Your conversations and digital footprints are not as secure as you think!

Since this administration has taken over:

  • Google has removed its pledge not to weaponize its products or AI [1].
  • The DHS has removed surveillance protections for certain LGBT+ individuals [2].
  • Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has told Cyber Command to just ignore Russia [3].
  • DOGE obtained read (and possibly) write access to the US Treasury data. This contains your PII such as Social Security Number, address, etc. [4].
  • A French scientist was denied entry into the US after texts critizing Trump were found on their personal devices [5].

Your privacy and the government

YOU might be a target of this administration, and your digital footprint could give you away. So, what can you do to protect your privacy?

  • Only using messaging apps that use end to end encryption. We recommend Signal, or as a fallback RCS (most networks in the US are using this now). SMS is not secure, do not use it.
  • Switch to a private and secure email product such as Proton Mail. Google and other large coporate-owned platforms are not private.
  • Download a VPN to all personal devices that you communicate with regularly. Proton Mail offers a companion VPN product, or you can check out Mullvad VPN if you are a bit more technical.
  • Enable full disk encryption on your devices.
  • Be mindful of what you post on social media, Google, or other companies that sell your data.
  • Disable location services and tracking when not actively needed.
  • ACAB, always. Know and use your rights!

Privacy browsing the Web

This is our recommend browser tier list in terms of who respects your privacy. Keep in mind that with the exception of Tor, any secure browser without a privacy respecting VPN is essentially useless.

  1. Tor Browser - Slow, but effective. This combined with a VPN is the best way shield your IP address. Some applications and protocols will not work over Tor, so you will need a backup browser.
  2. Mullvad Browser - a Firefox open-soure spin-off focused on user privacy.
  3. LibreWolf - This is Mozilla Firefox without the bloat and spyware.
  4. Brave - This is Chromium (the open source edition of Google Chrome) with additional tunings to respect your privacy.

Additional Resources

For further reading, check out these resources:

References:

  1. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy081nqx2zjo
  2. https://truthout.org/articles/dhs-scraps-surveillance-guardrails-for-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/
  3. https://www.newsweek.com/hegseth-cyber-russia-order-2038563
  4. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-elon-musk-doge-treasury-5e26cc80fcb766981cea56afd57ae759
  5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/20/french-scientist-us-entry-denied-texts-critical-trump/
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