Don't put really private stuff online. At all.

Other people are a threat to your privacy

'Privacy' is not just about your data

Give 'them' as little data as possible

Give them fake data

Your computer or browser or ISP may reveal your physical location to web sites.

Ways your location can be determined or set:

• GPS, in smartphone.
• Cell towers that your smartphone can see.
• Adapters (networks) that your Wi-Fi can see.
• Through SSID of your Wi-Fi network, if scanned by Google's "network mapping".
• Adapters or devices that your Bluetooth can see.
• Adapters or devices that your device can see through a mesh network.
• Location set by the owner of the LAN's router ?
• Location set by the ISP that connects to the router.
• Clues set in your OS, such as system time-zone and language and country-code.
• Location you set in your browser or other application (VoIP?) or OS.
• Location you set in your online accounts (social media, etc).
• Location set or known in other devices on your LAN or Bluetooth, such as TV or game consoles or car's GPS ?
• Location set or calculated in body-devices on Bluetooth, such as watch or fitness-tracker ?
• Location acquired from connected nearby devices not owned by you, through hookup apps ?

Naomi Brockwell video
Michael Horowitz's "A new aspect of Google's spying"

Defenses:

• Operating system:
  
  Windows 10 gives a setting to turn off location and set a "predetermined location" to give to apps. I think you get to it through "Diagnostic Settings".
  It seems Linux does not have a similar facility.
  
  
• Set location in your browser:
  
  Location Guard
  In Firefox, do about:config and look at "geo." entries. Someone says set something like:
  geo.wifi.uri = data:,{"location":{"lat": 51.50,"lng":-0.12},"accuracy":1000}
  In Chrome, maybe "Manual Geolocation" extension, or:
  "developer console / 3 dots / more tools / sensors / enter geo you want or choose from presets"
  
  
• Smartphone:
  
  Android has a Settings / Security and Location / Location setting you can turn off.
  
  Go through app permissions and disable Location wherever possible. But I have a couple of bank or other financial apps that insist on having location turned on, I guess as part of fraud detection.
  mcastillof's "FakeTraveler" (Android only; fake GPS location)
  "Fake GPS location" app by "Lexa Tools" (Android)
  All Things Secured's "How to Fake GPS Location on your iPhone"
  
  

Test via:
IP Location
HTML5 Geolocation API
My Location
Also: type "where am i" into Google Search.

Michael Horowitz's "Location Tester"

Create a fake name who lives at your real address:

• Pick a simple, neutral name, such as "Alex Smith".
  
  
• Create an email address that fits, such as A.Smith at gmail.
  
  
• Get a pay-as-you-go SIM phone and use it for this person.
  
  
• Get a Privacy.com virtual credit-card in their name.
  
  
• Use one set of fake data (phone number, email address, gender, DOB, SSN, photo [not a stock photo from the internet; maybe from This Person Does Not Exist], CC number, school history, work history) for this persona, and stick with it. Write it all down, print it out for easy use.
  
  
• Create an email address that fits, such as A.Smith at gmail.
  
  
• Use your real postal address.
  
  
• Subscribe to a couple of cheap or free magazine trials (Forbes, Wired) in their name, using your real postal address.
  
  
• Subscribe the email address to a couple of newsletters, so there's activity in the account. Set the account to forward the newsletters to some other junk account, so there's outgoing traffic too.
  
  
• Use this persona when ordering things online.
  
  

The goal of this persona is to avoid giving out your real data, and make it look like someone else is living at your address, so maybe you have moved out.

Associate your real name with lots of fake data:

• Pick one set of fake data (phone number, postal address, email address, DOB not too far from your real DOB, SSN, school history, work history) and stick with it. Write it all down, print it out for easy use.
  
  
• Use your real name, your real gender, your real photo.
  
  
• For the postal address, maybe pick the address of some big hotel in the same county as your real address.
  
  
• Maybe create a fake company ID-card with this data on it ? But there are few cases where you'd need to use it. Could be useful to hand over to a store-clerk when they demand your data, or just to help you remember your fake data.
  
  
• Maybe create a Privacy.com credit card with this data on it ? But there are few cases where you'd be able to use it, since it would not be a physical card, and it would not be connected to your real postal address. The bills would be paid, so using it is not fraud, probably.
  
  
• Create a free Wordpress blog page, giving the data of this persona, about some subject unrelated to you. If it looks like a personal business, you have an excuse to give address, phone number, and email address.
  
  
• Maybe buy a domain-name that matches your real name, giving the data of this persona (although I think you'll need to give real email address). Create a web page giving this persona's data and unrelated subjects. [Probably a lot of work.]
  
  
• Some people-search sites let you submit "corrected" data. Give them this persona's data.
  
  
• Online, request quotes for home alarm-monitoring services.
  
  
• Online, make a PasteBin page containing the info; they get scraped frequently.
  
  
• If you have a burner phone number to use, maybe create a LinkedIn account for the fake persona.
  
  
• Subscribe the email address to a couple of newsletters, so there's activity in the account. Set the account to forward the newsletters to some other junk account, so there's outgoing traffic too.
  
  
• Use this persona anywhere that data is demanded but you don't need/want to receive anything in postal mail or email. In retail stores, for unimportant online accounts, professional conferences, etc.
  
  

The goal of this persona is to create fresh misleading data (in your real name) that is newer than your real data.

Maybe have a separate different-colored wallet for each persona, so you can keep everything straight and it doesn't look funny if someone sees multiple names in your wallet.

Remember that you can't give fake data to police or government or schools or insurance or financial companies. That may be illegal, or may come back later to bite you in some way.

For a work history or company ID card, invent some fake anonymous small company, don't use a big well-known corporation with an HR department that can be contacted.

I think Sudo (MySudo) creates and manages email addresses and phone numbers, but not the rest of a persona's information. I think IronVest (formerly Blur) creates and manages email addresses and phone numbers and credit-card numbers (but with fees), but not the rest of a persona's information.

Matty Bv3's "How to Make Sock Puppet Accounts"
Alyssa Rosenzweig's "My Name is Cafe Beverage"
Fake Name Generator

What Google harvests from your accounts (mainly GMail), from someone on reddit 12/2018:

... I downloaded what supposedly is all the data Google keeps about me ...

In my Takeout archive, there is a folder called "Purchases and reservations", which contains many files with all the anonymous* data that Google collected from my e-mails. This includes my purchases on all sorts of web sites (Amazon, etc.), shipping updates and my flight/train reservations. ...

My location data file freaked me out a little bit too, with all of its "ON_FOOT", "STILL" and "IN_ROAD_VEHICLE" strings, but I had my location history on, so that was to be expected. That text file alone is 82.7 megabytes - not bad, huh?

If you have a Google account, I suggest you download all of your data from Google Takeout and check what it looks like with your own eyes.

*Anonymous, in this particular case, means that my home address and my full name (albeit only in the reservation files), are written in plain text.

Good idea to have separate email addresses for family, work, financial, social, shopping.

Good idea to have unique email addresses as the usernames on likely-target accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc). If an attacker knows the login username for an account, they can do a denial-of-service (DOS) attack on you: they can try to log in N times until the service says "too many attempts, account frozen". Then you have to go through a hassle to get it unlocked.

But: sometimes there is a problem with financial accounts if the email address alias you use to register your account doesn't match the originating email address of a message you send. For example, suppose your email service has a "catch all", so mail to any address on your domain gets to your main InBox MYADDR@MYDOMAIN. You open a bank account using email address alias MYADDR_BANKNAME@MYDOMAIN or BANKNAME@MYDOMAIN. Later you send a message to their Support dept from email address MYADDR@MYDOMAIN. They may say "email address doesn't match !".

You can get a disposable email address, which exists just long enough to finish registering somewhere: 10 Minute Mail, Mailinator, others. article

A service which will "screen" your real email address, phone number, credit card number by giving out different info which relays to your info: IronVest (formerly Blur) (Stop giving out your real personal info online with MaskMe, a new privacy tool).

A service which will "screen" your real email address, phone number, credit card number by giving out virtual info (but not relaying to your existing providers, I think): Sudo

"PlusPrivacy feature - email identity management"
SimpleLogin (acquired by Proton)
Firefox Relay
Alfred I.'s "My experience with DuckDuckGo Email Protection Beta"

In your email client, turn off automatic display of HTML, images, and JavaScript. It's dangerous to let some random person send you a piece of software that executes in your client.

Some security guys say it's safer to use browser-based email instead of a client application (such as Thunderbird). The browser is somewhat of a sandbox, and highly tested, and you need it for other reasons too. A mail client application is an additional complex piece of software that probably is less secure.

On the other hand, if you use an email client application (such as Thunderbird) and POP3 protocol, your email is not stored on the email provider's server for very long, it's stored on your personal machine. Maybe you can find a provider that promises to erase your messages completely from their server after you retrieve them to your machine.

Nitrous's "The Easy Way to Use PGP for Encrypting Emails on Windows, Mac & Linux " (if using Thunderbird)

Changing your email address:

Changing your email address on all accounts (such as from old insecure email service to a new secure email service) can be tricky. If your email address is used as your username on an account, the service may or may not let you change it. But if you can't change username, you still might be able to change email address used within the account. Worst case, you may have to delete the account and create a new one.

You may be able to set your old email account to forward all messages to a new account. But this is bad as a permanent thing: makes everything less clear and reliable, old provider still sees your mail, still have to manage old account as well as new one.
Rick Rouse's "How to forward your Yahoo mail to another email account"

There are two ways to do calls and messaging:

• POTS/Cell/VOIP/SMS (use standard phone numbers and phone dialing apps;
  advantages = calls from normal phones; more routing features and APIs;
  disadvantages = cost; can't do images or video).
  
  
• Custom network (use a custom app such as WhatsApp or Signal;
  advantages = free; encryption; can do images and video;
  disadvantages = can't receive call from normal phone; fewer features).
  See "Messaging" section of My "Secure Communication" page.

It may be a good idea to have separate phone numbers for family, work, financial, social, shopping, to reduce connections between different parts of your life. This makes it harder to track you through phone number, lets you disable a number if you start getting abuse on it, makes it harder for someone to do a SIM-swap attack against your accounts (they won't know which number is being used on each account), lets you use number-called as a form of Caller ID when caller is hiding their originating number.

My understanding of Michael Bazzell's "VOIP-forwarding" strategy:

• Your phone has a SIM in it, phone number H. You want to hide H from everyone, because it would serve as a single point of ID, and might have your real ID associated with it.
  
  
• Get VOIP service that will sit "above" your phone, forwarding calls to H, and making outbound calls that look like they come from a VOIP number. You could have several VOIP numbers all on one service. You can use a referral code to sign up, but best to add some real money too, sign up using a personal email domain, and respond to any sales inquiry by saying you're using it "for business".
  
  
• You can give out VOIP numbers to family, work, school. You could have multiple numbers: V1, V2, V3.
  
  
• Apparently you can dial from VOIP directly in Android at least. Maybe in "Settings / Calls / Calling Accounts", and you can add a SIP (VOIP) account. How do you choose a VOIP number when making a call ? Do you have to add a calling account for each VOIP number ?
  
  
• Some online services (financial, social, shopping) may not allow registration with VOIP numbers. So get an anonymous pay-as-you-go SIM with number P, pay real money to activate service for a month or so, then port that number P to the VOIP service. Then you can let the service go unused; don't pay more. Give out number P to services that don't allow VOIP numbers. You could do this with multiple SIMs: numbers P1, P2, P3.
  
  
• So the only companies that know H are the base cell-provider, and the VOIP company. If you're careful, maybe they don't know your real name and address etc. And you have separate numbers (V1 - V3, P1 - P3) for separate uses.
  
  
• The cost for the VOIP service could be $1/month/number.
  
  
• Of course you have to keep track of what number to use with whom.
  
  
• Be prepared for some glitches: some services may not accept your calls or your numbers, perhaps a number ported from a SIM will stop working, perhaps your VOIP company may go out of business or change their pricing or TOS.
  
  
• Never make a phone call using real service from your real number H.
  
  
• Your real phone service has to include data service; you have to be able to access the internet, either through Wi-Fi or cell data service. Not sure if service through a VPN will be fast enough; you may have to turn off VPN ?
  
  

When you buy a phone or a SIM card, it's best to pay cash, and then let them "age" a bit (months) before using in case you're worried about appearing on store security cameras.

Some/many countries require giving ID to buy a phone or SIM. Maybe try buying secondhand at a used market. Or give fake info if you're allowed to fill out a form and not show an ID card. Or get someone else (a "nominee") to buy for you.

Be willing to throw away phones and SIMs every year or so.


Nomad Gate's "How to Build Your Own Virtual Phone in Minutes"
Ben Stockton's "5 of the Best Virtual Cell Phone Number Apps for Android"
Joe Hindy's "What are burner phone numbers and how to get one"

Richie Koch's "How to protect your privacy with a second phone number app"
All Things Secured's "Best Virtual Phone Number App for Account Verification"
Naomi Brockwell video

Thales' "6 key points to understand what an eSIM is"
Mishaal Rahman's "The ingenious product that brings eSIM to any Android phone"
Future: iSim: SIM as part of the SoC.

Eray Eliacik's "What is a burner phone?"


Sudo (I'm told: don't need a US phone number or be a US citizen.)
Silent Link (requires eSIM-compatible smartphone)
Phoner
Telnyx (referral code)
jmp.chat (article)
Google Voice
Aircall
Twilio: apparently has gone downhill; don't use.
flynumber
sipgate
Cloaked ($96/year)
Firefox Relay (article)
SMS: Hushed (cheapest plan $5/month, but there are many limits by country, maybe have to address-verify, etc)
TextNow (available only in USA, Canada, and some others)

Even if you have a credit card with a chip in it, the magnetic stripe on that card still contains all of the info needed to do a transaction, and the stripe is easy to read. So keep a close eye on any merchant you hand your credit card to. And monitor your account for any unauthorized charges.

Note that when you change numbers, merchants may be notified of your new credit-card number and thus still be able to do recurring charges. "Auto billing updater service". So you can't cancel e.g. a gym membership just by changing credit-card number.

If you want a fake number to satisfy a "free trial" web site, see Get Credit Card Numbers.

Virtual Credit Cards:

Such a card or card number is connected to a real credit card or a bank account. Any transactions you do get "passed through" to the real account backing the virtual card or card number. Multiple cards or card numbers can be backed by the same real account.

You can get one or more Virtual Credit Card numbers. You may be able to set a purchase limit or time limit on the number. You might be able to get such a number from your existing credit card company.

Such a number is virtual, not physical, so you can use it only online, not in a store. Don't use it for something you buy online but then pick up in person: maybe air travel, hotel, rental car, event tickets. Virtual numbers often don't work for overseas transactions, only within the country of origin. If your real number and all virtual numbers are issued by the same company, that company still can see all of your activity.

I wonder about the legal implications of this. In USA at least, consumers have a lot of rights to dispute credit card charges and be protected against losses. What happens to those rights if charges are going through another service first ?

Also, real credit cards often give accident insurance when renting a car, or trip-cancellation insurance when buying plane tickets.

Online, paying with a service such as PayPal (maybe ?) gives less data to the merchant than paying with a credit card. But not all merchants accept PayPal, and I'm not sure about protections and benefits when paying with PayPal.

Rules and fees vary greatly from company to company. Some allow only citizens or residents of certain countries. Some are accepted only by merchants in a specific country. Some have an annual fee per card, or a fee per transaction.

Neil J. Rubenking's "5 Things You Should Know About Virtual Credit Cards"
Alan Henry's "Privacy Lets You Create 'Virtual' Credit Card Numbers, Deactivate One Instantly If It's Stolen"
Rebecca Lake's "Why Virtual Credit Card Numbers Aren't Worth It"
Simon Zhen's "Virtual Account Numbers: What You Need to Know"
All Things Secured's "Best Alternatives to Privacy.com for Virtual Credit Card"
Zahra's "Best Virtual and Prepaid Cards for International Shoppers"

IronVest (formerly Blur) (article)
Privacy.com (US citizens or residents only)
MESH (only accepted by certain merchants)
Token (smartphone app only; Chrome extension being developed)
Sudo (MySudo)
Revolut (Premium plan, €8/month)
Klutch (US residents only)
Lydia (Blue plan, €5/month)
Announced 5/2022: Mike Moore's "New Google Chrome virtual cards"

My experience with Privacy.com since 1/2018:

Available to US or Canadian citizens only. Requires USA mailing address, requires email that can be verified, US phone number that can receive an SMS for verification. Will pay directly out of your bank account, so it requires your bank account username and password.

But 11/2023: they're adding a 3% fee for international (non-USA) transactions.

Gave it credentials to my bank account at ETrade, but connection kept failing, they said there's a bug.

A month later, I asked if they had fixed that bug, and instead they turned on ability to give ABA routing number and account number. I gave those numbers, they did 2 deposits to my account to confirm that it existed.

A few days later, tried to create a number, and it failed. Turned out I hadn't quite finished the process, I was supposed to tell them exactly the amounts of the test-deposits.

You can't create a physical credit card that carries a number created through Privacy.com, it won't work. [But it seems legal to possess a credit card writer; they're for sale on Amazon, eBay, etc. And you can buy blank white credit cards there, too. You might need a special printer to print on them; search for "credit card printer embosser". I'm not sure if any card-printing services will create a real, working credit card for you, unless you're a business, and ordering in largish quantities.] 7/2022 Privacy.com says they MAY offer a physical card in the future [but they've been saying this since at least 2019].

Each card you create can only be used at one merchant, the first where you use it. You can't create one card which you can use for any merchant.

Warning: if you create a card to use with a merchant, and later delete that card, then create another card for that merchant, you could get locked out of ever again using a card for that merchant ! Especially true if you create a single-use card for a merchant: after that use, the card will be deleted. It's not a blanket policy. Support says "In some cases, we limit the number of Privacy Cards users can create for any single merchant to reduce the risk of users violating merchant policies or terms, as this can result in the wholesale ban of Privacy Cards by that merchant." and "To avoid these declines, we generally recommend making the next one you use a Merchant Card and just pausing it between uses.".

Also not specified: what name is on the card. Asked Support, and got:

In terms of name / billing, you can use any name and billing address / zip code with the merchant you would like, and we will return that it's correct when the merchant runs the charge.

Please keep in mind though, merchants have sophisticated fraud checks on their end sometimes, so don't get too creative with the billing info or it might raise a flag in their system. Also if the transaction requires a shipping address, generally using a billing address in the same city is a good idea (for example, if the shipping address in San Francisco and the billing address is in New York it may trigger their fraud checks as well).

So, you just have to give the right card number, CCV, and expiration date, and the card will work.

Other than putting a "nickname" on each card on their web site, the web site gives no help for managing the cards. You can't tag each one with the name and address you're using with the card, for example. (Maybe better to do that in a password manager, anyway.)

In my bank account, Privacy.com transactions show up as "direct debit" and description "something PRIVACYCOM". The "something" comes from the vendor, it's not the nickname of the card. You can change this by going to YourName / Account / Private Payments.

My referral code for anyone who wants to create an account.

Free account works fine. If you want 1% cash-back cards, you have to have $10/month account.

From someone on reddit about Privacy.com 7/2018:
Don't make multiple cards for same merchant, probably best to use same card for eBay and PayPal; there is an unstated daily spending limit as well as the stated monthly limit.

From someone on reddit about Blur 7/2019, in response to "looking for a virtual card provider in UK/EU":

Don't. I have Blur and they're terrible for privacy. In the UK they don't have virtual cards at all, the only option they give you is the ability to have a masked email. They also (as of about a month ago) have removed masked numbers.

On top of that they were involved in a security breach that they still haven't acknowledged or issued a statement surrounding (to the best of my knowledge).

From someone on reddit about Blur virtual credit cards 2/2022:

... I have tied a non-masked (normal) credit card to my Abine account, to back the masked cards. Then when I create a masked card, the charge is billed to my unmasked card. But that transaction is marked only as "ABINE BLUR", with no indication of where I used the masked card. I can then use the masked card at one, or more than one vendor. If you cancel the masked card before it's exhausted, money is refunded to your unmasked card. ...

Prepaid (debit) cards:

Such a card or card number has to have money deposited into it ahead of time; you have to maintain a positive balance in the account. Any transactions you do are paid from that balance. If you have multiple cards or card numbers, maybe each one has a separate balance ? Not sure.

You can get a physical card, so not just for online use. But refunds may get complicated. Any balance you load into the card might not be protected by banking laws, certainly not at the $50 limit of protection on a credit card.

From someone on reddit 2/2018:

Any card sold in the USA that is "reloadable" in some way must have a real SSN with matching name and Date of Birth on file. The only exception is the cards that are only loadable once and after the funds are gone, it is useless. ... You know that little folded-up piece of paper that folds out to about a legal-size sheet of paper with fine print on it? It is all in there. It also lets you know that the card can only be used within the USA and not outside of it. This includes online merchants and many online merchants in general are starting to block those cards regardless.

Pre-paid cards often have a web site you can use to track the purchases and remaining balance. All you need to access that info is the data printed on the card itself. So be wary of buying a card from somewhere sketchy, or using a card you received in the mail: someone could have copied that login information, and will use it to track you. Buy cards only from mainstream, reputable stores.

Rules and fees vary greatly from company to company. Some allow only citizens or residents of certain countries. Some are accepted only by merchants in a specific country. Some have an annual fee per card, or a fee per transaction, or charge a percentage of the money you load into a card. Check to see how unused balances are handled; can you transfer money among cards, or get a refund, or do you just lose the unused money ? There seems to be a lot of turnover in this industry; what happens if your card-company stops offering cards or goes out of business ?

Netspend
Zahra's "Best Virtual and Prepaid Cards for International Shoppers"
Gunjan's article (with misleading title)
Nick Beeny's article (with slightly misleading title)

Skrill
ecoPayz
ePayService

Bank debit card:
Carey Parker's "My Debit Card Was Hacked"

Official government ID that doesn't give away your address: passport, or US passport card (available for $55 when you renew your passport).

When applying for or renewing passport, you can omit phone number, and give PMB (but not PO box) as address.

Some people carry a fake ID, to show to businesses that demand photo ID. I think it's legal as long as it's not a fake of a government ID, and you're not committing fraud. A fake corporate employee ID card from a fake corporation, maybe. Maybe add this fake person as an authorized user to your real credit card ?

Maybe use login/password info from elsewhere

Use 'blockers'

• Browser settings / functionality
  
  This may include pop-up blocking, safe-domain checking, dangerous download blocking, tracker-blocking, Containers, camera/microphone permissions, cookie blocking or deletion. [I don't block cookies, but I have the browser delete all of them when it closes. And I use Containers to keep sites from seeing cookies from other sites.]
  
  Turn off auto-fill; pages may use it to grab more info than you realize.
  
  Dave Camp's "Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection ..."
  Douglas Crawford's "How to block third-party cookies on all browsers"
  
  
  
• Browser extensions / plug-ins / add-ons
  
  The must-have extension is: uBlock Origin
  
  Also worth having:
  Behave!
  CanvasBlocker (also does WebGL)
  Disable WebRTC
  Location Guard
  Privacy Badger
  New: JavaScript Restrictor
  New: JShelter
  New: Vytal (Chrome* only)
  
  About Privacy Badger, from someone on reddit 12/2021:
  
  > Since Firefox has its own under-the-hood tracker-blocker
  > mechanisms, can I ditch using the Privacy Badger extension?
  
  Privacy Badger is a funny case.
  
  Unlike list-based tracker blockers, [if you have PB's automatic learning mode turned on], it works by watching scripts that come up as you naturally browse the web. If it sees a script in at least three different websites, boom, out it goes - blocked forever onwards (unless you explicitly tell it not to block a particular script).
  
  ... So if you have that automatic learning mode turned on in the extension settings, then there's nothing wrong with leaving it in there, it'll still help.
  
  About JShelter, from people on reddit 3/2023:
  
  JShelter is supported and co-developed by FSF. ...
  
  JShelter fakes data returned by sensitive JavaScript APIs like WebGL, Canvas, Audio, Sensors, etc, to produce different fingerprint for each web site and session. This prevents web sites from linking your identity across sessions and sites.
  
  JShelter modifies JavaScript APIs at runtime to inject fake data. Any web site invoking JavaScript APIs such as WebGL or Sensors get a random data for that session. This is more powerful and effective than static filters used by Firefox or uBO.
  
  The only issue I face is, it breaks Google's stupid Captcha on some web sites.
  
  ...
  
  it's tanking my browser's performance.
  
  ...
  
  ... CanvasBlocker protects a few API's that JShelter doesn't: History, SVG, TextMetrics, Navigator (Yes, JShelter protects plug-ins, not the same thing), Screen. But JShelter protects a TON of API's that CanvasBlocker doesn't ...
  
  ...
  
  Its default settings break very few sites. Its maximum settings break quite a few, including some you might not expect to be abusing JS so much as they are.
  
  
  
  
• Filtering in DNS or VPN.
  
  Advantage: affects all browsers and all applications, from one place.
  Cloudflare's "Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families"
  
  
  
• Hosts file modifications.
  
  Advantage: affects all browsers and all applications, from one place.
  HostsMan
  hBlock
  StevenBlack / hosts
  MrRawes / firefox-hosts
  
  
  
• In your network router.
  
  Advantages: Affects all devices and all browsers and all applications, from one place. New or guest devices get protected automatically. Protects devices which don't allow installation of a blocker on them (smart TV, game console, some phones). No changes needed on your device (such as rooting a smartphone).
  
  Disadvantages: If you take your phone/laptop to another network, all of the blocking is gone. Many routers may not support blocking. If a web site ceases to function because of the blocking, you have to administer the router to allow ads/scripts on that site, affecting everyone.
  
  Rob Turner's "Install and Configure pfBlockerNg for DNS Black Listing in pfSense Firewall"
  
  
  
• In a device between your ISP's modem and your network router.
  
  Advantages: Affects all devices and all browsers and all applications, from one place. New or guest devices get protected automatically. Protects devices which don't allow installation of a blocker on them (smart TV, game console, some phones). No changes needed on your device (such as rooting a smartphone).
  
  Disadvantages: If you take your phone/laptop to another network, all of the blocking is gone. Another hardware device to buy and install and maintain. Won't work if your ISP supplies a single integrated modem/router device, unless you buy a second router and bridge to it. If a web site ceases to function because of the blocking, you have to administer the device to allow ads/scripts on that site, affecting everyone.
  
  "Pi-hole setup guide: Ad-free better internet in 15 minutes"
  LabZilla's "Your Smart TV is probably ignoring your Pi-hole"
  "Pi-hole is effective only when paired with NAT rules on your router to capture all DNS lookups."
  AdGuard Home
  
  
  
• For Android smartphone:
  
  Non-rooted: AdGuard, Netguard, Dns66, AdClear, Block This, Cygery AdSkip, TrackerControl.
  Rooted: AdAway, MinMinGuard Xposed.
  
  
  
• General OS or OS-level controls.
  
  Spybot Anti-Beacon (prevents Windows sending info to Microsoft)
  Martin Brinkmann's "Block all outbound traffic in Windows Firewall"
  Kamrul Hasan's "10 Best Firewall for Windows 10 PC"
  O&O ShutUp10 (helps you manage Windows 10 privacy-related settings)
  0ut3r Space's "Windows security and privacy"
  Other settings-tweaking software: Ultimate Windows Tweaker, https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater , https://privacy.sexy/ , DoNotSpy10, DoNotSpy11, https://github.com/farag2/Sophia-Script-for-Windows
  For Windows 10, some info in Wallace Chu's "Should You Disable Windows 10 Telemetry?"
  In Windows 10, also see "Diagnostic Settings", I think.
  For Mac: Little Snitch (limits outbound traffic)
  For Linux: OpenSnitch (limits outbound traffic)
  For Windows: Windows Firewall Control (limits outbound traffic)
  
  
  

Set 'do not track'

Reduce 'browser fingerprinting'

• Use an ad-blocker.
  uBlock Origin
  Plus any ad-blocking features in your VPN or LAN/router.
  And test it: test Ad-Blocker
  
  
• Turn off JavaScript.
  NoScript
  Dedoimedo's "How to configure Noscript for ordinary users"
  But this will break some sites (mostly some banks and govt sites), even if you whitelist them. Sometimes I have to switch to a different browser that does not have NoScript installed.
  
  
• Minimize the number of browser add-ons you use.
  
  
• Use a common browser and keep it updated.
  
  
• Install multiple different browsers on your system, and use each for a different set of web sites.
  
  
• Set the "do not track" option in your browser to (maybe) stop "ad tracking".
  
  
• Set browser so it doesn't save usernames and passwords; verify using demo linked at Gunes Acar's "Web trackers exploit browser login managers".
  
  
• New features coming in Firefox, from Tor: set privacy.resistFingerprinting to true.
  
  
• Fake or random user-agent string.
  Matthew Muller's "How to Change User Agents in Chrome, Firefox and Edge Browsers"
  In Kubuntu 20.10: System Settings / Network / Settings / Browser Identification ? But doesn't affect browsers.
  Christopher Tarry's "How Websites Know You're Lying About Your User-Agent"
  
  
• Fake or disabled Canvas fingerprint.
  CanvasBlocker
  Canvas Defender
  Multilogin
  
  
• Fake or disabled WebGL fingerprint.
  CanvasBlocker
  
  
• Fake or disabled WebRTC.
  Disable WebRTC
  Or in Firefox about:config, set "media.peerconnection.enabled" to false ?
  
  
• Control system font list returned by browser ?
  In Firefox about:config, create a new string "font.system.whitelist" and set value to something like "Helvetica, Courier, Verdana". But for me, this made my fingerprint a lot worse.
  Daniel Aleksandersen's "Fluxfonts"
  
  
• Control installed plug-in list returned by browser.
  In Firefox about:config, set "plugins.enumerable_names" to empty.
  
  

Septimiu-Vlad Mocan's "Browser Fingerprinting and You"

There are a lot of specialty browsers that advertise themselves as "anti-detect" browsers, but they're sold by proxy vendors and other questionable companies. I wouldn't use them.

Minimize the number of things you use

Reduce 'behavior fingerprinting'

Payment Privacy

Account privacy controls in ISP and sites

Anything you store on a server may reduce your privacy

Your contact list in email, buddy list on instant messaging, Friends list on Facebook, etc. Any emails in your Inbox, or saved long-term in a "folder" within your email service.

Okay, email or IM or Facebook won't function without those contact lists. But maybe you shouldn't use your email as a data store. And maybe you shouldn't keep anything except name and email/IM address or phone number in each Contact entry. Store postal addresses and anything else in some private contact manager.

Delete accumulated data out of accounts

Application settings

Delete most cookies every now and then

This does two things: gets rid of tracking cookies, and means that if someone sits down at your computer and opens a site they won't automatically be logged in to that site.

BleachBit
CCleaner

Or delete all cookies every time you close the browser:
Ian Paul's "How to automatically delete your cookies every time you close your browser"
Chris Hoffman's "How to Automatically Clear Private Data When You Close Your Browser"
But if you do this, you'll probably want to be using a password manager, because you'll be logging in to sites a lot.

Or use extension Cookie AutoDelete to delete most cookies but save some of them.

Deleting browser history really does nothing for your privacy

Deleting browser history only helps if someone steals your computer and looks at your history.
Bracelet

Change or hide IP address

If you're connecting through a home Wi-Fi and cable router/modem (and no VPN), you probably can't change your external IP address. The router/modem probably is using one external IP address for all devices on your home network. To test this, open browsers on two devices simultaneously and go to showip.net on both devices. You'll probably see the same (external) IP address for both devices.

Try power-cycling the fiber router/modem, and see if it comes up with a new external IP address. It may not. Try powering it off for longer, such as overnight.

Try contacting your ISP and asking if they can change your IP address. If they ask for a reason, I guess you could say "to increase my privacy, to make it harder for advertisers to track me" ?

If you're connecting some other way, you may have a chance of changing IP address. On Windows, create a CMD file containing "ipconfig /release && ipconfig /renew" and run it as Administrator. Check before and after, using showip.net.

WikiHow's "How to Refresh Your IP Address on a Windows Computer"

Computer hardware ID numbers

• Motherboard manufacturer and serial number (read through BIOS).
• TPM Endorsement Key (can't be read, I think, but can be used).
• Disk serial number.
• RAM serial number.
• Discrete GPU serial number.
• Apple chip serial numbers (ECIDs). article
• MAC address (associated with each network interface; on Wi-Fi AKA "BSSID").
• Display/monitor serial number (EDID).
• Smartphone IMEI (associated with each radio interface ? permanent).
• Smartphone IMSI (associated with service through SIM card, can be changed).
• Smartphone SUPI (5G; associated with service through SIM card).
• Smartphone ICCID (associated with SIM card).
• Non-unique: model numbers of motherboard, disk, CPU, etc, and version number of BIOS.
• Not hardware: Wi-Fi network name (SSID), OS installation ID or license key, Android advertising ID (AAID) maybe in Settings/Privacy/Ads, Google Account set on Android phone, Google advertising ID (GAID) probably same as AAID, Apple advertising ID (IDFA), Mobile advertising ID (MAID) which probably is just AAID or IDFA (MAID article).

Most of these are readable only by privileged software running on your machine.

Don't always use the same MAC address

The MAC address is associated with your network interface hardware (Ethernet or Wi-Fi chip). Generally it is visible only inside your LAN. But malicious software could send it out to some site. Routers or firewalls who want to block you may do it by deny-listing your MAC address. And if you're often on a public LAN (public Wi-Fi), you may want to change MAC address to avoid tracking.

For Linux:

Ravi Saive's "How to Change Network MAC Address in Linux"
It's FOSS's "How to Change MAC Address in Linux"
Chris Hoffman's "How (and Why) to Change Your MAC Address on Windows, Linux, and Mac"
Ubuntu Community Help Wiki's "Anonymizing Network MAC Addresses"

sudo apt install macchanger
# I see little harm in setting it to run automatically, each time a
# network interface is taken down or up.  But it might be confusing
# to have random devices appear and disappear on your LAN.
# So maybe set it to manual mode, then change only the 2nd half of the address.

sudo macchanger -e enp19s0	# keep 1st half (vendor) real, 2nd half new
sudo macchanger -p enp19s0	# change back to original/real address

sudo macchanger -e wlp18s0

# address will revert to original/real address next time you reboot

Also for Wi-Fi only maybe could edit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf to add:

[connection-mac-randomization]
wifi.cloned-mac-address=random

Thomas Haller's "MAC Address Spoofing in NetworkManager 1.4.0"
PrivSec's "NetworkManager Trackability Reduction"

Stay logged out

Cookies and Containers

Firefox Containers

I use Firefox, with the Facebook Container extension, Google Container extension, Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension, and Temporary Containers extension. and enable the "Container Tabs" option in Preferences / General / Tabs. People have created specific Container extensions for other sites such as reddit, Amazon.

The Help for FMAC says if you use both FMAC and Facebook Containers, don't use FMAC to manage any Facebook-owned sites. I assume that is true for the other site-specific container extensions too.

Some people point out: Container settings don't sync across multiple devices, and add-ons such as uMatrix know nothing about containers.

Seems to be no way to save/export/import settings for Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension. Old instructions no longer work because of recent storage changes in FF.

In Firefox about:config, set privacy.firstparty.isolate and privacy.firstparty.isolate.restrict_opener_access to false. Otherwise Yahoo Mail login doesn't work.

Have to whitelist the FMAC extension in uMatrix.

Containers sometimes screw up the browser history. You're in a uncontained page, you follow a link to a contained page, then the Back button has lost your history (no way to go Back to uncontained page).

I suspect that making a separate container for PayPal or credit card, or enabling the "open external link in a new container" features of Temporary Containers, will interfere with paying for things online. If you're in an AirBNB container and on the AirBNB site and you want to pay with PayPal, you need the PayPal cookies accessible from the AirBNB container.

I created a Containers import/export extension (Containers settings export import), but it's really limited, all it imports/exports is the container names and icons and colors. IMO the architecture of Containers is badly done. All of the working guts of each container, the mapping to a domain and such, is saved in the local storage of each separate extension such as Multi-Account Containers, Facebook Container, Google Container, etc. So my extension can't really get at those to import/export them.

The Containerise extension is an alternative to the Firefox Multi-Account Containers extension; use one or the other but not both. I couldn't understand Containerise and get it to work for me. Also it has a far smaller user base. And 9/2019 the main dev is mulling a total rewrite of it.

Firefox "Total Cookie Protection"

6/2022: Firefox has enabled "Total Cookie Protection" (and in Settings / Privacy / Enhanced Tracking Protection set to "Strict"). In a tab, click the "shield" icon in the address bar to see the status. But it fails the tests below. [Then owner of GRC site said their test is wrong, cookie protection is working.]

6/2022: In Firefox, went to Settings / Privacy / Enhanced Tracking Protection and set it to "Custom". Enabled all items, and set "Cookies" to "All third-party cookies". Test: see third-party cookies allowed ?

Little in the Firefox UI says "Total Cookie Protection" ? From someone on reddit 6/2022:

"Total Cookie Protection" only appears in the UI with the opt-in prompt. Otherwise it is part of Tracking Protection:

• Standard mode with opt-in or in private windows.
• Strict mode by default.
• Custom mode with cookies set to "Cross site tracking cookies and isolate other cookies".

In about:config it is network.cookie.cookieBehavior set to 5.

Maybe about:compat shows the exceptions to TCP ?

6/2022: In Firefox, went to Settings / Privacy / Enhanced Tracking Protection and set it to "Custom". Enabled all items, and set "Cookies" to "Cross site tracking cookies and isolate other cookies. Test: see third-party cookies isolated ?

Scott DeVaney's "How Firefox's Total Cookie Protection and container extensions work together"
Douglas Crawford's "How to block third-party cookies on all browsers"

Don't use everything from one company

Delete your accounts on various services

Ask company to delete any data they have about you

Shun the biggest companies

Cloud services for backup or storage

• For generic storage services (that look like a disk drive), encrypt the data yourself locally before sending it to the cloud. Hold the keys yourself. The service may add another layer of encryption, but they have the keys to that layer.
  
  
• For backup services (where you run their backup app locally), keep your data on disk in an encrypted container (e.g. a VeraCrypt or LUKS container), so that what the service backs up already is encrypted. The service may add another layer of encryption, but they have the keys to that layer.
  
  
• If you're using a generic storage service (that look likes a disk drive), but then running someone else's backup app locally, check that the backup app is encrypting the data, and save any recovery keys. Since the storage service and the app are from separate vendors, the storage service will not have the encryption keys.
  
  
• For specific services such as iCloud or Google's cloud, you really have to just rely on the service's encryption. The ability to constantly back up or sync your Contacts and photos and app settings etc really prevents you from inserting your own encryption layer into the process. An advantage is that when you replace your phone, you just press one button and everything is restored from the cloud to the new phone, which is massively convenient.
  
  

Using someone else's device

Letting someone else onto your network

More-aggressive things you can do

• Encryption everywhere (all external and flash drives, internal drives, etc).
• Tor browser
• Multiple user accounts on your computer: one for critical personal stuff, another for general browsing, another for work stuff, etc.
• Two computers (one secure and other not; EFF's "Keeping Your Data Safe" ). But that other computer will have to be updated sometimes, which means connecting to internet sometimes. I guess have all the critical data encrypted or disconnected when you do that.
• Pay someone to buy/receive/register things using their info, not yours. Or designate a single family member to do that for everyone in the family. AKA a "nominee".
• Pay neighbor to let you use their Wi-Fi. Probably violates ISP's TOS.

• Linux
  Don't have to trust Microsoft or Apple.
  See "Windows User Moving to Linux" section of my Linux page.
  A contrary view, from Artem S. Tashkinov's "Best Linux Distro for the Desktop in 2019":
  If you are a privacy / big brother / surveillance concerned person, you should not use Linux - Linux users are easily identifiable (even when using Tor/VPN) since there are too many things a remote web site can learn about you using your web browser. ... If you want to get lost, firstly, use Windows [10] 64 bit (the most common OS, thus not easily distinguishable) and Firefox or Google Chrome without any addons or extensions installed, secondly, use Tor or VPN.
• Specialized OS:
  
  

  • Windows 10 Ameliorated
    
    
  • A security-oriented Linux OS (see "Security-oriented distros" section of my "Linux Distros" page).
    
    
  • Use a virtual machine inside your real OS and throw away the VM after each session.
    
    Virtual Machine:
    
    You can run a VM inside your real OS. It will look like a real machine to software, but then when you're finished doing stuff, you end the VM, and anything that happened inside it (including any bad stuff) is deleted.
    
    But some things I don't understand about this: So you can't bookmark any sites, unless you hop out of the VM and update the browser in your real OS ? If you download a picture or something, you can't get it out to the real machine, it's going to disappear when you shut down the VM ? If you want to copy something from web email to the clipboard, then save it in a file, that file will be in the VM, not the real OS ? If you log in to web email or reddit in the VM, and have a virus in the VM, it could do something nasty to your web email or reddit ? Do you never run a browser in the real OS ? Or you do only lightweight, throwaway browsing in the VM and do "serious" web stuff in the real OS ?
    
    From someone on reddit:

    Virtual box has fixes for a lot of these. The clipboard is shared between OS and VM. It's essentially its own computer, so shutting it down keeps its state and everything. There are plugins for shared folders as well. Putting a document in the folder will make it available to both the VM and main OS.
    
    If you're using it for virus protection then you still need to be cautious. If you're on the VM and a pop-up comes up asking for your log in for a web site, you should still not do it.
    
    The expectation sort of is that if you're technically literate enough to set up a VM, you should know how to avoid viruses, but if you do get ransomware on your machine or something, resetting the VM is much easier than on your main OS.

    From someone else on reddit:
    

    Note that a few of the "fixes" mentioned reduce the security of the VM. Many viruses can notice that they are being run in a VM by checking if those plugins are installed and act like a normal, legitimate program if they are running in a VM.
    
    Also, sharing resources (like files) between your real ("host") OS and the VM can put them at risk. If a ransomware runs in a VM where your files show up as a shared drive, those files will be affected too, even if you reset the VM.
    
    Despite all that, yeah, if you want very good security you can run things in a VM. It has many advantages.

    
    David Murphy's "How to Set Up a Virtual Machine for Free"
    
    
    
    
• Multiple throwaway email accounts (not just deltas off your real email address).
• Prepaid throwaway phones and SIMs.
• Phone with no SIM, just VOIP.
• Email, messaging, VoIP services, and social networks specifically designed to be more private.
• I2P.
• Self-hosting: Run your own email server.
  "Email Services" section of my "Secure Communication" page
• Self-hosting: Run your own VPN server.
• Crypto-currency.
• Secure hardware/system:
  
  Business/govt-oriented systems are expensive, but cheaper consumer alternatives are being developed).
  
  

  • Security/privacy/FOSS-oriented laptops: Pine, Librem, etc.
    
    
  • Smartphone alternatives: see my "Smartphone" page
    
    

  
  

• A "don't do anything from home" policy. Turn off phone before you go home, or have a non-home phone you turn off and a home-only phone you turn on. Do internet only from cafes or using someone else's network.
• Willingness to delete/change/replace everything periodically. Change phone, phone number, cell-provider, credit card, ISP, online accounts (including email and social media), bank, car, job, etc. Wipe and sell computer, buy new one.
• Willingness to withdraw from current situation. Move to a new address, or better yet a new country. Change patterns of behavior, interests. Drop friends who are not close. No car, no driver's license, don't register to vote.

Others are a threat to your privacy

Know your legal rights

No such thing as total privacy or security

Facebook

• On phones, the Facebook app requires a huge set of permissions, and certainly harvests your Contacts list. Use m.facebook.com or mbasic.facebook.com through a browser instead of installing the Facebook app (or, some people say use apps Tinfoil for Facebook or FaceSlim).
  
  
• Don't fill in all of those "profile" fields. Or put in fake data. Why tell Facebook where you've worked, where you went to school, who your family members are ?
  
  
• Don't post really private things about yourself, and be even more careful about what you post about your family and friends.
  
  
• In the browser, use blockers such as Disconnect for Facebook or Facebook Container. Or in uBlock Origin, add and activate "Fanboy's Social Blocking list".
  
  
• Do NOT use Facebook login (or Google, or Apple, or Microsoft) as your login to lots of other web sites. Not only does it let your activity get shared to Facebook (or etc), but if Facebook (or etc) ever deactivates your account for some reason, you've lost access to those other sites too.
  
  
• Maybe have multiple people (your whole family, or half a dozen of your friends) share one account.
  
  
• Maybe you could have multiple accounts, and use a different account every day.
  
  

Minimizing knowledge and connections

• You want to minimize the knowledge that any particular company has about you.
  
  A "zero-knowledge" company would:
  • Not require your real name.
  • Not require your real phone number.
  • Not require your email address.
  • Not log any information about your activities.
  • Use end-to-end encryption, so the company itself can't read your data.
    Telegra.ph's "On end-to-end encryption"
    A test: if the company can reset your password and then you still have access to data saved using the old password, they can read your data.
  • Accept payment in cash or gift card or something.
  • Not know your home IP address.
  
  
  
• You want to break connections between different pieces of your data.
  
  Some ways to break connections:
  • Pay for things with cash, so your name and credit card don't get attached to those things. Or (online) use PayPal, which (maybe ?) gives less info to the merchant than using a credit card gives.
  • Use multiple, virtual credit-card numbers, so vendors don't know N different transactions are all from your single real credit-card, and can't tie them to your real credit-record, and so a stolen number can be disabled easily.
  • Use multiple, virtual phone numbers, so vendors can't tie them to your real phone account data, and so a number that is sold can be disabled easily.
  • Use multiple, virtual email addresses, so vendors don't know N different accounts are for a single person (you), and can't tie them to your real data, and so an address that is sold can be disabled easily.
  • On sites that allow it, use a unique login name, not your email address or real name, so if a login database at one company is stolen and decrypted, the login information won't work on other sites you use.
  • Use a unique virtual email address for each site, so if a login database at one company is stolen and decrypted, the email address won't work to login on other sites you use.
  
  
  

Reporting violations

• Report to the vendor of the software.
  
  
• Report to the app-store (Google Play Store, F-Droid, Apple Store, browser add-on repository, etc) that the software came through.
  
  
• Write a review of the software in the applicable place.
  
  
• If you're in the USA:
  
  
  • There might be state-level legal enforcement.
    For example, California's CalOPPA
    
    
  • For medical information, there is the federal HIPAA.
    WikiHow's "How to Report HIPAA Violations"
    
    
  • There are other laws for various situations, such as:
    Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
    Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
    Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) (for financial industry)
    
    
    
• If you're in the EU, or you're an EU citizen:
  
  
  • GDPR says: report to the data protection agency in your country.
    Spain's AEPD
    UK's ICO
    
    But:
    Ruben Verborgh's "Getting my personal data out of Facebook"
    
    
    
  • Tap's "How to make a right to erasure request"
    
    

A confession

Miscellaneous

"Privacy" from incoming abuse

If people are saying nasty things to and about you online:

• Be the adult in the room: if you keep on topic, don't respond to insults, don't get mad, often a troll will give up. Even if they don't, others reading along will see who is sane and who is not.
  
  
• You don't have to respond to everything. If some comment is idiotic, maybe ignore it. If someone throws 20 claims at you, maybe address only the top 1 or 2.
  
  
• Take a break, don't obsess. Log off for a day, or go exercise, or do some involved project to drag your mind away from the abuse.
  
  
• Focus on the positive; don't read or respond to only the negative.
  
  
• Use report/block features of the site.
  
  
• If you may end up reporting to police, don't delete the abuse, and print it out.
  
  
• If someone has posted something illegally about you (nudes, or fake nudes), and the site won't take it down, try complaining to Cloudflare about it. These sites don't want to lose the protection they get from Cloudflare.
  
  

Rebecca Fishbein's "What to Do If You're a Victim of Revenge Porn"