Device-Independent
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Browser
For everyday usage, use the Brave browser.
For improved privacy, use the Tor browser. Note that this will be a much slower experience, will likely require multiple confirmations that you are human and not a bot, and not everything will work (e.g., streaming services). It’ll probably be more frustrating than it’s worth to set Tor as your default browser; instead use Brave as your default, and use Tor for operations that require the utmost anonymity.
As a back-up, for when a website simply won’t function with either of the above, use Firefox.
Browsers are effectively spies for the companies that make them.
Cookies enable the convenience you’re used to from modern internet usage, but allow companies to track your behavior across websites.
Turning tracking off in the most popular browsers can be difficult.
Search Engine
Use Brave Search.
If you’re not satisfied with the results, try out Qwant or Mojeek.
If you absolutely must have Google results, but without all the tracking, use Startpage.
Pure search engines crawl the web themselves to generate their own indices. Meta search engines rely on the indices built by other search engines. Some search engines are a hybrid of the two.
Brave Search, Qwant, and Mojeek are all pure search engines.
DuckDuckGo, which is a hybrid search engine, used to be the preferred solution, but it uses Bing results under the hood, and Microsoft started censoring Bing results a few years ago.
Email
Use ProtonMail.
Once you’ve logged in on a computer, click the button in the address bar to install the app and access it via the app instead of a browser.
Use ProtonPass (see Password Vault) to allow the creation of email aliases.
Sign up for the Pass Plus subscription to allow for unlimited email aliases. Create aliases for each service you log in to.
If you’re going to be using more than one of Proton’s paid services, it’s worthwhile to pay for their family membership.
Email subaddressing, where you use myrealemail+subaddress@domain.com, is not private because it reveals your true email address, and allows data brokers to correlate your identity across services.
Proton purchased SimpleLogin and integrated it into ProtonPass.
If you want, you can host the code yourself on your own server for free.
Password Vault
Use ProtonPass.
Once you’ve logged in on a computer, click the button in the address bar to install the app and access it via the app instead of a browser.
Install the Brave browser extension.
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VPN
If you’re just looking for an off-the-shelf VPN service, use ProtonVPN.
If you’re going to be using more than one of Proton’s paid services, it’s worthwhile to pay for their family membership.
If you don’t want to use a centralized VPN provider, but would prefer a distributed VPN where no one entity owns all the servers you’ll be connecting to, use MysteriumVPN.
For ultimate privacy and control, you can run your own VPN server (e.g., Algo VPN, OpenVPN, etc.), but that doesn’t afford you the flexibility of hopping around locations whenever you like.
Depending on your privacy needs, a combination of all three options above might be worthwhile for different types of internet traffic.
VPNs were never designed for anonymity—they hide your IP address, but that’s all.
Most VPNs out there, including paid ones, are really just fronts for data brokerage (meaning they’re selling your data).
While there’s hundreds of VPNs available, they’re all owned by a relatively small handful of companies.
YouTube Alternatives
Use Odysee for the content creators that are hosting their videos there. An Android app is also available for your smart phone. If you want to see if a particular YouTube video is available, use the Try LBRY app from the F-Droid app store.
For videos that aren’t hosted on Odysee, you can use Piped instead, which is a front-end to YouTube without all the tracking. On your smart phone, you can use LibreTube, which uses Piped behind the scenes.
Ultimately it’s best to watch videos on a computer rather than on your phone.
YouTube’s purpose is to track you as you search, scroll, and watch, for the sake of selling that data to thousands of companies.
It’s also intended to influence you (and the world at large) via what content is promoted vs censored.
LBRY (which Odysee is a front-end for) is a blockchain-based, decentralized storage network, which means greater censorship resistance and improved freedom of publication.
Authentication
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Privacy Screens
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