Computer/Internet Privacy Tips

I use two email addresses, and both of them are compromised, i.e. hackers have broken into site(s) I visit and have stolen the username, email address and password. I've even had blackmail attempts with the criminal emailing me telling me his knows my email and password and demanding money. Fortunately he said my password was u^zDRyJmr8wCX1&z#u$W so I had nothing to fear as I knew it's unique and where it came from (LinkedIn). If I had used the password across multiple sites, I would have been in deep trouble.

My Hotmail account has been hacked. I’m still using it, but some **** from Taiwan has hacked into the account and now is demanding a ransom or else he will start emailing my contacts.
 
Good question!

No.
Whats the best way to go about changing over / learning??
I need my laptop every day but only for browsing essentially and picking up emails, a few times a week I need to generate PDF invoices and the odd word doc and I need access to a cloud based software system a few times a week. only prog I run is an antique version of sage accounts once a quarter.
I have an old laptop but I keep that for when my good laptop is temporarily bricked from whatever latest update that **** Gates has forced upon me.
 
Let's talk gaming.

Win10 games. How do I run them without win10 or am I being thick? Graphic cards. The drivers are usually optimised for win10 gaming. Do they do the same with Linux?

It depends is the answer. I run all of my games that I want to play on Linux without an issue but I don't play all of the popular games so your mileage may vary. Proton is a piece of software that Valve have just started supporting that lets you try to run your Windows games in your Steam Library on Linux. It's rather early so maybe 50% of the games work well.

If you Google the name of the game then "ubuntu" after it then find a recent (!!) post then you'll usually see what will run and not.

Great post but a tad tin foil hattish.

Windows 10 is the most stable platform for just about everything and regular use plus you can turn the spy stuff off using the many tools available on the net. The great downside to the alternatives like Linux is you are freed from the privacy concerns but you are also free of having any use for the operating system. Linux/OSX etc are just not able to run most things plus Linux is ridiculously complicated.

I'm a tin foiley type of guy when it comes to information security. Learnt that lesson early on in my internet life!

I can't think of anything at all that I can do on Windows but not on Mint or Ubuntu. I think you'd be surprised with how far it has moved on in the last few years. I build software, edit videos, make Skype calls, play games on Steam, browse the web, watch films, and all sorts of stuff on Linux.

Good post and as an IT Manager myself, I find the content quite indisputable.

It is however, a little 'Project Fear'-esque! There needs to be a little more "If you just use a laptop for every day simple use and don't really care about targeted ads, most of this you can probably ignore".

My nan doesn't need to run Linux. Most people's Nan won't need to run linux and therefore "you have to get off Windows 10" is wrongly written as fact, when it's opinion (for good reason, admittedly).

I would say that if Internet privacy is very important to you regardless of your usage, then this post should be your bible. If you don't really care, or don't use a Computer in such a way where privacy would matter enough for you to worry about it, then pretty much most of this is irrelevant to you. I don't advocate that approach but the OP needs a bit more balance.

I'd argue that if you use your laptop for every day simple use then Linux is MUCH better. don't have to pay for the OS like you do with Windows, don't have to pay for Office, Chrome/Firefox works fine, etc. Android is a Linux derivative remember, and millions use that every day for simple computing behaviours.


Pleased with this thread. I'm fucking windows 10 off tomorrow.. not cos of the spying,, just cos of its fucking updates twatting my computer every other week. Is Linux mint easy enough to use for a newby??

Edit,, also gonna look into lastpass as I have about 100 bookie accounts and its a right pain in the A remembering them all

Yes. Go to Youtube and watch some videos before you install so you can get your own idea. To install it, you put the disk in then boot it then click Install. So, not rocket science. But worth a look yourself.
 
Also guys, just saying. Never know if it might come in useful in the future.



You think once that technology is out there and implemented that other Governments aren't going to have a look at it?

Considering our Government attempted to put up a firewall around the whole country? Considering that our Government has demanded that companies provide "backdoors" into encryption technologies?

All done by Theresa May as the Home Sec who is now the PM?

The problem with the privacy stuff is the problem with climate change. Nobody recognises they need to do something about it until it's too late to do something about it.

Next I'll post instructions on making your own tin foil hat.
 
If you are thinking about trying Linux then I would recommend Linux Mint. Many people say that this is the easiest version to use and I would agree. Before doing so I would strongly agree with the recommendation that you look at a number of YouTube videos. My YouTube guru of choice is a guy called Joe Collins. I can’t recommend him enough. One of his mantras is that you shouldn’t switch to Linux on your day to day computer. Leave your main computer running Windows but try Linux on a secondary computer. If you then decide that you can switch to Linux then do so but in the meantime you don’t lose anything.
 
Also guys, just saying. Never know if it might come in useful in the future.



You think once that technology is out there and implemented that other Governments aren't going to have a look at it?

Considering our Government attempted to put up a firewall around the whole country? Considering that our Government has demanded that companies provide "backdoors" into encryption technologies?

All done by Theresa May as the Home Sec who is now the PM?

The problem with the privacy stuff is the problem with climate change. Nobody recognises they need to do something about it until it's too late to do something about it.

Next I'll post instructions on making your own tin foil hat.
Shiny side in or out?
 

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