Week 5: Email Privacy

Email Privacy Gmail reads every email you send and receive. That’s not an exaggeration. Google scans your emails to: Build advertising profiles Train AI models on your conversations Track purchase history and receipts Identify your contacts and relationships Monitor your location through confirmation emails Google knows more about your life than your closest friends. They know when you’re job hunting (LinkedIn alerts), having health issues (doctor appointment confirmations), traveling (flight confirmations), and buying things (every receipt). ...

Episode 10: Escaping Gmail

Episode 10: Escaping Gmail Your browser does not support the audio element. Download MP3 Duration: ~8 minutes | Format: Practical Episode Summary Gmail has over 1.8 billion users, and Google processes every message you send or receive — encrypted in transit and at rest, but with Google holding the keys. That means Google can read your mail, hand it to law enforcement, or expose it in a breach. This episode covers the email services that make a fundamentally un-private medium private anyway. ...

December 22, 2025 · 2 min · Cypherpunk School

Week 6: Private Messaging, Encrypted Email, and Metadata Hygiene

🎯 Goal Learn how to communicate securely using end-to-end encrypted messaging, GPG-encrypted email, and metadata minimization. Explore Signal, Matrix, OTR, and email tools. Understand operational privacy trade-offs. 🌱 New to this? If the command line feels like a lot, Privacy 101 walks through secure messaging with Signal in a graphical, beginner-friendly way first: Privacy 101 Week 6: Secure Messaging → 1. Secure Messaging Protocols Overview Protocol E2EE Decentralized Metadata Safe CLI Available Signal ✅ ❌ (centralized) ❌ (requires phone number) ✅ (via signal-cli) Matrix (Olm) ✅ ✅ ⚠️ (servers can log) ✅ (nheko, gomuks, etc) XMPP + OTR ✅ ✅ ✅ (self-hosted possible) ✅ (profanity, mcabber) Tox ✅ ✅ (P2P) ✅ ✅ (toxic) 2. Signal CLI Setup Install signal-cli For Debian-based distros: ...