[Security Discussion] sancho_panzer:
== THREAD PURPOSE ==

I'm opening this thread to share and learn ideas about privacy solutions, please respect the purpose and keep this thread clean. My main language isn't English so if you spot errors or omissions please PM to me so I can correct them. Thank you.

All trolling or demotivating posts, disbelieving about privacy concerns or defending Google honor will be reported for cleaning.

== PROBLEM, HYPOTHESIS, TESTS, CONCLUSION ==

For years I've been very annoyed about privacy abuse on Internet and since Snowden and Assange revelations my concerns raised. I'm sure my personal and professional life is common and boring but I want privacy with my things just like I don't want a guy next table in the coffee shop listening to my talking subjects.

My first decision was to deploy a personal server, in my home, with OwnCloud. All went fine for some months until I realized the pain it was maintaining the system working, from server attacks and system fails to energy bills nothing could justify such paranoia. The OwnCloud Android client was also very bad those days.

The second idea was hosting OwnCloud and mail services on a private host, but this didn't made any sense because data wasn't encrypted and every employee could easily see my thermonuclear projects and my banana pancakes secret recipes. It was also a paid solution for nothing.

Finally I thought "If you're using German services you should be fine, Germany privacy data laws are the toughest in the world (even better than Swiss in this matter)". I'm in Europe so using European services was a no brainier decision, preferably in Germany and owned by German companies. Yes, I know you can't trust anyone but even so I think it's a well balanced solution.

== SERVICES ==

These are my services right now, share yours and try to justify why they're equal or even better. This list will be changed as needed:

Mail - GMX (Germany)

- Generally I really don't like 1&1 services but GMX is really good and working only on European servers. I advise you to don't use their other service, mail.com, because this one use USA servers. Unfortunately all other free German providers have low storage space. If you're willing to pay for privacy try Dutch StartMail but it's beta at the moment.

Contacts & calendar - fruux (Germany)

- Amazing services, great philosophy. For privacy and decentralization purposes I've opt for don't have this services on my mail provider. Unfortunately their servers are on Amazon Ireland, but I believe fruux have implemented cryptographic code on their system.

Cloud - HiDrive (Germany)

- I NEVER upload sensitive information to the cloud, even encrypted (remember Heartbleed and AES backdoor theory?). I was using Wuala for years but gave up after have been acquired by LaCie (USA). Tresorit shouldn't be trusted either, they're using Microsoft Azure servers, each uploaded and shared link pass through USA. Mega is darkness, I don't like the smell of it.

Apps - F-Droid (UK/France)

- FOSS is the way you should go, F-Droid is the obvious choice. F-Droid client was forked from Aptoide's source code.

Aptoide (Portugal) it's good but not consensual. Recently they're processing Google with Antitrust Complaint in EU proving they're concerned. You can only trust Aptoide IF you choose to install apps from their main centralized store (the default one, be ware and

don't trust any other user store

). http://m.aptoide.com/about

If you can't find what you're looking for then you can use Blank Store or Opera Mobile Store. Never choose Amazon Appstore, apps installed from there have proprietary code inserted.

Search engines - DuckDuckGo (USA!)

- Technically DuckDuckGo is a meta-search engine. It's amazingly good and you have lots of options to choose (did you know you can directly search images from Google if you search !gi [image you're searching for]?).

Another great alternative is Startpage (Netherlands).

== ANDROID SYSTEM ==

My Android system:

- CyanogenMod + freecyngn + NOGAPPS + SuperSU

- TWRP recovery

- Hardening Android for Security and Privacy

== APPS ==

My essential apps are:

Apps client - F-Droid (FOSS)

- See services above.

Privacy and cleaning - AdAway and AFWall+ (both OSS)

- Obvious choices on each privacy concerned system. Block almost everything, trust no one.

Android browser - Boat (proprietary code)

- I just love the options, specs, interface and speed. I know this choice will be highly controversial for some because it's a Chinese made browser, but isn't a cloud browser (like the also Chinese Maxthon) and it's really easy to firewall it from calling home (something somehow difficult with Dolphin). The obvious FOSS choice for almost everyone would be Firefox but I really hate their Android app and I have some bad thoughts about their Google connections. The FOSS best shot would be Tint or Lightning, but they're rather limited and AOSP it's even worse. Chrome it's obviously excluded for privacy sake.

Boat devs also used to be active on Xda with many supporters. For security precautions block port range 192.241.158.0/24 and 211.151.0.0/24.

Email app - K-9 (FOSS)

- The oldest, most forked and trusted email client. Needs a deep design/interface Overhaulin' (hey, Chip Foose...)

Contacts and calendar sync - Fruux + Birthday Adapter (FOSS)

- See services above.

Password & confidential safe - KeePassDroid (FOSS)

- Believe me, I don't know a single password of my accounts and I have hundreds. The only really big and complex password I know is the one from KeePass.

Antivirus - NONE, JUST DON'T

- I will not discuss here about the needs or true benefits of these apps but I can assure your data is leaking each time you go online. All them claim about privacy but they're always collecting "unidentifiable data".

== I will post links for everything soon. Please include links in your posts when justified. Thanks. ==