Hello, Lemmy!

It may be difficult to spend time actively improving some of the services you use to have a more privacy conscious presence, and so this thread is dedicated to help people learn and grow in their privacy journeys! Start by stating which services you currently use, and which ones you may be looking for/want to improve. This thread is entirely optional to participate in, because a lot of people understandably feel uncomfortable listing which services they use. Writing those out can be a lot of work, but the payoff is huge!

Remember these rules:

  • Be respectful! Some people are early on in their privacy journey, or have a lax threat model. Just because it doesn’t align with yours, or uses some anti-privacy software, doesn’t mean you can downvote them! Help them improve by giving suggestions on alternatives.

  • Don’t promote proprietary software! Proprietary software, no matter how good it may seem, is against the community rules, and generally frowned upon. If you aren’t sure, you can always ask! This is a place to learn. Don’t downvote people just because they don’t know!

  • Don’t focus solely on me! Since this happened in another one of my posts, I want to mention that this thread is not designed to pick apart only my setup. The point is to contribute your own and help others. That doesn’t mean you can’t still give suggestions for mine, but don’t prioritize mine over another.

  • Be polite! This falls under “Be respectful”, but be kind to everyone! Say please, thank you, and sorry. Lemmy is really good about this, but there will always be someone.

Here is my setup:

Web browsing

  • I use Tor for using online accounts (such as Lemmy, etc.)

  • I use Mullvad Browser for general browsing

  • I use Librewolf for functionality that Mullvad Browser doesn’t have (security keys, etc.)

  • I use Firefox + uBlock Origin for streaming videos that break on Librewolf and Mullvad Browser.

  • I always use a SearXNG instance for web searches. I always use ProtonVPN (free tier). I use a private DNS resolver.

Desktop

  • I use Secureblue (yes, I’m that guy from a post a couple weeks ago)

  • I sit behind a firewall.

  • I only use FOSS Flatpaks with Flatseal.

  • My BIOS is password locked but proprietary (due to compatibility issues).

  • I occasionally use Tails because I think it’s fun.

  • I use full disk encryption, multiple disks, and a second layer of encryption for specific important files (NSA style)

Mobile

  • I currently use hardened iOS until I can scrape together some money for a Pixel to use GrapheneOS

  • Again, I constantly use ProtonVPN (free tier)

  • I use a private DNS when ProtonVPN is turned off

  • I use AdGuard, but I browse the internet with the DuckDuckGo app (I can’t sideload)

  • I use a very strong passcode

  • Airplane mode is constantly enabled, I don’t have a SIM

  • I use a Faraday bag to store my device when I’m in public

  • I use a privacy screen protector

Messenger

  • I mainly use Signal with a borrowed phone number, because SimpleX is still buggy on iOS, and Signal is the easiest to switch friends to. I rarely use iMessage, but there are times when I have to.

Online accounts

  • Passwords are stored in Bitwarden for mobile accounts, and KeePassXC for desktop accounts.

  • Yubikey is placed on any account I can, otherwise 2FAS is used

  • I keep public accounts (Lemmy, etc.) as locked down as I can.

Video streaming

  • I use the native YouTube app on iOS, simply because any of the others I’ve tried either don’t actually work or require a Mac to install. I don’t have a Mac, obviously.

  • I use FreeTube on desktop, but as I was writing this I was informed that FreeTube has a few issues I may want to look into (Electron).

AI

  • I would love to know if there are any Flatpaks that run local LLMs well, but I currently use GPT4All (since that’s what I used a year ago).

  • On mobile, I use an app made by a friend that gives access to GPT-4 and Gemini. Because it’s running off of his own money, I’m not going to share the project until he has a stable source of income.

Social Media

  • I don’t use any social media besides Lemmy.

Email

  • I use ProtonMail

  • I have addy.io as an alias service

Shopping/Finance

  • I currently either proxy my online purchases through someone else (have them buy it for me and I pay them back), or use a gift card

  • For physical purchases I use cash

  • I only use my bank account for subscriptions (Spotify, etc.)

  • I am working on using Monero and privacy.com

Music streaming

  • I use Spotify on my phone

  • I use Spotube or locally downloaded files on my computer

  • I have multiple AM/FM receivers with some yard long antennas and direct metal connectors

TV shows

  • I stream from ethical services for some movies

  • I go to a theater or buy a DVD for other movies. I am the proud owner of a USB DVD player.

  • I also have an antenna hooked up to my TV

  • There are certain IPTV services I have used in the past

  • I do not use a smart TV.

Gaming

  • I download local games, plain and simple. Or I code my own game.

Programming

  • I code in Python using PyCharm. I’m looking for alternatives.

  • I will use GitLab when I decide to publish some of my work.

Productivity

  • LibreOffice, although the UI is iffy

Misc

  • I don’t use any location services

  • All my clocks are set to UTC

  • I don’t have a smart watch

  • I don’t have a smart car

  • I use Bluetooth earbuds

  • I cover my webcams with paper and tape. Reason: It’s worth taking a couple seconds to peel tape off when you use the webcam than to risk a massive breach.

Thanks for reading!

Note here: I found out the other day that a Google Streetview car passed by my house, and my blinds being shut were the only thing keeping my room away from prying eyes. Is there an easy way to blur/censor my house without giving up my soul?

Special thanks

Lots of people kindly contributed their personal setups in the comments, and some even made their own posts! I’m really glad I could spark inspiration and start a way for people to learn and grow in their privacy journeys. To think, just this morning, I was stressing on if people would even enjoy the post at all! Thank you all again, and please go forward to inspire others. I am not the person who made this happen, all of you are!

  • The 8232 ProjectOP
    1•9 months ago

    A few notes on the article

    1. The article is 3 years old

    2. One type of attack, for example, would identify users by minute differences in the clock times on their computers.

    This is unreliable, I would like to see how exactly it was done.

    1. It references some exploits that have been patched

    2. One of the points mentioned is simply “He was the only one using Tor on the network at the time”, which still didn’t deanonymize him from Tor’s perspective.

    3. Anybody can operate Tor nodes and collect your data and IP address

    Anyone can operate a node, nobody can collect your decrypted data, because of E2EE. Guards can see your IP address, which is why you can use a VPN behind Tor.

    I stopped skimming after that. Anyone who wants to continue can, but I’d say the article is mostly stale.

    • @MigratingtoLemmy
      2•9 months ago

      I believe the exploit was done at scale; the government had bought massive compute power from cloud providers to run TOR nodes and thus were able to track information flow (if you have the majority of nodes under your control, you can mathematically trace connections with their metadata across the TOR network).

      I haven’t kept up with the news but it’s a safe assumption that they have the funds to keep doing this for perpetuity.

    • @[email protected]
      1•9 months ago

      This is unreliable, I would like to see how exactly it was done.

      As would I, but the FBI is unwilling to release details. They also can’t be trusted, but I have to assume that there is a legitimate attack here.

      exploits that have been patched

      The point of this article is to make it clear that just using Tor isn’t a solution in itself, you need to be aware that using it makes you stick out, and that there are attacks that can make you more vulnerable.

      If you pair a VPN with Tor, you avoid a lot of the issues.

      stale

      Do you know if the funding issue is resolved? The article claims Tor is funded 90-100% by US Intel agencies. That’s a pretty massive conflict of interest, and the article points out specific incidents where authorities were notified of bugs before the public. That’s pretty normal security procedure, so the concern is if state level actors are able to delay fixes to get their exploits updated first.

      If their funding is more diversified now, I’d be much less worried.

      • @[email protected]
        2•9 months ago

        The document does not make clear using Tor is not a solution itself. It uses wrong statements, things that aren’t related to the topic and so on but on the other hand, they state (and so did you) Tor ‘is compromised’. That is not a ‘good’ document. It had some vibes of beging written by a competitor.

        (And I do not say using Tor is safe or not I simply do criticize your source)

        • @[email protected]
          1•9 months ago

          What’s not related? I thought that document was pretty clear and detailed. For example:

          • Tor is largely funded by the US government - this has gotten better and is down to 38%, but they’re still the largest donor - not a big problem, but there may be a conflict of interest here
          • FBI doesn’t need a warrant to monitor Tor, whereas the do to monitor sites/ISPs
          • many exit and relay nodes are run by state actors

          So you can’t just blindly use it and expect to stay anonymous, you need to take certain precautions. I think “compromised” may be a bit strong, but it does get the point across.

        • @[email protected]
          1•9 months ago

          I checked, and it seems the US State Department is 38% of funding as of 2021 fiscal year, which is a lot better, but they’re still the biggest donor. So the direction the project is going is good.