Open-source software *can* be audited by third-parties, and is often more transparent about potential vulnerabilities than proprietary counterparts. 它還允許您查看代碼並禁用您發現的任何可疑功能。 然而，*除非你真的這樣做了*，否則不能保證程式碼曾經被評估過，特別是對於較小的軟體項目。 The open development process has also sometimes been exploited to introduce new vulnerabilities into even large projects.[^1]
1. You must exercise caution when choosing a provider to shift trust to.
2. You should still use other techniques, like E2EE, to protect your data completely. Merely distrusting one provider to trust another is not securing your data.
## "Privacy-focused solutions are inherently trustworthy"
Focusing solely on the privacy policies and marketing of a tool or provider can blind you to its weaknesses. 當您正在尋找更私密的解決方案時，您應該確定潛在的問題是什麼，並找到該問題的技術解決方案。 For example, you may want to avoid Google Drive, which gives Google access to all of your data. The underlying problem in this case is lack of E2EE, so you should make sure that the provider you switch to actually implements E2EE, or use a tool (like [Cryptomator](../encryption.md#cryptomator-cloud)) which provides E2EE on any cloud provider. Switching to a "privacy-focused" provider (that doesn't implement E2EE) doesn't solve your problem: it just shifts trust from Google to that provider.
The privacy policies and business practices of providers you choose are very important, but should be considered secondary to technical guarantees of your privacy: You shouldn't shift trust to another provider when trusting a provider isn't a requirement at all.
## 「愈複雜愈好」
我們經常看到人們描述過於複雜的隱私威脅模型。 通常，這些解決方案包括許多不同的電子郵件帳戶或具有許多運動部件和條件的複雜設置等問題。 The replies are usually answers to "What is the best way to do *X*?"
Finding the "best" solution for yourself doesn't necessarily mean you are after an infallible solution with dozens of conditions—these solutions are often difficult to work with realistically. As we discussed previously, security often comes at the cost of convenience. Below, we provide some tips:
1. ==Actions need to serve a particular purpose:== think about how to do what you want with the fewest actions.
2. ==Remove human failure points:== We fail, get tired, and forget things. To maintain security, avoid relying on manual conditions and processes that you have to remember.
3. ==Use the right level of protection for what you intend.== We often see recommendations of so-called law-enforcement or subpoena-proof solutions. These often require specialist knowledge and generally aren't what people want. There's no point in building an intricate threat model for anonymity if you can be easily de-anonymized by a simple oversight.
So, how might this look?
One of the clearest threat models is one where people *know who you are* and one where they do not. 總會有你必須申報你的法定姓名的情況，還有其他你不需要的情況。
1.**Known identity** - A known identity is used for things where you must declare your name. 有許多法律文件和合同需要合法身份。 這可能包括開設銀行帳戶，簽署財產租賃，獲得護照，進口物品時的海關申報，或以其他方式與您的政府打交道。 這些東西通常會導致憑證，如信用卡，信用評級檢查，帳戶號碼，以及可能的物理地址。
使用 Tor 可以幫助我們做到這一點。 同樣值得注意的是，通過異步溝通可以實現更大的匿名性：實時溝通容易受到打字模式分析的影響（即不止一段文字，在論壇上分發，通過電子郵件等）。
[^1]: One notable example of this is the [2021 incident in which University of Minnesota researchers introduced three vulnerabilities into the Linux kernel development project](https://cse.umn.edu/cs/linux-incident).
