Information & Resources

Journalism

Colorado Sun - https://coloradosun.com - Long-form, in-depth coverage of news from all around Colorado.

What The Fuck Just Happened Today? - https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com - Concise, point-by-point breakdown of daily political news.

404 Media - https://www.404media.co - Technology and internet reporting.

Molly White - https://www.mollywhite.net/feed - Crypto, privacy and more.

Beth Mole - https://arstechnica.com/author/beth/ - Science & health at Ars Technica (Ars also has good Tech Policy & Security sections).

Search

Kagi - https://kagi.com - Is a privacy focused ad-free search engine. They also happen to be the best at the moment. Here is a list of key features: https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-features Pricing: https://kagi.com/pricing I have been using Kagi since 2023, and I can't recommend them enough. John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a great interview with the founder on his podcast, The Talk Show. It's long, but they get to some highly relevant topics that I think would benefit almost everyone considering the current state of things 🔥💩. The interview is available on his website: https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2024/12/24/ep-416 Or if you use Apple's podcast app: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-talk-show-with-john-gruber/id528458508?i=1000681594559

DuckDuckGo - https://duckduckgo.com - Is a good option if you really can't afford $5 a month. Just keep in mind the adage of free = you're the product being sold. I like the DuckDuckGo peeps, but if we're going to get out from under this thing we need to pay the people helping us.

Online Security Resources

EFF - https://www.eff.org - Nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. The "Basics" on the Surveillance Self-Defense page is a good place to start. It's located here: https://ssd.eff.org

If your suddenly in a dire need to get things locked down or communicate safely, they have various tools and guides for different situations: https://ssd.eff.org/module-categories/security-scenarios

Janet Vertesi: sociologist of science and technology at Princeton University - Home page: https://janet.vertesi.com/#home & The Opt Out Project: https://www.optoutproject.net/welcome-to-the-opt-out-project/

Apps & Browser Extensions

Signal - https://signal.org - Is currently the only secure messaging app I'd recommend when it really matters. Freedom of the Press Foundation has a good guide for beginners here: https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/signal-beginners/

Wipr 2 - https://kaylees.site/index.html - Is a very good, simple to use and highly effective ‘content’ blocker. The ‘content’ being ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, cookie notifications etc. It's an extension for Safari that runs on iOS and MacOS. It's written by an independent developer, regularly updated and if you're running it on your phone, it really does help with battery life. It's a real thing: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Pearce%20JM.%20Energy%20conservation%20with%20open%20source%20Ad%20Blockers.%20Technologies.%202020;8(2):1–18.

If you're on Windows or run Firefox, uBlock Origin: https://ublockorigin.com/ and the EFFs Privacy Badger: https://privacybadger.org/ are good alternatives to Wipr 2.

SponsorBlock - https://sponsor.ajay.app - ‘The extension works by automatically skipping sections of videos that have been marked as sponsored, self-promotional, or otherwise non-essential content, making it easier for viewers to focus on the main content of the videos they watch.’ - I can no longer watch Youtube without this extension. My time and brain cells are too valuable. App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sponsorblock-for-safari/id1573461917 SponsorBlock is available for multiple browsers and platforms besides Apple's at: https://sponsor.ajay.app

One final thought, using Wipr 2 and SponsorBlock together is👨🏻‍🍳🤌🏻.

VPNs

Mullvad - https://mullvad.net/en - I can't recommend what I don't use or know. I have experience using Mullvad for years. They have been stable as a service, affordable and have good client software. They are located in Sweden, have a No-logging of user activity policy and a thorough privacy policy: https://mullvad.net/en/help/privacy-policy There is a System Transparency section on their blog: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/tag/system-transparency They also have their software externally audited: https://mullvad.net/en/blog/search?q=external+audit