Online security/privacy
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:38 pm
I will lay the groundwork in this post, and post my questions in the following post, to make things more clear.
I've been using gmail for many, many years. It was convenient, at the time (I used to use Hotmail, before, and I now forget why I switched). Over the years, I heard about how Google "reads" your emails to give you targeted ads. At the time, I was mostly using a local email client software program, so I figured it didn't matter much.
At one point in time, I also moved from using Internet Explorer to using Google Chrome as my browser. At the time, it was the best browser being recommended, if I recall.
But over time, I began to be more concerned about all the tracking Google did. I once watched a video about someone trying to de-Google his life (on YouTube, ironically, which he addressed in the video as well...) In the comments, someone mentioned the Brave browser, which blocked ads and third party trackers right off the bat, before even needing to add an ad blocker extension to the browser. I read up a bit about it, but soon enough switched over to Brave. It has been a few years, now.
Of course, I still use gmail, and for a long time used it mostly in a local email client, but also still kept one tab open to the gmail page, mostly for its searching email capabilities (i.e. when searching for an email in particular, it was easier to search for it directly in the web version of gmail.) Currently, I am using the web interface exclusively, because I have not yet completed the process of fixing my computer and multi-boot configuration (see my I'm about to nuke my hard drive(s) thread for more details...)
I also use Facebook, mostly as a way to connect with friends and family more easily (whether through their FB page, or through FB Messenger). I didn't use to write much on my page, no memes, no cutesy stuff. My photo albums are sparse. A few albums with photos from an event, but I don't keep a log of my life by posting on FB. But in the last year or so, I have also started sharing posts/articles of interest to me on my FB page. I also use WhatsApp (which is now also a FB property), but only to communicate with a few groups that use it as their main form of communication. I used to "Like" comments on other platforms, but not anymore. I have never used my FB credentials to sign in to another website, always preferring to create a personal login ID and a gibberish password with the help of a password manager (Lastpass, in my case). Keep your grubby hands off me, you Facebook animal! (To quote/paraphrase a certain, much older movie...)
So I suppose that no matter how good Brave was at blocking trackers, I was still being tracked to a certain degree. I was hoping to find ways to improve my getting untracked, so any time I found an article or a video on the subject, I went through them. Not that I have anything to hide, but it's the principle of the thing. Besides, as we are now seeing, the big tech companies are starting to flex their muscles more, as well as their political biases, by reducing the visibility of things/news/opinions they don't agree with, and even suspending accounts because of it, all without much recourse for the user. (And seeing the type of things I have posted on FB in the last year or two, I have definitely outed myself as a conservative, on that platform...)
More recently, I have run across a YouTuber by the name of Rob Braxman, who seems to specialize in privacy. I have warcted a number of his videos by now, and he seems to present some fairly cogent points.
One thing that surprised me, was how how the Brave browser being good at anonymizing people may just be a way to identify that a Brave browser was being used.
Another video which I found quite interesting was one about browser isolation:
Of course, no matter what you do in the browser world on your PC, in order to avoid getting tracked, it all becomes moot, if you use a cell phone with all the integrated "conveniences" that come with them. Spying comes standard...
To get around that, one option would be to de-google a phone (or buy one from someone who sells them, Rob Braxman being one, or course...)
But there have been work on other types of phones for years. I have been keeping abreast of work on Linux phones for a while, on and off. But so far, the options were either expensive, or underpowered... and also not as "convenient", in that many of the apps you would be used to use on Android would not be available on those. But things are starting to change on that front, and Linux phones are constantly improving. Privacy is enhenced, here. But...
He also explained his home network configuration, which is pretty interesting, if I do say so myself...
I've been using gmail for many, many years. It was convenient, at the time (I used to use Hotmail, before, and I now forget why I switched). Over the years, I heard about how Google "reads" your emails to give you targeted ads. At the time, I was mostly using a local email client software program, so I figured it didn't matter much.
At one point in time, I also moved from using Internet Explorer to using Google Chrome as my browser. At the time, it was the best browser being recommended, if I recall.
But over time, I began to be more concerned about all the tracking Google did. I once watched a video about someone trying to de-Google his life (on YouTube, ironically, which he addressed in the video as well...) In the comments, someone mentioned the Brave browser, which blocked ads and third party trackers right off the bat, before even needing to add an ad blocker extension to the browser. I read up a bit about it, but soon enough switched over to Brave. It has been a few years, now.
Of course, I still use gmail, and for a long time used it mostly in a local email client, but also still kept one tab open to the gmail page, mostly for its searching email capabilities (i.e. when searching for an email in particular, it was easier to search for it directly in the web version of gmail.) Currently, I am using the web interface exclusively, because I have not yet completed the process of fixing my computer and multi-boot configuration (see my I'm about to nuke my hard drive(s) thread for more details...)
I also use Facebook, mostly as a way to connect with friends and family more easily (whether through their FB page, or through FB Messenger). I didn't use to write much on my page, no memes, no cutesy stuff. My photo albums are sparse. A few albums with photos from an event, but I don't keep a log of my life by posting on FB. But in the last year or so, I have also started sharing posts/articles of interest to me on my FB page. I also use WhatsApp (which is now also a FB property), but only to communicate with a few groups that use it as their main form of communication. I used to "Like" comments on other platforms, but not anymore. I have never used my FB credentials to sign in to another website, always preferring to create a personal login ID and a gibberish password with the help of a password manager (Lastpass, in my case). Keep your grubby hands off me, you Facebook animal! (To quote/paraphrase a certain, much older movie...)
So I suppose that no matter how good Brave was at blocking trackers, I was still being tracked to a certain degree. I was hoping to find ways to improve my getting untracked, so any time I found an article or a video on the subject, I went through them. Not that I have anything to hide, but it's the principle of the thing. Besides, as we are now seeing, the big tech companies are starting to flex their muscles more, as well as their political biases, by reducing the visibility of things/news/opinions they don't agree with, and even suspending accounts because of it, all without much recourse for the user. (And seeing the type of things I have posted on FB in the last year or two, I have definitely outed myself as a conservative, on that platform...)
More recently, I have run across a YouTuber by the name of Rob Braxman, who seems to specialize in privacy. I have warcted a number of his videos by now, and he seems to present some fairly cogent points.
One thing that surprised me, was how how the Brave browser being good at anonymizing people may just be a way to identify that a Brave browser was being used.
Another video which I found quite interesting was one about browser isolation:
Of course, no matter what you do in the browser world on your PC, in order to avoid getting tracked, it all becomes moot, if you use a cell phone with all the integrated "conveniences" that come with them. Spying comes standard...
To get around that, one option would be to de-google a phone (or buy one from someone who sells them, Rob Braxman being one, or course...)
But there have been work on other types of phones for years. I have been keeping abreast of work on Linux phones for a while, on and off. But so far, the options were either expensive, or underpowered... and also not as "convenient", in that many of the apps you would be used to use on Android would not be available on those. But things are starting to change on that front, and Linux phones are constantly improving. Privacy is enhenced, here. But...
He also explained his home network configuration, which is pretty interesting, if I do say so myself...