What are some steps you've taken to improve your privacy and/or anonimity online?

timelinker14

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I started reading on the various ways ISP's and big tech companies track and/or sell our data. I already knew it happened, but this time I got really freaked out and made myself take some mini steps, like having a secure password manager, enabling two-step authentication, etc...

Then I went full schizo and said fuck it, I'm not letting them fuck with me anymore. Changed my OS to LInux, changed my email to a more secure one, got a VPN, changed my browser to FIrefox and I hardened that shit.

Interested to hear your thoughts, whether you don't care, or whether you are more paranoid than I am.
 
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MorphedSnowman

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I like to think I care to the point you aren't going full schizo. I basically too run hardened firefox, added noscript to it, blacklisted google analytics and also remove http referer with an addon so that you can't know from which site I'm making a request. But besides that I'm not that extremely concerned. You pretty much escaped like 90% of tracking by that point, if not more. Going further than that only makes sense to me if you are in some great danger, but most people who go further than that aren't and mostly just larping.
 
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SEVEN

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I honestly dont care. not because Im okay with the slimy nature of the big brother and all seeing eye. more power to those that try to stick it to 'em, but I'd rather just have it out in the open because I have mostly nothing to hide.

but that is a personal thing for me because I just give so little fucks about the world collapsing around me, I just wanna enjoy the ride while Im on it. after all, you may very well not have anything to hide, but does that mean you would want somebody recording you while you take a shit? and it comes down to the principle of it and that this large scale surveillance is a massive overstep in power, its creepy as hell, and its just plain wrong.

the unfortunate reality is that you will never be safe from it. no matter how hard you try to hide there will always be some asian/russian kid with lots of free time who can track down every last bit of data from your digital footprint if he so felt inclined. just remember... you always leave something behind.

to actually answer your question all I really do is use a vpn when I wanna download movies illegally. thats just so my ISP doesnt try anything like shutting off my access, even though they probably already know Im doing it, this way its out of sight and out of any legally binding problems.
 

Outer Heaven

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Primarily making sure my real life is separate from anything I do online. No mainstream social media accounts, hardened firefox, useful addons and whatnot. The thing is if some agency wants to find who you are its quite easy for them to do so unless you go crazy clearing your footprints so I don't care about that as much anymore. The main thing I worry about is regular people finding my posts. If an employer or journalist or a normal citizen can dox you that's when you have a problem. Only give out what you want found by the public and you're good.
 
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calico_jack

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i just use brave. one day im gonna go all but for now im to lazy
 
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cynthiune

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De-googled android phone, G00gle+Apple accounts deleted, All social media uninstalled, dumped windows, daily driving linux, using VPN at all times now, Librewolf browser (feels better than ungoogled chromium which I used for a while). I know that they will always find me somehow. (True privacy is a meme) I really do have nothing to hide, but it's the principle and my right to not want to be followed and I will take much satisfaction if it takes a Glowing One 2 or 3 extra steps to find me. My pettiness helps me cope I guess.

index.php
 
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Hardly having anything on my google account. I cleared my google drive completely, deleted all the videos on my channel (they were innocuous, like, of my pets and all), changed my profile pic to the default one, won't be using gmail address anymore except as sort of a trash mail, having only dummy accounts on social media in case someone sends me a link there, and I even plan to switch browsers. I'm on Firefox right now and tried PaleMoon but it just gets clunky with some stuff I use a lot like Reverso (when I don't know how to put a sentence in Russian and need some help, or want to find an expression) and its adblock doesn't work on youtube, so... not sure if I'll keep using it. A shame though, it's perfect except for that clunkiness.

Oh btw, I don't use cloud or drive anymore at all, except for neocities. My written works do not belong to Google/Microsoft and never will. I keep them on an USB drive.
 
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Chen

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Hardly having anything on my google account. I cleared my google drive completely, deleted all the videos on my channel (they were innocuous, like, of my pets and all), changed my profile pic to the default one, won't be using gmail address anymore except as sort of a trash mail, having only dummy accounts on social media in case someone sends me a link there, and I even plan to switch browsers. I'm on Firefox right now and tried PaleMoon but it just gets clunky with some stuff I use a lot like Reverso (when I don't know how to put a sentence in Russian and need some help, or want to find an expression) and its adblock doesn't work on youtube, so... not sure if I'll keep using it. A shame though, it's perfect except for that clunkiness.

Oh btw, I don't use cloud or drive anymore at all, except for neocities. My written works do not belong to Google/Microsoft and never will. I keep them on an USB drive.
LibreWolf works like a charm for me after five minutes of tweaking it at start
 
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consonant

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i'm concerned about privacy stuff but thinking about ways i could be more private makes my brain hurt, and changing a bunch of the things i use so that they're more private seems like a hassle to me and it'd probably end up isolating me from my friends who don't care about that stuff.
the thought just overwhelms me so i become lazy about it which kinda sucks.
 
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I use a system of sensitivity tiers to separate what I do online in order to compartmentalize information on how strongly it needs to be protected. It also helps to reduce how much effectiveness any potential adversary might have against me if they have to continuously escalate their skills to get me. Ranging from catastrophic to minor inconvenience information. Starting at the bottom is real life normie shit, you have to give them a trail so they think you are just some regular normie. Stage some photos, leave a fake trail. You can imagine the rest. This part has to be good so you blend in and don't draw attention to yourself as someone who might have interesting data. Skin a normie and wear their skin, nobody will see you 99% of the time.

Slightly higher is information that you don't really want out there, but that if given could pose no real harm unless collected and drawn into a picture. You want that data off your hard drive, but if you really really need it there at LEAST encrypt it with EC cryptography. Look into quantum resistant cryptography in case our three letter friends have kept some innovations secret.

But 99% of the time I run just regular Ublock for ads and trackers on the web. With Debian linux as the OS with XFCE as the Desktop Env. For VPN I use mullvad, but you shouldn't post blind faith into VPN manufacturers no matter their claims. All their claims in the world are just words from marketing. The real information is in the terms and conditions you failed to read. They will happily roll over and let you get steamrolled if asked by law enforcement. I need to figure out how to make my own VPN.

For emails I use tutanota, they do a reasonably good job, own their own stuff, and try to post their stuff up as open source. They are very honest and transparent in that email isn't really secure and is often sent plaintext across the net. Their primary thing is that they will offer encrypted emails, but only on emails between users on their platform. Again, they make a lot of claims about security and privacy but you shouldn't take those to heart.

You want to generally keep important information off electronic storage. Hard paper copies are vulnerable to a lot of stuff, but that involves in person breaking and entering level shit. I'd like to see a super hacker break into a piece of paper in a file cabinet in my basement. The best hacker in the world cannot hack my file cabinet unless they also physically break into my home and go undetected in some super spy hollyweird type shit.

For secrets that don't need to be leaked but do need to be shared electronically, I use tor on tails from a torrent. Then verified for file integrity on a computer without intel management engine or amd psp. Then run exclusively there. This is normally restricted for catastrophic level secrets/data. Also reducing the number of catastrophic level secrets/data also reduces attack surface. Clean up those loose ends.

I left out some details, but you can read or will stumble across the rest.

Decoys are also awesome, you can leave decoy file cabinets while hiding the real one. Same for your gold and silver, trick them into thinking they got the loot.

Edit: Forgot decoys
 
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RAVEN死98

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PrivacyTools have a lot of useful resources against Mass Surveillance https://www.privacytools.io/
Other Privacy Tools and Resources i have found would like to share a lot of this is just Extra Information on Security not all is relevant or needed i think:
1. Discord (E2E Encryption Plugin): https://betterdiscord.app/plugin/Apate
2. Privacy Resources: https://github.com/KevinColemanInc/awesome-privacy / https://github.com/TemporalAgent7/awesome-windows-privacy /

https://github.com/sbilly/awesome-security / https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/privacy-respecting /
//https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/fwgvsb/windows_10_best_privacy_practices/
3. Arch Linux Security and Privacy Guide (Linux Security): 4. IT Security Database/CVE Details (Vulnerability Database): https://www.itsecdb.com/oval/ / https://www.cvedetails.com/ / https://vulners.com //
 
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Crypto

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Depends on what I'm doing, I like to think I'm pretty hardened but im not completely happy with my set up. my google account doesn't get much use anymore but my Apple ID is probably stocked with info.
I have different tiers of security for different use cases. For example, most light browsing is done just on my MacBook with brave browser. But when I research medical topics or other things I want private, I'll usually go into a whonix VM set up. Anything further and I would need to set up a dedicated machine. Tails solves this for now but I'd like to get a librebook as a second computer, and for more sensitive activities.

I've been thinking more and more about meat space security though, all the encryption in the world is great until someone beats you with a wrench for the key. Therefore if I was really going in I would probably make drives that either decrypt to normie shit or the actual data, depending on the decryption password. I also bought a bag that will cut the signal from everything inside of it, just in case I need my devices to quiet for a bit. Obviously this helps in public spaces too, as someone can't really drive by access it without opening the bag and taking the computer out.

My threat level doesn't really warrant me using extreme measures, so I mostly just mitigate tracking online and try to shrink my digital footprint. I never sign into social media besides one crypto twitter account. My VPN blocks all Facebook connections when I use it, though I only do when avoiding geo location or privatizing data.

also don't use a VPN with TOR, it's not ideal.
 
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Moon-Watcher777

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Primarily making sure my real life is separate from anything I do online. No mainstream social media accounts, hardened firefox, useful addons and whatnot. The thing is if some agency wants to find who you are its quite easy for them to do so unless you go crazy clearing your footprints so I don't care about that as much anymore. The main thing I worry about is regular people finding my posts. If an employer or journalist or a normal citizen can dox you that's when you have a problem. Only give out what you want found by the public and you're good.
I like your mindset. I just want to have a very minimal surface web footprint. I still use cloud services for backups of some local data but other than that I don't want your typical normie to be able to DOX me. Employers mostly. Now days people can be terminated or turned down for positions for some of the most petty personal shit. Politics, race, race of your wife or kids, outspoken beliefs, hell even NOT being outspoken enough can hurt you now days. I deleted all social media accounts and keep my personal and online persona's separate.
 
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Sable

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I split my accounts, emails and personas up. I keep a list of what I share and where I share it, as well as the typing style used. I try to utilize a VM and tor for anything that isn't sensitive.I usually stay away from VPN's though since they provide privacy and anonymity by policy and not by design.
 
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Restricted VHS

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I maintain an anonymous internet presence by not combining my real name with my screenanme therefore i am not found with a simple google search. however, even if i was, i'm not that paranoid about it. I use a chromebook, so I use the chrome browser.
 
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mydadiscar

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I never ever use my real name online. All Facebook accounts I have ever owned have been under pseudonyms. I constantly change emails as well and use a variety of different usernames for the sites I use. I generally have been avoiding big social medias recently.
 
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Deleted member 2652

Delete your social media accounts. I know I'm preaching to the choir at this point but the importance cannot be overstated. Do it now. Aside from that, I would also be careful with what programs you install on your system, as many of them are confirmed spyware and can collect enormous amounts of information without you knowing. There's a site I remember reading, I forgot which, that classified apps/browsers into several tiers of severity. Even Brave, something I shilled for repeatedly in the past, isn't what its cracked up to be. I mean, the default search engine is Google ffs. If that doesn't set the alarm bells ringing I don't know what will. So yeah, Steam, iTunes, Internet Explorer, Discord... bin that shit. If anyone cares to humor me with more specifics I'd love to hear it.

On a slightly related segue, try not to upload IRL pics as much as possible. If you do, make sure to remove the metadata/EXIF embedded within. Your camerca stores a fuckton of information with every picture and can range from aperture setting, exposure time, date, to even your geographical location. Always strip them out lest you want your ass compromised. A great tool I always vouch for would be:

As for other tips, get a VPN, never use the same username/passwords twice, and use multiple email accounts if possible. Its been repeated ad nauseam already so I won't belabor the point further.

Other than that be safe. Stay noided.
 

ego

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I set my backup instagram to private
 
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