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If you decide to use Google Messages on an Android custom OS, set up Contacts Scopes (if you can) or else it it will have access to all of them around the time you first open the app.

Recently I got conned into giving a couple websites my email address for an alleged discount thinking, well I’m going to give it to them with the purchase anyway. Only for them to then request my phone number.

Couple lost sales for them.

Being born

Not me, but my mother sent her dna to 23andMe. I was not happy to hear that.

I’m gonna cut this short and say all of them… 😂 its a marathon not a sprint.

I bought a two year sub for proton.

It’s been quite a journey:

• Posting accurate personal info to my Google+ account when I first signed up
• Signing in to Google on my phone and browser
• Using an Android phone from eBay of dubious origin
• Sending confidential info via email
• Using the same gmail address for everything
• Signing up for things with my real info when it wasn’t necessary
• Handing out my phone number to loyalty programs
• Running hacked game APKs without checking for malware
• Using the User Agent Switcher extension on MS Edge, which was subsequently updated to include an infostealer
• Using browser extensions of unknown provenance

How to avoid:

• Ironically, Windows 10 started me on my privacy journey. Microsoft was in my face enough with privacy offenses that I began moving to Linux and investing time into my privacy.
• Don’t post unnecessary info to social media.
• Never email confidential info.
• Use a password manager, or at least some organized text file if you have an encrypted disk.
• FOSS software is more available and user-friendly than ever, always look for a FOSS alternative.

Using an Android phone and Google Chrome. Never again.

• I used to have an Xperia SP. One day, I decided to swap out all of the AOSP apps that came preinstalled for Google’s own offerings.
• I also used to use Yandex as my main search engine. I thought it was better than DuckDuckGo…
• I also used to use Yandex.Browser, Yandex.Mail, and Yandex.Disk. I’m also not sure I deleted my account…
• Just three years ago, I was using Opera. I had no idea it had become a Chinese Chromium fork. I also used to use Maxthon, on occasion.
• I used to use Opera VPN.
• When I was about 7, I ended up with a bunch of malware on my laptop (turns out McAfee is shit). I recently discovered that my IP range briefly ended up on some blacklist around that time, so I assume I had become part of a botnet.
• Around this time, I used Hola VPN.
• Until fairly recently, I had multiple ad and tracker blockers installed at the same time. This is obviously overkill, and increases your fingerprintability.
• I also used to manually change my user agent to Chrome on Windows 10, despite the fact I was using Firefox on Linux. The mismatch also made me more fingerprintable.
• I used to have Do Not Track enabled, which can be used to fingerprint users.
• I used to use my browser fullscreen, meaning my screen resolution could be calculated and used for fingerprinting.
• I used to use Outlook.com as a client for my email, which was privately self-hosted by my dad.

Yeah, I used to be pretty insecure, huh. My privacy journey was quite fast, and began around 2020. My uncle had given me a ThinkPad and a DVD of Linux Mint. I was stuck at home for most of the year, I started watching a lot of sociopolitical comedy videos, and eventually one thing led to another and before you knew it I was wearing the metaphorical tinfoil hat.

Nowadays, I’m doing much better.

Last year I purchased a domain name for our farm business as a place holder knowing I’ll eventually get around to putting together a website when life allows.

Well the domain registration site had a “privitize my infomation” button…which I forgot to check…for the first 12 hours.

EVERY web and app developer from here to Pakistan now has my phone number and I get about 4-6 calls a day asking if I want help developing an app for our website.

I’ve had to block entire area codes with an installed spam blocker just to slow them down and get some small bit of peace back.

Moral of the story, Never forget to hit that privitize button.

I forgot to tap the “location” button on my phone to set it to “off” for about ten years.

Using the same username ober multiple platforms

I changed the user-agent of my browser to “Error: No browser installed”. Can’t be more unique than that, I guess. That was 30 years ago, though, I don’t think it will hurt me today 😆

Wouldnt you like to know