Oddbean

I’m looking to take steps to increase my privacy online but have no idea where to start. Does anyone know a good website or list of resources where I can learn more? I’m an Apple user so you can only go so far, but any step is positive isn’t it? #asknostr #grownostr #privacy

I would start by phasing out intrusive apps. This can be a gradual process, unless you like to go big and jump in. Delete Facebook. Start moving your data out of Google or Apple's walled garden. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Every step taken in the right direction is worth it.

Thanks for your reply. I was actually thinking of keeping two profiles, a public one where I can interact with the big apps and websites and a private one, a device with more protection where I can do most of my activity and keep it private. Don’t know if that’s just too complicated, but I guess I want opinions regarding best privacy browsers, OSs, email, etc.

r/privacy wiki is still very good starting point If you like podcasts I recommend Opt Out from @Seth For Privacy and The Watchman Privacy from Gabriel Custodiet. You can start small by: 1. Leave privacy threatneing social media like facebook, instagram, etc. 2. Avoid big tech as much as possible (google and Apple) 3. Use a privacy alternatives to critical services like email (e.g Protonmail), messaging (signal, simpleX), etc. Ask for a specific replacement for anything, I'm sure someone will find something. 4. Use a good VPN or tor browser 5. Use bitcoin in a privacy preserving way or monero, acquire them without KYC. 6. Use freedom respecting Operating Systems like linux for desktop and GrapheneOS for mobile.

Thanks so much, that’s very useful. I guess I’ll start reading and listen to to as much as I can and implement those steps as I can. I already use Protonmail, Brave Browser (is its Tor private window legit?), and NordVPN, but not sure how robust they are.

Don't use Tor trough Brave, it's a bad idea. One of the advantages of using the Tor browser is that your browser fingerprint is the same as every other Tor browser user. You get increased anonymity set by hiding in the crowd. Whereas using tor through Brave leaves you exposed to tracking because your Brave browser still has a unique fingerprint. I'm not impartial on this, but I prefer Firefox (or LibreWolf) to Brave. I would recommend mullvad or ivpn over NordVPN.

Also consider switching over to an open source and encrypted password manager like Bitwarden. Probably the most convenient and popular. Or you can checkout one of the KeePass forks if you like your passwords completely offline. I would avoid NordVPN if you can. MullvadVPN and IVPN are better choices. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/ https://pluja.github.io/awesome-privacy/#VPNs Check out those links and don't get overwhelm yourself by switching everything at once. Do the easy stuff first and slowly switch over time.