Hi, I’m Jonah 👋

Jonah Aragon is creating educational resources for average people to understand the importance of privacy and security on the internet, and take back control over their digital lives.

He is known for his work on the Techlore YouTube channel, including the Techlore Talks podcast he co-hosts, and the Privacy Guides non-profit website.

Bluesky Social's Advantages and Disadvantages Explained

Bluesky Social is one of the biggest contenders in the fight to replace Twitter, but does it live up to its goals? I’ve been using Bluesky for a few weeks now, and I want to highlight some of its advantages over other popular competitors like Mastodon, and explain why I think it still has a long ways to go before it makes sense. { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "VideoObject", "name": "...

May 18, 2023 · Jonah Aragon

Passkeys: Good or Bad?

Passkeys have really started taking off since Apple and Google announced native support for them in iOS and Android. They’ve been in the news again recently, because earlier this month Google announced support for passwordless authentication for Google accounts with Passkeys. So, with big tech companies seemingly going all-in on this technology, I want to take a look at how they work, whether they’re better than passwords, and whether they’re actually as private as Google claims....

May 9, 2023 · 1122 words · Jonah Aragon

The Watchman Privacy Podcast (Episode 62)

Niek de Wilde (a fellow Privacy Guides contributor) and I spoke with Gabriel Custodiet of Watchman Privacy about Privacy Guides, staying safe online, and other privacy-related topics. “Crowd-Sourced Digital Privacy: PrivacyGuides.org” Listen on YouTube

April 13, 2023 · Gabriel Custodiet

The RESTRICT Act Will Not Improve Privacy in America

Privacy advocates have been calling for the United States to adopt strong consumer privacy protection laws along the lines of the EU’s GDPR for a long time now, but the proposed Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act ain’t it, chief. Terrible acronym aside, the RESTRICT Act claims to… empower the United States government to prevent certain foreign governments from exploiting technology services operating in the United States in a way that poses risks to Americans’ sensitive data and our national security....

March 30, 2023 · 1040 words · Jonah Aragon

Linus Tech Tips Hacked. Who's to Blame?

First, some background: Henry and I discussed this topic on Episode 8 of the Techlore Talks podcast, and if you watch YouTube yourself and haven’t been living under a rock, you probably already know: Early in the morning (Pacific Time), Linus Media Group’s (LMG) three biggest channels were hacked, with the branding changed and livestreams posted promoting cryptocurrency scams. Within a matter of hours, all three channels were completely gone, with links to the channels and any of their videos reporting that the channels had been terminated for YouTube community guideline violations....

March 24, 2023 · 1606 words · Jonah Aragon

Linus Tech Tips Hacked. What Happened? (Techlore Talks 8)

LTT got hacked, general chit-chat on what we think went wrong, as well as other discussions regarding general security issues recently, with some Linux security bits. March 24th update: We got a lot right! Read the follow-up post Listen on Substack Listen on YouTube 00:00 LTT Hack 11:38 When Henry Met Linus 14:41 More on YouTube security and LTT 22:31 Jonah’s growing aversion to tech 27:28 Recent security issues (Google Vulnerabilities)...

March 23, 2023 · Jonah Aragon

Quad9 vs Sony, The State of Linux Phones & More (Techlore Talks 7)

Today we discuss a lot of topics that were on our mind… Listen on Substack (TBA) Listen on YouTube 00:00 Introduction 00:25 Bluesky, Facebook’s Federated Platform, & others 03:27 Librem 5 Refund, & State of Linux Phones 08:05 Cerebral selling private health data 09:21 A lot on HIPAA… 15:11 Browser profiles, & Jonah’s Arc experience 19:11 South Park Worldwide Privacy Tour episode 21:12 F-Droid getting faster repo updates...

March 11, 2023 · Jonah Aragon

Is There an Oversaturation of FOSS Projects? (Techlore Talks 6)

Are there too many open source projects? Or too many of the wrong type? Or is everything a-okay? Today we chat about what feels like the oversaturation of FOSS. Listen on Substack Listen on YouTube

January 13, 2023 · Jonah Aragon

Did Apple Just Fix iCloud's Security? (Techlore Talks 5)

Apple’s newest security & privacy changes, like E2EE for more iCloud services is here! But it’s not all great news. Listen on Substack Listen on YouTube

December 10, 2022 · Jonah Aragon

In Defense of Internet Anonymity

Despite its occasional abuse, anonymity online is a valuable privilege that cannot be given up nor taken for granted. In Techlore Talks #4, Henry and I discussed freedom of speech, anonymity on the internet, and the content moderation policies of online platforms. Certainly these are hot topics in this day and age, precisely because there are no clear-cut answers. In the episode, Henry posed the idea of a theoretical platform on the internet with strict identity verification, an idea which I feel has some merit: Anonymity online is too often abused in the modern day by malicious actors to spread disinformation and hateful ideas while skirting any potential consequences....

October 30, 2022 · 593 words · Jonah Aragon