I have not always had an interest in data privacy. Actually, it took me moving in to being a data engineer in the marketing world to really realise the intense nature of data capture.

Like, I am sure, a large proprotion of the privacy aware population, it is not that there is anything to hide, just that privacy of data should be a right. It is one of the reasons I stepped away from most social networks, try to de-Google as much as I can and take care in my data landscape.

But, how does everyone else manage theirs? It would be good to share some useful tips, resources, tools, etc. that the wider community (as it grows) can use.

For me, I use:

  • A VPN (Mullvad in this case)
  • Firefox with ‘some’ hardening (don’t want to totally cripple the online experience)
  • Windows OS with telemtry disabled across the system (never perfect but I am happy)
  • Simplewall (Windows App) to manage some outbound traffic
  • Random password generators (exact logic is incredibly unique to me)
  • Android (mobile) with as much telemetry disabled as possible
  • Privacy Guides, a great website to keep atop of new updates
  • Various threat landscape blogs and podcasts

Listing it out, it sounds like I do a lot but this is pretty tame. I accept that there is a balance between user experience and privacy. Yes, I could totally de-Google my phone but then a lot of useful functionality is lost. Same with Windows, I could move to Linux full-time (and would if I could) but I am a gamer and, while Linux is improving in that landscape, it ain’t great just yet.

  • tkc
    8·
    1 year ago

    Hey, good to see this here. I’ve been told to take the tin-foil hat of by family and friends before, so I think that sums me up a bit haha.

    I’m running Arch linux, on laptop and desktop, I also use Mullvad browser, which comes with UBlocm Origin and NoScriot. Some sites break, but then I fall back to Brave.

    I also have GrapheneOS on a Pixel 5. I try to use as much FOSS app downloaded from Github repos as possible. Obtainium is a godsend for keeping these up to date. I use Aurora store for Play Store apps, which are only installed in the Work profile, and I have sandboxes Google Apps installed I’m both profiles.

    At home I run Pi-Hole with Unbound as a local DNS. This also breaks some things, but I probably dont want them working anyway haha.

    I also self host Bitwarden as a password manager and use ProtonMail for email.

    Phew…

    Next steps are to get Nextcloud working for photo backup, and shared calendars between me and my partner. We’ve been using something called Time tree for years, but its full of ads.