Get a VPN

Virtual Private Networks hide your traffic from your internet provider so they can't snoop on what you're looking at. Some popular options:

Mullvad - $5 / month, you can pay with cash even to be completely anonymous

Proton VPN - Company known for encryption and privacy. Has a free version, limited to 1 device at a time, or paid for multi device.

Nord VPN - often runs discounts, some questionable security practices but better than nothing.

2 Factor Authentication and Passkeys

Enabling 2 factor authentication (2FA, also called multi-factor authentication) or Passkeys on your account are a great way to increase account security and prevent unauthorized people from signing into your accounts. If you haven't heard of passkeys, here's an article from Wired (archived) on what they are and how they work.

Here's how to enable 2FA or passkeys on some common services:

Discord: MFA, Passkey

Twitter/X: 2FA, Passkey

Telegram: Passkey

Encrypted Chat Apps

While popular, apps like Twitter/X, Telegram, and Discord do not handle your data in a way that is private. These companies can read texts, view media, and feed all of it to automated AI systems without an option for you to opt out.

Platforms like Signal are end to end encrypted, which means nobody but you and the people you're texting can read your messages— not even the platform themselves. Here's an article explaining more.

Signal even has disappearing photos and stories features like Snapchat and Telegram for updating your buddies throughout your bate day.

Keep in mind, Signal is a little bit more of an untamed Wild West than platforms you may be used to. With increased privacy, moderation gets more difficult. Be aware of signs of illegal or illicit activity. Be wary of joining groups or accepting messages from people that you are not familiar with. Ask a buddy if he knows the group, or check it out together. If you're unsure, err on the side of caution and don't join.

How to get started with Signal

Apple ID: Enable Advanced Data Protection

If you use Apple devices, this feature enables full end to end encryption for most data associated with your Apple ID ("iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more").

You will need to set up an additional recovery method, such as a recovery key (a physically written down 28 digit long number) or a contact you trust to help you get back into your account if you get locked out.

Here are the instructions, along with more information

Encrypted Hard Drives

If the information on your computer is not encrypted, anyone with physical access can view, copy, and edit it. Encrypting your hard drive will prevent anyone without the password from viewing your data.

Mac - Protect data on your Mac with FileVault

Windows - Device Encryption in Windows

Linux: I am not as familiar with data protection techniques. If you have a recommendation, send an email and I will update this guide.

Camming

Platforms like Discord are not secured end to end, and are increasingly bowing to political pressure for surveillance.

Alternatives: Jitsi is a platform that is end to end encrypted. It does require a Google or GitHub (owned by Microsoft) account to sign up, so there are some downsides. However, it is an open source platform, so if you're tech minded, you can host it yourself which will be even more secure. Check out the docs here.

Otherwise, go to meet.jit.si to sign up

De-Google

Google loves your data, it's time to stop handing as much of it over as possible.

Browsers

Email

Switch from Chrome to privacy minded browsers:
Firefox and Brave are commonly used. If you're an Apple user, Safari does an okay job (here's a good guide on settings to check)

For the most privacy, Tor has a lot of built in security at the cost of some usability.

You can totally use a mix of browsers, and many of them support profiles so you can keep separate browsing history and cookies for different uses.

Companies like Proton are focused on providing privacy-first services like email, drive, docs, and spreadsheets. They can't view or use your work for training AI because only you can read your content. Emails to other Proton users are even encrypted too.

You can set up an email account for free, migrate contacts and messages, and set your gmail to automatically forward any new messages.

I recommend using an address that is not a username you use on any sites.

TikTok and Meta

These two companies are pioneers of tracking technology. That matters because they build profiles of what they know about you (and what they can guess about you) to serve you ads and show you content they have calculated will keep you engaged. They are also able to share this data with other companies and governments.

Every link you send to people includes tracking information so they can see who you talk to. Luckily, it's simple to remove:

Here's a color coded example of what that looks like for Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/MKPYkm3LaB5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=BYx6KTIxLyQ4Z0==

The blue part starting with MKP is the ID for the video. We need that! But everything after the ? is tracking: utm_source tells them where the link was made (in this case copying from the site on desktop), and igsh is the unique ID that ties the link to you.

You can manually remove this information and the link will still work. Just delete everything after the "?"

If you have Apple devices, you can use this shortcut to remove tracking information from most links. It goes in the share sheet, so it's relatively easy to use.

If you have Android devices, the app URLCheck (Play Store / F-Droid) may do something similar (I do not currently have any porn machines that run android to check— sorry guys! )

With TikTok, links are entirely generated per user per video. There is no part to cut out because the entire link is tracking. I generally try to avoid sharing these.

To wrap it all up: There is always one more thing we could be doing, one more step we could take to protect our privacy. If you tried to do it all, you'd spend so much time doing it you would cut into your time to actually do things. It's a matter of choosing which make sense on a case by case basis. Some precautions do it once and it's done. Others are ongoing, and may require money. Do what you can.

Everyone's risk assessments are different. There's no single right or wrong answer, just what set fits you best.