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About This Site

While there are a lot of amazing resources for privacy and security out there, many of them are geared towards people who are moderately “tech savvy” and already understand why privacy matters and/or how this stuff works. This site is aimed at people who are new to privacy and/or do not consider themselves “tech savvy”. This site is designed to go over the basics of various ideas, subjects, and concepts to help readers feel educated and capable of making decisions that are right for them without going too in depth to the point that they feel overwhelmed. It also aims to make a few recommendations to get the reader started in each area.

Mission Statement

Format

The site is rather wordy. This is intentional. Readers should consider the site more of a constantly-updated ebook than a typical website. The goal is not to be flashy and attention-grabbing (though obviously I do hope to make it visually appealing and not painful to read), but rather to give readers a strong understanding of the foundations of data privacy and cybersecurity. Hence, while I have tried to be succinct, there’s only so much trimming I can do without losing critical information.

While the site is more of an ebook in spirit, each page is designed to be standalone. Readers should feel free to skip any pages if they feel like they have already read or know about a particular subject or if they just want to learn about a specific topic. I have also tried to be thorough in making potentially unfamiliar terms or words linkable back to other pages - for example, if I talk about password managers on any other page, I try to link back to that page so readers can easily get more information if they want and aren’t missing any critical context.

Some people argue that ranking certain concepts is wrong. Indeed, everything on this site is important and every step readers take to improve their privacy or security is a step in the right direction. That’s why the last category is called “less important” and not “unimportant” or even “least important.” The reason for the structure is thanks to my mother - who was the textbook kind of person this site is aimed at. When talking about privacy and this very site once, she told me that she found it all overwhelming and didn’t know where to start. So I began to order the site for the sake of people like her: “start here,” it says, with things that will give readers the most security and privacy right off the bat, usually with the least amount of effort. Then continue on to the other things. That said, the order of the site is merely a suggested order of operations to help readers get off to a great start and know where to begin so they don’t get overwhelmed. If you are here to learn about a specific topic, you already know about some of the topics, or you don’t feel that certain topics apply to you (such as credit freezes), you can feel free to skip them. You can always circle back later if your situation or mind changes or you decide you want to learn more for any reason.

Disclaimers

The Privacy Spectrum

Privacy and security are not binary concepts, but rather a spectrum. For example, one can have some privacy while keeping a Facebook account if they remove the app from their phone and only lurk without ever liking or posting content, but not as much as if they deleted their account altogether and took steps to block Meta’s trackers around the web. The goal of this site is not to teach readers to drop off the grid and live in a cabin in the woods with no risks whatsoever. Rather, this site aims at helping readers learn about surveillance and tracking, how it works, how to opt out of it, and how to determine what the right level of privacy and security is for their own unique situation. Not everything here will apply to everyone. Even taking some of the steps that moves a reader further along the scale is better then nothing. No single tool is right for everyone’s situation, that’s why we offer several recommendations and let readers decide what’s best for them.

Scope

This site is not designed to be a comprehensive resource. This site is designed to be a beginner’s guide. It is our hope that people will use this site to get up to speed and move on to more advanced topics as they continue to grow.

Endorsement

Please note that just because a product or service is not listed on this site does not necessarily make it bad. Remember that this site is not meant to be comprehensive. The services and products we list on this site are what we believe are some of the top choices for the vast majority of readers and use-cases. If you have a specific need that another product or service fills - and you have appropriately researched and vetted the service - more power to you. If you think that product or service does deserve to be listed here, please check out criteria and feel free to open an issue if it qualifies.

Good Faith

We have made this site in good faith. We will never recommend a product or service on this site that we do not have confidence in. We may not use each and every product or service ourselves, but everything listed here is something that, if a loved one told us they were using it, we would respond with “cool, that works.” If our response would be a hesistant groan suggesting the service is problematic, we don’t list it here. That said, we have criteria specifically so that we can have objective requirements and not just gut feelings or “vibes.” All services listed here must meet the objective criteria, regardless if we like them or not.

On the final page readers will find a number of resources we recommend to help them continue learning more, as well as ways to contact the editor and find other work from The New Oil such as blogs, news feeds, and videos that we are working on. We are not claiming to be cybersecurity experts of any kind, but we have invested thousands of hours into these topics on this site. We spend much of our time reading books, articles, blog posts, and more from credible sources and experts. We spend a lot of time listening to interviews and podcasts, and reading the ongoing discussions in the communities we are a part of and trust to stay on top of everything, and we deeply investigate each claim before suggesting it to our audience. We are always willing to openly own up to our mistakes and correct information when we are informed of it, so if they are an expert and see any mistakes, please submit a correction.

Financial Interest

We do not have any vested financial interests in any of of the services, products, or companies we have listed (such as specific stock holdings, board seats, or investments), nor do we receive any sort of financial compensation for our reviews, listings, etc. We do use affiliate/referral links for some services which will offer us a small sum of financial compensation or other benefits (ex, increased storage on our own accounts) if readers sign up using the links provided. They can all be viewed here. We do not list products or services simply because they offer affiliate links, rather we sign up for affiliate links if they are offered on products or services that we believe in and have decided to list regardless. We also accept sponsors for certain content sometimes, and all such potential conflicts of interest are clearly disclosed. Readers can view our sponsorship guidelines here.

The Team