Private conversation is the oldest expectation in human life. Digital communication broke that expectation by default. This guide puts it back.
Until twenty years ago, a private conversation between two people was a private conversation between two people. Digital communication broke that by default — standard messaging, email, and calls are widely readable by the companies that move them and by anyone with the right access. The fix is end-to-end encryption: a technical guarantee that only you and the person you are talking to can read what you say.
This guide explains what end-to-end encryption actually is and is not, walks through the metadata problem (the part that strong encryption does not fix), helps you choose a secure messenger (Signal is the right answer for most people, with caveats), covers encrypted voice and video, sorts out encrypted email (and its hard limits), and shows how to use these tools so they actually protect you rather than just give the feeling of protection.
Written from years of using these tools as the default, not the exception. The same operational practice that runs this site’s communications.
Anyone who wants conversations to stay between the people having them. No technical background required — if you can install an app, you can build a serious encrypted-communications setup.
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