The whole point of this year’s massive gathering of journalists in Orlando, Florida was about finding truth — how to dig up facts, how to double and triple check them, and how to make sure a complex story is right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s insanely interesting, inspiring stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These tools and techniques are useful for anyone<\/strong><\/a> who cares about doing their own research. And they help show just how much work good journalists put into news stories at a time when a depressing number of people mistakenly view the media as purveyors of “fake news.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I typed up my notes from the most interesting sessions I attended and included a few pointers I’ve learned over the years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protecting your documents and sources from prying eyes entails more than installing a privacy app on your phone and calling it a day. It requires thinking about what kind of risks you face online and what you can do about it. It\u2019s a process.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some basic steps you can take to protect yourself online, courtesy of BBC researcher Paul Myers and Mike Tigas of ProPublica:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Signal<\/a><\/strong> is a smart phone app that encrypts messages and files and creates very little metadata — digital bread crumbs that reveal telling details such as when you sent a message and who received it. As long as all parties in a conversation use Signal, secure their phones, and use the self-destruct option in the message settings, Signal is about as secure as it gets. It can also encrypt phone and video calls.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n WhatsApp<\/a><\/strong> also offers encryption. It\u2019s more popular, but it creates more metadata. It\u2019s owned by Facebook and no one really knows what Facebook does with that information. However, more people use it and it might not arouse as much suspicion as Signal.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n ProtonMail<\/a><\/strong> is a Gmail alternative that also provides end-to-end encryption. While Google can see your email and provide those messages to authorities, ProtonMail can\u2019t. It does, however, create metadata that is not encrypted, so be aware of that. I list ProtonMail on my contact page<\/strong><\/a> to encourage sources to protect their communications. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Slack is a cool app but it\u2019s not encrypted, as <\/span>Gawker sadly learned<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/strong> Two Slack alternatives that offer encryption are <\/span>Peerio<\/a><\/strong> and <\/span>Keybase<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jitsi Meet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is a Skype alternative that encrypts video calls.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Https Everywhere<\/strong><\/span><\/a>:<\/strong> Provides a secure connection between you and a website.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n uBlock Origin<\/strong><\/span><\/a>:<\/strong> A well-regarded adblocker, useful for <\/span>blocking malicious ads<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOnline privacy and security<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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