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What are the best ways to maximize privacy? In terms of search engines, browsers, image and video hosts, ISP's, VPN's?

I know its practically impossible to be anonymous, but what measures can I take to limit my data traffic?

What are the best ways to maximize privacy? In terms of search engines, browsers, image and video hosts, ISP's, VPN's? I know its practically impossible to be anonymous, but what measures can I take to limit my data traffic?

11 comments

[–] xyzzy 2 points (+2|-0)

I use uBO and I've DNT, but it's not clear if the latter really improves tracking.

[–] SithEmpire 1 points (+1|-0)

DNT is a naughty scam - literally the only thing it does is allow for greater fingerprinting because there is now an extra piece of trinary information in the HTTP headers (DNT 0 / 1 / absent). My guess is that absent would give the greatest anonymity / similarity with other clients.

[–] xyzzy 2 points (+2|-0)

It's not really a scam, it's good intentions turned bad. The companies which already wouldn't track you won't and the others ignore DNT.

[–] SithEmpire 2 points (+2|-0)

Search engine - https://searx.me/ is good.

Browser - GNU IceCat. It comes with a few extensions which are actually a bit over-zealous; I remove LibreJS (and any associated exception extensions) and use NoScript and uBlock Origin instead (don't use AdBlock Plus, nor Ghostery).

Media hosts - https://kek.gg/ and https://catbox.moe/ are good.

VPN - unfortunately the only one I would trust is my own, or at least one on a rented VPS (requires learning to set up, though I'll say I like OpenVPN as a deployment).

When browsing, always prefer HTTPS / don't open links which are plain unsecured HTTP unless it's trivial and you really need to.

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I remember hearing about all these different tools but I never saved the names long enough to actually switch over. Which version of IceCat do you recommend?

[–] SithEmpire 1 points (+1|-0)

On Linux, the latest / 52.6.0

On Windows, the most recent build is 38.8.0 (get icecat-38.8.0.en-US.win32.zip).

For Android, see IceCat Mobile.

[–] PMYA 1 points (+1|-0)

It depends how autistic you want to get. There are entire OSs packaged with software and applications revolving around security. The main issue is usability/convenience vs privacy, I use different browsers, OSs etc. for different purposes.

This may interest you. Check out AirVPN or NordVPN.

I wrote this up a while ago, there are some ok hosts there.