Doing everything to protect privacy online

submitted by Thymos from self.privacy

I've been worried a lot about my online privacy lately. I want to ensure I'm doing everything I can to stay anonymous on the internet. Ive deleted social media, switched to duckduckgo, switched to ProtonMail, and started using a VPN service.

Is this the most I can be doing? Are some VPNs better than others? I've been using NordVPN. Input is appreciated.

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[–]useless_aether 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

ddg is using amazon web services, that means cia and nsa, so maybe go with startpage or searx. also, many vpn services sell their data..

personally, i went with tails which is a debian based distro routing all traffic through the tor network and is more secure without a vpn. it comes with a hardened tor browser and noscript, ublock origin, https everywhere out of the box. add canvasblocker to that.

i also dont use any smart devices.. just a dumb phone. this functionality to security balance works for me, ymmv

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

You should consider an older smartphone that is supported by Replicant OS which is an android rom entirely built on free software. There also is the Librem 5 which runs Pure OS and is built on open source hardware.

Point is, your dumbphone cannot encrypt messages and calls and still poses the same risk of triangulation as a smartphone. Your phone may also be built on propietary software so who knows what's happening in there.

[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

thank you, helpful info!

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Any mobile phone with a sim card will be pinging towers and giving your approx location to your carrier?

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

[Edit: Faraday pouch]

Any phone with an active cell tower modem can be triangulated.

Librem 5 seems to fix this with a physical kill switch though.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    I get extreme/ clickbaity vibes from him, but he is a great channel and has helped me a lot.