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#privacy #security #mythbusting

00:00 Intro
00:27 Security = Privacy
01:51 Sponsor: Private and secure email with Proton Mail
02:52 Telemetry is evil
05:18 Tor is a honeypot
06:52 Big Companies are more secure
08:58 Incognito mode is private
09:55 VPNs are the only tool you need
11:02 Privacy is impossible
12:07 I have nothing to hide
13:27 Always research yourself
14:09 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux

Security = privacy

This one is obviously not true. Security and privacy aren't linked in any way. The general best practice is to find the services you need that have a good reputation for security, and among these services, try and find one that is private enough for your needs.

Telemetry is always bad

This is simply not true. Telemetry isn't always bad. The image we have of telemetry is that of Windows or macOS, but there are plenty of other ways to do telemetry.

In itself telemetry is a very useful thing: it lets projects or companies identify what is important, what they should fix first. It doesn't mean this data is used to profile you, or being sold to anyone.

If the company or project is something you trust, and that has no current business in data collection, or advertising, then it's probably not a problem.

Tor is an NSA honeypot

TOR is regularly accused of being a honeypot for the NSA. Something that is completely false, as far as anyone knows**

Yes, TOR is based on code developed by the US Navy. Funding for Tor also came from the US government, mostly. The code, however, is open source, and audited.

Is Tor entirely safe? Of course not. It's not a silver bullet, nothing is, and it can be vulnerable to man in the middle attacks or to specific types of monitoring, but it's not an NSA project that's designed to trap you.

Big companies are more secure

This statement is debatable. It's true in some cases. A recent report shows that smaller firms are 3 times more likely to be attacked than big businesses. 60% of cyberattacks seem to target smaller companies. But that's likelihood to be attacked, not necessarily successful attacks.

What is also true is that not all big tech companies are very good on the security front. So, while yes, bigger companies can be more secure than smaller ones, it's not a one size fits all thing, and what you need to look for is what kind of security the company you're interested in for a specific service or app has put in place.

Incognito mode is private

It isn't. What incognito mode does, is make you private locally, on your device, as it doesn't store data on what you've visited, your credentials, and the like.

Incognito mode doesn't, however, prevent websites from tracking you, or fingerprinting you.

VPNs are the only privacy tool you need

VPNs aren't a magical thing that instantly makes you private. Using a VPN will change your IP address and make you harder to track online, that's true. They're a good tool, but you need to make sure that the company that provides the VPN service doesn't log everything you do, and doesn't give these logs to various other actors. If you log into a service or website while using a VPN, it still knows it's you, obviously.

Privacy is impossible

This one has to be the most nefarious myth ever. Privacy is NOT impossible. It's not easy, but it's not impossible. Generally, this statement just betrays a lack of motivation. It will never be 100% perfect, but you can limit immensely what is known or collected about you.

I have nothing to hide

This is complete bogus. First, if you think you have nothing to hide, you're wrong. Everyone has something that might not be illegal, but might be deemed immoral or unacceptable by someone else.

Second, you might feel this way now, but circumstances change, and the data collected about you doesn't go away. By leaving all these tidbits of data stored everywhere, you're basically giving ammunition to the future.

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Linux often gets a bad rap when it comes to installing software, and this is mainly due to the fact that we have so many different application distribution formats. Most of them also are misunderstood, or have preconceived notions attached to them, so I think it’s time to take a look at the differences between the various packaging formats !

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There are 2 main package formats here: the DEB and RPM. Debs are used by Debian and debian based distros like Ubuntu, and RPMs are used by Fedora, Red Hat, or OpenSUSE. Both of these formats are usually pulled straight from the distribution’s repositories, or can be installed manually. They contain a binary version of the application or library you’re trying to install, so it’s already compiled for your system’s architecture.
These packages come with a descriptive file that also includes all the various libraries and other applications your program needs to be able to run.
These DEB and RPM packages have advantages: they’re fast to install, they’re already compiled for your architecture, and they pull all your dependencies immediately if they’re available. They do have problems though: first, since these packages are distro-specific, app developers need to package their app for multiple distros, multiple versions, and architectures of these distributions.

To fix these problems, the Flatpak format was created. This one differs from the packages in a very important way: while flatpaks are also shipped as binaries, so no compilation needed, they also embark all the libraries they need directly in the package. They can also used shared libraries provided in other flatpaks.

Flatpaks are also relatively quick to install, and can be pulled from repositories called remotes. The biggest one out there is Flathub, which sources most available flatpak applications.

Flatpaks also introduce some issues, mainly in terms of security: while flatpaks are sandboxed, they still can provide outdated versions of libraries that light or might not be kept up to date by the developer.
They also use up more space. Flatpaks can run on any distro that have the flatpak package installed, and can be downloaded from most distro’s software centers if they have added the flathub remote.

Snaps are based on the same model generally as flatpaks: they are binary applications shipped in a single package with their own dependencies. They can also make use of runtimes, and are sandboxed as well to avoid the snaps being able to see or read everything you have on your system.

Snaps have an interesting difference though: they can also ship server stuff. While flatpaks are mainly geared towards graphical applications, snaps can contain pure command line packages. Another difference is that snaps can be updated while they are in use, and can receive delta updates. Snaps can also revert to the previous version easily.

Snaps do have some problems though: first, they don’t make use of the system theme. Second, they can’t use external repositories: all snaps are shipped through snapcraft, which is the “official” distribution center for these.

Snaps also tend to be bigger, and slower to launch than flatpaks or regular packages. Snaps can run on any distro that have access to snapd, the backend part of snaps.

Appimages are yet another way to distribute applications in a single contained package. They use the “one app one file” method: an appimage ships all the files needed, and all the libraries as well, in a single file. They are not downloaded from a repo, but there is AppImage hub, a website that lists most if not all of the available Appimages.

These can just be downloaded manually and started immediately, wherever they are located on the system. No need to install runtimes, or shared components like Snaps or Flatpaks, you can just put your appimage anywhere and run it.

This means that appimages are super portable: to keep all your apps, you can just copy / past the appimages and you’re good to go.

This a a big advantage, but there are some issues there as well: first, you can’t update an appimage without downloading the new version yourself, so it’s a bit like apps on windows.
Appimages also don’t respect the system’s theme at all, and can get pretty big, since they don’t make use of share runtimes at all. Appimages can run on any distro, they don’t need any specific plumbing to work.