Wow. Our neighbors really want to learn about Internet privacy.

@patrick_townsend

What *I* need is a way to hire someone occasionally to coach me through some element or task related to privacy, security, and self-hosted services.

After you've started to use secure, privacy-oriented services and tools you start to think it would be nice to self-host your own VPN|personal cloud|media streamer|DNS adblocker. And maybe put the home network behind a network firewall. Oh, and hey, what is my ISP doing in my network, anyway?

There's a continuum of nerd need.

@patrick_townsend Awesome! I would love to do something similar around in my community as well!
Could you share your presentation? I struggle with being layman-y and non-techy, and go into deep-dive analytical at the drop of a hat(

@patrick_townsend Tiny nit: it's Mullvad, not MullVAD. The Swedish word mullvad is the animal mole, which is probably where they got it from.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullvad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_mole

@patrick_townsend
This is really awesome to hear! I've been thinking of ways to get my local community that are involved in these issues and it's very hardening to hear what great success you had.

@patrick_townsend wow that is amazing!

From another Patrick here, your friends and neighbours might enjoy our #BigTechWalkout programme - slowly going through all your tech and replacing it with ethical, #privacy focused alternatives:

https://blog.rebeltechalliance.org/the-big-tech-walkout-2026/

@patrick_townsend I've been writing about a very narrow aspect of privacy, cell phone privacy during protests. The snoring is deafening.

@Yoshi Yes, I totally get it. I've had the same experience. I almost blew off the invite to talk at the neighborhood event. I'm glad I didn't.

I do think recent events are sinking in and creating new interest in privacy. I am going to approach some other local organizations soon.

@patrickleavy

Oh, goody! I am looking forward to digging into this. We are in desperate need of a migration path out of this surveillance mess.

I am sure you have methods of evaluating privacy in applications. It goes beyond just the technical, doesn't it? I wrote my own thoughts about this here:

https://mypersonalprivacy.net/a-model-for-assessing-privacy-in-internet-applications/

Not very detailed and I think I could refine this. But maybe it will be helpful.

@patrick_townsend that's great - yes we consider the non technical. Particularly the extent of the encryption, and the business model. Company ownership structure is a big one - if for-profit and have taken VC money, then enshittication is incoming!
Open source preferred, of course.

For absolute noobs start them on the 2025 programme. That's also linked in that link I sent.

Our main site is here https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/

@alisynthesis That's awesome! It would be great to hear what you've learned about doing this effectively. I feel like I am still on a learning curve.

@patrick_townsend hey there! I know this is going to get lost in my notifications soon, but I would love to keep in touch on this. Here's the page on my website I made to organize some of this material last year: https://alisonwilder.com/digital-reboot/

Feel free to reach out via my site if you want to chat about it sometime! Would love to talk with someone else who's doing this kind of thing.

Wow. Our neighbors really want to learn about Internet privacy.

My local neighborhood group invited me to make a presentation on privacy at their monthly meeting. I was a little hesitant at first. I have done a lot of classes and seminars in corporate conference settings over the years. But these were my friends and neighbors and most of them are not technical in matters of security and privacy. I was not sure I could give a talk that wasn’t totally nerdy and boring. But I could see and feel the need and agreed to do it.

The response was incredible!

People filled up a living room, kitchen and hallway of the host family. What I thought would be a quick 20-minute presentation turned into an hour-long animated session. There was clearly a strong desire to use more private applications on the Internet, and a willingness to jump in and give it a try.

So, this is a call-out to all of my colleagues in the IT space. You have a role to play in defending our democracy and

YOU ARE NEEDED!

Here are some thoughts that might help you get started:

• Find a local neighborhood group that might be open to a short presentation, talk to the leaders and schedule a time and date.
• Plan on a 30 to 45 minute presentation. (Hint: it might go longer).
• At the meeting introduce yourself and your background. This builds trust.
• Explain the difference between Security and Privacy. (Hint: Google and Facebook are secure, but not private. Signal and Proton Mail are secure AND private).
• Keep it simple – focus on 3 to 5 applications to recommend. (See note below).
• Leave time for questions! There will be questions.
• Take a handout. One page or two pages with suggestions and resources should be enough.
• Remember – Privacy covers a lot of territory and you will only scratch the surface. That is OK. You will help people get started and this will empower them.

Have fun! You nerds are going to make new friends!

Here are the applications I recommend:

• Signal for messaging, phone calls, video calls and groups.
• Proton Mail for email (also has a suite of applications like Google).
• A VPN from MullVAD, NordVPN or Proton.
• Browsers from Tor or MullVAD with the DuckDuckGo search engine.

You will find other recommendations for AI, 2FA and Burner phones on the My Personal Privacy website (see below).

Some suggestions on the meeting presentation:

• There will be things you don’t know – don’t fake it, just tell people you will do the research and get back to them. This will build trust.
• The presentation does not have to be technical or use technical jargon. Keep it simple.
• Don’t spend too much time on any one question. If a question needs more time to answer, I suggest doing a one-on-one after the meeting, or follow up via email.
• Have a hand out. This will help people remember your comments after the meeting is over.
• If you are comfortable with this, give people your email address (Proton Mail, of course.)

Here are some resources you can share with your neighbors:

My Personal Privacy website. There are free, downloadable guides for privacy applications that you can hand out:
https://MyPersonalPrivacy.net

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (but warn people off of WhatsApp):
https://ssd.eff.org/

If you have questions you can DM me here, or contact me at this email address (Proton Mail, of course!):

mypersonalprivacy1@protonmail.com

Stay safe.

Patrick