The new FISA bill has of course provoked considerable outcry, as it should. The purpose of this diary however it to provide a rough guide to implementing basic protections on your computer to prevent the most frequent forms of surveillance. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on any of these issues, I am more of a casual user with some interest and I feel like I've done some of my homework. If there are experts here, perhaps they could weigh in on more sophisticated techniques.
First-If you aren't using Firefox, start there. This will simply make your computer less vunerable to many forms of spyware. In addition there are many plugins that can be utilized to increase security.
If you are running OS X, Safari may not be your browser of choice (it's not mine, I like Camino) but it's "Private Browsing" feature can at the very least provide some minimal protection. Safari is now available for PC, but I have not used it, therefor don't know enough about it to offer advice. I do know there were lots of implementation bugs that made it look awful at first.
Second-Use Tor. At all times. A project of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, Tor has been an effective method of preventing traffic surveillance From their website-
Using Tor protects you against a common form of Internet surveillance known as "traffic analysis." Traffic analysis can be used to infer who is talking to whom over a public network. Knowing the source and destination of your Internet traffic allows others to track your behavior and interests. This can impact your checkbook if, for example, an e-commerce site uses price discrimination based on your country or institution of origin. It can even threaten your job and physical safety by revealing who and where you are. For example, if you're travelling abroad and you connect to your employer's computers to check or send mail, you can inadvertently reveal your national origin and professional affiliation to anyone observing the network, even if the connection is encrypted.
How does traffic analysis work? Internet data packets have two parts: a data payload and a header used for routing. The data payload is whatever is being sent, whether that's an email message, a web page, or an audio file. Even if you encrypt the data payload of your communications, traffic analysis still reveals a great deal about what you're doing and, possibly, what you're saying. That's because it focuses on the header, which discloses source, destination, size, timing, and so on.
All of this is available on their excellent website, but I am going to put some of it here for everyone to see.
Download Tor for Windows
Download Tor for OS X
Tor recommends you use their Firefox plugin; I do too.
Instant Messaging-I would highly recommend using Adium with Off-the-Record encryption if you are using OS X. Not only it OTR encryption native, it's just a fantastic IM client.
Using Windows, check out Trillian with OTR plugins like this.
Skype: Encrypt all your calls. Some think Skype's encryption cannot be broken by the NSA. That's a good thing.
There's of course a ton more to go into, such as SHH, other forms of encryption, etc.. but I would probably betray my own ignorance in trying to handle that. If there is another Kossak who is up to the task, a more elaborate diary might be of great service to the community.