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Chatting in Secret While We're All Being Watched

posted by takyon on Friday July 17 2015, @06:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the instant-paranoia dept.

An Anonymous Coward wrote in with a link to a comprehensive secure instant messaging communication guide at The Intercept. It covers Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and Android, primarily using the Jabber/XMPP chat protocol and Tor Browser for configuring a Jabber account over the Web without accidentally leaking your identity.

When you pick up the phone and call someone, or send a text message, or write an email, or send a Facebook message, or chat using Google Hangouts, other people find out what you're saying, who you're talking to, and where you're located. Such private data might only be available to the service provider brokering your conversation, but it might also be visible to the telecom companies carrying your Internet packets, to spy and law enforcement agencies, and even to some nearby teenagers monitoring your Wi-Fi network with Wireshark.

But if you take careful steps to protect yourself, it's possible to communicate online in a way that's private, secret and anonymous. Today I'm going to explain in precise terms how to do that. I'll take techniques NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden used when contacting me two and a half years ago and boil them down to the essentials. In a nutshell, I'll show you how to create anonymous real-time chat accounts and how to chat over those accounts using an encryption protocol called Off-the-Record Messaging, or OTR.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday July 17 2015, @09:03PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday July 17 2015, @09:03PM (#210596) Journal

    Why is this -1 troll?

    Wish i had mod points... to mod up his point (which is valid, i believe).

    +1 Informative

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday July 17 2015, @09:14PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Friday July 17 2015, @09:14PM (#210602)

    the first poster validates the reason that anon posters should be completely ignored.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @09:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @09:23PM (#210605)

      Let me guess: you want stone mountain dynamited.

    • (Score: 2) by penguinoid on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:13AM

      by penguinoid (5331) on Saturday July 18 2015, @12:13AM (#210658)

      the first poster validates the reason that anon posters should be completely ignored.

      Why, because the world used to suck for women and you're uncomfortable with history? Or because social momentum has swung the other way and now, at least in a few select areas, you're better off as a woman than a man?

      --
      RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.

      • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday July 18 2015, @11:47AM

        by Gravis (4596) on Saturday July 18 2015, @11:47AM (#210752)

        none of the above. it's because it's a troll and completely off topic.