Since this is something that has become a lot more relevant in recent times, I wanted to share a few of the steps I've taken to protect some of my privacy online. Generally, I'd consider myself privacy-conscious - I even helped implement the entire GDPR catalog in my old firm (the brunt of it is actually offline), but I'm not so averse against everything that I'd forgo all convenience that comes with the actual handling of my private data.
Privacy settings
Browsers
Brave has been mentioned. I actually moved back to Firefox after many years of using Chrome. I quite like it. They have added several products over the years that focus on protecting your data:
Firefox Products. For example there is Firefox Monitor, which lets you check if your email addresses have been breached by some data leaks in the past or Firefox Relay, which lets you create random email addresses for spam prevention purposes that are forwarded to your regular address and can be deleted on a whim.
On my smartphone I now use use Firefox as my main browser plus Firefox Focus as my standard app for when I click on links. It's basically a light Firefox with constant privacy mode, that can delete all cookies as soon as you leave the page again.
E-Mail
Moved my main account to Protonmail. I like it so much that I even opted for a premium subscription, which mostly lets me create more mail addresses.
Even in the basic version, though, it's possible to use tags. For example, if your address was johndoe@protonmail.com, you can receive mails sent to johndoe+anything@protonmail.com. So that's what I'm doing now when registering for newsletters or different sites. If my data was sold anywhere or breached and I get spam to that address, I at least know about it and can block it.
Adblock, ublock
Yeah, I guess this is a no-brainer. My Internet looks pretty clean, although I do make exceptions in rare cases. I'm also not as reluctant anymore to pay a bit for what I like, as I was earlier in my life.
~~~
That's it for now. Windows 11 is another area of interest, I suppose. Anything to know there, besides the obvious stuff you can turn off?
Privacy settings
- Google Privacy Checkup
This actually came up today, which prompted this text. If you are always logged into Google, like I am, there are lots of settings you can adjust, like how long your Youtube watch history is saved. I like being able to revisit videos I forgot about, but don't care about a lifetime history, so I set automatic deletion to 3 years. Similar for location data etc. You can also disable personalized ads for the Google network.
I think it's a good idea to check your privacy settings for all the (bigger) sites that you are participating in.
- Ad personalization
There are centralized locations for opting out of ad cookies for various networks (if they participate)- Your Online Choices (EU) [ Opt-out page ].
They also have lots of good info on what ad personalization actually is and how it works. - Your Ad Choices (US) [ Opt-out page ]
This one had some active for me as well.
- Your Online Choices (EU) [ Opt-out page ].
Browsers
Brave has been mentioned. I actually moved back to Firefox after many years of using Chrome. I quite like it. They have added several products over the years that focus on protecting your data:
Firefox Products. For example there is Firefox Monitor, which lets you check if your email addresses have been breached by some data leaks in the past or Firefox Relay, which lets you create random email addresses for spam prevention purposes that are forwarded to your regular address and can be deleted on a whim.
On my smartphone I now use use Firefox as my main browser plus Firefox Focus as my standard app for when I click on links. It's basically a light Firefox with constant privacy mode, that can delete all cookies as soon as you leave the page again.
Moved my main account to Protonmail. I like it so much that I even opted for a premium subscription, which mostly lets me create more mail addresses.
Even in the basic version, though, it's possible to use tags. For example, if your address was johndoe@protonmail.com, you can receive mails sent to johndoe+anything@protonmail.com. So that's what I'm doing now when registering for newsletters or different sites. If my data was sold anywhere or breached and I get spam to that address, I at least know about it and can block it.
Adblock, ublock
Yeah, I guess this is a no-brainer. My Internet looks pretty clean, although I do make exceptions in rare cases. I'm also not as reluctant anymore to pay a bit for what I like, as I was earlier in my life.
~~~
That's it for now. Windows 11 is another area of interest, I suppose. Anything to know there, besides the obvious stuff you can turn off?
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