I want to create a few internet alter egos, one for shopping, one for communicating with family, and one for communicating with friends. My goal is to make these accounts the least trackable to advertisers and political parties.
Unfortunately, I don’t even know where to start.
https://privacytools.io is a good place to start
Thanks
Privacytools is deprecated, use this instead.
Use NextDNS to block ads and trackers at the dns level. Use it on your smart phone and also consider it at the router level for your home devices. Or, get a VPN like IVPN that lets you set your NextDNS profile as your VPN DNS. Then, get a router that lets you funnel your router traffic through the VPN.
Thanks for the tip - trying it out!
Downloaded it, checked disable ads and it asks for a configuration Id? Assuming I make one on their site but can’t figure how I would connect this app to the site
The EFF privacy badger plugin blocks many tracker. That said, the best trick us to use websites which won’t track you. Asking on lemmy rather than Facebook/quora is already a good step
Delete all accounts and start from fresh on a regular and frequent basis. Use VPNs and also change them just as frequently.
Or don’t care about it and just try to be uninteresting to market to, it’s a lot easier
Disable targeted advertising on each account that allows you to do so.
Completely stopping tracking for shopping especially is gonna be impossible, but since you say “least trackable” I think there is some obfuscation you can do. Keep in mind, I’m by no means a security expert or anything, but general paranoia at the state of the internet has made me interested in trying to obfuscate my online identity for a while now (I say as I post on Social media…), so I’ve got some things I’ve found helpful
A simple easy thing is to start using browser containers for your different identities, which is built into Firefox. This way, details of one identity are less likely to leak into another, as in, what you search for in one identity isn’t gonna end up in the shopping results of another. Related to this, I’d look at script blockers and other extensions that can stop trackers. My go to is NoScript but I get some people don’t like it cause it’s fiddly and can break sites. I’ve heard good things about Ghostify but haven’t tried it myself. Getting started with NoScript way back, it was crazy to see how many different useless trackers and scripts were loading in the background that you don’t even see and are apparently completely unnecessary to the functioning of a site.
Then I’d also recommend using a VPN. I love it when I see ads being served to me from completely random countries because of how often I change my location, confirms that whatever advertising service that for whatever reason slipped by my blockers still don’t even know my general location.
And that’s about it off the top of my head. If I can think of more I’ll come back and edit my post.
I feel kinda silly about not using browser containers before.
Do you recommended any specific VPNs?
Mullvad VPN. It has options to block ads, tracking, social media through their DNS.
You won’t see this VPN mentioned in any of those “best 10”-lists as those are mostly marketing.
AirVPN is good too, they still have port forwarding but afaik no DNS blocking.
Don’t believe me on my word, search Lemmy or Reddit for Mullvad.
There are a lot of VPNs and a lot of opinions, so hard to recommend specific ones. There was a site I used a while back with a quiz that helped suggest VPNs, I think it was https://www.vpntierlist.com/ but I’m not sure. I seriously looked into ProtonVPN by whatever site it was’ recommendation, but I ended up just renewing NordVPN, which I was already using, because of a special offer I got for ending my subscription in the first place due to privacy concerns. In the end, despite NordVPN having some potentially fishy business connections, it still suits my general needs, and with their various discounts feels like good value to me at least.
Turn off your phone before heading to the shops.
Or just run a privacy-oriented ROM like Graphene.
To be honest: the deeper you go into the hole, the more things you discover that can be used to identify you. At some point you need to become a Cybersecurity expert or cut your internet connection.
Hahaha suddenly one day you do wake up and find yourself working in Cybersecurity when all you wanted to do originally was block some annoying ads.
I’m currently making my bachelor in Cybersecurity. Can confirm.
Great field, you’ll love it. Except on vacations!
I already love it. It’s a passion.
??? Both options are the same thing tho?
Mentaloutlaw did a great video on this a few years ago, its worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZvkaOV82tc
for friends and family, use separate emails/sim cards. sim cards must be the prepaid variety. pay in cash. don’t use these for anything outside of scope
for the shopping one, don’t buy anything online. don’t link your bank or a credit card. you’ll have to go to the store in person and pay in cash. wear a mask.
I’ve already cut as much online shopping out of my life as I can, but there are some things I can’t buy in store anymore.
For desktop: Mullvad browser default settings no customization, always on vpn (mullvad), alias emails (Simplelogin is great and somewhat user friendly).
For Mobile depends on device but lets say not a google pixel but an android: seperate necessary intrusive apps via a work profile using shelter), use pwas as much as possible via a privacy friendly browser (I like mull + ublock extension), an always on vpn (tip: mullvad has the option to block trackers also), again alias emails, disable as much bloatware via adb, and lastly switch to foss alternatives for apps where you can.
Besides that dont fall into your normal patterns/interests switch it up between each identity. Hope that helps
The one for shopping will be impossible. The other two will be fine as long as you don’t use them.
