Table of Contents

Collect & Control

Technology you use today is filled up with spyware/trackers that Tech Giants use to track and collect your data. The collected data is being fed to algorithms to predict your future behaviour, they know you more than you know yourself, and show you what you want to know even before you search for it in form of ads and recommendations. They create your digital profile and use that information to decide what to show you online to keep you busy and load your brain with unnecessary/garbage information that keep your brain overflowed, it distracts you, keep you away from what is important, and make you an addict.

They track and collect data from every smart device you use, the Operating System, applications installed, and your web browser are a big data source. You have an account or not, you are logged-in or not, the tracking technology is everywhere, they collect and create your digital profile based on fingerprinted data and use it to identify you on the internet not just on one device but all different devices you use, it makes a pretty good guess about which devices belongs to you.

Stay Digitally Minimalist

"Take back control of your life!"

The best way to do that is to delete unnecessary accounts and applications and transfer from data sucking platforms and applications to open-source and de-centralized ones.

In this blog I have listed some of the practices and tools that will help you avoid these tracking technologies and have shared some awesome privacy and security related resources in resource section.

Note 1: This blog is just scratching the surface, the information here is not meant to fully anonymize you, but to help reduce your fingerprint.

Note 2: I am not an expert in this field, I am just a nerd who loves technology. All the information mentioned here is compiled from sources mentioned in resource section.

1. Reduce Digital Footprint

  1. Disable Google Tracking: Login into your Google account > Manage Account > Activity Controls
  2. Delete your accounts that you do not use including your fake accounts
  3. Reduce Social Media activity to only what you need and do not post or save your location
  4. Start to delete your social media accounts that are unhealthy and reducing your productivity
  5. Use VPN. Wait, what? how? Well, yes, VPN does help with location trackers.
  6. Frequently clear temp data such as cookies and other data stored by your browser
  7. Enable privacy settings in your browser
    1. Enhance the privacy of your Firefox browser
  8. Use different browsers for different use cases:
    1. Tor for non-personal usage
    2. Privacy configured Firefox or Brave browser (if you want privacy with look and feel of Google Chrome browser) for personal usage
  9. Home/Private Network: install Pi-hole - installing pi-hole is the best option to block ads and trackers in your network, it blocks ads and trackers on every platform, your Computer, Smartphone, Smart TV, etc.

    Check out my blog on Installing Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi

2. Phone/Computer (Windows OS) Configurations

  1. Disable any kind of data collection in settings
  2. Disable features and settings that are unnecessary and remove apps that you don’t need

    Debloat your Android phone and Windows10

  3. Check apps have only permissions that they need
  4. Enable software updates for the OS and apps
  5. Enable MAC Address randomizer (default from android 10 and beyond, and for desktop Operating Systems there are various tools available to do that)

3. Avoid These

  1. Smart tracker devices
  2. IoT devices
  3. Inserting personal information in public computers

The Replacements

This is a list of some of the most used applications replacements, and debloat hacks.

1. Laptop/Desktop

There are a lot of applications that come up with Windows10 that you can not uninstall, follow these guides to remove all the bloatware then configure to install only security updates so that you don’t get that bloatware again when there’s a feature update. I would suggest that you do a fresh Windows install and then debloat and configure security updates, otherwise your Windows might not work properly (and don’t forget to go offline when debloating and configuring security updates).

1. Operating System Replacements

  1. Linux OS - Linux is free and open source, start with any Linux distribution that suits your taste.

These are two Linux distributions that I would recommend to Windows users:

  1. Zorin OS
  2. Ubuntu Budgie

2. Browser Replacements

  1. Brave browser with privacy tweaks
  2. Firefox browser with privacy tweaks

3. Search Engine Replacements

  1. Duckduckgo
  2. Qwant
  3. Startpage (search Google results privately)

4. Browser Extensions

Remove any unused, extra, and untrusted extensions. This is a list of extensions that blocks and spoof trackers:

  1. uBlock Origin- The default behaviour of uBlock Origin when newly installed is to block ads, trackers and malware sites
  2. ClearURLs - ClearURLs is an add-on based on the new WebExtensions technology and will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browse through the Internet
  3. https-everywhere - encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure
  4. User-Agent Switcher and Manager - Spoof text description of your browser and device when going online
  5. Cookie AutoDelete - Automatically Delete Cookies
  6. Facebook Container - It prevent facebook from tracking you on other websites
  7. Decentraleyes - Protects you against tracking through “free”, centralized, content delivery
  8. Privacy Badger Ad blocker - Privacy Badger automatically learns to block invisible trackers
  9. Ghostery - Ad blocker - Privacy browser extension that block ads, and stop trackers

I know these are a lot, so I would suggest that you use top 5 from this list (they are available for Firefox and Chromium browsers).

5. Services Replacements

  1. Email services:
    1. Protonmail
    2. Tutanota
    3. Disposable emails:
      1. Guerrilla Mail
      2. Temp Mail
      3. 33mail

2. Smartphone/Android

  1. Debloat Android phone using adb
  2. Switch to custom smartphones that are privacy oriented (Linux Phones)

1. Operating System Replacements

Install Lineage/Graphine/CalyxOS OS: Delete that pre-packaged bloatware that is ready to spy on you and collect your data as soon as you unpack it by installing a custom ROM

Before installing any custom ROM on your android device, make sure that your device has a compatible custom ROM, and it have frequent security updates.

  1. GraphineOS (it requires Google Pixel smartphone), use this Linux OS with the open-source applications that you can get from Fdroid store.
  2. LineageOS (LineageOS support various android devices).
  3. CalyxOS (CalyxOS only supports some Pixel phones and Xiaomi Mi A2 at the time of writing).

2. Android Apps Replacements

  1. Fdroid - Google Playstore replacement
  2. Netgaurd Firewall: provides simple and advanced ways to block access to the internet
  3. Matrix, Session or Briar - Whatsapp replacements (and yes Signal is not in the list)
  4. Newpipe - Youtube replacement
  5. Browser replacements
    1. Firefox Focus browser with privacy tweaks
    2. Brave browser with privacy tweaks
    3. DuckDuckGo or Bromite

For more apps download Fdroid and search for applications you need.

3. alternativeto.net

The mentioned applications for PC and Android phones in this blog are very few, find more at https://alternativeto.net/, go to the site and search for apps that you want to replace and sort by platform and open source to get what you want.

Closing

It is very important!

A chain is as strong as its weakest link. Only you implementing this stuff won’t make as much of a difference as getting your family and friends to change their search engine to maybe Startpage, or delete Whatsapp and setup Matrix, make them aware, make a difference, and talk about the importance of privacy.

Resources

All the information written in this blog is just a tip of the iceberg, I have added some awesome resources where I go to and learn about privacy and security, check them out below.

1. Go and Watch!

  1. Go Incognito: A Guide to Security, Privacy & Anonymity | Front to Back by Techlore

2. YT Channels and Websites

  1. Techlore YT channel
  2. TheHatedOne YT channel
  3. Rob Braxman Tech YT channel
  4. privacytools: “PrivacyTools provides services, tools and knowledge to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance.”
  5. Browser-Fingerprinting: It is a github repository maintained by myself, it includes reading resources, fingerprint testing and information on how to avoid browser fingerprinting.

3. Books

  1. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
  2. The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick
  3. Eyes in the Sky by Holland Michel
  4. 1984 by George Orwell
  5. Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell
  6. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
  7. Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and William L. Simon
  8. The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick

Thank you for reading my blog, I hope you liked it, if you think that I missed something important, please do comment it, I will add it to the list.