Privacy Guide
Unfortunately simply making purchases online, browsing the web, using social media and credit cards, purchasing insurance, buying a house, signing up for banking or sometimes even registering for a state ID is enough to spread extensive personal information through ad-tech networks, and to aggregation services which combine this data with consumer profiles and cell phone location information.
These networks are used by US intelligence services to spy on foreign actors and by foreign actors to spy on US intelligence and defense services alike, and there is not much you can do about it absent policy change. You can however somewhat reduce the flow of junk.
For a quick overview of the situation watch this 7 minute video.
If you are looking for security advice, consider our Internet Security advice for persons of interest or Guide to Setting up a Graphene OS high security phone
Here are a few top things we recommend to improve privacy
Resources:
Privacy Guides
Security Planner
Computer and Mobile Privacy (top easy recommendations)
- Use an Apple device with ad tracking off, or better yet, a Google Pixel and read our Guide to Setting up a Graphene OS high security phone
- Swap your chrome web browser for a more private browser like https://brave.com/ with built in ad blocking and private search
- If using a Chromebook and you can't - install ad blocking extensions
- https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/mobile-browsers/
- Switch from Google/Gmail to the Proton app suite
- Use a privacy protecting VPN like ProtonVPN and turn on their Net Guard (or otherwise setup DNS at blocking). See also Snowstorm beta nears release
- If using Gmail, go to your gmail settings and turn on "Ask before displaying external images"
Financial Purchases and Physical Concerns
- Depending on your threat you may wish to consider privacy type credit cards or something like https://anonyome.com/individuals/mysudo/
- You may wish to utilize a mail scanning and forwarding service like https://travelingmailbox.com/
- Be aware of your SmartTV, Amazon Alexa devices, Google Home, and other IoT devices which may compromise privacy via hacking, and shockingly when requested may be admissible in court!
Opt Out Lists
Junkmail - https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail
Opt out of credit card and insurance offers
- https://www.optoutprescreen.com
- https://DMAchoice.org
Do not email list: https://www.ims-dm.com/cgi/optoutemps.php
Do not call list: https://www.donotcall.gov/
Data Broker Removal
We have at times provided online data services to our staff and grantees, using tools such as https://www.optery.com/ which automate removing oneself from online search sites. Our 20% off promo / referral code : xzDurEsq
We cannot however endorse any of these methods as more than a modest improvement.
AI Privacy
If you are using services from OpenAI, Anthropic, X.ai or others, note that their free offerings typically collect data for training, and their for-pay offerings often do not (but are also de-anonymized because of your login). Be sure to read the terms of service as these organizations start to develop data monetization partnerships. Be careful what information you send to AI services.
More exotic options: AI requests can be routed anonymously through OpenRouter. If you have a beefy enough computer, you can run a local model using LM Studio or via decentralized app Freedom GPT or Morpheus.