Let's talk about Privacy

[Rath_]

Does it really help if I use incognito mode in my browser?

Not really. The only thing that incognito mode does is forcing browser not to save anything that you are doing at the moment (cookies, history etc.) beside downloaded files, of course. Your ISP can still identify you and see what you are browsing. Try Tor browser, it might be slow but that's because of how it works.

[beuvtiled]

Does it really help if I use incognito mode in my browser?

Not really. The only thing that incognito mode does is forcing browser not to save anything that you are doing at the moment (cookies, history etc.) beside downloaded files, of course. Your ISP can still identify you and see what you are browsing. Try Tor browser, it might be slow but that's because of how it works.

Ok, thank you!

I would also recommend all to delete their Facebook accounts. This company is irresponsible, and we can't count on them in the matter of privacy.

[Dewin Ayuu]

Am using chrome and am not having any problems. But for your own good don't allowed any website to save your password for you so that you can easily open your account when you want to. Is not safe someone may get access to your phone or computer. In order to be safe keep your password to yourself because is your privacy not publicly.

[bitmover]

Wasn't TunnelBear bought by McAfee recently? I don't think that it will have a positive impact on it. I would recommend TorGuard instead. Their service is fairly good, they even sell pre-flashed routers with software designed for security of your network traffic. Also, it is worth mentioning that they support Lightning Network payments. If someone wants to try Lightning Network then their service is a good choice. Not only you get chance to test Lightning Network, but also you can improve your privacy.

I wasn't aware of that, that TunnelBear was both by mcafee company.
But it's important to know that John Mcafee sold this company, which holds only his name.

Don't you think that you should mention something about Bitcoin mixers? They are a good choice if someone doesn't want to use any other cryptocurrency.

I like the idea of Bitcoin mixers. I need to study about them. This is probably become another post.

Am using chrome and am not having any problems. But for your own good don't allowed any website to save your password for you so that you can easily open your account when you want to. Is not safe someone may get access to your phone or computer. In order to be safe keep your password to yourself because is your privacy not publicly.

THe problem with google products is privacy related, not security related. Your passwords are somehow safe.
They will collect your personal data (like e-mail content, searches) and sell to another companies. If you don't have a problem with that, you can use any google product.

[CryptoEnthused]

Does it really help if I use incognito mode in my browser?

Not really. The only thing that incognito mode does is forcing browser not to save anything that you are doing at the moment (cookies, history etc.) beside downloaded files, of course. Your ISP can still identify you and see what you are browsing. Try Tor browser, it might be slow but that's because of how it works.

I think VPN with no logs should work better. Either way, ISP will know that you are using VPN or Tor browser. Well, if you use bridge in Tor then it will be hard for ISP to know that you are using Tor. The reason VPN is better most of the times is that VPN is faster. Or if you need total anonymity, you can use Tor via VPN.

[LoyceV]

I think privacy comes apart, when money is involved. I saw this happening on this forum when Ripple was introduced. People only had to link with their Facebook account to get some FREE Ripple in the beginning. This immediately compromised most of these people and their account was linked to their real identity. <if they used their real account, they DOXed themselves>

I missed out on the Ripple giveaway, but I got some Stellar Lumens last year. The trick is to be conscious about your privacy all the time: it was very easy to create a fake Facebook account, you can even use Tor (on the beautiful address facebookcorewwwi.onion). I've tested it, and it worked.
Once you neglect your privacy, it's gone forever. That's why it doesn't hurt to have some accounts without your real name ready, and a spare prepaid phone number for verifications.

After Ripple, we saw a host of Bounties and Coin drops and services where they require your social media accounts and some ICOs even implemented some AML requirements to participate.

KYC and AML kinda comes with running a legit money service (or a fake service pretending to be legit). It's good for crypto to mature, but it's crucial to be critical which companies you want to show your real identity.

Is the few dollars really worth your privacy? Your greed might cost you more, when people use this information to track you or even to link you to your main coin hoard.  

That will largely depend on the country you live in. Byteball for instance still offers $20 if you register a KYC wallet (link). They use Jumio for verification, which is also used by Bittrex. The beauty of this system is (assuming all involved parties are honest about it!) that only Jumio knows your complete data, and only an encrypted hash is stored in the DAG. That allows you to later on select which private data you want to supply to someone (it could be only your Country, but it can also be your full ID information), after which the receiving party knows for a fact that it's legit, without seeing more than you supplied. I get excited about the possibilities, as it's an ingenious system to verify your identity only once and store a decentralized hash, and I'm blabbering on about it, but my point is: $20 isn't worth it for most people in first world countries. If, however, you live in a country where $20 is a week's salary, it can be very interesting to sell your privacy for money.

[Extrago]

In this age of modern advancements and technology, privacy has become scarced. You can not hide your self from the world. But you can minimize that chance by browsing safely. Don't allow Google to tracj your location and also don't post wherever you go.

[bitmover]

I think privacy comes apart, when money is involved. I saw this happening on this forum when Ripple was introduced. People only had to link with their Facebook account to get some FREE Ripple in the beginning. This immediately compromised most of these people and their account was linked to their real identity. <if they used their real account, they DOXed themselves>

I missed out on the Ripple giveaway, but I got some Stellar Lumens last year. The trick is to be conscious about your privacy all the time: it was very easy to create a fake Facebook account, you can even use Tor (on the beautiful address facebookcorewwwi.onion). I've tested it, and it worked.
Once you neglect your privacy, it's gone forever. That's why it doesn't hurt to have some accounts without your real name ready, and a spare prepaid phone number for verifications.

Having a fake Facebook account ready is a good idea.
Exposing your real Facebook account to a giveaway and linking it to cryptocurrencies may even be dangerous, as you can become a target online.

[bitmover]

I was having a chat about security and phishing sites some other day.

An AdBlock is also an important method to avoid phishing sites. So you really should be using one, as it will increase your security.
Many phishing sites promote their scams through paid ads. If you can't see them, you can't click them.

Updated the OP with this information, which can be quite valuable.

[siagh357]

Privacy on internet is absolutely not possible. Google alone account for almost all the features that make surfing enjoyable and trying to avoid google products not only seems locking yourself up but missing the essential things on the web.

[BanishedDemon]

Does it really help if I use incognito mode in my browser?

First off, not one of the private modes provided through the major browsers can defend your online records from being viewed by internet service companies or authorities businesses, block third-party agencies from monitoring your interest or figuring out your geographical place, nor save you viruses and malware from infecting your laptop. rather, the modes are designed to genuinely prevent cookies and autofill information from being stored at the user’s local device.

And secondly, while those barriers are not actually newsworthy in and of themselves – they have been reported a couple of times in current years – how poorly the browser companies’ keeps your personal identity.

[bitmover]

Updating:

If you use Ledger nano, you do not need to use Google Chrome anymore. That´s good for privacy.
You can download Ledger Live

[mattcode]

Updating:

If you use Ledger nano, you do not need to use Google Chrome anymore. That´s good for privacy.
You can download Ledger Live

You can use it with Electrum too.

[PrivacyIsImportant]

It's recommended to use Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROMs to be sure there are no spyware on your phone, good ROM's are:

Since AOSP comes without Google Apps by default, it means it has no Play store. https://f-droid.org is a great alternative as an app store for fully open source software. It includes applications such as
Shelter to isolate untrusted apps from your personal data
Firefox Klar for privacy browsing
K-9 mail client
Linphone for SIP communications
OpenVPN client
Revolution IRC client
ownCloud,Nextcloud clients
NewPipe a YouTube client
Yalp store, Aurora store for downloading apps from Play Store without Google account
MaterialFBook for accessing Facebook without its official app, Tinfoil for Twitter
Telegram FOSS build,
Silence for encrypted SMS chats
Delta Chat for encrypted secure instant messaging over email (has a Telegram-like interface and group chats)
orBot as a Tor client ( thanks to https://guardianproject.info )
among a big variety of other privacy-oriented apps.

Open GApps is a fully open source Google Apps alternative.

[Kakmakr]

Another thing to add would be to avoid using all these centralized payment processors and also centralized online wallet providers. They require you to divulge a lot of personal information that links you to your Bitcoin and they also report to their respective governments.

The KYC/AML requirements is just another way for them to infringe on your financial privacy. If you have to use them, make sure you deposit the bitcoins to those services, via some reputable mixer service. <This way, they will not be able to track the origin and content of your main hoard.> 

[Jet Cash]

Thank you for mentioning the Brave browser. I'm using this as a content producer as well as for privacy and safety. It includes a Tor + Duckduckgo window as well.

You can support the Fit to Talk project by donating the Basic Attention Token that you receive just for browsing. It's a great way to help sites you like at no cost to you.

[bitmover]

Thank you for mentioning the Brave browser. I'm using this as a content producer as well as for privacy and safety. It includes a Tor + Duckduckgo window as well.

You can support the Fit to Talk project by donating the Basic Attention Token that you receive just for browsing. It's a great way to help sites you like at no cost to you.

In my opinion BAT/brave is one of most promising projects in the cryptocurrency market.

Online publicity is problematic now. Highly centralized on Google/Facebook, and the costs of this publicity is on the internet service provider (a significant amount of the total bandwidth is used by Google/Facebook ads). In Brazil for example you pay to the isp for your bandwidth usage.

Adblocks are not as widespread as they should be, and browsers with native adblocks are an elegant solution.

Bat token solves this 2 problems, blocking centralized ads reducing bandwidth costs.

Unfortunately brave browser is not as good as Firefox, and nobody knows if bat is overpriced or not...

[jeromix]

There is another thread for this in this section and was being stated over the add on for the browser to get rid from phishing activities. Yes, indeed it is good to be secure especially in accessing web wallets where it could lead one to a phishing site and disclose all important details to access your accounts and transfers all the crypto in your web wallet.

[bitmover]

I don't know why you said we should avoid google chrome but it has an inbuild adblock. you just need to upgrade your chrome to enjoy this feature. i get no popups using google chrome

The idea to avoid Google chrome is to protect your personal data.

Google is collecting everything you do online and selling to companies.

Google and chrome are free to use , because you are the product.

[Agnatez]

Nowadays, there is no such thing as confidentiality. Our computer and our phone collects absolutely all the information about us and you can’t fight it.