Privacy, Where Should I Start?

Community Help! How to?
#1

Dear Privacytools forum,

What is the best way to start being privatized, and compartmentalize? I am an avid learner who is stuck with a machine that really wants to remove my privacy, and I’m afraid I am not paranoid enough. I need to take steps to ensure my life is more private, but I’m not exactly sure how to. Any help would be very appreciated, and I am thankful for any future replies.

Thanks,
Yap

1 Like
#3

Don’t listen to nomad; that’s no advice.

Well, it depends how deeper you want to go. A little bit more information would be useful, for example, which is your current setup?

I think a good start is to delete BigTech’s social media, switch to Firefox, start using uBlock Origin, uMatrix, HTTPS and some other add-ons. Installing F-droid on your smartphone and starting to switch your applications and services for open source and privacy respecting alternatives, for example, Protonmail as your e-mail provider.

1 Like
#4

I will just add that it’s best to take it one step at the time, don’t stress too much about it as long as you keep making progress. This is definitely a big rabbit hole, and there are many ways to get it wrong.

2 Likes
#5

This is the kind of attitude and elitist nonsense that drives people away from communities like this. Someone came here seeking actual advice and the first comment is condescending and unhelpful.

The community needs much less of this.

4 Likes
#6

Take 1 step at a time. If you don’t already. start using 2FA on your accounts. Change your passwords and use a password manager from now on.

Change your search engine, and email provider (if using Google, or another big corp alternative).

Don’t try and do it all at once. One step at a time at your own pace and you’ll find products that make it easier along the way.

3 Likes
#8

I recommend:

  1. Install Firefox as a browser.
  2. Install ublock Origin Add-on to block ads, trackers and malware sites.
    Even if you just use the default Easy mode.

Welcome to the Privacy Tools forum :smiley:

#9

@7457881_4_l

What browser and privacy services are you using?

#10

I thought you were just being rude, you need to understand that they are a new person in the forum and cannot know how people behave here, they might feel bad for not knowing something. Maybe you could have said that and then give a real advice, so we could understand the joke.

2 Likes
#11
  1. Create a list that contains all of your online accounts and write down which data you voluntarily entered. In case of any data breaches, you quickly see which of your data could be affected.
  2. Think twice before registering new accounts, even if a service claims to be privacy-friendly.
  3. Uninstall or disable software that you don’t use.
  4. Delete or disable online accounts that you don’t use.

In general, try to understand which data a service wants and collects from you before using it.

4 Likes
#12

the best place is start with wiki (privacytools.io) and in case something confusing you just ask us

#13

Do you mean the Privacy Tools website?

#14

There is a wiki which was created recently, but you will not find much there since it only has three or four pages which are unrelated to policies. You could help us with the expansion, though.

https://wiki.privacytools.io/

1 Like
#15

Yes! i mean the website

#16

https://prism-break.org/en/all/

PRISM Break has some good privacy information.
Categorized into Avoid and Prefer.

#17

Why don’t Prism Break and PTio work together?

#18

As far as I know, PRISM Break is pretty outdated, so I wouldn’t trust their recommendations THAT much. Just a warning.

I really don’t see how could that be done, I know they do basically the same, but it wouldn’t make sense for all privacy websites that recommend software to work together. They have “merged” with ThinkPrivacy already, too.

#19

Currently using Chrome, as it’s just easier (yeah i know) But I use firefox when doing research and such. I use Ublock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, Cookie autodelete, and decentraleyes when in Firefox.

#20

It’s definitely something to think about, personally in addition to other problems. I don’t know how and if it would be OK to contribute to both simultaneously or if that would be frowned upon by either side. I hope our community manager @blacklight447 could sometime reach out to them, but I think their todo list is also getting too long.

I see activity on their issue tracker at times and there is also commit activity. If you notice something outdated or wrong there, I would suggest opening an issue or pull merge request if it’s at all possible for you. I haven’t checked their site recently.

1 Like
#21
#22

Might I suggest you check out DefensiveComputingChecklist.com by Michael Horowitz to see if it speaks to you. I find his advice to be well balanced, unsensationalized (to the point of being almost boring), but more importantly actionable to most normal people. It doesn’t require a ton on investment, significant change of habits or technical knowledge on your part and arguably gets you 95% of the way.