The New Oil

It’s the gift-giving season, and the last time I wrote a blog post like this was four years go. My, how time flies. Anyways, I thought it might be nice to revisit this topic. As I said last time I did this, your mileage may vary. Not everyone will appreciate these or have the tech savvy to use them. It’s up to you to know what gifts are right for what person and what would actually make a good gift. But below are some items that I personally have dealt with or have my eye on that might also make good gifts for yourself, your home, or a tech-loving loved one around you. These gifts are not listed in any specific order.

Minimalism/Offline Gifts

Before I jump right into the consumerism, I think it’s worth taking a moment to pause. Every year, we have the idea foisted upon us that in order to prove our love to someone, we have to go into debt and spend outrageous sums of money. Don’t get me wrong: it’s very sweet to give and receive gifts. I’m not really opposed to that. But I think a lot of us feel pressured to do so. So before you break out the mobile wallet (or payment masking service, I hope), first ask “do I really want to give this person a gift?” No offense to any of my extended family who might be (but probably aren’t) reading this but I’m just not that close with most of you. I don’t have any interest in buying a gift for my cousin I haven’t seen since I was fifteen. Even for those I am close with, do I want to clutter up their house with another pointless gift, or their closet with a shirt they’ll never wear? Do I want to threaten their privacy with a smart device they don’t really need? Or would I rather offer to cook when I visit, or host at my house for the holidays? Again, I’m not saying those are the right answers. Maybe visiting isn’t feasible for whatever reason and they actually really would appreciate that new PS5. That’s fine. But at least pause for ten seconds to ask.

Free Coupons

On the topic of minimalism and thoughtful gifts, one easy gift you can offer to the less-tech-savvy in your life is help improving their privacy and security. From Carey Parker of Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons – a project with an aim similar to my own (making privacy and security accessible to everyone) – these downloadable/printable coupons are designed to be stocking stuffers you can hand out to your family. In the past, I’ve had people say things to me like “I have questions about this privacy stuff, but I don’t want to bug you.” Over the years my loved ones have slowly been coming around and asking me stuff more often, but for the few holdouts you still know, this might be a good way to get them to feel comfortable asking for your help with things like switching to a password manager, securing their home network, downloading Signal, and more. These cost nothing except the paper to print them and the time to collate them, so they’re a great addition to any holiday gift. And even if they never get used, hey, you tried with little effort/cost.

Apple iPhone or Google Pixel

Electronics make for a popular gift, and most of us upgrade our phones with fair regularity. In my last iteration of this post, I strictly recommend the iPhone. In the last four years, some things have changed. First off, I do believe that Android has largely (though not entirely) caught up to iOS, and with some basic online common sense users should be fairly safe on either platform. Second, I believe that making some tweaks to the settings of either device can offer a pretty healthy degree of privacy from either company. Finally, having put some hands-on experience with a variety of custom Android operating systems (aka “degoogled” phones like Graphene, Calyx, and Lineage), I can confidently say that they’re not terribly hard to install or use for most people. For those who hope to someday “degoogle” to the max, a Pixel phone is definitely the right choice. But otherwise, for stock operating systems, I believe that the choice is largely personal preference these days (with a slight edge to Apple in most cases).

SLNT Products

SLNT (formerly Silent Pocket) sells a wide variety of items that help keep your devices off the grid to various degrees. This could include wallets that resist RFID tracking and wireless credit card chip skimming all the way up to full-on Faraday bags for laptops that block ALL wireless signals. If you’re reading this, you probably don’t see the need for a Faraday bag and personally I think that’s outside my own threat model, too, but like I said they have a lot of other really amazing products like phone cases, wallets, card holders, backpacks, and all sorts of other nifty products. If you or someone know is really into gifts that have a practical use, definitely check this site out.

Linux Computers: System76 and Tuxedo

While you can install Linux on nearly anything, sometimes it’s nice to have something that just works out of the box. For my American readers, System76 is the best choice here, with reasonably-priced devices that ship with Pop! OS but can also support Fedora (and Windows on certain devices if you need to dualboot). For European readers, Tuxedo offers devices that come pre-installed with Tuxedo OS, though again should support other flavors and even Windows. If you’re in the market for a new computer, these would be my top recommendations for most people to at least consider first. As a small testimonial, my wife has a Pop! OS laptop (not from System76) and absolutely adores it.

A Subscription

Many companies make their money by selling your data for ad space. Most privacy products, however, don't do that, and rely entirely on donations or selling premium features (or other similar business models). If there's any privacy services you use that you want to support, now is a great time to do so (especially with Black Friday around the corner) by buying a subscription or license, even if you don't really need it. Of course, times are tough. If you don't have the money, I get it. But this is a blog post about gift ideas, so I'm assuming you have at least some money burning a hole in your pocket. Supporting the services you get value from is never a bad way to fix that problem.

If you haven’t already done your holiday shopping, hopefully this list helped inspire you to explore some potential options. Or maybe you can send it to your friends and family to give them ideas for you. If you have questions about specific items or want more ideas, I recommend Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project, which can at least serve as a good starting point for many smart devices and apps. Good luck finding the right gift out there, and remember to stay safe online while you’re at it.

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