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docs/blog/2021/09/14/welcome-to-privacy-guides.md

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+---
+title: Welcome to Privacy Guides
+created: "2021-09-14"
+author: 'Jonah'
+template: overrides/blog.en.html
+---
+We are excited to announce the launch of [Privacy Guides](https://www.privacyguides.org/) and [r/PrivacyGuides](https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivacyGuides/), and welcome the privacy community to participate in our crowdsourced software recommendations and share tips and tricks for keeping your data safe online. Our goal is to be a central resource for privacy and security-related tips that are usable by anybody, and to carry on the trusted legacy of PrivacyTools.
+
+As we [announced](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729184422/https://blog.privacytools.io/the-future-of-privacytools/) on the PrivacyTools blog in July, we made the decision to migrate off our former privacytools.io domain for various reasons, including an inability to contact the current domain holder for over a year and [growing](http://www.thedarksideof.io/) [issues](https://fortune.com/2020/08/31/crypto-fraud-io-domain-chagos-islands-uk-colonialism-cryptocurrency/) [with the .IO top-level domain](https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues/1324). As attempts to regain ownership of the domain have proven fruitless, we found it necessary to make this switch sooner rather than later to ensure people would find out about this transition as soon as possible. This gives us adequate time to transition the domain name, which is currently redirecting to [www.privacyguides.org](https://www.privacyguides.org/), and it hopefully gives everyone enough time to notice the change, update bookmarks and websites, etc.
+
+We chose the name Privacy Guides because it represents two things for us as an organization: An expansion beyond simple recommendation lists, and a goal of acting as the trusted guides to anyone newly learning about protecting their personal data.
+
+As a name, it moves us past recommendations of various tools and focuses us more on the bigger picture. We want to provide more _education_ — rather than _direction_ — surrounding privacy-related topics. You can see the very beginnings of this work in our new page on [threat modeling](https://www.privacyguides.org/basics/threat-modeling/), or our [VPN](https://www.privacyguides.org/vpn) and [Email Provider](https://www.privacyguides.org/email) recommendations, but this is just the start of what we eventually hope to accomplish.
+
+## Website Development
+
+Our project has always been community-oriented and open-sourced. The source code for PrivacyTools is currently archived at [https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io](https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io). This repository will remain online as an archive of everything on PrivacyTools up to this transition.
+
+The source code for our new website is available at [https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org). All updates from PrivacyTools have been merged into this new repository, and this is where all future work will take place.
+
+## Services
+
+PrivacyTools also runs a number of online services in use by many users. Some of these services are federated, namely Mastodon, Matrix, and PeerTube. Due to the technical nature of federation, it is impossible for us to change the domain name on these services, and because we cannot guarantee the future of the privacytools.io domain name we will be shutting down these services in the coming months.
+
+We strongly urge users of these services to migrate to alternative providers in the near future. We hope that we will be able to provide enough time to make this as seamless of a transition as possible for our users.
+
+At this time we do not plan on launching public Matrix, Mastodon, or PeerTube instances under the Privacy Guides domain. Any users affected by this transition can get in touch with [@jonah:aragon.sh](https://matrix.to/#/@jonah:aragon.sh) on Matrix if any assistance is needed.
+
+Other services being operated by PrivacyTools currently will be discontinued. This includes Searx, WriteFreely, and GhostBin.
+
+Our future direction for online services is uncertain, but will be a longer-term discussion within our community after our work is complete on this initial transition. We are very aware that whatever direction we move from here will have to be done in a way that is sustainable in the very long term.
+
+## r/PrivacyGuides
+
+PrivacyTools has a sizable community on Reddit, but to ensure a unified image we have created a new Subreddit at [r/PrivacyGuides](https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivacyGuides/) that we encourage all Reddit users to join.
+
+In the coming weeks our current plan is to wind down discussions on r/privacytoolsIO. We will be opening r/PrivacyGuides to lots of the discussions most people are used to shortly, but encouraging general “privacy news” or headline-type posts to be posted on [r/Privacy](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/) instead. In our eyes, r/Privacy is the “who/what/when/where” of the privacy community on Reddit, the best place to find the latest news and information; while r/PrivacyGuides is the “how”: a place to share and discuss tools, tips, tricks, and other advice. We think focusing on these strong points will serve to strengthen both communities, and we hope the good moderators of r/Privacy agree 🙂
+
+## Final Thoughts
+
+The former active team at PrivacyTools universally agrees on this direction towards Privacy Guides, and will be working exclusively on Privacy Guides rather than any “PrivacyTools” related projects. We intend to redirect PriavcyTools to new Privacy Guides properties for as long as possible, and archive existing PrivacyTools work as a pre-transition snapshot.
+
+Privacy Guides additionally welcomes back PrivacyTools’ former sysadmin [Jonah](https://twitter.com/JonahAragon), who will be joining the project’s leadership team.
+
+We are not accepting sponsorships or donations at this time, while we work out our financial plan. We will be in touch with existing sponsors on PrivacyTools’ OpenCollective to determine what the best way forward is soon.
+
+We are all very excited about this new brand and direction, and hope to have your continued support through all of this. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please reach out to us. We are always happy to receive guidance and input from our community! ❤
+
+---
+
+**_Privacy Guides_** _is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy._
+
+- [Join r/PrivacyGuides on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacyguides)
+- [Follow @privacy_guides on Twitter](https://twitter.com/privacy_guides)
+- [Collaborate with us on GitHub](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org)
+- [Join our chat on Matrix](https://matrix.to/#/#privacyguides:aragon.sh)

docs/blog/2021/11/01/virtual-insanity.md

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+---
+title: Virtual Insanity
+image: 'blog/2021/11/01/virtual-insanity.jpg'
+created: "2021-11-01"
+author: 'Freddy'
+template: overrides/blog.en.html
+---
+Not so long ago, the world was predicting the end for Facebook. Now it is no more. Gone from the face of the planet – never to be seen again. Except it isn’t.
+
+Facebook has not disappeared. No, not even the damning ‘Facebook Papers’ can shut it down. Mark Zuckerberg stood up on stage, and announced that it had changed its name to: Meta.
+
+A key part of this new vision for the company is the idea of the metaverse. If it sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie or novel, that’s because it is. The term was first coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 book _Snow Crash_. Zuckerberg’s only problem is that novel was dystopian. Here’s a brief snippet of Stephenson’s description of the metaverse:
+
+> “Your avatar can look any way you want it to, up to the limitations of your equipment. If you’re ugly, you can make your avatar beautiful. If you’ve just gotten out of bed, your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these.”
+
+In fairness, that doesn’t seem unlike the sort of content you see on Facebook today. Compare this to what Zuckerberg [wrote](https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/) in his 2021 Founders Letter:
+
+> “In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.”
+
+The similarities are uncanny.
+
+This wouldn’t be the first time that Facebook has been described as dystopian. One _Mashable_ article [called](https://mashable.com/article/facebook-dystopia) the social media giant ‘Orwellian and Huxleyan at the same time.’ Quite a feat.
+
+The ‘Facebook Papers’ have some pretty shocking - though not entirely surprising - revelations as well. The leaked documents demonstrate the extent to which Facebook values engagement above all else (including a good experience). For instance, we learnt that the algorithm is [optimised](https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-transparency-biggest-sites-pages-links/) for low quality content, [prioritises](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/) rage over happiness for profit, and [promotes](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/facebook-papers-democracy-election-zuckerberg/620478/) extremist content. Most alarming was that the firm [failed](https://apnews.com/article/the-facebook-papers-covid-vaccine-misinformation-c8bbc569be7cc2ca583dadb4236a0613) to reduce disinformation during the pandemic even when given the opportunity. Zuckerberg said no to this, presumably because it would reduce engagement and, in turn, Facebook’s advertising revenue.
+
+Let’s not forget all Facebook’s previous scandals. From the Cambridge Analytica kerfuffle to [conducting](https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/29/researchers_mess_with_facebook_users_emotions/) manipulative social experiments in secret.
+
+In light of this, the name change makes sense. It deceives you into thinking the company has evolved into a benevolent corporation, when it simply hasn’t. Zuckerberg would much prefer you to think about Meta as a playful universe where you can meet with friends across the globe in virtual reality. Where humans train themselves to sound like heavily discounted robots. Where Facebook is not a Horrid Company.
+
+Despite all this: Meta _is_ Facebook, just worse. It doesn’t matter about the new name, the company has not changed. It will still be violating our privacy, daily, on an unprecedented scale. It will still be as reliably scandalous as a Carry On film. It will still be terrible. Plus it will have all the added claptrap of a sub-par holographic universe attached.

docs/blog/2021/12/01/firefox-privacy-2021-update.md

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+---
+title: 'Firefox Privacy: 2021 Update'
+image: 'blog/2021/12/01/firefox-privacy-2021-update.png'
+created: "2021-12-01"
+author: 'Daniel'
+template: overrides/blog.en.html
+---
+A lot changed between 2019 and now, not least in regards to Firefox. Since our last post, Mozilla has [improved](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/latest-firefox-rolls-out-enhanced-tracking-protection-2-0-blocking-redirect-trackers-by-default/) privacy with [Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP)](https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-now-available-with-enhanced-tracking-protection-by-default/). Earlier this year Mozilla introduced [Total Cookie Protection](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/02/23/total-cookie-protection/) (Dynamic First Party Isolation dFPI). This was then further tightened with [Enhanced Cookie Clearing](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/08/10/firefox-91-introduces-enhanced-cookie-clearing/). We’re also looking very forward to [Site Isolation](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/05/18/introducing-site-isolation-in-firefox/) (code named Fission) being enabled by default in the coming releases.
+
+Now that so many privacy features are built into the browser, there is little need for extensions made by third-party developers. Accordingly, we have updated our very outdated [browser](https://www.privacyguides.org/browsers) section. If you’ve got an old browser profile we suggest **creating a new one**. Some of the old advice may make your browser _more_ unique.
+
+#### Privacy Tweaks “about:config”
+
+We’re no longer recommending that users set `about:config` switches manually. Those switches need to be up to date and continuously maintained. They should be studied before blindly making modifications. Sometimes their behaviour changes in between Firefox releases, is superseded by other keys or they are removed entirely. We do not see any point in duplicating the efforts of the community [Arkenfox](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js) project. Arkenfox has very good documentation in their [wiki](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki) and we use it ourselves.
+
+#### LocalCDN and Decentraleyes
+
+These extensions aren’t required with Total Cookie Protection (TCP), which is enabled if you’ve set Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) to **Strict**.
+
+Replacing scripts on CDNs with local versions is not a comprehensive solution and is a form of [enumeration of badness](https://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/). While it may work with some scripts that are included it doesn’t help with most other third-party connections.
+
+CDN extensions never really improved privacy as far as sharing your IP address was concerned and their usage is fingerprintable as this Tor Project developer [points out](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/22089#note_2639603). They are the wrong tool for the job and are not a substitute for a good VPN or Tor. Its worth noting the [resources](https://git.synz.io/Synzvato/decentraleyes/-/tree/master/resources) for Decentraleyes are hugely out of date and would not be likely used anyway.
+
+#### NeatURLs and ClearURLS
+
+Previously we recommended ClearURLs to remove tracking parameters from URLs you might visit. These extensions are no longer needed with uBlock Origin’s [`removeparam`](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax#removeparam) feature.
+
+#### HTTPS Everywhere
+
+The EFF announced back in September they were [deprecating HTTPS-Everywhere](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/09/https-actually-everywhere) as most browsers now have an HTTPS-Only feature. We are pleased to see privacy features built into the browser and Firefox 91 introduced [HTTPS by Default in Private Browsing](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/08/10/firefox-91-introduces-https-by-default-in-private-browsing/).
+
+#### Multi Account Containers and Temporary Containers
+
+Container extensions aren’t as important as they used to be for privacy now that we have [Total Cookie Protection](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/02/23/total-cookie-protection/).
+
+Multi Account Container will still have some use if you use [Mozilla VPN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_VPN) as it is going to be [integrated](https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/2210) allowing you to configure specified containers to use a particular VPN server. Another use might be if you want to login to multiple accounts on the same domain.
+
+#### Just-In-Time Compilation (JIT)
+
+What is “Disable JIT” in Bromite? This option disables the JavaScript performance feature [JIT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_compilation). It can increase security but at the cost of performance. Those trade-offs vary wildly and are explored in [this](https://microsoftedge.github.io/edgevr/posts/Super-Duper-Secure-Mode/) publication by Johnathan Norman from the Microsoft Edge team. This option is very much a security vs performance option.
+
+#### Mozilla browsers on Android
+
+We don’t recommend any Mozilla based browsers on Android. This is because we don’t feel that [GeckoView](https://mozilla.github.io/geckoview) is quite as secure as it could be as it doesn’t support [site isolation](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2021/05/introducing-firefox-new-site-isolation-security-architecture), soon to be coming in desktop browsers or [isolated processes](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1565196).
+
+We also noticed that there isn’t an option for [HTTPS-Only mode](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/16952#issuecomment-907960218). The only way to get something similar is to install the [deprecated](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/09/https-actually-everywhere) extension [HTTPS Everywhere](https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere).
+
+There are places which Firefox on Android shines for example browsing news websites where you may want to _partially_ load some JavaScript (but not all) using medium or hard [blocking mode](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode). The [reader view](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-articles-reader-view-firefox-android) is also pretty cool. We expect things will change in the future, so we’re keeping a close eye on this.
+
+#### Fingerprinting
+
+Firefox has the ability to block known third party [fingerprinting resources](https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2020/01/07/firefox-72-fingerprinting/). Mozilla has [advanced protection](https://support.mozilla.org/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting) against fingerprinting (RFP is enabled with Arkenfox).
+
+We do not recommend extensions that promise to change your [browser fingerprint](https://blog.torproject.org/browser-fingerprinting-introduction-and-challenges-ahead/). Some of those extensions [are detectable](https://www.cse.chalmers.se/~andrei/codaspy17.pdf) by websites through JavaScript and [CSS](https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03152176/file/style-fingerprinting-usenix.pdf) methods, particularly those which inject anything into the web content.
+
+This includes **all** extensions that try to change the user agent or other browser behaviour to prevent fingerprinting. We see these often recommended on Reddit and would like to say that they will likely make you more unique and can be circumvented. Arkenfox has [a good list](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions#small_orange_diamond-%EF%B8%8F-anti-fingerprinting-extensions-fk-no) of extensions you shouldn’t be using. They also have [another list](https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions#small_orange_diamond-dont-bother) of extensions you needn’t bother with either. We also like to say testing sites which show you how unique you are in a set of users are often using hugely tainted results that are not indicative of real-world usage.
+
+----------
+
+_Special thanks to [Thorin-Oakenpants](https://github.com/Thorin-Oakenpants) and [Tommy](https://tommytran.io) for their help with providing advice and further documentation during the research phase.