#TechTips

One of the more backdoor ways for big tech to begin wreaking havoc once the censorship game is up: DNS. We bring this to attention due to one of the biggest DNS providers used by major ISPs: CloudFlare. One of the major pitfalls with CloudFlare is pervasive expansion into China: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/cloudflare-partners-with-jd-to-expand-its-network-in-china/

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How DNS works:

Over the past week, average joes by the millions have been silenced & labeled terrorists by big tech. They’re struggling to understand how to counter the loss of online freedom & speech.

Over the coming weeks & months, we’re going to try to help you learn how to fight back.

DNS is a critical component to this. When you open a web browser on a pc, tablet or smart phone & visit a website, you enter the site address as you know it. Gmail is gmail.com to most people.

What most do not know is that’s not the real address. Its a nickname. When you visit that site by entering its nickname, and telling your browser to go there, you’re actually contacting a middle man: a middle man who translates the nickname of the site into the actual address, and forwards your request to the right place. Thats what DNS is: the middle man that directs all the web traffic on the internet.

Parler is offline because Amazon’s DNS service maliciously tried to kill it. And bc they shut the servers off hosting it.

Soon, big tech will start hiding information, traffic & sites from you by weaponizing DNS against you: the end user.

In the next 24 hours, we’re going to teach windows 10 users how to change DNS settings on your pc’s to immunize yourself against this threat.

#TechTips

Hat 🎩 tip @amelia n

A VPN is a tool to encrypt all your web traffic to keep you safe and protect your privacy while surfing the internet. VPNs are used to privately surf websites across the internet and protect your internet activity from prying eyes like Leftists who want to doxx you, & kill your job or threaten your family.

Secure VPNs, such as Proton VPN, encrypt your online data and secure your personal information. This means your city, country, and download history are not linked you *you*.

I personally use and recommend Proton VPN. Here is a decent review of Proton VPN: https://thebestvpn.com/reviews/protonvpn/

Here are recommendations for others: https://thebestvpn.com/

Make sure you're using a good VPN. There are several out there that leak your data pretty badly, or don't implement masking correctly, or at all.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/16-popular-vpns-leak-your-data-heres-the-full-list/

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This post continues the discussion of DNS posted earlier on in the Library:

What is DNS?
When you are browsing the web, most of the time you are accessing a website’s given name, such as www.gab.com. However, computers communicate through IP addresses (think 192.168.1.1, those numbers most people will not remember). To get to where you’re going on the internet, Domain Name Servers (DNS) are used to translate what you type in to browse to the corresponding address. This is a key mechanism to allow websites to provide the content to your browser.

What makes it important to you?
Although not as highly centralized as say Google, DNS has become an increasingly convenient way to monitor and route traffic for big tech. Parler’s recent takedown, as Finch alluded to, involved AWS taking their internet “name” off of Amazon’s own DNS, preventing easy access to the website. In addition to preventing easy access, DNS servers allow big tech to track your movements by logging what websites you requested and how long you visited them.

Well if this makes it easy for big tech to track, what can I do?
Vigilance is key. Although many DNSes exist that can and will track (Google DNS, Amazon Route 53) or route through various foreign countries to allow easy export (CloudFlare with its Chinese), many other DNSes are available to increase both security and privacy. Here are some recommendations on DNS providers that are not in the business of violating your privacy:

- Comodo Secure DNS: Run by Comodo Group, this DNS actively looks to filter “parked” websites, adding a layer of security in addition to increasing privacy.

- OpenNIC: This service is unique in that its driven by volunteers who build and host their own DNSes, with server options varying based on your location.

- DNS Watch: The service is located in Germany, however they are currently staunch believers in DNS neutrality, and refuse to log personal data.

- Quad 9: Quad9 DNS has been active since 2016, using security information from cyber intelligence groups such is IBM X-Force to prevent malicious sites and re-directs from occurring during browsing. In addition, it is among the fastest of the DNS options listed here.

Friendly reminder: most critical posts here in The Library can be found by using the search function on the channel, especially by hashtags. Our new series of posts on how to use tech to defeat censorship & deplatforming can all be found by searching the hashtag #TechTips

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In our ongoing series of tech posts aimed at helping you stay safe, we'd like to discuss Web Browsers. Many people don't give their web browser a second thought and are unaware that it is a powerful tool to spy on you and track everything you do and say online.

One of the most popular web browsers out there is google chrome, renowned for its speed and reliability. But most who use it don't know how dangerous it is. Or how dangerous google itself is. Below are three articles highlighting the dangers:

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-tech-expert-says-we-should-stop-using-google-chrome

Hat 🎩 tip Amelia N #TechTips
NEW - Brave.com, one of the most secure and fastest browsers, has now taken crucial steps in extending its support to a decentralized web.

Brave is now going to offer native integration with a peer-to-peer networking protocol and is the first mainstream browser to do. @disclosetv @disclosetv_chat

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This is one of the most important things you’ll ever read. Please read it and share it with everyone you care about.

https://uncoverdc.com/2020/09/11/chinas-american-big-tech-takeover/

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Recently we posted several technoloy how to’s to help keep you safe, & defeat the censorship. Today we add to that. Many people i know urged me to use Signal all instead of Telegram when i first migrated off twitter, and i resisted, instead choosing Telegram. There were strong rumors floating in the ether that Signal was compromised. Now we have evidence that it is. This is why i chose to start The Library here. #TechTips

https://twitter.com/BleepinComputer/status/1358339772218040321?s=20

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https://twitter.com/paulfroberts/status/1363854123817394179?s=20

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https://api.parler.com/l/etLg1

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hidden-ways-big-tech-sucks-up-data

#TechTips 👇

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https://privacypros.io/faraday-bags/

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Let’s talk a little bit about Privacy & Internet Security. The story above is a prime example of why you should be using a reputable VPN every time you connect your device to the internet. We like these:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-vpn/

You should also be using a web browser that cares about & protects your privacy like Dissenter & Brave.

https://brave.com/

https://dissenter.com/about

You should kick Google Chrome browser, gmail & google search off every device you own. Look at Start Page & DuckDuckGo search engines.

For private email we recommend Protonmail.

www.protonmail.com

And yes, we heard the rumor about proton being coerced by the FBI. They confirmed it was an internet hoax. Thats the nice thing about Proton & its servers being in Switzerland, a country with strict privacy laws: the FBI cant do a damn thing about it.

#TechTips
Let’s talk a little bit about Privacy & Internet Security. The story above is a prime example of why you should be using a reputable VPN every time you connect your device to the internet. We like these:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-vpn/

You should also be using a web browser that cares about & protects your privacy like Dissenter & Brave.

https://brave.com/

https://dissenter.com/about

You should kick Google Chrome browser, gmail & google search off every device you own. Look at Start Page & DuckDuckGo search engines.

For private email we recommend Protonmail.

www.protonmail.com

And yes, we heard the rumor about proton being coerced by the FBI. They confirmed it was an internet hoax. Thats the nice thing about Proton & its servers being in Switzerland, a country with strict privacy laws: the FBI cant do a damn thing about it.

#TechTips #BigTech