[Freedombox-discuss] freedom on desktop

[Ben Mendis]

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I can't speak for FreedomBox, but here are some links/resource you might
find helpful.

Basic Internet
Security: http://en.flossmanuals.net/basic-internet-security/index/
Encrypt Everything: https://encrypteverything.ca/index.php/Main_Page
Unhosted (building webapps that don't store personal data on the
server): http://unhosted.org/

For encrypting your web traffic, there are options like Tor, I2P, and
CJDNS. Tor in particular is pretty easy to use these days, just be
careful. Exit node operators aren't always benevolent. They are in a
perfect position to perform man-in-the-middle attacks if you're not
using SSL/TLS (or sometimes even when you are). 

For anonymous P2P hosting you have projects like Freenet, Tahoe-LAFS,
and Cryptosphere.

For email, your options are:
1) Using public hosted email servers and not encrypting. This is
probably what you're doing now.
2) Using public hosted email servers and encrypting opportunistically.
They will still know who you are communicating with and how frequently,
but won't know the contents of your messages. It also means you won't be
able to use web mail unless you're using the Hushmail service (which I
don't trust). I use re-Alpine and Thunderbird over Gmail.
3) Hosting your own email server. Nobody else is hosting your data for
you, which is good. But this option is also a lot less convenient.
You're solely responsible for the administration of your server. If the
server goes down, you can't receive mail. You also have to keep on top
of  securing the server against attacks (big target for spammers). And
speaking of spammers, you'll have to do your own spam filtering.
4) If you're paranoid, you can use [Cables](http://dee.su/cables). It
doesn't interoperate with the existing email infrastructure, but it
makes it difficult for any outside observer to determine who you are
communicating with, let alone the contents of the messages.

That's probably enough to get you started... I'm sure other people will
have have more/different suggestions.

Best regards,
Ben the Pyrate


On Fri, 3 Aug 2012, Ramana Kumar wrote:

> Dear Freedombox-discuss,
> 
> I am inspired by the idea of the FreedomBox. I want the net to be more peer-to-peer and decentralised with privacy on by default.
> I use GNU/Linux and I am not averse to programming, but I am not an expert.
> Can someone like me help achieve the aims of the FreedomBox Foundation without buying a plug server? Can't I run my desktop as a
> server, and what would be the point?
> Are there resources for me to learn how to achieve more personal freedom, for example (and especially) from the centralised network
> services I currently use?
> To take some simple examples:
> What are my options for email and what are the pros and cons?
> How can I encrypt my web, email, and other traffic easily?
> Can I help with hosting or as a node in a peer to peer system and how?
> 
> I ask these admittedly vague questions (above the examples) in the hope that someone on list knows of such a resource and can point me
> to it, or would be interested in starting to create one.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ramana
> 
>
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