Neil Zone
neilzone.co.uk · Personal blog · on HN since 2020
Neil Brown, a UK technology lawyer, blogs about privacy, free software, email, XMPP, and law-related tech topics.
What HN saysHN commenters describe the blog as good, note the author is a lawyer, and cite his post critical of Brave's privacy.
23HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
49stories submitted
2.1Kstory points
4 months agolast shared
2020people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header2 people · 501 points · first shared 2024 · 354 comments on HN
- 2Brave browser: less privacy-respectful than I was expecting (2021)2 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 3Homepage2 people · first shared 2025
- 4What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?1 people · 674 points · first shared 2025 · 736 comments on HN
- 5Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car1 people · 399 points · first shared 2025 · 232 comments on HN
- 6What, if anything, should I do about using Mozilla's Firefox1 people · 154 points · first shared 2025 · 144 comments on HN
- 7A month using XMPP (using Snikket) for every call and chat (2023)1 people · 137 points · first shared 2025 · 96 comments on HN
- 8It is fine not to like a piece of free software1 people · 53 points · first shared 2024 · 33 comments on HN
- 9I'm reluctant to verify my identity or age for any online services1 people · 42 points · first shared 2026 · 5 comments on HN
- 10Am I (still?) in Mozilla's target audience?1 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Using (only) a Linux terminal for my personal computing in 20241 people · 5 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 12Using LibreOffice and other Free software for documents as a lawyer1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 13What's the best laptop I could get for no more than £50?1 people · 5 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 14'Self-host it' is not the answer (2022)1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 15Notes on running PostmarketOS on a OnePlus 61 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
joefarish · 2025-12-19
Another well written article from Neil about some terribly written legislation.
His personal blog is also pretty good - https://neilzone.co.uk/
rapnie · 2025-08-12
Though explicitly stating "Nothing on this site is legal advice. Use it at your own risk", the information on this site is compiled by a lawyer. Neil Brown [0] specialises in English Internet, telecoms, and as tech lawyer at decoded.legal [1].
[0] https://neilzone.co.uk/
[1] https://decoded.legal/
dgl · 2023-12-20
> While good luck doing that on a laptop that is only ever used to establish an SSH session.
[...]
> Set that up about ten months ago now (don't remember exactly). It's working flawlessly. Not a single issue.
So now your laptop hasn't had security updates for 10 months? Things like this are part of the reason I did the research in https://dgl.cx/2023/09/ansi-terminal-security.
It also funny that you've reinvented basically a serial console, but in a modern way, with a second factor. (You could actually just use a physical terminal with S/Key or something.)
> P.S: it's just a proof of concept... But I think that requiring to tap a Yubikey every single time you want to do something as root is something that should be envisaged/discussed more and it was great to read TFA doing it too.
Agreed,
https://neilzone.co.uk/2022/11/using-a-yubikey-or-other-security-key-f… is another potential option for this.
allie1 · 2022-03-11
The browser with built-in ads lol?
Reminder: https://neilzone.co.uk/2021/11/brave-browser-less-privacy-respectful-t…
i.e. the browser redirecting you to affiliate links without permission?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/privacy-browser-brave-busted-for-autocom…