Social Media
Out of context: Reply #46
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- Gardener3
.If you want to ameliorate your "footprint" at least somewhat, here are some reasonably simple things you can do (a lot of them are obvious):
- Delete (or at least stop using) all social media accounts. They've already got everything they need to build a profile on you, but quitting now will at least make it harder for that to continue. Unless you're a very active user, you'd be surprised how quickly you lose the "need" for them once they're gone. If you have to use social media for work, create separate profiles just for that and only use them when absolutely necessary. If you can dedicate a machine/network just for that, even better.
- Stop using as many Google products and services as possible, including Gmail. This is probably one of the harder ones, but it's worth doing whatever you can (i.e. using DuckDuckGo as a search engine, never using Google Chrome as a browser, not using stock Android on your phone, not using Gmail for important/personal emails). ProtonMail is a great alternative for e-mail, and Firefox/Brave/DuckDuckGo are all good browser alternatives. If you must use Google accounts, tweak the privacy settings as much as you can to opt out of "personalization".
- Use a VPN and browser extensions. Firefox is probably the best browser for selection of privacy-enhancing extensions, and comes with a lot of good options within the browser itself. Depending on how stringent you want to be, some of them can make your internet activity a bit more fiddly (certain pages breaking, constantly having to re-enter logins or verifying accounts etc.) but I'd say uBlock Origin, Decentraleyes and Google/Facebook "container" extensions are essential for preventing these companies from tracking your activity across the web. VPNs don't offer as much protection as some people assume, but every hurdle helps, and it's worth paying a little for a good one.
- Keep phone apps (and usage) to a minimum. Depending on how careful you are with your settings, a lot of apps will subtly run in the background, gather location data or even access your microphone. Delete any apps that you don't use often, you can always re-download them if needed. It's a good idea to limit your phone to essentials anyway, for more than just privacy reasons (I also keep my phone on grayscale most of the time, which makes it less appealing to idly fiddle with). There's no popular smartphone that's particularly privacy friendly out-of-the-box, but iPhone/iOS is probably the lesser of all evils (unless you're tech-savvy enough to install an open source OS like Graphene on an Android phone).
- Try to only use privacy-respecting messaging apps. Signal is probably the best option, but Telegram will do as it's more widely-used. This one can be hard because you're sort of limited to what everyone else is already using (Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger etc.), but try to use those ones as little as possible. Apparently iMessage isn't a bad option if you're on iPhone with other iPhone users, but since it's not open source it's hard to be sure.
- Don't use your real name or other identifying details anywhere online unless absolutely necessary. A lot of the things you sign up for don't actually need to know your real name and birthday in order to work, so don't give it to them. And keep separate email addresses for different purposes (i.e. one for personal, one for work, a few for various different sign-ups etc.) This helps "diversify" your internet profile. It extends to in-person "sign-ups" as well (shops, restaurants etc.) If they don't "need" your phone number or home/e-mail address, don't give it to them.
Those are a few things which seem the most important for reducing your digital footprint. I'm not especially tech-savvy myself, so I'm sure many of you will have other/better suggestions, or will be able to explain why some of mine are bollocks. I've also found https://www.privacytools.io/ to have good information and resources if you're interested.