Em is a full-time staff writer at Privacy Guides. She is a public‑interest technologist and researcher who has been working on various independent projects in data privacy, information security, and software engineering since 2018.
Em is passionate about digital rights, privacy advocacy, solid security, and code for the public good. In her free time, you can find Em on Mastodon giving privacy tips or boosting photos of cats and moss.
Leon Seibert / Unsplash
If you, like myself, have been inhabiting the internet for a few decades, you're probably familiar with the old adage IRL: In Real Life.
The acronym was used a lot when the distinction between online life and offline life was much greater than it is now. In today's world, can we really keep referring to our digital life as being somehow disconnected from our "real life"?
Illustration: Em / Privacy Guides | Photo: PicJumbo / Pexels
If you have been looking for a password manager giving you full control over your data, KeePassium is a fantastic option. The application available for iOS and macOS keeps your password database offline by default. KeePassium still offers synchronization and backup options, but allows you to choose which storage provider to trust with your database, and change it whenever you want.
Photo: Flyd / Unsplash
Last week, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman announced in San Francisco that the World project he co-founded, formerly known as Worldcoin, is opening six stores across the United States, allowing users of the project's app to scan their eyeballs.
Simply put, the premise is this: scan your eyeball, get a biometric tag, verify yourself, buy our apps (and cryptocurrency). The scary part is the for-profit company developing the project has now gathered millions in venture capital investment, powerful partners, and is ready to expand and impose its Minority Report style technology everywhere. Welcome to Dystopialand.
Photo: Kyle Glenn / Unsplash
Age verification laws and propositions forcing platforms to restrict content accessed by children and teens have been multiplying in recent years. The problem is, implementing such measures necessarily requires identifying each user accessing this content, one way or another. This is bad news for your privacy.
Illustration: Em / Privacy Guides | Logo and icons: The Tor Project
You might have heard of Tor in the news a few times, yet never dared to try it yourself. Despite being around for decades, Tor is still a tool too few people know about.
Today, Tor is easy to use for anyone. It helps not only journalists and activists, but anybody who seeks greater privacy online or access to information regardless of location. But what is Tor exactly? How can Tor help you? And why is it such an important tool?
Photo: Matt Artz / Unsplash
Contrary to what some policymakers seem to believe, whether naively or maliciously, encryption is not a crime. Anyone asserting encryption is a tool for crime is either painfully misinformed or is attempting to manipulate legislators to gain oppressive power over the people.
Illustration: Jonah Aragon / Privacy Guides | Photo: Micah Lee
If you don't know who Micah Lee is yet, here's why you should: Micah is an information security engineer, a software engineer, a journalist, and an author who has built an impressive career developing software for the public good, and working with some of the most respected digital rights organizations in the United States.
Photo: Georgy Rudakov / Unsplash
Privacy is a human right that should be granted to everyone, no matter the reason. That being said, it's also important to remember that for millions of people around the world, data privacy is crucial for physical safety. For people in extreme situations, privacy can literally mean life or death.
Illustration: Privacy Guides | Graphics: Yubico | Logo: KeePassXC
If you are looking for a good remote password manager you can use from anywhere, there are plenty of excellent options to choose from. However, if you prefer to only store your passwords locally, KeePassXC is what you need. In this tutorial, we will set up KeePassXC to work with YubiKey as an additional factor to secure your local-only password database.
Illustration: Em / Privacy Guides | Photo: J W / Unsplash
In privacy, we talk a lot about how to protect our own data, but what about our responsibility to protect the data of others?
If you care about privacy rights, you must also care for the data of the people around you. To make privacy work, we need to develop a culture that normalizes caring for everyone's data, not just our own. Privacy cannot solely be a personal responsibility, data privacy is team work.