I still feel like I’m not taking privacy seriously enough. I haven’t gotten a VPN yet because that requires pay and I am too lazy to try to get money. (I wish there were free (in pricing) VPNs.)

  • airikr
    16·
    3 years ago

    I started to reclaim my privacy back in 2016 when I switched from Windows to Linux. Today, I only use Windows for gaming and photo editing (Adobe Lightroom are still the best out there for me).

    When it comes to VPN, I have used Mullvad VPN for years now. Super cheap (only 5 EUR per month) and privacy friendly.

    But VPN only encrypts your connections and points your IP to somewhere else. If you want to take your privacy seriously, you need to take some actions and not only focus on the VPN part. For an example, Facebook, Twitter, Google Chat, Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Discord, and more are really, really bad for your privacy.

    Instead, use XMPP or Matrix for chat options. If you want an encrypted service yet get better privacy than WhatsApp, use Telegram. Signal uses servers from big tech companies, but yet Signal are still better than WhatsApp.

    Mastodon instead of Twitter and Facebook. Revolt or Mumble instead of Discord. Invidious, Piped, youtube-local, or NewPipe instead of YouTube. ProxiTok instead of TikTok. And so on.

    Use containers for Google and Facebook services in a browser.

    I guess you get the idea 🙂

    • Gunther
      6·
      3 years ago

      I agree with most of the suggestions here, but I’m not sure why Telegram, a proprietary application that is not E2EE by default (and whose encryption is their own standard anyway) is touted as a privacy-friendly chat app alternative.

      • airikr
        12·
        3 years ago

        You get monitored by Facebook in WhatsApp thanks to metadata and Facebook are trying to somehow detect what you have sent to provide personalized ads.

        Telegram are built on privacy and security. Except for the metadata, you will not be monitored and the non-personalized ads are only visible in huge channels (like Pavel Durov’s own channel) and groups. I am a member in Pavel’s channel and I have seen zero (0) ads so far. Guess they haven’t released this feature yet?

        If you want E2EE in Telegram, stop using cloud chats and only focus on secret chats. They are working on adding secret chats to the desktop versions.

        I am really looking forward to Telegram releasing the source code for MTProto as soon as Russia stops wanting the source code for themselves (Pavel’s words, not mine). We all know how Russia is.

        Everything else except MTProto are open sourced.

    • sproid
      5·
      3 years ago

      Linux is great for gaming in the overall sense. Unless you play one of those games that for sure is not playable on Linux, in which case I personally don’t care for those games since I have plenty of games to be entertained. Sometimes we want or need to use specific programs and the best thing to do is limit our exposure, harden privacy. In which cases I suggest trying to be anonymous when using Twitter or Discord, and other social networks and prefer to have them on a browser tab instead of downloading an app to minimize the amount of the system information they can get. Of course all that along with going to their settings and harden it for privacy too per your use-case. There is some social networks that in my eyes are a prohibited no matter what like facebook, and others that my use went from 100% to 10% like with google. 10% being YouTube and Maps. For VPN, well, is tricky. 1st is not always really needed, it has its uses. Many don’t really need it. 2nd you’ll want to avoid the free ones but there is a workaround like getting it along with other services like ProtonVPN or paying for discounted lifetime accounts when you see those promos. That way is way cheaper but is still a pay service.