FIGHT the NSA, FBI, and Bastard US Government Spying Operations- Simply!

#1: Use Startpage
startpage.com...

#2: Startpage is starting a new email service, called StartMail. They are currently in beta testing, and the service should be up and running soon.
startmail.com...

Welcome to the future home of StartMail, the private email service being developed by StartPage and Ixquick, the world's most private search engines.

Our engineering team has been working diligently to create the new StartMail email service. We have built everything from the ground up and have incorporated state-of-the-art privacy protections at each step. The hardware is now in place and we are currently performing stringent internal testing to ensure 100% compliance with our high security and quality standards. Watch our overview video here.

YES!!! I can't wait! No more yahoo, and no more google. This should make it much harder for the self-appointed, scummy power trippers up there to know just what the heck you're doing. And they won't like that. Nope. Cause they MUST ALWAYS be up your rear. All the time. They MUST know every last detail of your life every single day or they are not happy. Someone might speak badly of them and they MUST know that. And if they can't know it today, they record it in their gigazillion byte database for future retrieval.

Well I'm not doing anything wrong. IT'S THE PRINCIPLE. IT'S FRIGGING WRONG, AND VIOLATES OUR RIGHTS FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURE.

So fight back. Never give them the chance. By changing your search engine and now, your email, you can lose those grimy, slimy little scumballs forever!

I want to quote some very nice, music-to-the-patriot's-ears words from the CEO of startpage, in addressing PRISM and other spying programs:

No PRISM. No Surveillance. No Government Back Doors. You Have our Word on it.
Giant US government Internet spying scandal revealed

The Washington Post and The Guardian have revealed a US government mass Internet surveillance program code-named "PRISM". They report that the NSA and the FBI have been tapping directly into the servers of nine US service providers, including Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Yahoo, YouTube, AOL and Skype, and began this surveillance program at least seven years ago. (clarifying slides)

These revelations are shaking up an international debate.

StartPage has always been very outspoken when it comes to protecting people's Privacy and civil liberties. So it won't surprise you that we are a strong opponent of overreaching, unaccountable spy programs like PRISM. In the past, even government surveillance programs that were begun with good intentions have become tools for abuse, for example tracking civil rights and anti-war protesters.

Programs like PRISM undermine our Privacy, disrupt faith in governments, and are a danger to the free Internet.

StartPage and its sister search engine Ixquick have in their 14-year history never provided a single byte of user data to the US government, or any other government or agency. Not under PRISM, nor under any other program in the US, nor under any program anywhere in the world. We are not like Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Apple, Skype, or the other US companies who got caught up in the web of PRISM surveillance.

Here's how we are different:

StartPage does not store any user data. We make this perfectly clear to everyone, including any governmental agencies. We do not record the IP addresses of our users and we don't use tracking cookies, so there is literally no data about you on our servers to access. Since we don't even know who our customers are, we can't share anything with Big Brother. In fact, we've never gotten even a single request from a governmental authority to supply user data in the fourteen years we've been in business.

StartPage uses encryption (HTTPS) by default. Encryption prevents snooping. Your searches are encrypted, so others can't "tap" the Internet connection to snoop what you're searching for. This combination of not storing data together with using strong encryption for the connections is key in protecting your Privacy.

Our company is based in The Netherlands, Europe. US jurisdiction does not apply to us, at least not directly. Any request or demand from ANY government (including the US) to deliver user data, will be thoroughly checked by our lawyers, and we will not comply unless the law which actually applies to us would undeniably require it from us. And even in that hypothetical situation, we refer to our first point; we don't even have any user data to give. We will never cooperate with voluntary spying programs like PRISM.

StartPage cannot be forced to start spying. Given the strong protection of the Right to Privacy in Europe, European governments cannot just start forcing service providers like us to implement a blanket spying program on their users. And if that ever changed, we would fight this to the end.

Privacy. It's not just our policy, it's our mission.

startpage.com...

Can you dig it?

I suppose if they really want you, they'll tap your phone calls, or house...Yeah...Whatever.

But the point is, if we all did this, and got off all those services they are happily and easily tapping, then the public can send them the message without resorting to revolution.

Imagine that.

Google and Yahoo, as well as all the others: You have no fricken shame. You should have fought them till you died to protect American privacy and freedom from government BS. Our forefathers died to give you those freedoms, you fricken losers. I mean just look at this- it's been going on for YEARS:

startpage.com...

And btw, startpage is a decent little search engine, which 95 times out of 100 gives me exactly what I'm looking for. It's my homepage. I only google if I really have to, and that is rare. Recommended.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


This seems to me like another way of market creation. Just not seeing how the NSA/FBI/NRO/GCHQ would not have a way to continue to spy even with this new service. (We're 30+ years behind)
I also think that if you needed a way to further encroach on civil liberties this new market could be used as a reason to do just that.

With this type of very high security email service, I can think of a few emails to "test its security" haha.
So all we need is a guinea pig or two to actually see if they get any "visits".

Has anyone made such tests yet ?

reply to post by EA006


Well I think there are limits on how far they can go without probable cause (yeah right), and even then AT&T as an ISP, for example, could probably intercept the requests before they ever made it to Europe, where startpage is located. But yeah, the NSA/FBI/etc. are already probably working hard to get the encryption keys- if they don't have them already.

But I'll play along. Next up: The StartVideo service, so they can't tell what you're watching on youtube anymore. Please?

Originally posted by ManOfHart
With this type of very high security email service, I can think of a few emails to "test its security" haha.
So all we need is a guinea pig or two to actually see if they get any "visits".

Has anyone made such tests yet ?

Well I would think they'd be testing that in beta. You can sign up to be a beta tester ya know.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Telling you it's just another market. It'll come out in ten years or so that they had the tech before the scandal broke, and the result was more profit

reply to post by EA006


Well I've been using startpage for quite a while now, and I have done some tests of my own- and been satisfied that they are NOT recording user data to the best of my knowledge. Use yahoo and/or google to search for something, and the next thing you know, you're getting spam emails regarding that very subject. That NEVER happens when using startpage. I've come to trust them, and so I would have to disagree with you- for now. But we'll see, I guess.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Not going to keep banging on about it but it's a tech bubble being inflated.
Supposed crisis in confidence turned into a word-wide spectacle via Edward Snowden, willing participant or not, to inflate another bubble that'll be burst when it's revealed they knew everything all along.

StartPage is Great, I use it BUT - You can't use that ONLY and think your protected. it's much better if you use HTTPS in conjunction with a free or paid VPN service. Connect to the VPN, Set StartPage as your default search engine and use HTTPS Everywhere plugin to make sure you Only go to secure web sites. Encrypt Everything.

Use a VPN that takes Bitcoins or a good free VPN and they won't even have to know who you are.

Got a fast PC that can handle a Virtual Machine? Get a copy of Linux and then do the above from the VM. - Better.

If you download torrents - Do NOT SEED them.

This isn't even foolproof but it will help. This should lessen your threat footprint by at least 3/4th.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Thanks for the suggestions, JP. After reading up a bit about VM, I understand it has some limitations- but they weren't too specific. If you have direct experience running various iterations of VM in both SVM and PVM, could you tell us the most limiting things about those incarnations, so that users might make an informed decision about whether they can afford to go there or not, given their specific system uses. For example, can you run a full version of MS Office in SVM? Or how about limitations on web surfing, viewing streaming videos, or even playing heavy-duty, system-taxing games?

It seems by telling us what you CAN'T do in those iterations, we might get to a decision faster than if we concentrated on what you CAN do in those iterations of VM. Thanks- and if that's too much to ask, then I understand.

OK ill change over if you are sure it keeps the earthquakes away...er what were you sayin?

I'm really thinking about fighting their spying by creating mass confusion. My brothers and I communicate a lot with email and when we do so and talk about certain things we use a form of encryption or code that we created and only we know and that would be very hard to decipher.

However we have been discussing the possibilities of just talking openly in our emails about outlandish topics that may catch the attention of anyone snooping yet that can still be proven to be BS by the fact that it would all be completely made up and easily debunked.

Of course my posting the idea here on ATS or any other site is probably destructive to the purpose since I am quite certain TPTB are crawling the web looking for any of those certain 300 or so words that flag anyone that uses them. It would be quite comical though if large amounts of people started a disinformation campaign just to confuse the hell out of the snoopers.

reply to post by TrueAmerican



Hey thanks for posting this. I am sure most of you know duck duck go search engine offers very similar search privacy protections. As the guy says in the quote "I am not doing anything wrong it is the principle". I agree wholeheartedly. It makes me feel slimey if I think I am being spied on. I dread getting stuck for long in airports...it feels like I am under constant surveillance. The reality is that it is happening not just at the airport but in every aspect of my life. The NSA surveillance is total and complete. There is no expectation of any privacy anymore except for in small ways such as what you posted and duck duck go. Search with privacy

A few questions.

1.) If I use this mail service to email someone that is using Google, how would it still be safe?

2.) I find it laughable that a small start up is going to be able to keep the NSA at bay. I need to read more obviously, but even with all the assurance they can muster, I highly doubt there isn't an easy workaround for the folks dedicated to workarounds and spying.

3.) Isn't this the perfect lure for folks that are anti government?

4.) Why on Earth should I trust these folks?

5.) Isn't using this service going to generate more scrutiny on my internet behavior?

6.) If my ISP isn't held to the same standards, how do I know they aren't just funneling all the info?

7.) If I really want to remain anonymous, doesn't it make more sense to be in the biggest crowd?

8.) Again, do you really believe the NSA and other alphabet soup agencies aren't going to figure out a way to use this to their advantage?

I like you OP. You seem a very, very bright sort. I'll read up on it more. I'll support it and spread the news if it seems plausible.

reply to post by Domo1

1.) Probably not.

2.) They're not a small start up. They've been in business for 14 years. Just the mail service is what's going to be new.

3.) There are many different search engines available. The government can't tell you which one you can or can't use. And if you're not using one that they spy on, then they have no idea what you're searching.

4.) They have a proven track record.

5.) Unless you give them a reason to single you out, then no.

6.) Because your traffic to and from Startpage is encrypted. There's no way for your ISP to be able to capture the data unless they have something installed on your computer and can capture that data locally before it's transmitted.

7.) Not necessarily.

8.) Startpage doesn't store any user data, so there's nothing for the alphabet agencies to use, let alone to their advantage.




Startpage is their site to anonymously use Google search. They also have a sister site with the same exact privacy called Ixquick which is their own search engine. I use both.

The only way to get even close to browsing anonymously these days is to hop on a public wifi hot spot.

Even tunneling through a vpn with ssl won't save you if someone really wants to find ya.

A secure linux distro on a laptop with truecrypt and tor operating solely on open wifi is about as close as you can get to anonymity. Even then you gotta worry about bastards sniffing your keystrokes through the air via remote devices. Who knows how many such devices exist around high density areas. Then you can use a click keyboard, but maybe you gotta look out for argus drones directly viewing your screen, and on and on. .

Nifty idea, but it won't work.

They don't get the data FROM anyone, they tap the network fiber so that they can intercept EVERYTHING, it doesn't matter where you are sending it to and from, they split the fiber at the routers and siphon off copies of every packet. A Narus device inspects and correlates the packets based on rules to detect things that they are looking for.

This is just a good marketing gimmick to give people a warm and fuzzy feeling, it will not stop the NSA or any other government body from capturing your data.

It's clear that the media propaganda has tricked everyone into believing that the "big 13" tech companies have an active part in all of this, and that by creating some "new" company that doesn't play along will solve the problem. What a perfect way to sweep the actual methods they use completely under the rug!

If you do anything with your day.... go Google Mark Klein from AT&T, Narus and deep-packet inspection. I wrote an entire thread dedicated to this subject, and interviews with Mr. Binney since then have confirmed 95% of the same. Don't drink the kool-aid folks....

~Namaste

Well, I stopped using Gmail for my personal email awhile ago. I started using www.gmx.com as it's based out of germany, and doesn't scan emails to target you with ads, and of course it's free.

Originally posted by QuantriQueptidez
The only way to get even close to browsing anonymously these days is to hop on a public wifi hot spot.

Even tunneling through a vpn with ssl won't save you if someone really wants to find ya.

A secure linux distro on a laptop with truecrypt and tor operating solely on open wifi is about as close as you can get to anonymity. Even then you gotta worry about bastards sniffing your keystrokes through the air via remote devices. Who knows how many such devices exist around high density areas. Then you can use a click keyboard, but maybe you gotta look out for argus drones directly viewing your screen, and on and on. .

You get it.

Every PC on the planet has a unique address, not an IP, but a MAC address. All IP registrations are associated to these MAC addresses so that every TCP packet you send over the net contains a way to trace the packets back to the originating machine. As long as they can capture the TCP/IP traffic, they can find you, and it only takes one single packet out of the billions most people send a day. SSL only protects you over the wire during transmission, but there is still a TCP stack that contains your MAC address.

They will always find you because of this. The only way to throw them off is to start manipulating the traffic you send by altering or randomizing MAC addresses combined with masked IP addressing.

~Namaste

Originally posted by Domo1
1.) If I use this mail service to email someone that is using Google, how would it still be safe?

Its not safe. But the issue is wider than just Google.

Email is sent as plain text. Everywhere. Its no "safer" than writing a postcard, as far as snoopers are concerned.

So your Startpage.com emails are only safe as long as you send it to another Startpage.com user. Once it leaves their servers and goes out into the world to *anywhere* then it is open, and you can assume that the NSA has a copy.
So for email, Startpage.com are really only offering a false sense of security.