[kwlug-announce] Meeting Monday: Privacy in Canada

[Paul Nijjar]

Don't look now, but I think you're being watched. You know that
website you're surfing? Your ISP probably knows about it. Your medical
records? They may well be in an unencrypted USB key in some person's
wallet. And that software with the innocent-looking 37 page EULA? It's
phoning home. 

Surely they can't get away with this? Surely this is a free (if
moderately socialist) country, and you have a right to privacy? Right?
I don't know, actually, which is one reason I will be attending this
month's KWLUG talk: Kyle Spaans knows The Rules, and he'll share them
with us. He will also enlighten us with some practical ways we can
improve our personal privacy, including the Tor privacy network and
PGP/GPG privacy tools.

As part of this meeting we will hold a keysigning party, and if you
act quickly then you can participate! There is a summary of how to get
started here: http://kwlug.org/node/772 which I will reproduce below.
But you have to get Keymaster Chris your signature BEFORE the meeting
to play. 

Having a capable home router can help keep your home network private
from snooping eyes, so maybe it is appropriate that this month's FLOSS
Fund nominee is OpenWRT, a Linux firewall distribution you install on
your router. OpenWRT lets you maximize the potential of your router
hardware, and easily let you install extra packages that further
increase your security and privacy. You can read more about OpenWRT
at http://www.openwrt.org , and if you can't make the meeting Monday
but are interested in donating, contact me and I will hook you up with
the shadowy secret cabal, which keeps its membership so private that
even the members don't know they're members. 

Somewhat alarmingly, this is the last FLOSS Fund nominee we have left
in the nominee queue! That means that we would very much like your
FLOSS Fund nominees (and that if you nominate you probably won't have
to wait too many months for your nomination to come up!). You can
nominate a project by posting to the kwlug-disc mailing list, by
contacting me, or by posting your nominee on the KWLUG website. 

It is, of course, September, which means that Software Freedom Day is
coming up. Thankfully, it's not on Talk Like a Pirate Day this year.
Instead, it will be held on Saturday, September 18, and you're invited
to the celebrations. There will be talks, demos, some giveaways, and
lots of technical installation support available. This year's party
will be at Kwartzlab, on Saturday the 18th from 2pm - 7pm. You can
check out http://kwartzlab.ca/events/2010-09-18/software-freedom-day ,
and you can get posters to distribute here:
http://kwlug.org/files/sfd-2010-poster.pdf

In political news, our political leaders may think that the furor over
the proposed Copyright Act bill C-32 has blown over and been
forgotten, but they're wrong. If all goes well we will have some
petitions you can sign to express discontent with the Technical
Protection Measures/Digital Locks aspects of the bill for you to sign,
if you are so inclined. If you are interested in signing but can't
make the meeting, let me know. 

==========================
Whew. Here are some keysigning party instructions: 

Chris Frey (cdfrey at the domain foursquare dot net) is the KeyMaster
for this party. As part of the process, you will e-mail him your key.

Here are his instructions for getting started, with some e-mail
address obfuscation:

   1. Generate new key:

      gpg --gen-key

      (Accept the defaults, they are pretty good)
   2. Look at your shiny new key:


      gpg --list-keys
   3. Export it to a file:


      gpg --armor --output /tmp/my-public-key --export

      Replace ID with the first ID of your key. For example,
      my key looks like this in the --list-keys display:

      pub 1024D/DC6371D5 2006-12-02 [expires: 2011-12-01]
      uid Chris Frey (cube)
      sub 4096g/C2855553 2006-12-02 [expires: 2011-12-01]

      So my ID is DC6371D5.
   4. Email the file my-public-key to me. (i.e. to Chris)
   5. Show up on September 13, with your fingerprint printed out on a
sheet of paper, and ready to read it out loud.


      gpg --fingerprint

      Example:


      gpg --fingerprint dc6371d5
      pub 1024D/DC6371D5 2006-12-02 [expires: 2011-12-01]
      Key fingerprint = 7D71 47F2 3F61 B0E1 5F3C 68A4 819A 39D8 DC63
71D5
      uid Chris Frey (cube)
      sub 4096g/C2855553 2006-12-02 [expires: 2011-12-01]

At the meeting you will have to read your fingerprint and have others
vouch for your identity. Some people do this via government ID; other
people think this is not sufficient.

==========================

Finally finally, I should probably tell you where this month's meeting
will be held. (It's no secret.) 

St John's Kitchen
97 Victoria Street N 
Kitchener
(at the corner of Victoria and Charles) 

There are maps and photos of the location on the website, sufficient
(?) car parking in the Worth a Second Look thrift store parking long,
and sufficient (?) bike parking along the side of the building. 

- Paul
-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org