Jonah Aragon creates educational resources that help people 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.
My opinion on Firefox and similar privacy-focused web browsers was sought as part of a larger WIRED story on the current state of Mozilla and Firefox: Read the full story on WIRED Read on Ars Technica […] Firefox’s privacy credentials are about as strong as any of its commercial rivals. “The main thing with Firefox is how extensible it is,” says Jonah Aragon, a system administrator who also helps run the recommendation website Privacy Guides....
I wrote this piece as a response to (and general agreement with) The Real Privacy Enemy is Ourselves by Henry from Techlore, which is a very interesting read. I do work on the Techlore YouTube channel and online community myself. Toxicity and fanboyism is a big problem in many niche online subcultures (Linux community, Android vs iOS, etc.), but it’s especially hard to keep seeing it crop up again and again in the privacy community — such an important topic we’re very involved with on a daily basis....
I participated in a livestreamed Q&A on the Techlore YouTube channel, answering viewer questions about privacy and security topics. Watch the stream on YouTube
I originally wrote this piece for the Privacy Guides blog, although the information herein has been largely superseded by my contributions to their Threat Modeling and Common Threats pages, which I recommend exploring. The major trade-off with many privacy-centric services and software I’ve seen is that in general, the more private and secure something is, the more restricting or less convenient it is. This balancing act between high security and privacy, and usability and convenience is one of the trickiest problems to overcome both when creating software and services and when choosing which services to use....
Matrix is a modern, open standard for decentralized communications. It boasts a production-ready specification maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation and it’s being used by anyone from small hobbyist collectives to national governments. Essentially, it’s an instant messaging service, but one that can be under your complete control: Your data won’t be snooped through by Big Tech organizations, and it won’t stop existing because one company decides they want to shut it down....
Everything on your computer — your photos and documents, the programs you use, and even the operating system itself — is stored on your hard drive. If your hard drive is too slow, you get frustrated when your computer and programs take multiple seconds or minutes to open completely. For many users, a slow hard drive affects performance more obviously than any other component. Luckily, there is a solution: a Solid State Drive (SSD)....
Everyone has important digital files these days. Maybe your family photo albums are stored on your computer, or you have important documents you need in order to keep track of your finances or run your business. Whatever the case may be, that data is important and it would be devastating to lose. Hard drives — even SSDs — fail all the time, sometimes even out of the blue. A good backup routine is the most important thing you can do to keep those files safe....
Parenting gives you no shortage of things to worry about for your children, and technology is no exception. The digital world is as commonplace at school and daycare as it is at home. Children are alone with technology from a very young age. You’ll want to make sure your children are safe online, aren’t misusing apps, and aren’t making accidental in-app purchases. You’ll also want to make sure your child stays engaged with the world around them....