Take matters into your own hands if you want to protect your privacy

Jun 5, 2014 09:53 GMT  ·  By

“Don’t ask for your privacy. Take it back,” urges the Reset the Net campaign that seeks to put an end to mass surveillance.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who made this discussion possible, backs the campaign and he has issued a statement of his own.

“I’m asking you to join me on June 5th for Reset the Net, when people and companies all over the world will come together to implement the technological solutions that can put an end to the mass surveillance programs of any government. This is the beginning of a moment where we the people begin to protect our universal human rights with the laws of nature rather than the laws of nations,” Snowden wrote.

The whistleblower says that the technology exists, so adopting encryption is the first effective step that everyone can take to end mass surveillance.

Basically, Reset the Net wants to teach people how to circumvent the world’s governments and take what they won’t give them – privacy; while teach them that national security can’t be used as an excuse to violate people’s privacy.

How do you take your privacy back? Well, the campaign has listed several tools that will help you stay safe and which will surely get a lot of downloads starting today.

For instance, in order to protect your phone, you can download ChatSecure, TextSecure or RedPhone, which can protect messages and phone calls. Creating unique passwords and enabling two-step verification for your online services also helps increase your online safety and privacy.

Secure chat tool Adium is recommended for Mac users, while Pidgin works well for Windows users. When it comes to browsing, Tor is the go-to tool.

There are additional steps that you can take. For instance, the organizers of Reset the Net advise people to encrypt their phones and to choose a 10-digit PIN for cases when the device gets stolen, lost or becomes seized by authorities for whatever reason.

Firefox can be used to sync passwords and install privacy protecting extensions like AdBlock Plus, HTTPS Everywhere and more. For anonymous browsers, Orbot and Orweb work perfectly, while the tech savvy can use K-9 and APG to encrypt their emails.

Dozens of companies have shown their support for the campaign, including Google, Mozilla, Reddit, and CloudFlare, but also organizations such as Fight for the Future, EFF, ACLU, Greenpeace, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Restore the Fourth, and the Pirate Party, to name a few.