I do not want to live in a world where we have no privacy and no freedom, where the unique value of the Internet is snuffed out.

~ Edward Snowden

You are only free so long as you are able to maintain your autonomy which is constantly under attack by Big Data.

This section is a constant work-in-progress.

Compartmentalization of UIDs

  • Your email address and phone number are Unique Identifiers that follow, track, and enable detailed profiles to be built about you. Stop giving out your personal phone and email address. Instead, use unique ones for each area of your life.
  • Compartmentalize your life so that your banking/finance life, social media life, and shopping life do not intermingle.

Phone Numbers

  • Use MySudo to obtain unique phone numbers. I subscribe to the 3 phone number plan: one number for Banking/Finance, one for Social Media, and one for Shopping profiles. I don’t utilize the other services that are included with MySudo, only the phone numbers.

Email Addresses

  • Create a new encrypted email address at Proton Mail - Free or Paid. No service should ever know this email address. (My Proton Mail referral link.)
  • Use Simple Login to create unique email addresses for every website and service you use. Forward these to your Proton Mail. Simple Login is the only website that should know your Proton Mail.
    • For increased privacy/control, you can self-host Simple Login on your own server and/or use your own domain name for your Simple Login addresses.

Internet More Privately

  • VPNs (virtual private networks) are a proxy that can only provide some privacy, not anonymity. However, they’re not necessary since HTTPS, how your browser to connect with websites, is the default. HTTPS will secure your website traffic, so a VPN is only helpful for non-HTTPS websites (of which there are few). However, VPNs can hide your traffic from your ISP, and hide your IP from websites you visit. In short, you don’t need a VPN
    • If you do want a VPN, check out Mullvad since they ask for no personal information and payments can be made with bitcoin. Another thing I like about them is that they do not pay sponsorships to any “influencers” or affiliates.
  • Tor (The Onion Network). If you want anonymity, tor is the way to go because your traffic is encrypted and is passed through 3 different locations before arriving at the website you wish. Do NOT log in to personal accounts using tor as you would then be identified and would defeat the whole purpose of using tor.
  • Really good write-up on Tor vs VPN
  • SPN from Safing.io is a new and very promsiing option for privacy and anonymity. It uses onion routing, similar to tor, but will provide an seperate IP for each app that is utilizing the net and has some very good firewall options through their free Portmaster software.
  • DNS is how the internet converts the domain you type in your browser to the IP address where the website actually resides. Your ISP is most likely providing your DNS which gives them some means of control and insight into your browsing. Instead, use a third-party service such as NextDNS or Quad9. Both are free to use and easy to setup. Between the two I prefer NextDNS due to the filtering controls; I can block content (ads, trackers, facebook, etc) from ever reaching my computer. I utilize a third-party DNS with my SPN.

Web Browser

  • For a ready-to-go solution, use LibreWolf which is a hardened version of Firefox.
  • If you want to stick with Firefox actual, use the Arkenfox approach to fine-tune and harden the browser yourself.
  • Firefox, by default now, uses containers to help you compartmentalize your online activities. Cookies and activities in one container are not accessible to websites in other containers.
    • The Firefox Multi-Account Containers add-on adds a more convenient GUI to managing these containers.
      • For example, use containers Work, Banking, Shopping, Social Media with applicable websites.
  • When you close your web browser configure it to delete all cookies, browser history, site data, etc. This is done by default in LibreWolf, and one of the steps you should take if hardening Firefox yourself.

Spend with Privacy

  • Your bank and credit card companies can see where you spend your money. Rather than spending directly from these institutions, use a service such as Privacy which acts as a proxy. Privacy also gives you more control of how your financial data. (My Privacy.com referral link.)
    • I get that this is basically off-loading trust of your bank to trust of Privacy. However, I feel the benefits of control of how other websites/services see and access my financial data is a net benefit.

Even More Financial Privacy

This section needs to be more fleshed out. Probably requires it’s own page.

  • Use bitcoin obtained peer-to-peer (P2P), not through some online exchange where you had to hand over your identity.
  • Services such as The Bitcoin Company, Bitrefill and Moon enable you to use bitcoin to purchase gift cards, pre-paid cell phone plans, and much more.

Speak More Privately

  • Pixel phone with Graphene OS.
  • SilentLink, buy with bitcoin
  • Your SMS text messages are all clear text and available to your cell provider and anyone who wants to take a look. Switch as much of your text communication to Signal for fully encrypted messaging, voice, and video calls.
    • The one thing that I do hate about Signal is their requirement of a phone number for registration. You could use one of your MySudo or Silent Link numbers rather than your cell service provided number.
  • As much as I might want to say here, Michael Bazzel has a very thorough guide on cell phone privacy that i highly recommend.