Every other day I see the the world turning into a cyberpunk hellscape with no privacy. I am starting to feel what’s the point of trying to claw back privavy.
However I am not givong up as the need for privacy is more important than ever.
It the spirit of continuing the fight how should what should I Improve next?
Currently running Fedora 40 and use only open source apps. When browsing I try and use Mullvad browser and use my regular logins on a hardened Firefox with arkenfox. I have proton unlimtes for mail, passwords, drive and a VPN which is always on. I have filen as a back for redundancy and my most import files are encrypted with Crypomator and uploaded to both clouds.
On my mobile I use a pixel 4, I tried Graphene OS but my banking failed so back to stock Android. The only I have replaces most android apps with Fossify apps and use Obtanium, Aurura and F-Droid for apps. I use ente Auth for authentication except for my work as I have to use Microsoft Authenticator. The only proprietary apps I use are Facebook messenger, spotify, google maps and my bank. I use Facebook messenger and maps through shelter .
For browsing on Android I use Mull and on my android Proton VPN is always on. I visit twitter and twitter ocasionly but always through mull browser.
For keeping in contact with freinds I use Aliucord in Android and Vesktop on my PC
Before anyone asks my bank is App only and it is the only way I have been able to successfully manage my finaces so I have to stay with that for now.
For spending habniys I try to use Google pay as little as possible and use my master card.
My Apologies for my english I am a little stupid when it comes to spelling and grammar.
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I tried Graphene OS but my banking failed so back to stock Android
Any features in the mobile app that don’t exist on the website? I’ve had good luck checking my bank balance and all sorts of other things through Firefox on Android - pre-edit: I missed that it was app only. That sucks.
For browsing on Android I use Mull and on my android Proton VPN is always on. I visit twitter and twitter ocasionly but always through mull browser.
The VPN really doesn’t do much at all for privacy. It just moves the point of trust from the service provider for the current network to the VPN provider, plus now you have extra hurdles as you’ll show up as a VPN IP rather than a “normal” residential or cellular IP. Realistically set your DNS to be something like Quad9 or Cloudflare and you’ll already be several steps ahead on browsing privacy
For spending habniys I try to use Google pay as little as possible and use my master card.
Realistically any card is going to be selling your spending habits. Cash and crypto are about the only ways to have private purchases, and plenty of places won’t accept either
Personally I had a long hard think about my privacy practices and how they only isolated me and made me unhappy, and realized that if I’m already blocking all ads so I never get to see the results of the incredibly dystopian advertising hellscape, does it really matter that much if Google knows I spent $200 on random model train shit last month when they already know I watch a few hours of train-related content on Youtube? So I take smaller steps to not fully given in, but I don’t take steps that create extra hassle in participating in modern society and living my life to its fullest.
Thanks this is really solid asvice. Actually made me feel a lot better.
I recently was dianosed with ADHD so I have found cutting out a lot of social media and other envasibe products has really just helped with my mental health and has hinder my everyday life.
My bank is an App only so I have to use the app.
In regards to the DNS advice should I use that for both my PC and android ? And when would I use a vpn?
Then just keep stock android. You’re already reducing a lot of data collection by using FOSS. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
I recommend NextDNS, it allows you to block ads, trackers and other unwanted stuff on the DNS level. Check out this video: https://neat.tube/w/19r4YnE6fpce6e2B9MepnB
In regards to the DNS advice should I use that for both my PC and android ? And when would I use a vpn?
You should setup your preferred DNS server everything really. On your phone, on your computer and on your router if you can. DNS is the absolute easiest way to track and block/hijack browsing habits, so hardcoding your devices to use a standard one like NextDNS, Quad9 or Cloud flare will put you very far ahead
Regarding VPNs, commercial VPNs are really overhyped, and thats because they’re a cash cow for operators. See Tom Scott’s video on the subject if you prefer this britishplained to you. All a VPN is is a tunnel from your device to the VPN server wherever that is, so you’ll look like your traffic is originating from that VPN server, plus all of your traffic is going to that VPN server so you have to trust that that server isn’t compromised nor slurping up all of the data to sell/provide security agencies. Clear text browsing traffic will also be secured between your device and the VPN server, but that’s super uncommon nowadays. Realistically a commercial VPN is best for if you’re doing illegal activities such as piracy because it will add layers of abstraction should a private company or public agency wish to investigate your activities and try to identify you. I do use Tailscale with an exit node on my home network when connecting to public wifi just in case the network is misconfigured, but it’s really just another layer of Swiss cheese security.
A VPN has it’s advantages, mostly to avoid your ISP snooping on you (while having to trust another party not to snoop) and giving you access to stuff in the internet that may be geoblocked.
A solid DNS provider with Doh or DOT will encrypt your browsing, so I also believe it’s better than a VPN, but I use both.
It’s a matter of not overdoing it. Do it one step at a time. I feel you on the ADHD, I am also diagnosed, and now I inly check Lemmy and Mastodon every now and then. My mental health has improved dramatically since I dropped all the mainstream social networks.
Give attention to Qubes OS also, It’s the easiest way for separating apps for different tasks, using them with different proxies (VPNs, Tor) or profiles at the same tame.
If you use Fedora and only FLOSS apps on your PC that’s great! Next that’s the turn of your phone, at the end you should use only FLOSS apps, first try to switch from FB messenger (switching to SimpleX), next don’t use spotify : cracked Spotify (not for privacy) or RiMusic for no-ads and privacy. For maps there’s no real great apps but maybe Organics Maps for navigation and GMaps WV to see the infos directly for maps but securely. For your bank, I have no real idea, you should remove it but if you can’t… Or you have others choice for your OS, maybe your banking app will work. You can useDivestOS or CalyxOS but for privacy in fact /e/OS is even better than Graphene (not for security, for privacy).
On my mobile I use a pixel 4, I tried Graphene OS but my banking failed so back to stock Android
Here in Australia I just use a physical card for tap and go for payments etc or use cash. No need for Google Pay or bank payments app. Can log in via my bank via a web browser to move cash about or check spending.
I think you demonstrated the entire point, people prefer invasive convenience over privacy., along with flimsy justification. Not having a go, it’s exactly what most people say when I query them about privacy, “It’s so much eaaier and how I manage” etc etc.
Then we have your FB messenger thing. Dead lord, stop that. If they don’t want to chat to me on Signal, they’re obviously not my friend.
Monero
I have heard advice can share any advice to to get started as I have never used crypto
Go to a local free cryptocurrency meetup group. Bring $5 and buy some bitcoin from someone there. Then go home and use a website to convert the bitcoin to monero. Do this with just $5 at first.
Once you understand that process, repeat with some larger amount and you can use it to buy things.
Consume everything you can. Go down the rabbit hole so deep you’re afraid you’ll never come back. To start with, I suggest Monero Talk. That’s where you can start to listen to podcasts about it. And to get your first, you can go to xmrbazaar.com and click “Earn XMR”
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Maybe the most impactful, easiest, and most expensive thing is to get your information off of the internet. There are a few services that do this like incogni but I’d recommend kanary. The gist is they have a list of known data brokers and they send out requests to them, on your behalf, to remove your information from their services.
Filens Android app has trackers from Google and Sentry.
They went from no trackers, to Matomo (that was not announced in their change log), then to Google and Sentry.
Set your system-wide DNS to a provider in a country with better privacy laws. I use quad9. Disable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) in Firefox if you have it enabled, as it sends DNS queries to cloudflare, which may be even worse than sending your DNS queries to your default ISP servers (also disable DNS prefetch). If you’re hosting a DNS server, you can also set up a DNS blocklist if you use something like unbound or unwind.
I would get away from proton, they’re too popular and too much of a target, and most critically they fucked over a climate protestor, and then removed “we do not keep any IP logs” from their privacy policy. If they’re willing to lie about that, what else are they willing to lie about? If you want a fun project, set up your own mail server. Easy (relatively speaking) to do on OpenBSD with a cheap VPS provider like buyvm. Password manager is easy enough to write yourself with an openssl script, or you can use some other open source password manager if you hate scripting. Storage should be cheaper on a VPS than whatever proton is providing, and you can even host your own VPN (though this has potential to be easily routed back to you unless you serve multiple users with your VPN).
Disable javascript everywhere you don’t need it. I use qutebrowser, and javascript is disabled by default, and I only reluctantly enable it per-domain when I absolutely have to.
Use 3rd party open source clients for propietary apps, or move to open source ecosystems (like lemmy!).
I would get off of Android all together, and switch to a real Linux phone, if you can tolerate the jank. I don’t trust Google not to put a backdoor in the Android kernel (which forked all the way back at Linux 2.something). You could also try switching to a dumb phone, but those still run some amount of spooky blackbox software and I wouldn’t totally trust it from any major phone manufacturer.
They have a onion service. If the climate activist used that, then proton wouldn’t have any details to give LE.
Use the privacy tools they tell you to use. they literally tell you how to prevent this from happening.
Use TAILS for activism
Also, they have to follow Swiss law if they want to stay in business.
Perhaps trusting law-abiding businesses is bad for privacy
Well, it usually is a good sign when an org actively breaks laws…choosing morality over law
Which usually leads to their being shut down.
It’s nice to see an org choose a side, but then we lose that org and we’re back to square one.
This is the advantage of disorganizations
