Whaat? you use Linux? aRe yOu sOme hAcKeR? No, that’s not how I perceive it. People & the media - have confused us with the term hacker. I mean hacking as in a hacksmith someone who is playfully clever. Tinkering stuff, not just computers, hacking as in life-hacks, not breaching security as such, they too are hackers but not the only ones :0 A musician has total control over their guitar, an artist over the paintbrush 🖌 me & (hopefully) you over our computers The flexible/tinker-able nature of GNU+Linux is one of the reasons I use this over Windows, iOS or MacOS....

If you’ve searched for privacy oriented messaging apps Signal is probably on that list. By now you’ve probably heard about Signal the centralized, navy blue, metadata resistant messaging app, now anchored by an ex WhatsApp co-founder. Signal out of the box still lacks a bit of polish. When compared to competition like Telegram or Element/Matrix (As of 2020-10-20) No usernames, hiding phone number visibility. Unsending messages with no trace. End to end group calls on the desktop, signup via the desktop app and better group management....

Unless you’re from the USA (the land of free SMS) you probably use a messaging app like WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal Why? You get cross-device-sync, better features, ditch phone numbers as – identifiers, huge privacy gains, stickers & share media in an instant! SMS is costly, outside of the US. At least in India — I don’t think I have ever used SMS other than receiving OTP codes, when signing up for some services....

Wait? What’s wrong with Twitter? YouTube or XYZ platform? These apps are centralized, are funded by advertiser whims. Need non-free software to run. Hard to scale or port. Unnecessary walled-gardens that keep normal users who don’t have an account — out. I don’t like centralized social media anymore. I think it isn’t worth my time in the long run. I switched to something called the fediverse which I covered in my last blog post....

China — heard about China in these recent days? The app bans and censoring websites of Chinese origin under the so called name of national security and safeguarding the privacy of fellow Indian citizens? Geopolitics reigns: the real issue of data-protection & privacy is not going to be talked about. While I think: we should not use apps that collect this much data. I would never bar someone or ban/censor apps....

The quickest way to call me? 🤙 VoIP calls: polarhive.net/call A dilemma ~ privacy? or instant connectivity — you can’t have both There’s the obvious privacy issue, the cellular radio in the phone is screaming all day to towers near you to keep you connected 24/7 wherever you go. I have the phone-app disabled on my phone. I have Airplane mode turned on. I only rely on WiFi to connect to the internet....

Unblock domains, access websites freely & securely Tor stands for ~ The Onion Router. I’ve often recommended people to use the Tor Browser when using the internet. I don’t think pseudo-privacy-browsers like Brave or Firefox can ever match the protections offered by the Tor Project. First, it masks your true IP address. when expecting real privacy when browsing the web. This article is a quick how to guide on circumventing censorship online using the Tor Project....

Without the big 5 tech titans. Utilizing FOSS/Libre software Here’s what’s different from your average expectation from a phone It runs Android, without pinging Google or other such servers without me telling to do so. No ads, spyware, lag or battery draining apps. No Google apps, none of the infested Facebook apps, Tencent, WeChat, TikTok whatever that mistreats me, the user. There are better alternatives to WhatsApp for example. You probably haven’t tried it because you’d have to migrate your entire social graph there: it’s called the Network Effect....

“Imagine Instagram allowed users to follow and like Tweets through the Instagram app; vice-versa” Social media is about connecting people right? Such Corporate speak! Much like the earlier days of the internet where you can host a personal website, not having to worry about walled gardens or ‘signing-up’ to view simple photos & posts. Modern centralized social media isn’t about ‘connecting people’ - excuse the Mark Zuckerberg corporate speak. Protocols, not new platforms Turns out, the clever people at W3C have already proposed a protocol; Protocol you ask?...

Facebook is not going to break up and re-sell WhatsApp & Instagram anytime soon It’s up to the user’s to defend for themselves, you are at their mercy when fighting for privacy on a platform that lives by selling your data. Breaking up? - a silo like Facebook unfortunately controls our social relations. Facebook hacks into our social life: emotions, the fun moments we share & with our friends and family is associated with Facebook....