2024 has drawn to a close at The New Oil. Here’s how things went for us. !--more-- 2024 Goals Last years goals were mostly not met, but I think some of them had some legitimate reasons. Let me start with Namecheap. It turns out, Namecheap doesn’t simply rent standalone VPS’s, … | Continue reading
What does it take to truly opt out of invasive online tracking, creepy or unwelcome targeted ads, and data collection that you never meaningfully agreed to? In recent years apps and services have been advertising their alleged privacy features but - no surprise - it turns out tha … | Continue reading
Today is Computer Security Day. While not a high profile holiday, I of course can’t miss the opportunity to bring it up because in our increasingly digital world, cybersecurity likewise becomes increasingly important. Nearly everything in our lives are now basically repurposed co … | Continue reading
Black Friday is quickly bearing down upon us. For those not in the know, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US, and traditionally marks the official start of Christmas shopping season, and as such, many vendors, retailers, and manufacturers offer steep discounts on … | Continue reading
It’s the gift-giving season, and the last time I wrote a blog post like this was four years go. My, how time flies. Anyways, I thought it might be nice to revisit this topic. As I said last time I did this, your mileage may vary. Not everyone will appreciate these or have the tec … | Continue reading
For many, this month is when gift-giving season officially begins in the United States (and several other places, I presume) thanks to Black Friday, which is quickly consuming most of November in many cases. As a result, even though online shopping is something most of us engage … | Continue reading
Disclosure: we have an affiliate link with Proton VPN that gives us a small financial payout if you sign up for a paid plan using it. You can see our policy regarding affiliate links here. What is a VPN? If you found this page via a web search, there’s a possibility you’re not … | Continue reading
I am a firm believer that there are many privacy techniques you should focus on before encrypted messaging because they will offer you much more “bang for your buck,” things like good passwords, two-factor authentication, and even encrypted email. That said, I still believe that … | Continue reading
There are many ways to describe Voice-over-IP, or VoIP. I've seen it called an anonymous, internet, alias, or throwaway phone number (and more). Regardless of the name, I personally consider VoIP to be a healthy part of a good privacy and security strategy. The advantages are end … | Continue reading
As some of you may have noticed, TNO hasn't really been updated in a hot minute. I was working on a major overhaul, one that deserves a blog post. Let's talk about it. !--more-- Auditing Devices The single biggest new change is that we've added a page about how to audit your d … | Continue reading
In recent weeks, I’ve noticed a rise in censorship regarding SMS communication that’s not being discussed. At all. I’m concerned that it may become a slippery slope that eventually effects us all. I don’t have any dramatic, prose-ridden introduction this week. Just some news, fac … | Continue reading
Email aliasing is one of the most underrated privacy techniques that has yet to go mainstream. For the privacy-conscious user, it offers a degree of separation between all your accounts, making it harder for data brokers to correlate your various accounts across different service … | Continue reading
When I announced I would be closing my communities earlier this year, a curious thing happened: a surprising number of regulars replied with some variation of “I think this is my exit.” While some were specifically talking about Matrix, claiming that mine was the only room they w … | Continue reading
Things are a little crazy here in the US right now – as is our perpetual state of existence these days - so I thought now might be a good time to revisit my 2020 blog post about protesting, surveillance, privacy and security. For the cynics in the crowd, I want to make it clear t … | Continue reading
Like it or not, email is a critical part of our digital lives. It’s how we sign up for accounts, get notifications, and communicate with a wide range of entities online. Critics of email rightfully point out that email suffers from a significant number of flaws that make it less … | Continue reading
A few years ago, minimalism was all the rage. Marie Kondo was on every TV, The Minimalists were in everyone's podcast feed, and I found myself confused, regretting not having started a blog or something years ago. I've always been a bit of a minimalist myself, and it had never oc … | Continue reading
The internet is full of outdated cybersecurity advice that just won’t die but should, like “public WiFi is unsafe” and “you should change your passwords regularly.” For the more pedantic in the crowd, yes, these pieces of “advice” do have tiny grains of truth under the layers of … | Continue reading
This weekend in the United States, taxes are due. For the more responsible readers – aka “everyone but me” – this was probably already done weeks - if not months - ago. But don’t worry. Taxes will roll around again the same time next year, as inevitable as death itself as the fam … | Continue reading
Identity theft is a common cause of anxiety in modern society, and it's pretty justifiable. According to a recent survey from US News, almost three quarters of adults have experienced at least one case of identity theft, and 27% have experienced more than one. In 2022 there were … | Continue reading
Cloud storage has become ubiquitous in modern society. The most widely-used example, I think, is the one that comes prebundled with our phones in the form of Google Drive or iCloud, but many desktop devices also come preloaded with iCloud or Dropbox (and we often add our own like … | Continue reading
From the beginning I’ve always said this blog would be used to communicate major changes with the site in addition to reviews, ideas, etc. It’s been hard over the years to know what changes are big enough to warrant a full blog post, and which ones I should just let users see in … | Continue reading
There are many enemies of privacy. There are politicians claiming the (at best) misguided pretense of “protecting the children,” intelligence agencies claiming “national security,” companies claiming to give us “the best experience” or serve us the most relevant ads, and even ind … | Continue reading
2023 was a record-breaking year for cybersecurity in a bad way. Ransomware payments hit a record high of $1.1 billion, which is likely to... | Continue reading
In an era where our lives are intricately intertwined with technology, the concept of cybersecurity has become paramount. One need look n... | Continue reading
Last week, encrypted email, cloud, and calendar provider Skiff announced they will be shutting down in six months after being acquired by... | Continue reading
Love it or hate it, online dating is here to stay. According to Pew Research, 30% of US adults say they’ve used online dating sites or ap... | Continue reading
In an era where the internet has become an integral part of our daily lives, it's crucial to prioritize online safety. Safer Internet Day... | Continue reading
At the time of publication, tomorrow is International Data Privacy Day. Like most “days” of this sort, the focus is on spreading awarenes... | Continue reading
As a veteran, my approach to healthcare and job opportunities has always been different than most. I’ve always been in reasonably good he... | Continue reading
Every year, I like to remind everyone to go back to the basics. For those who are new to privacy and security and may be trying to create... | Continue reading
Another year at The New Oil draws to a close. Let's discuss. 2023 Goals Last year, I kept my goals small. I stated that my main goals w... | Continue reading
This month, gift-giving season officially beginning in the United States (and several other places, I presume). It kicks off in full with... | Continue reading
I'll keep this one brief: there's a lot going on behind-the-scenes at TNO and there's always more to do, but I'm incredibly excited to an... | Continue reading
This is an out-of-band blog post. If you're reading this (not on the day it was published via your usual subscription channels but instea... | Continue reading
If you haven’t read last week’s post, I highly recommend it to get up to speed. A quick recap for those who may have forgotten: The Priva... | Continue reading
Many of you may have come across this blog post from The Privacy Dad, which serves as a follow up to a previous post titled “Privacy Tool... | Continue reading
Disclosure: I have an affiliate link with Proton VPN that gives me a small financial payout if you sign up for a paid plan using it. You ... | Continue reading
Password managers are thankfully becoming a mainstream topic. In addition to seeing commercials for certain ones from time to time, it’s ... | Continue reading
What is Threema & Why Do You Need It? Threema is an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messenger available on Android, and iOS. Linux, Mac, Win... | Continue reading
About nine months ago, Henry and I made a comment on Surveillance Report 106 about how there's not enough privacy content out there aimed... | Continue reading
Disclosure: I have an affiliate link with SimpleLogin that gives me credit towards my own SL account. You do not have to use this link, I... | Continue reading
Did you know that drinking too much water can kill you? (You'd have to really chug a lot of it do so, so don't really worry about it, but... | Continue reading
Amazon’s now-legendary “Prime Day” is July 11-12. Boy that sneaks up on you fast when you avoid them and don't have ads in your life. Muc... | Continue reading
A few months ago, as my wife and I sat in the study doing out separate things, she suddenly asked if I noticed a certain smell in the roo... | Continue reading
What is Mullvad VPN? A VPN is a service that creates an encrypted tunnel between the device and the provider's server, protecting all yo... | Continue reading
Buckle up. This is going to be a very long post. In the past week, I’ve had a number of people ask me the same question: namely what are... | Continue reading
Among the more hardcore privacy enthusiasts, the cloud is anathema. To be fair, this isn't a bad philosophy - the saying that the cloud i... | Continue reading
As some of you probably noticed, I've been pretty absent for nearly a month. I apologize for that. First we had a move that ended up suck... | Continue reading