Will Williams wrote:For various reasons I'm finally going to be forced to get a "smart phone." Any recommendations? Will having one put me in the matrix?
I'll still not do Facebook or Tweet.
That's a good start to privacy.
Now while phones are inherently insecure, there are a few things you can try doing. If you
have to get a "smart" phone, I would insist on using Android over Blackberry or Apple.
One easy way to stay safe is to use
free programs and services (free as in freedom, not necessarily financially free).
Instead of using email providers like Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Yandex Mail, or
even Hushmail, use
any of these privacy-conscious email services.
Instead of using file storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft's OneDrive, use
ownCloud.
For fiances, look into
Bitcoin or
Litecoin instead of PayPal.
WeUseCoins is a helpful guide for newbies.
Please note that new, digital currencies may be very volatile. Complete loss of your investment is possible for a number of reasons (software errors or attacks, identity theft, etc.) That being said, I strongly encourage all members (as well as the National Alliance as an organization) to look into various decentralized crypto-currencies as potential payment options. This allows people to donate anonymously, which may be of vital importance in oppressive countries.
Instead of AOL Instant Messenger, Apple Messages, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Skype, Trillian, VIber Messenger, or WhatsApp, try
ChatSecure (awesome guide
here),
Cryptocat,
Linphone, or
Xabber.
The only web browser you should be using on your phone (or desktop, for that matter) is Firefox. Ditch Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Yandex Browser, and any other internet browser. For the most anonymous web browsing, use
Tor (
Orbot on mobile), but do not use this to log into any website that can be used to identify you. In other words, use Tor/Orbot to look up how to treat an ailment you don't want anyone else to know about, but do not use Tor/Orbot for banking. Also note that due to the heavy amount of encryption, your browsing speed while using Tor will be slow, so refrain from downloading large files.
Use
DuckDuckGo or
startpage rather than Bing, Google, Yahoo, or Yandex.
Avoid Apple Maps, Bing Maps, and Google Earth.
OsmAnd or
OpenStreetMap do not keep logs of your searches like proprietary services do.
Here is a guide on making your phone as secure as possible, but it requires that you have any flavor of Linux installed on your computer instead of OS X or Windows.
Although the battle for security is a difficult one, each step to stay safer from threats helps.