Privacy

PRIVACY

This page is relatively short because Privacy is a core part of most other topics on this site. For example, a big part of configuring any smartphone. It's also a big reason to use a VPN. This is why, for a long time, this page did not exist (it went live in July 2024).

PROTEST WITHOUT BEING SPIED ON

June 11, 2025: How to secure your phone before attending a protest by Barbara Krasnoff and Aliya Chaudhry for The Verge.

April 21, 2025: How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border by Lily Hay Newman and Matt Burgess for Wired magazine. One suggestion that takes up much of the article is to travel with a secondary phone that has a sanitized version of your digital life. They suggest this travel phone have separate communication and social media accounts. Only put stuff on the phone you need for your trip. The travel phone should have its own phone number, or just use it on Wi-Fi. For its phone number, many companies sell eSims for short durations (this is from me, the article only mentions SIM cards, so a bit dated). Sadly, the article says nothing about hiding apps using the built-in features of iOS and Android.

April 17, 2025: How Americans Are Surveilled During Protests by Lauren Goode, Michael Calore, and Andrew Couts for Wired magazine. The obvious defense is to leave your phone at home, they do not mention the pros/cons of just turning it off. Some defenses: Turn off Face ID on an iPhone, turn off fingerprint logon on an Android phone, don't go to a protest alone, don't drive your own car to a protest (to avoid license plate scanners), do wear a mask (both for health reasons and to obscures your face).

March 29, 2025: Your Data Has Been Stolen - Now What? by Naomi Brockwell. Some topics in the article: Use Aliases, Clean Up Old Accounts, Create new accounts and Monitor for Future Leaks.

May 4, 2024 (last update): How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest? by Dan Phiffer, Tomas Apodaca, Miles Hilton, and Maddy Varner for The Markup. Many suggestions. One is to unlock your phone with a password/passcode rather than a face or fingerprint. Make the unlock password long (at least 6 characters) and add letters too.

SOURCES

From glitcharmour.org: "... the real grab happens as you scroll. Any swipe and double-tap on Instagram or TikTok can be scraped, sorted and sold to political operatives who turn your feed into a targeted ad campaign. In the end, the true currency isn’t your money - it's your mind. The system was built on 'free and easy.' Reclaiming privacy requires small, deliberate choices: pick one tool, get used to it, then pick another." They suggest privacy oriented software in these categories: Messenger, Browser, Browser Add-on, Search Engine, VPN, Email, Password Manager, Encrypted Storage, File Transfer, Knowledge System, Collaborative Editor and Video Calls.

The Ludlow Institute is focused on privacy with excellent articles. Naomi Brockwell is their President and Founder.

The Privacy Guides website is fairly extensive. It recommends software and services and also has configuration suggestions. They say: "We do not make money from recommending certain products, and we do not use affiliate links." Like this site, there are no ads.

PsySecure in their own words: " ... is pioneering the first systematic defense against OSINT-based threats. We've developed the industry's first platform that transforms an organization's digital footprint from a vulnerability into a measurable, manageable security control." If nothing else, see their blogs.

The Rebel Tech Alliance is a non-profit that recommends privacy focused software. They have recommendations for web browsers, VPNs, ad/tracker blockers, file storage and backup and more. See their undated article How do I stop using Big Tech products?

ASSORTED

See also the AI topic on this site for ways to use AI anonymously.

June 2025: I Tried, and Failed, to Disappear From the Internet by Max Eddy for the Wirecutter.

June 28, 2025: Buying someone’s real-time location is shockingly cheapby Naomi Brockwell for the Ludlow Institute.

June 27, 2025 (last update): The Best Data Removal Services by Max Eddy for the Wirecutter. Quoting "After testing nine services, we’ve concluded that the set-it-and-forget-it design and reasonable pricing of DeleteMe make it the best choice for most people. Our budget pick, EasyOptOuts, has fewer features, but for $20 a year, it provides a cheap and easy way to improve your online privacy."

June 25, 2025: Your Data Appeared in a Leak. Now What? by Max Eddy for the Wirecutter.

April 20, 2025: Go Delete Yourself From the Internet. Seriously, Here's How by Nicole Nguyen for the Wall Street Journal. Your personal data can expose you to identity theft, scams and harassment. Complete removal is impossible. The article had good things to say about two data removal services: DeleteMe and Optery. It also mentions Google's Results About You feature described elsewhere on this page.

May 18, 2025: Delete Yourself, Part 2: Your Personal Data on the Dark Web by Nicole Nguyen for the Wall Street Journal. More about the Google Results About You feature. The Apple password manager app (iOS and macOS) can identify passwords found in data breaches. Go to settings and select Detect Compromised Passwords.

Google has a Results About You feature that finds you personal data (home address, phone number) in people-search sites. You can ask Google to remove your personal information from their search results and they will if it "meets policy requirements". In other words, if they feel like it. Needless to say, you need a Google account and you have to tell them your address and phone number(s) for this to work. They run regular checks for your personal information and alert you if it shows up in search results.

November 14, 2024: How Do I Protect My Privacy If I’m Seeking an Abortion? by Tomas Apodaca for The Markup.

Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List by Yael Grauer. It is indeed a big list. Quoting: This list, also known as BADBOOL, was started on September 29, 2017 and was most recently updated in July 2024... This list was the main reason that I created this pgae.

In my opinion the best thing you can do to avoid tracking is to use a DNS service like NextDNS. I have used NextDNS for a few years, pay for it (there is a free version) and have been very happy with it. For one thing, it can log DNS requests, which is a very simple way to see servers contacted under the cover, regardless of your operating system. It also supports profiles, so that one web browser can use one profile, another browser on the same device use a different profile and the host Operating System use a third profile. Perhaps the best feature of each profile is a white list and a black list. Any DNS blocking service will make mistakes, and NextDNS easily lets you allow things that it has blocked by default or block things that it has allowed by default. You can use both a browser based ad/tracker blocking extension and NextDNS at the same time in the same browser.

Protect yourself from online tracking by Privacy International. This is here just for completeness, I am not a big fan of it. For one thing, it seems to have been abandoned, all the sections were written in 2021 and not updated. Seems like someone got a grant to do a project, did it, and walked away from it. For example, the Windows section on avoiding targeted ads, does not mention Windows 11. It also does not say which service pack it refers to and there is no excuse for such an amateurish omission. Things have changed in Windows, especially how it deals with the newer secure DNS. Likewise, the topic of Chrome browser tweaks does not say which version of Chrome it refers to. As to the poor recommendations made here: it says nothing about not using the Chrome browser. Also, the section on DNS level ad blocking in Windows is about modifying the hosts file. That is ridiculous.

March 2025: A new topic was added to this site, Avoiding Software from the USA. A big reason for this is privacy.