My De-Google Strategy

As my de-Google project progresses, I realized that I skipped the most important step: reconnaissance. Before you can de-Google your life, you need to first make a list of the Google products and services you interact with – and not all of them have “Google” in their names. Google also owns YouTube, Waze, Nest, Fitbit, Chromebooks, and much more. Furthermore, you need to know and understand what information Google already knows about you. And while you’re doing that, you should delete all the existing data and prevent further collection. Thankfully, Google provides several tools to help you do this (most likely due to regulations like GDPR and CCPA). I’ll help you create your personal de-Google to-do list.

In other news: today I’m launching a massive giveaway promotion to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the podcast!! Also, 100 million Samsung phones shipped with horrible security flaws; Nvidia hackers are pressuring the company to turn off cryptocurrency mining limitations; the (Russian) Conti and TrickBot ransomware operations have been hacked; details of 120,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine have been leaked (on purpose); the US Senate has passed landmark cybersecurity legislation in light of the rising cyber warfare threat; and the ACLU has published a sobering report about a mass surveillance company called Flock (no relation to Google’s FLoC).

Article Links

1. 100 Million Samsung Phones Shipped With Flawed Encryption https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/100-million-samsung-phones-shipped-with-flawed-encryption-galaxy-s8-to-s21-series-cryptographic-keys-trivial-to-expose/ 
2. Nvidia Hackers Threaten to Release Mining-Limiter Killer https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-hackers-threaten-to-release-lhr-performance-limiter 
3. Conti Ransomware source code leaked by Ukrainian researcher https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/conti-ransomware-source-code-leaked-by-ukrainian-researcher/ 
4. Details of ‘120,000 Russian soldiers’ leaked by Ukrainian media https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/02/russian_soldier_leaks/ 
5. Senate passes cybersecurity act forcing orgs to report cyberattacks, ransom payments https://www.zdnet.com/article/senate-passes-cybersecurity-act-forcing-critical-infrastructure-orgs-to-report-cyberattacks-ransom-payments/ 
6. Fast-Growing Company Flock is Building a New AI-Driven Mass-Surveillance System https://www.aclu.org/report/fast-growing-company-flock-building-new-ai-driven-mass-surveillance-system 
7. My De-Google Strategy: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/my-de-google-strategy/ 
8. Lawrence Lessig’s article: https://medium.lessig.org/crowdsourced-war-b5774c0ca7b5 

Further Info

• 5th Anniversary Giveaway!! Details will be posted this week on my blog – keep your eye out on my main website! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/
• Check out Techlore: https://techlore.tech/ 
• Conti Ransomware report from Krebs On Security: 
  • https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/conti-ransomware-group-diaries-part-i-evasion/ 
  • https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/conti-ransomware-group-diaries-part-ii-the-office/ 
  • https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/conti-ransomware-group-diaries-part-iii-weaponry/ 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/newsletter/new-newsletter/
• Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
• Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/privacy? http://bit.ly/Firewalls-Speaker
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/