Published: Sep 22, 2020

Last Updated: Oct 13, 2020

This page will be continually updated with my recommendations on protecting your privacy, both in the virtual world and in meatspace.

For now it is just a list of recommendations that you will need to take my word on.

Browsing the Internet

Browser: Mozilla Firefox 1

Plugins:

  • uBlock Origin
    • the original and best ad-blocker. Open source and doesn’t let “good ads” through.
  • Privacy Badger
    • made by the EFF. Will automatically block any tracking cookies it sees following you.
  • Decentraleyes
    • prevents the tracking of users via CDN requests
  • Facebook Container
    • puts Facebook back in the corner it belongs to.

Search Engine: DuckDuckGo 2. Should be set as default search engine.

Android

Delete any applications that you don’t need (I’m looking at you Facebook). You can also install Firefox on Android and add uBlock Origin (at the very minimum). Other apps include:

  • Bouncer
    • will automatically remove permissions from apps once you quit them.
  • Access Dots
    • will tell you when apps are using your camera or microphone.
  • Netguard
    • system-wide ad blocker but will drain your battery a bit quicker.
  • FairEmail
    • a really good email client. Slight learning curve but worth it.
  • F-Droid
    • not recommended until I can do a write-up for it.

  1. We only have an open and free internet thanks to the likes of the Mozilla Foundation, who force Google to publish their proposals in the public spotlight to be dissected by the community. Without them, and their firm (well, firm enough) stance on privacy by default, Google would completely dominate the internet and we wouldn’t be allowed to browse sites at all without signing in to a Google Account. Every click tracked, every mouse hover registered, every keystroke typed - all feeding into the Big G’s ad engine to sell our information to the highest bidder for products we don’t care about. ↩

  2. A handy hint is typing !g into your DDG search will take you straight to Google with your search query. Useful for those times when DDG doesn’t have quite what you’re looking for. ↩