How to protect your privacy online and from the NSA!

Code Pink NSA protest at Sen Dianne Feinstein's house

Who watches the watcher?

That phrase has always made people think and I think it is high time we think really hard to ask those tough questions.   A few weeks ago we had Edward Snowden release statements on the NSA, and it got me asking questions that I am sure you are asking to.  Some of the questions I have are:

  • What can I do to protect myself?
  • What does the NSA actually know about me?
  • What programs, and ways can I keep my privacy private?
  • Why Do I need to keep my privacy private?

As you can see this is going to be a pretty big multiple posts.   To start it off with we need to lay a few building blocks and hopefully it will help you to understand the problem at hand.

The Internet and You!

When your on Facebook, or any other social network.   You have to understand that what you put out on the network.   More than you can see.  Although it shouldn’t be a surprise to my readers, you may want to at least consider that what you put out on the networks, might come back and bite you on the behind later.  

So obviously when you visit a site and maybe you are using an Android Device.   You probably don’t see the long outlandish URL and that can be problematic at best and at worst it can be used against you.  If you know anything about URL’s you know that nothing is sacred on the browsers and every link you click someone is tracking you.   Whether it be your ISP to an Affiliated Link, or it could be a bad guy just waiting for you to give out your personal information to him!

Privacy and you!

So now we come to the question of why protect it if we have no privacy?  Just because we have no privacy doesn’t mean we can’t keep what we have a secret.   I know all to well that people say or do stuff that they doesn’t want others to see.   It can be a make or break a person depending on who and what they see from a post on Facebook and other social media sites.  

If you were to walk into an interview unprepared then you will not get the job.   You can bet that most hiring managers will do a quick name search on your name on Google and other social media outlets.   Just to get ready for that interview.   Now we all know that if it is a really important position you can bet they may want to know all your profiles.   I don’t know if it is legal or not so that is up to you, it may help and it may harm.   You see the point in this, and why it should be kept private until you think it should be public.

In the coming weeks I will talk about rest of this but for right now.   You can sit back and reread this and absorb what you can from my post.   It might be a good idea to subscribe by email for the updates!  You never know when I will post more about my favorite topic…Security!!

PRISM and Edward Snowden scandal!

Prism Reflections  1877

Prism Scandal?

Some of you would wonder if the Surveillance scandal of 2013 will be remember in 2050?  I really can’t say for sure in the past few hours the US Government has issued an arrest for Edward Snowden.  It really looks quite suspicious that the government uses this tactic.   It seems almost like they want to blame someone who wanted to let the world and the his fellow US citzen the right to know what they are doing.   This is getting quite scary as some of you would like.   With Obama on his last term as president, we have to wonder what will happen for the next 3 years.   Will he make our privacy just as bad as China?

Tech Giants are the ROOT to this!

Most Tech giants are afraid of the government and what will happen to their reputation if they were to be truthful.   I really doubt the government would do anything but slap them for saying no.  They afford so much of this blame that seems to be going around and around in circles.   One company blames another company and it is an endless blame.   Just like the US government is blaming Snowden for leaking this information, you wonder why all the fuss about leak.   He didn’t leak any personal information such as people and social security numbers.

Tempora program and The British Secret Service!

While we are on the subject of PRISM, we have to at least show that it has been going on in other governments around the world and good old James Bond likes his Tempora Program “Shaken, Not stirred”.  We’ve see that the US isn’t the only one doing the serviceable of their people.   Quite scarey isn’t it?   The Tempora program is a co-operation between the NSA and Britain exchanging information about what people do.

What can I do?

If you wondering about cloud backup, you can try Malwarebytes Secure Backup Pro and that will at least encrypt all your data before it is stored in the cloud.   I won’t say that is the only thing you can do.   You can also use a VPN Service such as VPN4ALL The Best Protection Online AES-256 RSA 2096bit (Military Grade) Encryption for all your internet traffic. Unlimited and Metered VPN Plans starting 9.95 / month which is what I am using now so It will help keep your privacy a little more safe. There are no guarantees that government has keys but at least it is one more step to privacy that shows them that you want to be “Do Not Tracked”.   One last way to help keep your information a little more private is Secured Texted on the Android phones.   Looks nice and it is opened source so you have little worry about who has access to your text messages.   In the last 30 days, this app has been getting popular.  

 

Reviewing RavPower Dynamo-On-the-Go 10400mAh External Backup Battery Pack!

      

RAVPowerFlashlight   USB Car Charger(2 Port)  And More!

Reviewing the RavPower!

I must get this out in the open,  I was given the chance to review the RavPower Dynamo-On-the-Go 10400mAh External Backup Battery Pack.  The kind folks over at the marketing department, contacted me and asked for me to review their product.  Other than the unit is self, the Ravpower people did not pay me to say these things.   I said I would love to review it, being that I have a Phone that constantly needs to be charged and my tablet.   I must say this has been a life saver for me, when I forgot to charge my phone over night one night during the week.  

My thoughts

After having this over a week, I will say that it is heaver than I thought but it does come with 4 Samsung 2600mAh(Milli-Amp-hours), and thus can be the best portable power solutions including my Kyocera Rise from Virgin Mobile.   Which can be a very useful to keep my phone working on the run!   

 

It came with a White wall usb charger, My thoughts are just pitch it in the trash and us another usb charger other than that one.   When I used that wall charger, it got REALLY hot.   It definitely wasn’t hot enough to catch fire but I was concerned so I used another wall charger to charge the Ravpower and The charger itself did not get so hot with unlike the white usb charger.  

The Unit itself is very user friendly with that power meter built into the device so I can keep track of when I need to recharge the portable power battery pack and I really haven’t had to charge it every night.   I have been only using it for small stuff such as my phone or my portable speaker, which can be useful walking around!

Iit comes with a carrying pouch black holder and two USB to Micr usb cords which can be very useful for when you don’t have one.   The holder part of this set is very useful to keep your Portable power pack safe and secure.  

I would recommend this product to anyone who has phones that constantly need recharging or those who might need an extra power for Ipads, and Iphones for long trips.   I can’t see this being anything other than useful for me and it has quite a few possibility when it comes to keep things charged on the go or when I am out and about.   

Go check it out yourself, I give this a 4 out of five and the only reason not a five is the wall charger issue.   Which is very good!

Click Image to see other reviews!

NSA wiretaps the internet, and what you should do about it!

NSA wiretaps your Internet!

The National Security Agency has been in the past a thorn in most people’s sides. As of late though their new Prism program has raised some very interesting questions. It isn’t like they have anything to hide, after all if you haven’t done anything wrong than you neeed not worry! That logic just elludes me, we have seen this is history. People who haven’t done anything wrong who are prosecuted for their believes and actions. They will make everyone evil some how. See how they did with Edward Snowden, NSA and other’s are saying he was wrong to do this but it was the public right to know. While whistle blowing is a necessary for the public to know about it, the NSA thinks we should always be kept in the dark over some of this. I personally believe we should not only be told but also have a public forum over stuff like this. Now let’s not forget that we are trying to fight terrorism, but this is what they wanted us to do in the first place. Fear brings down our civil liberties by making it harder for us to be free, hince we now have to worry about the NSA!

The Pipe

If you haven’t figure out how they National Security Agency is doing this than, one you didn’t watch that video or two it just didn’t click. I am going to try to dumb it down a little more and make it easier to understand. Let’s say you have an apple, the apple in this case represents your data or metadata as some would call it. You have two people who want the apple, so you would basically cut it in an equal half. Now that doesn’t mean both people have different information they have the same information but it is simply just been cloned, or copied. Another way to look at is this: You have a piece of paper with your information on it. You send it Google, Bing, Yahoo, ETC and just before it is delivered there, someone graps your paper puts it on a copy and makes a copy for themselves, and send the document along it’s way as if nothing happened. You wouldn’t know, the place you sent it to would not know and somewhere there is a piece of paper with your data and no one is the wiser. Kinda of snicky isn’t it!

Fighting the NSA!

You can always fight the National Security Agency, with a few good steps you can make them worry and wonder where you are actually coming from. This won’t stop them but it will at least keep yourself private and less likely the NSA will get this personal information of yours. I am hoping this helps people find out how to fight this injustice.

  • VPN4ALL — this is a vpn service that I have started using to help keep my information safe. They use a 256 encryptions algorithm and it means no one can see where you go when you don’t want them to know. Works with Android, IOS, and most Mobile Devices also…
  • DNSCrypt — Making sure no one knows where you go to on the internet is made a little easier with DNScrypt. It works really nicely but nothing yet for android. Hopefully soon, someone has something.
  • Encrypting your Email — Although this seems kind of hard it is actually quiet easy. Any emails your send get’s transmitted and that means the NSA can get them. If you encrypt them they can read them. So this is always a good idea to do, because you never know.

So you can see there are a few ways to encrypt your information so no prying eyes can see it. Although it won’t stop them from seeing what you done later on the in future but it will stop them for right now. As technology advances so does un-encryption, so hopefully by the time they see where you went and what you did, you will be long gone dead. I do hope this helps those of you who are worried and want to protect your sensitive information. This won’t help all over but it will help the average person surf the internet a little more securely and hopefully shows the NSA we mean business!

What a Secret is really worth and why! My Secret to you!

Secret Canyon Trail

A Secret!

When you mention you have a secret you probably get bombarded with “What is it?”.   I posted that I’ve got a secret on my Facebook page,  although I have gotten some people to like the post.   Other’s have actually come out to me and asked what my secret is. A few friends but what really surprised me was everyone of my family members, asked what it was.   Even my mother who doesn’t do Facebook was asking what my secret was.

The Secret Goes Viral!

If you have ever done something like this and gotten it to go viral.   You’d bee amazed at how many want to know your little secret.   I even had a few emails but I won’t say much about those.   It was such an amazing experience and just how much people want people to know the secret.

My Secret revealed!

So I am going to share with you my secret.  I gotten a chance to review a good little USB portable battery backup for your Cell phones and tablets.   It’s called RAVPower® Dynamo-On-the-Go backup battery pack and I will be doing a full review of this product in the coming months but I am so far really impressed.  They given me one for free to do a full test out on and see how well this worked with all my devices.   So you will see this probably next week or so and you might even be surprised.