Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications

Tips, Tools, and How-tos for Safer Online Communications

For years, we’ve been consistent in our approach to helping you stay safe online. We’ve tried to impress upon you that there isn’t any software that will protect you from everything and no software in the world that will protect you from yourself. Security software should be your safety net –not your main line of defense.

And for years we’ve tried hard to prepare you for the worst while helping you enjoy your time online. We have never wanted or tried to scare you away from all the best the Internet has to offer. The Internet is a great resource, the greatest resource humankind has ever known.

There are two things we don’t want you to be:

Paranoid and afraid.

And there are two things we want you to be:

Prepared and alert.

There is no better way to be prepared than by continuing to educate yourself. The Internet is a gold mine of excellent information – and it’s also a huge garbage pit teeming with misinformation. And we know very well that sometimes it’s a difficult task to separate the rind from the fruit — to know what’s true and what’s not and to know who to trust and who not to trust. But when you think about it, it’s no different on the Internet than it is in real life.

One of the organizations that we trust is The Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are a non-profit watchdog agency looking out for all of us netizens.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently published the most comprehensive guide on online surveillance, your privacy and how to stay safe online we’ve ever seen. It covers a wide range of topics. Some parts will not apply to you. If you only read the topics that interest you, you’ll be wiser and safer than you are right now. And that’s exactly why we’re telling you about it today. We want to help keep you safe so you can enjoy your time online.

We hope you find this guide useful.

We’re the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an independent non-profit working to protect online privacy for nearly thirty years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense : our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying.

Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works. Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions to installing our pick of the best, most secure applications. We have more detailed information in our FURTHER LEARNING sections. If you’d like a guided tour, look for our list of common SECURITY SCENARIOS.

 

Basics

• Animated Overview: How Strong Encryption Can Help Avoid Online Surveillance
• Animated Overview: How to Make a Super-Secure Password Using Dice
• Animated Overview: Protecting Your Device From Hackers
• Animated Overview: Using Password Managers to Stay Safe Online
• Choosing Your Tools
• Communicating with Others
• Creating Strong Passwords
• Keeping Your Data Safe
• Seven Steps To Digital Security
• What Should I Know About Encryption?
• Why Metadata Matters
• Your Security Plan

Tool Guides

• How to: Avoid Phishing Attacks
• How to: Circumvent Online Censorship
• How to: Delete your Data Securely on Linux
• How to: Delete Your Data Securely on macOS
• How to: Delete Your Data Securely on Windows
• How to: Enable Two-factor Authentication
• How to: Encrypt Your iPhone
• How to: Encrypt Your Windows Device
• How to: Use KeePassXC
• How to: Use OTR for macOS
• How to: Use OTR on Linux
• How to: Use PGP for Linux
• How to: Use PGP for macOS
• How to: Use PGP for Windows
• How to: Use Signal for Android
• How to: Use Signal on iOS
• How to: Use Tor for Linux
• How to: Use Tor for Windows
• How to: Use Tor on macOS
• How to: Use WhatsApp on Android
• How to: Use WhatsApp on iOS

Further Learning

• A Deep Dive on End-to-End Encryption: How Do Public Key Encryption Systems Work?
• Attending a Protest
• Choosing the VPN That’s Right for You
• Facebook Groups: Reducing Risks
• How Do I Protect Myself Against Malware?
• Key Concepts in Encryption
• Key Verification
• Protecting Yourself on Social Networks
• The Problem with Mobile Phones
• Things to Consider When Crossing the U.S. Border

Please take some time to read this comprehensive guide published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We promise — it will be time well spent.