Internet Privacy in 2021
Don’t trust any tech unless you know how it works
Recent events have highlighted once again the need for a private, yet free Internet where one feels capable of expressing themselves without fear and without censorship.
Here are my favorite tools that can help you do that.
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for what I write here, and some information here may have changed by the time you read this. Please do your own research.
Remember that at Google and other Big Tech companies you are not the customer. You are the product, and the customers are advertisers.
WEB BROWSER: If you are reading this on Google Chrome while signed into your Google/Gmail/YouTube account then Google knows that you visited this site and every site you’ve used ever. Stop using Chrome right now, or at least please sign out of your Google account or edit your Google account’s privacy settings here: https://myactivity.google.com/
For a more private web, use Mozilla Firefox, Brave, or even Vivaldi in conjunction with a private default search engine. They include built-in tracker blockers. After you install one of these, go to the settings and make the privacy shields stricter and block fingerprinters. Also look through the other settings, you may wish to disable stuff like “send anonymous usage data,” or you may wish to set your browser to delete history, cache, and cookies on exit. Firefox has something called “permanent private browsing mode” which is quite useful.
Please please stop using Chrome. I personally recommend Brave, as it’s creators are less “woke” than the Mozilla Foundation, and certainly less woke than Google.
EMAIL: Yes, your email can and does spy on you for advertisement purposes and building a profile about you. All email providers also cooperate with world governments to various degrees. Edward Snowden made headlines years ago talking about the PRISM program, in which the US government had deals with Big Tech companies that allowed the NSA unprecedented access to major email providers. If you use email, you must assume that the government can read what you say, so don’t say anything that would get you flagged as dangerous. The only way to live with reassurance that what you said as a joke won’t get you in trouble one day is to use an email provider that is technologically incapable of complying with government data requests.
Enter ProtonMail. ProtonMail is physically located in Switzerland, which means several things. One, that they have very strict Swiss privacy laws, making it hard for authorities to get warrants. Two, they maintain Swiss neutrality policies, which means they aren’t about to get “woke.” It also means that they are subject to the GDPR, an EU privacy law requiring strict privacy policies. Being located in Switzerland is just the icing on the cake, however. ProtonMail also uses an encryption scheme that stops anyone from reading the contents of your stored emails, even Proton themselves. Additionally, email between Proton users are end-to-end encrypted, meaning nobody other than the sender/recipient can read it. The fact that Proton is technologically incapable of reading your emails means that they cannot comply with government data requests other than handing over still-encrypted data which is practically impossible to read. And of course, your Proton emails cannot possibly be used for advertising purposes.
If you want even more anonymity for a specific email or a specific account, you can use a temporary email address. There are hundreds of such temp email providers, simply Google “temp mail.” Except don’t use Google.
SEARCH ENGINES: #DitchGoogle and #ComeToTheDuckSide by using DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that is totally anonymous and doesn’t track its users. Unlike Google, which tracks everything you do across the Internet using tracking cookies logs all of your history to your Google account. DuckDuckGo uses a unique advertising scheme that allows it to stay in business without mining your data. DuckDuckGo is a meta search engine, meaning it does not crawl the web on its own, but it does provide you with anonymity. DuckDuckGo does not use tracking cookies, nor does it keep logs of its users or their IP addresses. DuckDuckGo also cannot recommend content to you tailored to your interests, therefore, it keeps you out of the “filter bubble.”
You can also use QWANT, a French search engine that is also supposedly anonymous, although I personally have not done as much research on QWANT as I have on DuckDuckGo.
MESSAGING: For truly private messaging, the best method is probably chatting in person, as it always has been. Alternatively you can use Signal. Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, akin to ProtonMail for messaging. Please don’t use Skype, as Skype is part of Microsoft, one of the big players in the PRISM program. If you use something like Discord, make sure to check your privacy settings and disable “share data with Discord.” Discord is not end-to-end encrypted.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Don’t use social media. Seriously.
If you have to, however, use a secondary email, a unique password, and a unique phone number if you can. Burner phones are still a thing, and yes they can still be bought with cash, and are a great tool in a privacy toolkit. Also, make sure you check the social media’s privacy settings and limit as much data sharing as you feasibly can. Use fake names, and don’t post pictures of yourself, facial recognition, profiling, and web crawling technology is widely available and in use.
VIDEO CONFERENCING: Not Skype. Anything but Skype. Not Google Meet or Hangouts either.
Zoom is relatively good, and has improved over time and is working on implementing end-to-end encryption. However, Jitsi is better. No account necessary, end-to-end encryption on many browsers, and close to end-to-end encryption on others.
IF YOU HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT OR A MICROSOFT ACCOUNT: Make sure you check the privacy settings and disable/delete recording of your web activity, history, location data, and voice recordings. If you talk to Google Assistant or Cortana, your voice is sent to a server and stored permanently. Unless you disable that setting. Check your Windows privacy settings, your Microsoft account’s privacy settings, and your Google account’s privacy settings.
IF YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE: Your smartphone is a giant tracking device tracking your location, how you speak, perhaps even your heart rate and other health data and sending that all to servers and databases in unknown locations run by unknown corporations with unknown privacy practices and data security. Go into your phone’s settings and check the “App Permissions” or “Privacy” section, and ask yourself “does that app really need access to my fingerprint and GPS location?” Disable anything you can, and consider getting a dumb phone.
Bonus — Browser Extensions
I recommend DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials to block trackers and Big Data advertising companies. For those who are very into tech, you may also wish to look at Chameleon to help you avoid browser fingerprinting.
Bonus — Tor
You can’t have a privacy guide without mentioning Tor, also known as The Onion Router. Tor is very difficult to technological laymen to use, and may put you at risk of various things such as rogue exit nodes and the CIA. Tor has also been cracked, sort of.
Tor has similar benefits as a VPN plus tracker blockers combined, at great usability costs. Tor is thought to be the gold standard of anonymity, and can be used to bypass censorship. Tor is used by journalists in dangerous situations, ordinary people who don’t like being tracked, spies, government agents, and criminals. Tor can also be dangerous to your physical health if you don’t know how to use it, as you can access the dark web. Do your own research. Only for “power users,” use at your own risk and don’t let children anywhere near it.
Bonus — VPN’s
VPN’s are widely misunderstood pieces of tech. VPN’s do not anonymize you if, for example, you sign into Google or FaceBook. VPN’s also do not protect you from cross-site trackers and tracking cookies. For that you need to either tell your browser to clear cookies on exit, or use a tracker blocker such as DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials or those already built into Firefox, Brave, or Vivaldi. What VPN’s do are several things:
- They give you a different IP address at each connection, making it harder to track you based on IP
- They stop your ISP from tracking you, and your school/work network from tracking you. They don’t stop Google
- They encrypt your data when you’re on public WiFi
- They let you change your virtual location, which can be useful but also annoying when you try and login to your bank account, as this will trip fraud sensors
- They can help you bypass filters and other forms of censorship
VPN’s, if they so wanted, could also track you more than any Big Tech company every could. This is why you must read their privacy policies and make sure they don’t keep logs. Only choose a VPN that you trust. A lot of people seem to like NordVPN, but I have not researched them enough to render an opinion.
Bonus — Antivirus
It is also important to investigate which antivirus software you use, as some have been caught spying on their user’s browsing history. Research before buying.
Bonus — Proton Ecosystem
ProtonMail’s paid version also includes an encrypted calendar, encrypted contact lists, and encrypted cloud drive. All very useful, and much more private than saving all of your friend’s numbers to your Google account, which is what happens if you have an Android phone.
