And be sure to verify that you don't have any DNS leaks here https://www.dnsleaktest.com/

Before sharing photos and videos it is important to make sure you’re not revealing too much data about yourself within the EXIF data.

Photos taken by your phone can contain a treasure trove of data like the exact GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken, the make and model of phone (which could be used to target you with malicious software), and more.

To see what you’re revealing in your media’s EXIF data there are many apps for every operating system.

There are also websites like https://www.get-metadata.com/ that allow you to upload your photos and videos to see what information they contain.

*Use at your own risk*

It is recommended to run your photos and videos through an EXIF data remover before sharing.

When uploading to social media this data is often removed during the compression phase, however, those tech companies likely still hold on to this data. As you’ve come to learn they’re not exactly friendly toward us.

If you need a legit SIM phone number for any reason, I recommend grabbing a 2-pack of Mint mobile SIM cards for $5.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mint-Mobile-Starter-Verify-Compatibility/dp/B0786RD524

You get a 1 week free trial that comes with limited data, talk, and text, but is surely enough to get all of your accounts setup and properly secured.

Be sure to not use your real name or credit card information when signing up. They don’t give a shit they just want their money.

You can avoid giving out real credit card information by using a service like Privacy.com

Once you set up your new accounts make sure to enable 2FA and you likely will not need this phone number once it expires at the end of the trial.

For 2FA Authy is the clear choice over Google Authenticator. Just search Authy in your App Repository.

In computer security, a threat is a potential event that could undermine your efforts to defend your data. You can counter the threats you face by determining what you need to protect and from whom you need to protect it. This is the process of security planning, often referred to as “threat modeling.”

This guide will teach you how to make a security plan for your digital information and how to determine what solutions are best for you.

https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/your-security-plan

When you send a normal SMS text message to your friends, that message is available for anyone to read along the way. It has become extremely obvious that all forms of communication have been compromised by the Federal government and there have been recent instances where a (((foreign government))) has also set up imposter cell towers in order to intercept communications.

Reference: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house-spying-devices-1491351

To protect your messages (and your phone calls) you should switch to Signal.

Link: https://signal.org/

Signal is an encrypted messenger that replaces your native texting app. All messages that you send to other Signal users will be encrypted and delievered safely to the intended target. This method may not be 100% fool-proof but it is an improvement over the current state if you're sending unencrypted messages through the air.

Time to switch search engines to something that respects your privacy and doesn't track your movements all over the internet. Everyone knows about the popular privacy search engine DuckDuckGo, but not a lot of people know about the most convenient feature that comes with DuckDuckGo, called "Bangs". There are over 13,000 of them built in to DDG and they make finding what you're looking for super easy!

For example if you wanted to search 'Zyklon' on Amazon from the DuckDuckGo search engine you would just type: Zyklon !a

Now DDG will query Amazon for you and return the results. This can be done for thousands of websites including !img for images and !maps for maps. For more information about this amazing feature check out this link...

https://duckduckgo.com/bang

Want to buy something online with your credit card but don't want to give up your credit card information? Don't completely trust a seller online? Check out the virtual credit card service offered for free by https://privacy.com

You can fill out the payment information as anyone you'd like and the information will be accepted. Now you can stay anonymous and safe in the event of a scam or data breach.

Want to remove yourself from data brokers online? These lists provide a good place to start...

Link: https://www.stopdatamining.me/opt-out-list/

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ElB7VXmr5JEkFaLJpO7YLGrAuasedmq-rZC-8TUMxTM/edit

Link: https://justdelete.me

I hope you're encrypting your hard drives as well as individual files of a sensitive nature. Use a trusted, open source encryption program such as VeraCrypt, available on your operating system of choice (which better not be Windows or Mac 👀).

VeraCrypt also provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password with the ability to make hidden volumes (steganography) and hide other operating systems.

https://www.veracrypt.fr/

We used to be identified on the web by our IP address or a Cookie set in our browser.

Nowadays technology has evolved beyond those basic and often unreliable user identification schemes.

Today one third of all websites you visit are likely using an advanced technique, called fingerprinting, to identify your unique browser. This gives advertisers and malicious actors the ability to track you across the web.

Read more: https://pixelprivacy.com/resources/browser-fingerprinting/

A subscriber mentioned this list as well as a good place to remove your data.

This process can take some time at first but after you have completed it it’s just a matter of basic maintenance and if you want to take it a step further, deception.

If you want a more detailed approach or have something to add that could help our goys join the chat and let us know.

I used this list https://www.privacyduck.com/resources/

Since Google gained ownership of YouTube, it's been a privacy nightmare to use the website anonymously. You can use Invidious (https://invidio.us) instead to view and download videos hosted on YouTube servers without being datamined. It also allows you to view content that is behind a parental block (so you can view 18+ content without signing in) or blacklisted countries.

Additionally all videos utilize the same URL so it's easy to remove "youtube" and put "invidious" in its place.

Example:
From
https://youtu.be/XWY8T3ujxNw
To
https://invidio.us/XWY8T3ujxNw

In order to avoid the spying eye of your ISP, Trackers, Advertisers, Scumbags, and others it is important to run a VPN but did you know you can run that VPN service at the router level? This way you can be sure that no internet traffic leaving your home can do so without first going through the encrypted VPN connection. Learn more here: https://www.pcmag.com/article/365618/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-your-router

States have admitted to making millions of dollars each year by selling your information off of your drivers license. Many states are doing this and once the others see how much these states are making it won’t be long before all 50 states will be selling this data

Why does this matter? This data can be bought by all sorts of people and you can be sure that this data will be put in a data brokers website at some point.

The solution here is to not list your home address on your drivers license. Some states will allow you to put a PO Box on the drivers license itself but then request your physical address in the paper work only. Check your states laws to learn more about that.

Another viable option is to subscribe to a mail forwarding service that offers locations in your area. Use that location and they will give you a physical address that you can use as your own. This will keep your real personal information private.

Here are some examples of providers of this service. I cannot vouch for any of them so do your own research here.

https://www.postscanmail.com/

https://www.anytimemailbox.com/

https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/washington/mail-forwarding

The onion router, TOR, is a SOCKS proxy that will encrypt your internet traffic, bounce it across three different nodes, and then return that data back to you in an encrypted fashion so that only you can read it.

If you aren't using the Tor browser already it is highly recommended. Do not use Tor with your social media or other accounts linked to your identity but do use it for everything else especially if you don't want to be tracked or targeted.

You can run most applications through tor as well. Telegram is one such application, here's how....

1. Start the tor service on your device
2. Go Telegram Settings —> Advanced
3. Click "Connection Type"
4. Select "Use custom proxy"
5. Select Type as SOCKS5 Hostname as 127.0.0.1 Port as 9150
6. Save and you're finished!

Now all of your Telegram traffic will be routed through Tor.

Instead of using non-free (as in freedom) navigation software like Apple or Google Maps, try https://openstreetmaps.com/ for your browser or https://osmand.net/ for your mobile device. OsmAnd saves maps of your preferred state or province to your phone so there's no need to waste your phone's data when commuting.

OsmAnd is also available on the F-Droid client if you want to avoid the Google App store botnet.

Services like Telegram require a phone number for verification but giving out your personal phone number is a very risky proposition and a violation of your privacy. All it takes is one wrong move and your number is out in the public eye. It doesn't take long from there to link a phone number to an identity and then to a face.

To avoid all of this I highly recommend none of you use Telegram with your real phone number. There are a million different ways to gain access to another phone number for long enough to validate your Telegram account. Once validated you will never need access to this number again.

Below are some links to places where you could get a throw away phone number for Telegram and other services...

Burner App: https://www.burnerapp.com

Mint SIM: https://www.amazon.com/Mint-Mobile-Starter-Verify-Compatibility/dp/B0786RD524

Google Voice: https://voice.google.com/

Free SMS: https://quackr.io/

Free SMS: https://smsreceivefree.com/

SMS for Bitcoin: https://smsprivacy.org/