this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Privacy Guides

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In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.


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Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!

Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!


This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.


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In the last week:

I started using Syncthing. I was using cloud storage as a way of copying files from one device to another. Syncthing is so much better.

I signed up with Mullvad VPN yesterday.

Deleted my Surfshark account today which I signed up with over two years ago when I didn't care about privacy.

Finally convinced my sister to start using Signal.

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[–] at_an_angle@lemmy.one 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tended to my garden. Hard to get info if you don't post info.

[–] Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 year ago

Jokes on you. Now I know you have a garden.

[–] Evkob@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Finally switched from from Windows to Linux (specifically EndeavourOS, an Arch-based distro with a GUI installer).

I also bought a new phone, on which I intend to install GrapheneOS and distance myself from Google's ecosystem.

I signed up for Proton Mail.

LibRedirect browser addon to switch to privacy-respecting frontends for popular websites.

[–] vgpunks@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just did too but I went with manjaro. After getting it all set up I’m thinking of jumping to endeavor but I’m not sure I want to go through the entire setup again.

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[–] Rocinante@lemmy.one 22 points 1 year ago

Stopped using google search. Started using duckduckgo, brave, startpage, or SearXNG instead. Been using SearXNG the most.

[–] Tiritibambix@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I've been using signal for a long time and managed to pull my family and close friends with me (I don't know how but fuck yeah).

I use pihole on my home network and mobile with wireguard. I blocked all meta / twitter / google / amazon domains.

I host my own instance of searxng.

I deleted all my content on Reddit and kept my account to delete restored comments / posts. I ask them to stop restoring my content under GDPR "right to be forgotten" and am waiting the 30 days delay to report them to the authorities with the proofs I gather.

I blocked ~~threads.com~~ threads.net on my mastodon account.

I live a fucking hell but it feels great messing up with big tech. Fuck them.

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[–] original_reader@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Replaced a lot of apps on my phone with FOSS alternatives.

[–] Hizeh@hizeh.com 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Can you list a few examples?

[–] original_reader@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'll do you a few better. Others have done it before. Here are some examples of excellent posts on the subject. Search Lemmy a bit and you'll find many more.


A website that lists quite a number of Android FOSS apps:


And here is an entire community dedicated to that topic:

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[–] kikuchiyo@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • I deleted all my Meta accounts and started using Signal.
  • I'm moving all accounts linked to Gmail and Outlook to Proton Mail and Tutanota.
  • I'm using many privacy-oriented extensions on Firefox.
  • I'm trying to change all software to Open Source if that's possible.
  • I have a Nextcloud and i'm using it to sync my Calendar, Task and Photos.
  • I started using Bitwarden for my passwords (and deleted them from all Microsoft, Apple and Google cloud services).
  • I'm setting up my home server to host Nextcloud and Bitwarden.
[–] NightOwl@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I started using freetube on the desktop. It's like newpipe with how you have local subscriptions and feed without an account. I like it a lot.

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[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Stopped taking my phone everywhere, leave it in a closed drawer when I'm not using it.

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[–] MXX53@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago

I have moved my personal knowledge base and task lists to logseq and using syncthing to sync with my other devices . Finally migrated my google drive data completely over to Nextcloud and then encrypted all of the data on google drive using cryptomater(just another more reliable backup over my local host until I can get enough money to configure redundant backups). Moved to Lemmy from Reddit. And started my plan to move back to GrapheneOS from my iPhone. Just need to get some money to migrate to a pixel.

[–] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I started using the browser extension Chameleon. It automatically changes your user agent to make it look like you're using another browser or OS. As usual, this should be used in conjunction with other addons such as uBlock Origin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chameleon-ext/

[–] understandable@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This actually drastically decreases privacy and makes you more trackable. The best thing to do with your user agent is to set it to the most common one and leave it at that. Anything else (especially an ever-changing one) is a much more uniquely identifying piece of information.

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[–] Relected@lemmy.kya.moe 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

last week i deleted reddit, github, steam, google, discord, facebook and probably more I forgot about

I only keep my Microsoft account cuz I got Minecraft on it, otherwise I use fedi, xmpp, irc and matrix for everything else

[–] BluesBox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

But steam has all my money and games :(

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[–] ShartyWaffles@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Switched from DDG to SearX, and changed upstream DNS provider from Google to Quad9. Not much, but every little bit helps.

[–] Quik2007@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I don’t think that not giving Google a list of all domains you’re visiting is just "little bit", it sounds like a whole lot :)

[–] original_reader@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Use Open Assistant where possible instead of ChatGPT or Bing Chat or the likes.

Also, the Open Assistant project needs practical support to train its model.

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[–] Redoomed@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I re-upped my Mullvad VPN account for another 6 months.

I subscribed to the MySudo plan that gives you 3 virtual phone numbers.

I created a free Privacy.com account and made a purchase with a virtual card.

[–] v13@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Reading up/researching, and dumped reddit.

[–] Lolors17@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I switched to Ubuntu-Touch, hated it, switched back to Lineage OS.

[–] ritchie@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a phone that I am not using tn, capable to run ubuntu touch. I constantly need to remind me why I switched back to lineage os, when I get the idea that I should try it again. The most annoying is the short battery life, which hasn't been fixed for about 5 years.

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[–] Still@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

host my own next cloud and vaultwarden instances so I guess I don't have to deal with low storage limits on Google photos anymore, and get uncompressed photos, and also bitwarden is great

[–] CrypticFawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

Swapped from Gmail to Proton.me

Avoiding Threads like the plague it is.

Trying to find an alternative to Google News that isn't a RSS reader (tried Feeder and Feedly for a few days, hated both, may be stuck bouncing between sites)

Considering Notesnook or Standard Notes as an alternative to Google Keep.

Edit: Swapped to Notesnook. 😁

Edit Again: Debating if swapping from Google Authenticator is worth the hassle.

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[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

finally installed a pihole, looking at other self hosted projects like Searx

[–] ritchie@lemmy.one 5 points 1 year ago

I bought an anonaddy subscription. I am finally also able to use my domain.

[–] marcyiu@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I apologise for my ignorance, but what's the concern with Surfshark?

Would be great if some kind person could enlighten me on this, thanks!

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[–] wheelsftp@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Avoided using threads, worked on my custom blocklist on NextDNS, tinkered around with my uBlock origin settings in Brave

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