yourself.
Is the point of this to smear Mullvad? Sort of. I want to create negative consequences for all companies that force Big Tech on us. All of them think they can cut costs because the public doesn’t care.
Well, I’m here today to say that I care. And even if I stand alone. Even if I’m shadow banned by search engines off the face of the earth. I stand my ground.
But I got a feeling I’m not alone. So if you spread this message, maybe… just maybe, we can get Mullvad to change.
https://nostrfiles.dev/uploads/e7RKwKHT7ssF6hxtA8ar.png
I disagree. Communication is a core principle of privacy. And it’s not just Mullvad. My point is that so few companies actually care to not use Google, to the point that it is completely involuntary. They could have used one of the other providers such as even Proton that isn’t spam.
And your point that they can’t have emails in their own domain because it’s spam, is exactly the centralization of the internet that I’m talking about. Because literally everyone… not even you, a privacy “influencer” cares enough.
Go ahead, bow down and obey Google overseeing all activity on earth. But I don’t accept that
Of course I agree with you that email is not private and awful. Of course I agree Tor is more anonymous than a VPN..
THAT’S NOT WHAT WE ARE DEBATING.
I disagree with you that I have to accept things for the way they are. I disagree that have to get down on my knees and obey. It turns it into a completely involuntary interaction with Google. This is Mullvad’s only form of contact. And change has to start SOMEWHERE. SOMEONE has to crack, and I pick the one who claims to be for privacy. If we can’t get Mullvad to change, then nobody.
I agree with you that many other companies have worse privacy policies, what I’m saying is that Mullvad can be converted. They can be changed. Of course companies using Gmail makes the internet more centralized, how can you even debate this point? Again, you’re saying, submit and accept the empire. I don’t submit. I’m not obeying.
My point was that many of these VPNs are a commodity, routing to the same data center, with the same protocols. It’s mostly just branding that differentiates them, and…. Customer service. Which if it’s via Gmail, isn’t worth much.
Regarding your point. Yes in theory having more people go to the same data center increases anonymity. But at the expense of heavier scrutiny that’s easier to implement, and having the users banned because it’s a known VPN center. For example if you go to make a bitcointalk forum account from any VPN with M247, you’re in for some “evil tax” payments. And they are nice and let you pay, most don’t.
I disagree with this view. It’s actually very easy to self-host. Email us at support [at] our domain .com
With a server like Mullvad’s, they can basically host for free in a docker container. And the spam issue is easy to solve with proper DNS entries which can be learned in a day, then tested using spam testing websites.
We will be posting more on VPNs in the future, but keep in mind that this is more of a philosophical argument than saying Mullvad is unsafe. If anything, my point is that a lot of these VPNs are commodities, routing to the same data centers, with the same protocols. And not only is Mullvad okay, but all of the ones mentioned are as well. It’s just branding, and… customer service.
Obviously cryptocurrency is better than credit cards, but if that’s the only way to load it on your iPhone, than it’s FAR better than nothing. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good my friend. This post was more philosophical.
Yes you’re correct that the burden of responsibility falls on the individual for anything in life. But Mullvad is misrepresenting themselves here. If they really cared, they wouldn’t do this. My tone is to purposefully create negative consequences for the use of Big Tech, to force them to change. As if I worded it in a “wouldn’t it be nice” way, then I would be ignored.
We do regular email VPS setups for customers. Mail in a Box, iRedMail, aaPanel. My friend, if you need help solving any spam issues, I can advise you or other members of the team. Discount or free because I like you. Reach out
Sure, we can mail you:
1) DeGoogled phone completely setup, and recommend a carrier depending on your country
2) Linux laptop/desktop, based on your responses to some questions
3) Potentially: A router/firewall flashed with open source software
And then get on a call with you for an hour and show you how to use it. The goal is to make the learning curve really easy, and if you ever have a problem, we’re just a text/call away. If you’re interested reach out. Nostr DMs, Session, SimpleX, Signal
uBlock Origin is an amazing browser extension to see and block what 3rd party Big Tech JavaScript websites are using.
In our new visual guide, we go over first how to use it, and then some of the most popular domains with examples:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/ublock/
12 Real World Agora Societies
Agorism is a parallel society outside the control of government tyranny
How can you get involved? Here’s 12 places Agorism is going down…
You can see this same article with beautiful pictures here:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/realworldagora/
1. Freedom Cells
This is a networking website where you can meet people to form or join communities. It’s NOT about an internet site, it’s about the in-person. This movement is spreading globally, and already has a decent presence in Mexico and Texas. Quote:
“Through building and supporting alternative systems such as local food networks, health services, mutual defense groups, counter-economies and communication networks, Freedom Cell members will be able to decouple themselves from the state and other institutions they deem unworthy of their support.”
Some contacts: Derrick Broze, John Bush
Website: FreedomCells.org
2. Free State Project, New Hampshire
This Libertarian stronghold is an excellent place to meet like-minded people, go to amazing events, and be part of real world crypto economics. Quote:
“By concentrating our efforts in one small state with a pre-existing pro-liberty culture, we are turning the tide against big government, and we’re experiencing the benefits of expanded personal and economic freedoms.”
Website: https://www.fsp.org
Events: PorcFest, hlibertyforum.com
3. Prospera, Hondorus
Prospera is in a free economic zone, on an island off the coast of Hondorus. Technically, they follow Hondorus criminal law, but they create their own civil law. Prospera is the closest thing to private governance there is, as they charge a fee for service like security, instead of taxes. They are looking to make Bitcoin the official tender, and they’re big on Lightning.
Prospera is on the island, but the mainland Hondorus politicians mouth off scary stuff about trying to seize the land back. While they could violently steal it, the previous administrations signed iron clad agreements with US billionaires, who are ready to back Prospera with legal aid. Quote:
“Próspera is for builders, pioneers, and risk-takers who believe in the boundless potential of human achievement and choose to build the future we want. Our platform powers the development of new cities in special economic zones that maximize generalized prosperity and wealth creation.” -Official Site
Key Contact: Erick Brimen, CEO of Próspera
Website: https://www.prospera.co/
4. Liberland
Liberland is to Europe, what Prospera is to South America. In-between Croatia and Serbia, this micro-nation is a bastion of hope to liberty and focuses on Bitcoin/cryptocurrency. Pro-tyranny propaganda such as Wikipedia tries to smear it as a joke, but their claims to the land are legitimate. Liberland not only uses the land itself, but also host events on boats in the ocean. They’re building a DeFi center, and with something like a million paying e-residents, its a force to be reckoned with. I don’t accept the smear tactics, I stand with Liberland.
Key Contact: Vít Jedlička, President
Website: https://liberland.org
5. St Kitts, Caribbean
Look at the Bitcoin.com map of accepting businesses, and you’ll see a glowing bundle of businesses. At a first glance, you’d think this massive bunch was New York City, but instead it’s a remote island in the Caribbean. This tax-friendly jurisdiction has become a hub for crypto and real world Agora economics. The inefficiency of international fiat banking system, combined with rock bottom low tax rates, has made many “average man on the street” businesses consider accepting crypto. Regular events go down on the beach, and you’re sure to meet like-minded people.
6. Bitcoin Beach, El Salvador
Notice I did not put the whole country on the list, just this spot. Some will point out that El Salvador used a custodial KYC wallet to distribute government bought BTC. This is true, we don’t support that. However, we need to consider that Bitcoin got big here without the government, and having a friendly political environment adds stability to entrepreneurial efforts.
It was private lightning wallets such as Bitcoin Beach (now renamed to Blink) which first grew in popularity. While I hear a lot of mixed reports about if you can really live fully off Bitcoin in the country in general, without a doubt Bitcoin Beach has to be on the list if we’re talking about crypto-agora locations. Because, it got its start by people agreeing to keep the Bitcoin economy circular and not cash out to fiat. An anonymous Bitcoin donor and Nicolas Burtey CEO of Galoy, (the lightning wallet’s tech), were very influential in helping it spread.
Community Website: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com/
7. Japan’s Bitcoin Cash Underground Markets
BigV reached out to us on Session. He explained to me that in Japan, Monero isn’t sold on the exchanges. But there’s a multi-wallet protocol for BCH called CashFusion which does multi-signing SIMILAR to Monero. I thought it was interesting how they adapted the tech around the laws to still achieve the desired freedom. This group organizes on Session, but it’s all about the in-person groups to learn about privacy, encryption tools, and using Bitcoin Cash in the real world. Are you in Japan? Hit up BigV, Session ID: BigV or
052484eb5647820178cefe77cb04826ca4ea67a16176650b23c985fb98f0d53969
8. Bitcoin Jungle, Costa Rica
Born out of the Golden Triangle (Dominical, Uvita, Ojochal, Platanillo, Tinamaste) area in Costa Rica, this community seeks to spread across Costa Rica a BTC lightning app with mapping features to track who accepts it.
Apparently Costa Rica has more freedom than US iPhones, as the Apple store in the USA blocks access to the app, showing the danger of Big Tech as a gatekeeper for human knowledge. At the time of this article, the Bitcoin ATMs are still a work in progress.
Website: https://bitcoinjungle.app/
Tyranny Twitter front end:
https://nitter.net/BitcoinJungleCR
9. Monerotopia, Mexico
Monero has the largest peer-to-peer liquidity you’ll find, as nobody wants to KYC for it. But that’s online “grey” markets, what about real life?
The Monero Talk podcast’s annual event has an adoption alley, where the vendors all accept XMR like a bazaar. In my mind, this rings “real world Agora”. While it’s just an event, and not a permanent country, I still keep this in my mind as proof that it’s possible to convince people to accept privacy coins openly in the light of day. It isn’t just for darknets, but its a way of life.
Key People: Douglas Tuman
Website: Monerotalk.live
10. Bitcoin Lake, Guatemala
In Panajachel Guatemala, this community looks to replicate the success of El Salvadore’s Bitcoin Beach, but with a plot twist. They’re looking to reduce pollution of a nearby lake. Instead of throwing away cooking oils and letting it rot in Lake Atitlán, they use it to power mining of Bitcoin.
Watch a video via Twitter front-ends:
https://nitter.net/LakeBitcoin/status/1569316198692831232
Patrick Melder leads the charge to create a circular BTC economy powered by lightning. Quote from Bitcoin Magazine,
“I have seen firsthand that this project has successfully onboarded more than 60 merchants, of whom 90% are unbanked and solely accept cash and bitcoin.”
Nostr Public Key:
@BitcoinLake
Tyranny Twitter via Front-end:
https://nitter.net/LakeBitcoin
11. Sark Island, English Channel
0% Tax. No Labor Laws. This tax haven island is essentially the “Amish version” of the Caribbean. Located in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy France, this country is so small that they use United Kingdom passports. From a complex political story, it’s now an independent country, with lax or no laws.
Unlike other tax havens, which quickly turn to tech hubs, Sark has a laid back “practically Amish” lifestyle. They aren’t literally Amish, but there’s no cars. They use horses. Despite the low tech, it’s Agora because they did it without stacks of government paperwork and bureaucracy.
Key Contact: Swen Lorenz
Website: https://www.swen-lorenz.com/move-to-sark/
12. AgoraDesk.com
No discussion of Agora economics can happen without including the world’s most liquid marketplace for peer-to-peer transactions. This marketplace has both Monero and Bitcoin, and you can find liquidity to exchange it either way for Zelle, Paypal, cash in the mail, EU SEPA, gift cards, and even other altcoins. Hell, there’s even liquidity for Indian rupees, and a whole bunch of other countries. Although this isn’t a physical location, it makes the list because until we have complete circular economies, marketplaces like this allow us to thrive.
Conclusion:
Despite government propaganda and smear tactics, Agorism is alive and will continue to grow. I believe change possible. Change doesn’t come from voting, but through your actions. Help me spread this message, so more people can get involved with Agorism. And if you really want to take the plunge, visit some of the places or events on this list.
The modern internet is totally corrupt. Let’s dive in to why…
Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Content delivery networks are global servers spread out around the world that keep a copy of a website closer to you, to serve it to you. By being physically closer to the end user, it speeds up the website’s delivery. However, the negative of this is that it has a tendency to centralize power for the entire internet to a few large players and that has big privacy effects. Rather than have these separate sites and blogs around the world just see their site only, instead the big CDNs see all traffic on the entire internet. This enables the “tyranny of the modern web”, in which website owners have just a tiny 1 core VPS, and then all their real files are externally hosted. The heavy use of CDNs allows the website owner to save on money, while sacrificing their free speech, independence, and the end user’s privacy.
With larger files, such as a video, a CDN is likely required. But the heavy use of CDNs for literally everything on the website should be associated with poverty. The website owner is saying “I’m too poor to host files”. Additionally, website owners enable Big Tech third party JavaScript such as a “Facebook like widget” which does surveillance that then slows down the load speed. So then they need an even more centralized CDN to serve up this bullshit bloat. This creates a vicious cycle of more and more Big Tech surveillance, which then needs an ever larger CDN.
Because surveillance is so profitable, the firms doing it can hire the best creative talent, which then shapes the entire tech industry. Young web developers use the same toolkits and learn from these corrupt organizations where an erosion of end user liberty is the norm. The end result is that web developers don’t even realize that they are over-using JavaScript when it’s not required. This slows down the web and feeds into the vicious CDN cycle. The largest player in the game is Cloudflare.
Cloudflare sees ALL passwords
One type of CDN literally points the domain name to the CDN company, so:
User -> Cloudflare -> real website VPS (1 tiny core)
This is how Cloudflare works. Since this is literally directing all traffic to the CDN company, they can see all passwords and ALL data. The SSL connection or httpS encryption is stripped away by Cloudflare. Unfortunately, a VAST majority of the internet uses Cloudflare. You will be shocked at how many “privacy” websites use it, including Skiff.com email, KYCnot.me, Michael Bazzell’s OSINT, and even Monero’s official site at GetMonero.org. Finding out that Monero’s core team used Cloudflare to distribute binaries, was for me like finding out there is no Santa Clause. Even Handshake.org literally complained about Cloudflare while using it.
Supposedly Cloudflare helps to stop “distributed denial of service” DDoS attacks, which is the bullshit justification that websites owners will give, instead of just admitting that they are poor and willing to sacrifice their freedom of speech because they have nothing of value to say.
A DDoS is when lots of bots or bullshit traffic hits up a website to overload it and take it down. But Cloudflare isn’t doing anything unique to stop this and there are many other choices one could pick from. All Cloudflare is doing is having a ton of money and servers to absorb the traffic. Then because Cloudflare has scaled through business deals, they can deliver the CDN at a much lower cost than other providers.
There are many other CDNs, but unfortunately most website owners simply do not care about their (or your) privacy and freedom, and they are only mostly concerned with getting the absolute rock bottom lowest cost, which is typically bundled into “shared hosting” plans.
Then MORE CDNs?!
Many website owners don’t just use Cloudflare. Then on top of that, their website calls upon 3rd party images from even more CDNs via JavaScript. For example website-files.com is a popular “JavaScript CDN” of this type.
User -> Cloudflare -> real website VPS (1 tiny core) -> Website-Files.com
So everyone and their mother sees your data, and the website owner lost their autonomy of speech, by complying with more and more terms of service restrictions. This is why website owners don’t care about abusing unnecessary JavaScript, because they outsource the economic cost of being an idiot, at at the expense of both their and your liberty.
Conclusion
In conclusion, change does not come from politics, but comes from you. Your actions dictate how much freedom the world has. If you accept a world of surveillance, then let the entire internet be overseen by two or three companies. But I do not accept things for the way they are. It is only through your actions to pressure website owners will it ever matter. Seek out alternatives, they do exist.
PS, check out Ombello, it’s a Tor Browser Onion search engine that crosses out Cloudflare:
ombrelo.im5wixghmfmt7gf7wb4xrgdm6byx2gj26zn47da6nwo7xvybgxnqryid.onion
Wrong.
The domain is pointing to Cloudflare’s server. Yeah it’s TLS, but TLS to them. TLS is encryption to a physical location, and that location is Cloudflare.
Your answer is equivalent to a fat person saying, “all that’s in front of me is this chocolate bar”
There are MANY options. First of all there’s other CDNs, Bunny accepts Bitcoin.
There’s others that accept government money, Akamai, CDN77, Fastly, StackPath, even fucking Verizon bro. Any random cunt can rent a server and do it, why do you have to bow allegiance to ONE AND ONE ONLY company on your “decentralized” network?
Then that’s just the regular CDNs, then you got the cryptocurrency based ones covered in this article,
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/flare
And there's even more crypto ones doing docker containers not covered.
Yeah there are 2 browser extensions. One is in the Mozilla store and hasn't been updated in 7 years.
The other a random person put on Monero.town forums, but the github had low stars and so I didn't trust it to copy paste it down. I'll let you know if I find anything better. I don't want to post links if I can't vouch for it
I apologize I am unclear on what you're saying. Is your argument that only Cloudflare has enough money to run server computers, to stop a botnet of hacked low-grade home computers?
How recently have you done the onlyOffice NextCloud sync? We had issues with the software being outdated and no longer supported on a setup we did a few months ago.
Cloak is a feature of the Linux distro Whonix that masks your unique keyboard typing
Without it, avoid typing directly into JavaScript websites, because it’s easy to fingerprint your keyboard’s response time and typing style. Instead, copy-paste large blocks of text from outside the browser into it. You also get the benefit of your work being saved if the form messes up.
Google docs is cancer, so if someone forces you to use it, then download/upload files with your changes if you can. If you can’t upload with track-changes because the person you are dealing with is brainwashed, then copy-paste, but never type in there directly. You want to avoid Google (and therefore the government) tagging your typing and writing style as you for DIFFERENT anonymous typing in the future.
Oh yeah, that’s happened to everyone, where it spams a key or something. Yeah it sucks, but it’s free open source software with no clear revenue model. So how much can we expect from these quasi-anonymous developers
Weekly recap!
This week, we dove into privacy routers and how you can prevent your ISP from looking at which devices send traffic. What are the pros and cons of each of these?
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/router/
Privacy Guru Michael Bazzell abruptly ends all podcasts, what can we learn? We compare this legend’s advice to our own, so you can get those nuggets of wisdom:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/bazzell/
Agorism: How you can improve your mindset, your finance, your tech, and your social life with this simple philosophy:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/agora/
We learned about Feather wallet for Monero. Why this can be your daily driver. Fast + Tor. Here’s the video tutorial to save you headache:
https://video.simplifiedprivacy.com/feather/
And can people be changed? We tackle head on someone who doesn’t want to DeGoogle. This can help you convince people in your own life,
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/googlebitch/
Streaming services force privacy-invasive spyware on you. Not only do we debate the tech itself, but we engage in psychological warfare against them. How Streaming Services train you for Obedience:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/stream/
I'm on the grind to add value to your life.
Monero Feather Wallet Tutorial:
What are the advantages of Feather?
-Send your transactions over Tor, I2P, or a Proxy
-Fast download sync for a daily driver
-Easily manage nodes from a great list
-Simple interface, it looks similar to Electrum Bitcoin wallet
-Paid for by the open source Monero crowdfunding community
Our new free tutorial video:
https://video.simplifiedprivacy.com/feather/
Google can see everything on stock Android. It's easy to make the switch. You're spending more time talking about it then actually doing it. The interface for degoogled phones is the same.
Your intention, words, and vote are irrelevant. All that matters is your actions.
Pro/Con of Privacy Routers
The router you get from your ISP is designed to spy on you. It knows which devices are sending which traffic and what guests are connecting to it. If you don’t use a VPN every second, then when you take the VPN down, you’re vulnerable to hackers first hacking the router, to then install malware on your devices (phones/laptop). For example Wikileaks shows the CIA loves to do this. Ok, so how do you get a “private” router?
A privacy router is just regular hardware with a new operating system. But not all hardware supports flashing a new operating system. So either check the manufacturer’s website, or just ask their support “what routers let me flash my own firmware?”. Then just like a stock Android phone being “DeGoogled”, you flash on a new operating system.
The following list goes over SOME of the more popular open source router operating systems. It’s not complicated, they are grouped into “home router” or “firewall”. The firewall is faster and more secure, but costs a little more and is harder to setup.
DD-WRT
Type: Home Router w/ WiFi
Pro: This OS can be flashed on many home routers including Netgear and Asus. It’s fine for just routing traffic and it has WiFi. Support on forums is great, they are nice and friendly. A VPN can be put on it but…
~
Con: These home routers are much slower for VPNs to be put directly on the router. Also the DD-WRT website is volunteer run, so it often will be dated for your model. You’ll have to post on their forum asking for the new version.
Solutions: Use WireGuard instead of OpenVPN on home routers. If the 2-minute logging of WireGuard concerns you, then a home router isn’t for you and get a firewall.
OpenWRT
Type: Home or Travel Router w/ WiFi
Pro: This is similar to DD-WRT, but also has a Tor option. OpenWRT also can be flashed on travel routers (Glinet routers or Rasberry Pi).
Con: For VPNs, it’s a more complex setup than DD-WRT, and not worth it in my opinion unless you are doing a travel router or Tor. Only do Tor if you have fast internet to begin with, otherwise it’s unbearable. Support on OpenWRT forums sucks, these guys are rude.
PfSense
Type: Firewall WITHOUT WiFi
Pro: Enterprise Grade Firewalls have a higher level security than home routers and the ability to handle better hardware for VPN speed. Netgear runs this and they spend a lot of development. Firewalls are much better than home routers with their features and barely more expensive now. The costs for firewall hardware have come down significantly and are now in the $200 or under range! Support on pfSense forums is average.
~
Con: The free open source version is being phased out for a paid version. 2nd con is that pfSense takes more time to setup and learn than the others on the list. Remember, hardware firewalls don’t have WiFi. So you’ll need to do:
pfSense → DD-WRT or OpenWRT for WiFi.
OPNsense
Type: Firewall WITHOUT WiFi
Pro: This is a fork of pfSense, but more consistent with the open source/freedom aspect. This is my current recommendation as pfSense slowly shifts to a paid model . All the same pro as pfSense.
~
Con: Firewalls still mean you’re doing more learning than home routers. OPNsense redid the GUI from pfSense, so if you’re coming from pfSense then they created pointless learning work for similar features. Development wise, Less money is spent on OPNsense than pfSense.
Conclusion
If you want help with configuring or flashing your router, then reach out to us. Don’t accidentally brick or ruin your router. Save yourself hours of headache and hassle, and get the advanced configurations you need for VPNs/Tor, advanced security, and anonymity.
Session ID: Support / Signal #: +855 68 504 905 / SimpleX, email, or protonmail links on site
What servers do messages get stored on?
Signal:
Amazon
Session:
Decentralized database w/ pay in crypto
XMPP:
Self-hosted federated
the word "federated" means cross-communication of servers like email
Matrix:
federated (in theory)
SimpleX:
two federated self-hosted servers,
you pick your send, they pick your recieve
Briar:
No servers, peer-to-peer
They gotta be online
Nostr
poster picks distributed relays
Ethereum push.org notifications
federated then fetched by wallet
(this is NOT on blockchain, it's like nostr but only 1 relay)
IPFS
Torrent CDN getting it from a federated pinner (host)
IPFS is really a CDN
CDN means content delivey network, or servers all over distributing faster
Akash & Flux
You're renting servers from their network for your software
The blockchain just keeps track of who owes you service
Add on to the list with other ideas!
How Streaming Services train you for Obedience
With novel ways of thinking about propaganda and obedience training, this short post will recommend:
a) stop watching television
b) stop streaming services
c) stop Spotify/music streaming
Television not only rots your brain with low level dribble, but you are a passive consumer. The goal of television is to force-feed you content, instead of having you actively decide or evaluate choices. This trains you to accept authority, as eventually the two choices can turn to one.
In his famous book from 1928 titled “Propaganda”, Edward Bernays, who produced media for the United Fruit Company (and therefore the CIA), to overthrow Latin American governments, pushed the idea that propaganda ought to reduce the choices the consumer make. He promoted the idea that propaganda should push the consumer down to binary thinking. [1]
Even if you were to decide between things to torrent on your PC, that would be better than just turning on the TV and consuming whatever is on. Because torrents force you to research options from an infinite dataset and then make a choice, which is training your mind to question and consider alternatives.
By using streaming services, it creates a cycle of dependence on the provider and the elimination of your privacy. Streaming services force Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is insecure technology that uproots the autonomy of your electronics to become an obedient receiver of commands from the media company, in order to ensure copyright compliance. While this seems like a trivial matter, DRM represents a fundamental shift in the dynamics of power, to have electronics that you own, become subservient to a master other than you. Furthermore, you open yourself up to security vulnerabilities as hackers try to uplift this new-found foreign power.
According to Monero core developer ArticMine, DRM is so insecure, that he does not even trust American cybersecurity firms to diagnose vulnerabilities, because they can’t legally break DRM. Instead, he says it’s a shame that war has prevented the use of Russian companies that can properly diagnose problems. [2]
Services like Spotify reduce the need to research musicians on your own. You accept whatever the popular choices are for a genre and avoid making decisions on what comes next. Furthermore, Spotify and music streaming services like it, reduce the need to interact with others. When I was a teenager, asking other kids what music they liked was how I did research. This made the process of exploration into an activity into itself. Today, you’re hooked into what the AI predicts you’re least likely to close the app after a few seconds if they put on. This merges your unique independent tastes into whatever appeals to the most people who are consuming.
Sources:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/stream/
Privacy Guru Michael Bazzell retires, what can we learn?
We liked his content a lot, and it’s a shame he stopped doing his podcast. One of our readers on Nostr asked us how our content differs. We respect him greatly and this is not a critique, but simply we are targeting a different audience.
His content targets a more novice user and our content is a little more anti-authority, more global, and less trusting of low-end consumer privacy products. For example Bazzell advocates for the use of Protonmail, while as we promote self-hosted email on a VPS. This is more decentralized and private, but requires more effort.
Bazzell suggests the use of Privacy.com cards, which mask your info to the vendor and your bank. This is convenient but ultimately not anonymous, which never was Bazzell’s goal or intent. On the other hand, at Simplified Privacy, we reject fiat money as legitimate, and only use cryptocurrency. We recommend crypto gift card vendors such as CakePay, CoinCards, and Bitrefill to avoid KYC. Some of these even have debit cards. Ultimately, we follow the philosophy of Agorism, and our goal is to create a parallel society outside the control of big tech and banks.
Bazzell is more focused on Signal using a Google Voice or Twillio number. This is practical for many users and his target audience. While as our philosophy is more focused on the broader picture, and we dislike Signal’s centralization and reliance on Amazon’s servers. Instead, we recommend Session for censorship and socialization with strangers, while as SimpleX or XMPP are preferred for pure security. We thought Bazzell’s statement in his book of “I like Session, but it’s not popular” to be reflective of his attitude of purely pragmatic low-level evasion. While as our philosophy is to actively influence society for individuals to self-realize their technological freedom.
Bazzell recommends NextDNS, because of their ability to block or evaluate your traffic. While we see the benefits of this, it’s not right for our particular audience, because then you’re trusting just one company to oversee all traffic. For example if you were to use Tor Browser, you’d be getting a new identity each time. While as NextDNS on one VPN would correlate all traffic as you.
When it comes to phones, Bazzell’s recommendations are a reflection of his focus on convenience to the end user and practicality for the most amount of people in their daily application. For example, he recommends SIM cards INSIDE GrapheneOS phones, and on a podcast he replied to a listener question about external hotspots and routers that it wasn’t that important.
While we acknowledge the practicality and appeal of this to the majority of users, our philosophy is very different and focuses more on those with a higher threat model. We completely dislike SIM cards inside phones because of malware and baseband modem vulnerabilities. Instead, we promote solely EXTERNAL hotspot/router WiFi with VoIP and keeping the hotspot in a faraday bag when you are home. Additionally, we view Google as so hostile, that they can’t even be trusted to manufacture the hardware required for GrapheneOS, so we’re open to non-Google phones with CalyxOS and VM phones on desktop to completely isolate spyware.
Bazzell on his podcast said he only uses OpenVPN, and never WireGuard because of WireGuard’s 2-minute logging of IPs in memory. We respect his decision to recommend this, but we believe it’s not really appropriate for his target audience of novice users. This type of recommendation be more appropriate for Tor users, anti-government journalists, or hackers under extreme or oppressive countries with VPN restrictions. In our subjective opinion, for the vast majority of average Americans (his target audience), the faster speed of WireGuard outweighs the 2-minute IP log.
Bazzell has done numerous podcast episodes discussing System76 Linux computers with PopOS. We think this is great, and would like to add on that System76 is our main recommendation for those coming from Mac/Apple. Not only is this specific audience used to getting both the hardware and operating system bundled together from the same vendor, but Apples can’t dual boot with Linux (easily) like Windows can. Additionally, Chris Titus has a guide on making PopOS aesthetically look like a Mac.
Regarding Bazzell’s pfSense recommendation, this was a good idea up until pfSense switched licenses and is shifting away from FOSS. Now we recommend OPNsense. But this happened AFTER Bazzell’s podcasts/books, so he gets no blame.
Wherever you are Bazzell, you will be missed. I listened to nearly every episode.
I am just a humble marketing guy. Please schedule a consult with Adam, he knows a lot more about OPNsense. His bio is in the “About Us” section of the website. Just hit up the main encrypted messengers support and ask to schedule. It will save you hours of headache and get the setup you love
It can be challenging to convince people to abandon tyranny technology
One of our readers wrote the following about why should he bother switching from Google products. We will try to convince him otherwise. He said:
“I keep thinking, to what extent does it matter that Google will know my interests to show me targeted ads? I don’t care, I actually prefer to see relevant ads if I have to see ads”
First of all, you don't have to see ads. If you use uBlock Origin browser extension or Brave Browser for example you won’t see them. Another option is a DNS block on Google. Even with a regular stock android any of these options work.
Second, you assume that the advertiser will charge you a fair price regardless. Our previous article on browser fingerprints, demonstrated from numerous academic sources that many retailers will abuse their knowledge about you to charge a higher price. For example Target charged a higher price on the mobile app when shoppers were physically closer to a store, because alternatives were much less convenient. Other examples include airlines knowing you will buy tickets because you checked the flight multiple times, and then jacking it up for you. You can find this article here:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/browser-fingerprints-lead-to-price-discrimination/
He continues: “That Google will delete my account one day because they dislike something I said online? That would be bad, but by far less likely and, I can protect myself from this, I think, simply by having backups of my data and an email address in my own domain, using proton mail or alike, right?”
Yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying. Google can and will ban you for speech they dislike and by heavily using their services, you’ve become dependent on their will. This isn’t just about privacy, but it’s about power and self-sovereignty.
Now you might say, “oh well I’m not speaking out, and I’m not a controversial public influencer”. But what today may be normal speech or actions, may change in the future. For example, 10 years ago, would you have thought you might be forced to take a vaccine to enter a restaurant? Who knows what drugs future Google will require for accounts you’ve become dependent on.
He continues:
“What else can Google do to me? Denounce me to a dystopian government for being interested in Bitcoin, do that they can try to confiscate it? Sure but, first of all, hopefully extremely unlikely, and secondly, it’s “too late” already. I’m signed up in Gmail to many Bitcoin newsletters. They already know.”
If your Bitcoin can be taken, what is even the purpose of it? That sounds like a bank account, and Google can see all private keys kept on Android. So you never really own self-custody Bitcoin with Google, you only have temporary access.
It’s not unrealistic to think the government will confiscate your Bitcoin or try to do ridiculous tax hikes such as unrealized capital gains. Not only are people such as Elizabeth Warren actively pushing for this in Congress, but past precedent has shown the steps governments will take when their currency experiences heavy devaluation.
For example, in 1933 FDR confiscated Americans gold . Another example is India literally going door-to-door to confiscate cash, to force people in digital surveillance. Yet another recent example is in Nigeria, the forced CBDC program, which tried to end physical cash.
The idea that they “already know” and therefore you should never change is ridiculous. The knowledge about your past activity becomes less and less relevant, the sooner you stop surrendering all future data to a malicious surveillance firm such as Google. Bitcoin can be sent to an empty wallet on a Linux computer or DeGoogled phone and now you “don’t have it anymore” in the eyes of the empire.
There’s the old expression of the boiling frogs. That if you turn up the heat suddenly, they hop out. But if you slowly dial it up, they boil to death, not realizing there’s a way out.
Then again, you may not know about this example if Google AI is deciding everything you see.
First off, even with PGP, Google can see the metadata.
Second, they are so malicious there’s no reason to trust them with that info.
Third, Delta chat is retarded. If the other person is willing to end-to-end encryption, why even bother with email?
Fourth, you are so dumb, I am not going to reply for free again
Alright sorry I was rude. It's challenging to convince people to not give up their freedom, in an environment where the majority of media is malicious propaganda. Thanks for your time
We don’t have to allow to these big tech algorithms to dictate what we see.
We don’t have to allow these governments to violate their own laws and tap our communications.
Fuck Google
Fuck SMS
Fuck email
Fuck fiat money
Fuck DNS
I do not accept things for the way they are.
I stand for encryption as identity to deprive tyranny of power and create a parallel society.
I seek to systematically train and aid those who wish to learn about self-empowering technology.
My why is freedom. And my passion is to help you.
Happy new years, let’s get it!
Thomas, we assume our readers already know about Bitcoin and Nostr. We’re taking a broad look at technology to see how these principles of encryption as identity and self-sovereignty can be applied in other areas of life.
Thanks for the shoutout bird.
It’s not clickbait. I’m saying Google is a cancer, and anyone marketing privacy and using it is the clickbait.
Furthermore, read the actual post, it says that if you say I’m saying Mullvad is compromised you’re twisting my words.
The argument was not that having more people using a VPN was bad. It was that these VPNs are commodities. They use the same protocols, the same data centers, and it’s really just marketing and… customer service. With if that is Gmail, isn’t worth much.
"purposefully sensationalized to draw attention and provoke change"
Could be reworded, "Had enough of the involuntary stranglehold of the corrupt empire, and is in open rebellion"
Look, I’ve read a lot of your stuff. I like you. I’m saying that a beautiful and well-informed person such as yourself can use Mullvad with zero compromise. However it’s possible that someone who doesn’t know better, and sends their account over Google customer support may have risk if they are being targeted. Now how much is this risk? Am I exaggerating or is it a real threat? This depends on both how low the evader’s knowledge is, and how high the adversary’s motivation is.
We can sit and debate for long periods of time on exactly how much of a threat having the sign-out of devices ability is. But at the end of the day, I genuinely just want people to be aware of what’s going on because otherwise there are no negative consequences for supposedly private or decentralized crypto companies using Big Tech. Change has to come from the consumer.
Kemal, the issue is that companies, I’m not just talking about Mullvad here, I’m saying the bulk of “decentralized” cryptos are very reliant on big tech. And there’s no negative consequences for doing so. We singled Mullvad out as just one example, because we know that the other companies don’t care. But it has to start somewhere. Nobody wants to be the one to do it, because it means being banned from search engines and recommended algos on social media. So ok, you can dislike my tone. You can dislike the attack. I get it. But do you really want a world where 99% of the internet is involuntary companies you hate?
Oddbean new post about login | logout
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