Let's talk about Privacy

[bitmover]

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.

Of course you can fight it. Read the topic for a few tips.

Stop using Google and it's products for example is a great step.

[IeSua]

Great site with detailed VPN/Email comparison - https://thatoneprivacysite.net/

[jademaxsuy]

well visiting website also matter like there are websites that are not secured like the HTTP link for HTTPS is one considered as website.verified and has the SSL certificate.

Yes, I agree also to the browser which being mention. Actually it will automatically block you in proceeding a website that is not secured or could be a phishing site. This is a goos thing about good browsers which OP has stated.

[Ray55]

I recommend to everyone that before going to any web site, the URL is well-researched. In VPN, my Nord VPN is more like it. However, I did not use ad-blocker before. For a while, I started to use it

[naska21]

Great site with detailed VPN/Email comparison - https://thatoneprivacysite.net/

[Pmalek]

IP may leak via browser's RTCPeerConnection known as  WebRTC  (or various adds-on installed)  even if you use VPN services.  Land on ipleak to check whether your browser suffers from that form of IP leakage and, if it does,   learn there  how to stop it.

A good VPN service should have a firewall option that disables your connection if you are not connected to the servers of that VPN. In that way you are preventing IP leaks.
Whenever you get disconnected from the VPN server the firewall kicks in and prevents you from accessing the Internet until you re-establish connection to the VPN server or turn off the VPN altogether.

[Jet Cash]

I'm using the Brave browser, and that has an optional Tor window.

What I'm really looking forward to is the Huawei mobile with an open source OS and privacy browser. Trump seems to be pushing for the creation of this, and it will free me from Google control.

[ABCbits]

I'm using the Brave browser, and that has an optional Tor window.

What I'm really looking forward to is the Huawei mobile with an open source OS and privacy browser. Trump seems to be pushing for the creation of this, and it will free me from Google control.

Android OS already completely open-source & there are even some privacy-focused Android distribution (such as LineageOS, Replicant and Copperhead).
You should have acceptable privacy if you don't install any Google application (Gapps) or any closed-source application.

The downside it's not user-friendly like Brave since you might need to root or/and unlock bootloader before install the OS.

[bitmover]

Android OS already completely open-source & there are even some privacy-focused Android distribution (such as LineageOS, Replicant and Copperhead).

This is good to know. I didn´t know those privacy focused androids. I will update the OP with them and probably install one of them.
My old phone is not updating to the newest android, so I might try those. Unfortunately, as you said, you need to root your phone....
 Thanks

[bitmover]

Take note those Android distribution usually have bug/problem such as :
1. Camera service often crashed or you can't even use camera
2. Can't turn on Wi-Fi
3. Few application can't run properly
4. Can't use FM radio
There are few solution such as restart the services or apply different firmware, but it doesn't always works.

Those bugs are terrible, just gave up installing lol
Maybe installing a different camera application?

Don't forget F-Droid application marketplace/repository if you seriously have privacy.
But there aren't many choice of application and game almost not exist, especially because most game depends on Google Play Store or Google Play Games.

I thought that the choice applications could be more restrict. However, you can always install any APK file and install any application, can´t you? Can´t you install some store like APKpure?

APK pure is a very interesting store which lets you install basically any app, even if Google doens´t wants you to use that app with an older android version (sometimes).

[masulum]

All our activity like browsing and purchasing with gmail account will be track. Google always say "your data is private" but no for system LOL. Even what you buy from online store are tracked by Google  

Maybe someone don't know where to see tracked activity by Google with gmail user can check from here

https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
https://myaccount.google.com/purchases

How to stop system monitoring for Google user

1. https://myactivity.google.com/
2. Activity controls
3. Turn off all activity monitoring like
* Web & App Activity
* Location History
* Device Information
* Voice & Audio Activity
* YouTube Search History
* YouTube Watch History

this is not guarantee to secure your gmail privacy data, but at least we can try. DYOR

CMIIW

[Jwick83]

It is scary that every thing is tracked and stuff.

But all this information. Only a machine uses it. A computer processes it. Yes it poses a threat, but sometimes I think how things would be without Google.

Apple is coming down big time on privacy. With iOS 13 and their new Apple ID sign in feature. That's good.

I really want to support Apple for this, but their prices and business practices. It's like they are good and also very bad at the same time. If you guys get what I mean

[masulum]

Another Alternative to avoid Google Products

- Drive alternative

• ownCloud: Open source, self-hosted cloud platform, available for enterprise
• Syncthing: Open source, P2P
• Nextcloud: Open source, self-hosted

- Calendar alternative

• Etar: Open source
• Fruux: Open source

- Keep alternative

• QOwnNotes: Open source
• Joplin : Open source

- Google Docs / Sheets / Slides alternative

• CryptPad: Zero Knowledge Cloud
• Etherpad: Open source

source/read full articles: https://www.techspot.com/news/80729-complete-list-alternatives-all-google-products.html

[bitmover]

Another Alternative to avoid Google Products

- Drive alternative

• ownCloud: Open source, self-hosted cloud platform, available for enterprise
• Syncthing: Open source, P2P
• Nextcloud: Open source, self-hosted

- Calendar alternative

• Etar: Open source
• Fruux: Open source

- Keep alternative

• QOwnNotes: Open source
• Joplin : Open source

- Google Docs / Sheets / Slides alternative

• CryptPad: Zero Knowledge Cloud
• Etherpad: Open source

source/read full articles: https://www.techspot.com/news/80729-complete-list-alternatives-all-google-products.html

Yeah, this website is interesting, I saw it rtoday in reddit. I added your suggestions to the OP.

There is one service which I didn`t include in the OP but I will now, and I use it for over 2 years already, is Standard Notes.
https://www.standardnotes.org/

This application allows you to sync notes in web, android app, windows, mac and linux. Very nice. Simple and respect your privacy.

[nakamura12]

This is really great thank you for breaking all this down. I really hope more conversations like this happen to get everyone on board about privacy especially when using their computer

Yes it is great as you said but even if there are more conversations like this or no more conversations doesn't mean it's not needed or important. Privacy is what will help you feel that you really have privacy and also your cryptocurrency that you have is also safe at the same time.

[whotookmycrypto]

Duckduckgo has a great article on living without Google: https://spreadprivacy.com/how-to-remove-google/

Also, for those concerned about privacy when using Bitcoin, this is a very good read: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Privacy

[bitmover]

Recently, I discovered this article while reading about privacy.

It is about a guy who was very paranoid about privacy, what was destroying his internet experience. He gave up and changed his habits to a total non-privacy.

This is a good example for us to do not over react about privacy, and do only a few things so we do not ruin our internet experience.


https://slate.com/technology/2014/02/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-a-less-private-internet.html

I used to play a little game called “Let’s See How Completely I Can Ruin My Internet Experience.” I used a Firefox browser with about 50 privacy-related plugins. Any website I visited had large chunks missing due to blocked JavaScript (thanks, NoScript). Once I’d allowed the barest number of scripts necessary, I had to talk my zealous cookie managers into allowing me to log in. That is, of course, after I closed the alerts of analytics packages tracking me, since they typically covered up login forms. Browsing the Internet was, frankly, a chore.

 I treated myself like a criminal, obsessed with keeping a very low online profile. I deactivated my Facebook and ran a Diaspora node instead (no one ever friended me), I left Twitter for Identi.ca (you wouldn’t know her; she’s from Canada), and I ran an unstable build of CyanogenMod on my Android phone that let me remove permissions from applications. I was a ghost in the shell, communicating only in dark alleyways of the Internet like a nerdy drug dealer.

 Regular Internet users rolled their eyes at me when I said, “I don’t use Facebook,” or “I won’t see your tweets; just find me on identi.ca.” In my righteous stand against being tracked online, I became an Internet hipster. And like a hipster, I was pretty smug about it.

I was fighting the good fight, ready at the drop of a hat to offer my cool, insidery 2 cents. “Oh, you’re using Google Chrome? You know, Google knows everything about you now.” “You allow scripts? You’re letting Facebook know every site you’ve visited.” “Do you know how many ad networks you’re plugged into when you visit the Wall Street Journal online?” I felt that if everyone did what I was doing, the big companies would learn their lesson. They’d change, and the Internet of the mid-2000s would come back. We’d have our privacy.

[LoyceV]

I do not feel comfortable using Chrome anymore too. I feel Google is sneaking all the time, stealing my data. I think this is a good start.

Not so long ago, people couldn't believe Facebook was listening to them. Now, almost everybody I talk to about it just instantly confirms Google is listening to everything they say. On my phone, typing 2 characters into Youtube is often enough to find what I was just talking about! It's strangely convenient but at the same time very frightening.

[bob123]

• Private cryptocurrencies:
  Monero (the most popular), PIVX, Dash, Zcash, Particl, among many others.
  

I am only aware of one cryptocurrency which truly protects your privacy: Monero.
Anything else (especially PIVX, Dash and Zcash) are just promoting to be privacy orientated, while in fact it is trivial to de-anonymize the transactions. I never heard of Partricl, so i can't talk about that.

But if there is any other crypto which is truly(!) private, i'd be glad to hear about that. Especially about the technology used. But the mentioned ones (except Monero) are definitely not privacy-orientated.

If someone is really interested in protecting his privacy, he should either use coinjoin, a proper mixing service or Monero. [/list]

[masulum]

Another tracking doing by Google. Today I am on travel, when i open Google.com, I found new menu under Keywords form, "find travel information....", I never see this options before. I think Google tracking device from Google maps navigation to detect our position and give that menu. Or, anyone have this option too on your Google pages?



CMIIW.