Fresh, untracked browser or two? Check. New secure email systems with masking set up? Check. Contacts and calendars switched over? Check. List of where your data is and what to do about it? Check and check. And let's not forget that handy external storage drive (which will fill up over the next twelve days).

Tomorrow, we'll start deleting your social media account and reducing your social footprint down to more like a toeprint. There is just one more new system to set up before we make that move, a system you'll need at the ready as you transition the relationships you want to keep off those toxic systems, and that is --

Secure instant messaging

You will need a secure messaging (and call-making) application so that you can transfer your contacts off the social platforms.Well, the ones you want to stay in touch with, that is. 

Incidentally, you will also transfer as many contacts as you regularly phone or text onto a secure platform as well.

Trust me, you need this level of encryption. Text messaging (SMS) and instant messaging are some of the most important, lightweight ways that we stay in touch with friends and family. But they are also absolutely the most insecure.

And this is a problem, as are now living in an era of world history where we all have recording devices in our pockets. Incidentally (or maybe not incidentally, you decide), our democratic systems and institutions are under strain at the same time.

On this, history is a brutal teacher. In moments of regime change, innocuous things said under one political context are reinterpreted as incriminating statements.

SMS -- short message service, or "texting" -- is the least secure system out there. The numbers you text and time and date stamps are stored by your phone company and can easily be accesed by the NSA. Any suspicion of you or your friends for any purposes is part of the data dragnet. You don't even need to act suspiciously--sometimes companies just want to collect this information so they have a baseline for identifying other people as suspicious. People who don't, for whatever good reason, act like you when you text your friends a million times in the middle of the season finale of your favorite Netflix series.

Any instant message platform doesn't just connect you to your peer. It connects you to your peer through that company's platform. That means the company, like Facebook, reads all your messages. It associates all those messages with your user ID. It knows what you like and what you talk about and who you talk to and the silliest and most serious things you say to them.

Gchat is also a direct line to Google headquarters. I remember when I first mentioned to my best friend that I was engaged over Gchat--it wasn't two minutes before I started seeing ads for dresses and bridesmaids retreats. They are using it not only to profile you but also to build their AI systems. The company you work for will buy their AI system and use the excuse to put you out of a job, leaving you with -- oh wait, ads. Hyper targeted ads, at least, but I hope you'll agree this is a pitiful trade.

You need to ensure that your most intimate, thoughtless, fleeting conversations never come back to haunt you. Or any of your friends, for that matter. And you need to do this immediately, else there is no reason to get off social media systems or other platforms that track, trace, and record you.

Virtue Signal-ing

For this there is really only one true option: Signal. Signal is dedicated to encryption all the way. Any message you send to another Signal user cannot be de-encrypted.

Why do I need Signal? I hear you protest. I already have WhatsApp and that uses the Signal encryption. So does Facebook messager!

The Signal app is different. First, it's run by the Signal Foundation, so it is not a corporate entity. It's not responsible for making money or achieving growth targets. It's not run by a billionaire who will capriciously change tack while you use it. It is pure privacy, pure encryption, all the way down.

WhatsApp uses Signal's encryption systems but they are not independent and not private. And the more active users those systems have, the happier investors and stakeholders in Facebook are.

While you message your mom or the parents in your kids' class on WhatsApp you are personally enriching Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently outfitting an entire island in Hawaii with his personal bunker to ensure he and his family survive the social unrest his platforms are brewing--and you don't.

Apple's iMessage? Or Microsoft? Does anyone still use MSN anymore? Look, you need Signal. You need both the encryption and the independence. I mean, you could run your own instant message service (yes you can, I've done it) so you own the data, but you can't guarantee end-to-end encyrption.

Just get Signal -- it's easy.

Install Signal

Start by downloading Signal for your phone (Android or iOS) and your desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux.)

Follow these instructions to set your account up.

You have to get a Signal account using your phone first. Verification comes to your phone number. You will also get a signal user ID so you don't have to give your phone number out. Regardless, you'll need to go through the signup process on your phone.

Then you can sign in on your desktop to have instant messaging with you whereever you go. Note that when you sign in on desktop for the first time, you'll have to scan a QR code on your phone to link your account. 

Make sure you get a Signal Username set up. This is not an account, it's just a "mask" for your number that you can give this out to people when you're ready, so you're not handing your phone number around all the time.

Adjust your settings so that it does not display your phone number to everyone.

That's really it.

Import your social network

Now that you have Signal installed, have a look through your top instant messaging services. Who are the people you message the most?

Look through your text messages. Which contacts do you text the most?

Open your text message or instant message app and send them each individually a message (don't group text this, they don't need to have each others' numbers) saying:

"In the interest of taking better care of my personal data, I've moved to Signal! Please message me there at [insert your userID or phone number here]."

Signal has a whole page showing you how to invite your friends. On your Signal app, you can check contacts and the app will show you if people you know are on Signal. If you recognize close friends with an account, send them a message to exchange security numbers and get set up to chat.

You can host group texts and chats on Signal as well: simply create a group to chat.

Signal lets you make voice and video calls over the internet. No need for Facetime or Facebook anymore. Or (shudder) Webex or Teams.

Finally, Signal is developed and run by a not-for-profit foundation. Since you'll be relying a lot on this little app, it's considered good form to donate something to the cause.  Don't think of it as a fee-for-service: it's an investment in privacy and the infrastructure of a healthy democracy. Every little bit helps!

The Pledge

I'm usually a big fan of pluralism. Lots of browsers, lots of systems, ranging from least to most secure. But in this case, I need you to be sensitive to the stakes.

You will never, ever say anything political in an unencrypted channel again. No politics memes. You will not "like" political posts or memes in unencrypted channels. No discussions of political situations or feelings either.

As a general rule of thumb: you will not discuss political situations, financial circumstances, or your sexual history in an insecure channel.

You will do your very best not to exchange photos outside of the encrypted channel. Especially if they are photos of other people, like your kids.

If this sounds extreme, it is. But there are reasons to be concerned.  Sure, we're all used to thinking of these shiny devices and gadgets as our portal to a beautiful future. I'm more used to thinking of them like the bugging devices hidden in rooms in the former East Germany. And if you're not familiar with this period in history, it's worth reading about daily life under the Stasi and the kinds of everyday information that was collected and maliciously interpreted, however innocuous.

Knowing that this kind of information regime was going on, you would also relish the chance to speak freely on occasion with your nearest and dearest.

Signal is that little beacon that will allow you to interact with privacy and peace of mind.

Up Next...

We will continue dismantling your information traces tomorrow. I recommend you read this post and scroll down to "Step 4-1/2", before we pick up the pace.