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Comment by eksith | Hacker News Reader

  Email		: GPG/PGP (The End!)
  Web		: Tor (Browser bundle)
  Voice/Txt	: RedPhone, Silent Circle, Cellcrypt, TrustCall, TextSecure
  Data		: TrueCrypt, Scramdisk, PGPDisk

We can all pretend this is still a Democracy (it's not and never has been; it's a Representative Republic and our representatives are mostly evil and/or stupid) and think those who have power will relinquish it voluntarily or you can actually do something about your own privacy.

Edit: Dear God, I feel like I'm turning into Stallman! (Which, on closer inspection, may be a good thing)

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  Email: PGP-encryped.
  Browsing Traffic: Routed through Tor
  Voice/Text: Encrypyed.
  Other Sensitive Data: TrueCrypt Hidden Partition

  Seeing your interrogator pull out a rubber hose,
  and realize that none of that matters: Priceless

----

  | think those who have power will relinquish
  | it voluntarily

Yea. It was pretty crazy when the Secret Service sided with GW Bush and the Marines sided with Obama, and Bush made his last stand to retain the Presidency at the Oval Office. I don't look forward to when/if Obama is voted out of office...

Pretty sure you misinterpreted what OP meant by "power". Sure Bush left office when his term ended, but Obama continued a lot of the policies we thought were going to be ended, keeping the NSA in a greater position of power than it should be. That's the power that hasn't been relinquished.

> If the people in office get voted out, they leave. If they didn't, we might have a problem.

No, as evidenced by the our current situation, we still have a problem.

>Yea. It was pretty crazy when the Secret Service sided with GW Bush and the Marines sided with Obama, and Bush made his last stand to retain the Presidency at the Oval Office. I don't look forward to when/if Obama is voted out of office...

I feel stupid. What are you talking about? Or is this a joke scenario or something? Sorry if I'm being daft.

I'm being sarcastic about the idea that 'the people in power' aren't going to relinquish it.

If the people in office get voted out, they leave. If they didn't, we might have a problem.

>>If the people in office get voted out, they leave

This is dangerous that after they and someone replaces them the story repeats like a record player in a lop, only with louder volume. (I wish I could think of a better analogy)

Well, I mean, the scenario you're describing where a leader becomes a tyrant and is deposed of by their successor is basically a totalitarian dictatorship.

I think that's a bit of a (very large) stretch. I think the "President" and the military are separate enough in this country that we don't run a huge risk of "THE GOVERNMENT" (ie, a "leader" and militia to empower them) could or would act as a cohesive force against the US.

Usually when you see this, you see fractioned militia that support the next successor or what not.

I'm trying to find something that does:

* OTR * Works on iOS & Android * Is Free * Works well (doesn't crash) * Does push notifications

Hopefully cryptocat will be that soon.

ChatSecure for iOS does that, plus it's open source and free.

ChatSecure crashes way to much to be usable.

Hmm I haven't used it all that much...maybe it's time to contribute to ChatSecure's github

Remember that PGP does not encrypt headers, so it doesn't hide the recipient list, the sender or the subject line. In some implementations, it may not encrypt attachments.

Nobody uses PGP.

One-time-pads and carrier pigeons then!

Seriously, I don't really care how people take their privacy into their own hands (as long as they don't harm anyone), but this ridiculous theme of "you have nothing to hide and/or [insert bit of data] isn't really private anyway" is starting to become a real bore.

BTW... I understand the shortcomings of OTPs (and pigeons; I live in New York), but I don't see why it's not used more often. I mean secure distribution of pads is starting to look like the least vulnerable link in the chain at this point.

Besides, generating an OTP is fairly trivial.

http://eksith.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/cryptographically-sec...

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