Advice about personal security needed
Dear All,
Over the years there have been many posts on this excellent Forum about personal security -- concerning emails, social media, internet banking, internet phones and so on. I have gratefully followed a lot of advice about locking down my box, securing Firefox, preventing Facebook "likes" and all the other unwanted rubbish from contaminating my personal space (Do Not Track Plus has prevented over 13,500 invasions over the last few months alone).
However, there is a constant battle going on with corporates finding new ways of invading or controlling our machines, or mining our personal data. Recently Skype updated its Linux offering (which might have been good news) apart from the reports that they will be secretly keeping details of all calls and mesages -- perhaps as part of their new owner's desire to rule the world by stealth. And, here, Forum gurus have talked about Brosix and Google+ Hangouts, for example, as alternatives.
My simple question is this : why should I be less scared of Google+ than Skype? How can I arrange Google+ privacy settings to remain anonymous except to delared folks who I wish to communicate with via internet phone or message? Is it possible to be free? Can anyone offer advice about settings? Often the necessary choices are hidden beneath a plethora of obfuscation and the defaults always seem to be "ON" rather than "OFF".
Perhaps I'm becoming paranoid but with M$ doing all they can to pollute the UEFI introduction with "lock-down" and "freeze-out" I feel increasing anger and frustration at what appears to be the inexorable march of corporate, oligarch-led intrusion into personal choice -- just look at Apple's appalling approach to Android and Samsung.
Over the years there have been many posts on this excellent Forum about personal security -- concerning emails, social media, internet banking, internet phones and so on. I have gratefully followed a lot of advice about locking down my box, securing Firefox, preventing Facebook "likes" and all the other unwanted rubbish from contaminating my personal space (Do Not Track Plus has prevented over 13,500 invasions over the last few months alone).
However, there is a constant battle going on with corporates finding new ways of invading or controlling our machines, or mining our personal data. Recently Skype updated its Linux offering (which might have been good news) apart from the reports that they will be secretly keeping details of all calls and mesages -- perhaps as part of their new owner's desire to rule the world by stealth. And, here, Forum gurus have talked about Brosix and Google+ Hangouts, for example, as alternatives.
My simple question is this : why should I be less scared of Google+ than Skype? How can I arrange Google+ privacy settings to remain anonymous except to delared folks who I wish to communicate with via internet phone or message? Is it possible to be free? Can anyone offer advice about settings? Often the necessary choices are hidden beneath a plethora of obfuscation and the defaults always seem to be "ON" rather than "OFF".
Perhaps I'm becoming paranoid but with M$ doing all they can to pollute the UEFI introduction with "lock-down" and "freeze-out" I feel increasing anger and frustration at what appears to be the inexorable march of corporate, oligarch-led intrusion into personal choice -- just look at Apple's appalling approach to Android and Samsung.
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