Privacy-focused gifts for the paranoid tech lover
Most tech gifts suck.
No one wants another smart speaker listening in on their private conversations, and a person can only resell so many Apple Watches on eBay before it thinks they're running a scam. Instead, this gift-giving season, try giving something that doesn't further envelop your loved one in the ever-closing arms of the surveillance economy.
They may actually thank you. Maybe.
1. Phantom glasses
These glasses look cool, block some forms of facial-recognition tech, and are made by a privacy-focused artisan in the U.S. What more could you want?
The Phantom glasses, made by Urban Spectacles, seek to make privacy life's default setting.
Price: $164 from Urban Spectacles
2. Silent Pocket
Because relay attacks and RFID cloning are real things, everyone needs a faraday sleeve in their life. Silent Pocket makes legit Faraday sleeves that will protect your electronics from unwanted intrusion, and as an added bonus they look good while doing it.
Price: $49.95 from Silent Pocket
3. FLIR ONE
We can all use a little help spotting the surveillance cameras hidden inside our Airbnbs, and that makes the FLIR ONE a must-have device.
The thermal-imaging sensor attaches to an iPhone or Android smartphone (make sure you purchase the correct version) and turns your phone into a powerful privacy tool.
Price: $199.99 from FLIR
4. Adversarial Fashion
This one is less about protecting your loved ones from the all-seeing eye of the surveillance state and more about helping them stick it to The Man.
Adversarial Fashion makes a line of clothing designed to, in the company's words, "trigger Automated License Plate Readers, injecting junk data in to the systems used by the State and its contractors to monitor and track civilians and their locations."
Pretty rad.
Price: $35.99 - $94.99 from Adversarial Fashion
5. A VPN
Most VPNs are not so hot. Especially free VPNs.
We all know this, and yet there are real benefits to using a good VPN. Private Internet Access, at the very least, insists it doesn't log user traffic. So there's that.
Give the gift of a yearly subscription.
Price: $39.95 from Private Internet Access for a yearly subscription
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