There is no such thing as having too many tools and resources at your disposal to protect your privacy. However, the best tool you can use to protect yourself is end-to-end encryption.
In simple terms, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a type of encryption where data is encrypted throughout the whole process of going from one device to another. This means that only the sender and the receiver can see the data contents, no one else. Not the providers, companies, government, hackers, and other privacy invasive snoops. All data stays between the sender and receiver.
The benefits of E2EE should be clear, but here are a few to name. As stated above, it prevents anyone from snooping on your business. If you use a proper E2EE provider, they cannot access, sell, or share your data to ANYONE. E2EE can also protect you from hacks since they cannot access your data. It can also prevent tampering of data, ensuring its authenticity.
E2EE is a powerful tool. However, because of it's power, it unsurprisingly has opponents. Governments are the biggest opponent of E2EE since it means that they cannot gain easy access to individuals data. Measures such as the EU's Chat Control and Australia's actions towards Session show that governments are getting fed up with E2EE protocols and are trying to sabotage it. While these actions have not broken E2EE thus far, it shows that governments are trying to erode it any possible way and will not let up.
Because E2EE is a gold standard to protect your privacy, you should aim to use it as much in your digital life as possible. Phone calls, text messages, email, cloud storage, etc. This will give you a peace of mind that no one can access or make use of your data. Use reputable providers that support end-to-end encryption and use encryption software tools that encrypt your data for you when you can't.
Prominent providers that support E2EE include:
Proton
Tuta
Signal
Session
Nextcloud
Filen
Prominent encryption software tools include:
Cryptomator
Picocrypt
Do your own research on E2EE software. If you have any thoughts you like to share on E2EE, let me know in the comments.
Until Next Time,
Monique 🔐
Source:
What is end-to-end encryption and how does it work?
Additional Links for Further Reading:
European Court of Human Rights declares backdoored encryption is illegal