ԅ(¯﹃¯ԅ) Julian's Tips for Internet Privacy
7.9.25
Hey guys:-) In lieu of the recent data breaches, I thought it would be appropriate to give my tips for how to say (relatively) safe and private on the internet. This is what I do as an unimportant college student to feel less paranoid while online. I would like to begin by defining what I mean by "privacy." Privacy is not a state of being. You cannot ascend to it. There is no point where you enter the realm of privacy. The only way to become truly "private" is to cut off your friends, relatives, and any sense of society, buy a cabin in Yukon, and subsist off wild game. Even then, your cabin can still be triangulated with satellites. This is not a bad thing. While it is true that, due to the global surveillance apparatus, we will never truly be unknown to the world, I think that people need to remember that there is nothing tangibly wrong with being "known." Known is a state of being remembered. Do you think that the peoples of the past cared about being known? I think that, prior to the advantage of modern technologies, the most common fear across the human race was being forgotten. The true downside of the information age is not a lack of privacy, but of unconsenting interactions between our public lives (that which we are open to sharing to the world) and our private lives (that which we choose to keep to ourselves). The fear is that any interaction with the internet, no matter how connected it is to our private lives, is still being monitored by those who supply us access to the internet. This access can also be intercepted by bad actors who may attempt to further exploit our private lives. A common argument that I hear against proactive internet privacy is that it is unnecessary for those who are not high profile criminal or political figures. While it is true that my privacy tips would ineffective if you are being actively sought after by intelligence agencies, I do think that it is still important for us normies to take our privacy into consideration. If it is not for the fear of being watched by Big Brother, then if it should be for the basic dignity that privacy provides. Governments and corporations do not deserve to know everything about us. Do not let them.
VPN : Virtual Private Networks are services that allow your activity to be obscured from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). A VPN also allows you to ignore geographic restrictions. This is the first level of defense for staying private on the internet. Most cybersecurity specialists agree that VPNs are pretty much nonoptional if you plan on doing anything on your computer besides playing 3D Pinball. The difficult thing is VPNs are not created equal, with some bad enough that your data is better left in the hands of your ISP. All the VPNs that are shilled by influences are pretty terrible. They either overpromise and under deliver or they are owned by a Israeli software company that has been routinely misused to deliver malware to their customers. The VPN that I use is Mullvad. It's a very private service that does not even require an email to sign in. Mullvad is also great for its ability to subvert regions that have restricted the usage of VPNs, like China, Russia, and the great state of Michigan. You just activate its "Shadowsocks" option in settings, which will encrypt the VPN packets that are sent when it first connects to your ISP.
Browser : If there is anything that you take from this post, please for the love of God stop using Chrome. Google makes billions of dollars every year from selling their customer's personal data to data brokers. Another bad option that I keep seeing ads for is Opera GX, which is the ultimate™ gamer™ browser that is owned and operated by a Chinses corporation. I use Brave but I also recommend LibreWolf, and Mullvad's browser.
Adblocker : One of the best ways to ensure that you do not get malware (apart from antivirus software) is getting a competent adblocker. Malware is not the obvious trojans and adware of the past. Recent malware can run silently and lightly. You will not know when you get infected and neither will Windows Defender. You will not even need to download anything either. Gone are the days of sketchy links or .exes. You can get malware by simply loading into a page with a compromised ad. Adblockers can protect you from those ads. I use Ublock but there are tons of great options out there.
Operating Systems : I hate very little on this planet. Hatred is a taxing thing, so I try to only target it at things that particularly earn it. So, please know that when I say that I hate Windows 11, this is no small gesture. I have used Windows since my mom brought home a gateway PC running Windows 7 when I was a kid, but when Microsoft said that they will discontinue Windows 10 this October I immediately switched to Linux and have not looked back. I have tried a few distros, my favorite being Liya Linux. It's Arch based but with a focus on privacy. I do admit that Linux is not for everyone, even if it is the objectively best operating system available. If you do decide to stick with Windows 11 or macOS Tahoe, just remember that you will be giving up privacy for the convenience of not being a Linux user.
Thanks everyone! See you in the next one:-)