#Privacy isn’t a digital monastery; it’s a kit of simple habits and tools. The utopia of total invisibility only paralyzes you.
Real practice is about reducing traces and picking your battles. The limit of your privacy is yours to decide—it’s your choice.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel for email. ProtonMail or Tuta give you encrypted accounts, easy to use, with clean apps and web access.
They’re not Gmail, but good enough for personal use.
For messaging, Session Messenger drops the phone number and is decentralized. More friction than WhatsApp, but realistic for those who want privacy without asking anyone’s permission. Signal has a user-friendly interface, but it uses your phone number, which is a vulnerability for tracking.
Brave Browser blocks trackers by default, integrates Tor in private windows, and supports HTTPS Everywhere out of the box.
Search engines matter too. Stop giving Google everything. DuckDuckGo, Brave itself, and Startpage deliver decent results without intrusive profiling. Just a simple settings change.
When it comes to payments, a debit card in your name is fully traceable. For private purchases, Monero is practical and usable through P2P exchanges. Bitcoin lost much of that edge.
For files and cloud storage, you don’t need blind trust in Google Drive. Use Tresorit, Nextcloud, whether self-hosted or trusted hosting, or Syncthing across your own devices. That way, you control who gets access.
A VPN is useful but not magic. Choose one with no logs, like Mullvad or IVPN. It protects you on public Wi-Fi and hides your IP from the sites you visit.
Passwords are the simplest fix. A manager like Bitwarden or KeePassXC is more secure than reusing the same password everywhere. Strong passwords mean fewer leaks and less exposure.
No need to jump to Linux tomorrow, though it’s ideal. With AI, the learning curve is now gentler. At the very least, review app permissions on your phone to minimize everyday spying.
And if you’re going to use AI, don’t hand over your data. Run open-source models locally with tools like Ollama or LM Studio, or use trusted services like Perplexity in private mode or Duck.ai
The point is to prevent your history from being turned into merchandise.
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