Ask HN: How are you protecting your privacy? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How are you protecting your privacy?

5 pointsaosaigh4 comments

I'm continually trying to improve how I handle my privacy online.

I've slowly been migrating off all Google services with the intention of deleting my entire account (got Youtube and Google Maps to tackle next).

DDG for primary search (but unfortunately have to fall back on Google a lot)

I'm using Fastmail for email, caldav and carddav.

I use Private Internet Access as an always-on VPN.

I use Firefox with uBlock and Privacy Badger enabled. I try to use containers for Amazon and Google.

I use Resilio Sync for syncing files between devices.

I use Timemachine for backups and have x2 NASs at home and off-site. I'm planning on removing my Backblaze cloud backup soon.

I'm planning on swapping my Android phone for an iPhone on the basis that at least I know what Apple are trying to sell me.

How do you handle your privacy?

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searx or startpage are search engines that show google results so you could try them as a fall back before you finally try google. !searx and !sp are the bangs you can put anywhere in the DuckDuckGo query

for maps, im really liking maps.me on mobile (its called "maps" in the fdroid store). its a good simple app that lets you add bookmarks and group them in folders, and its good for navigation since it has a 3d view. osmAnd is another great app but its more of a poweruser app that does a lot of things so there is a lot going on in the UI.

i switched to protonVPN last year from PIA and im especially glad after seeing the smear campaign PIA were part of a few months ago where they were trying to stir up rumours about other VPN services. (one of them forget to remove their google account profile picture from one of the screenshots and was caught out that way). they provide a good service but whether you want to give your money to a shady company like that is up to you

i use resilio sync myself. syncthing is open source so is probably the better choice for privacy, but im not in any rush to switch since nothing is being stored online.

i have a few GBs of files on backblaze but havnt really started using it yet. is there anything shady about backblaze that i dont know about or are you just keeping things offline just to be safe?

Running pretty similar setup too. I use synching and borgbackup though for sync and backups and mailbox.org as mail/caldav service

Possible additions: - a free DNS service - signal or xmpp for messaging - open source password manager with self-hosted sync, I use password-store - maybe trivial: use different, strong passwords and 2-factor-auth where possible - use different mail-aliases for every service you register. Mailbox.org allows me to receiver any mail send to myaccountname+somealias@mailbox.org, that way if I get spam or my address is leaked I can know how gave it away in many cases - use lineageOS instead of stock android - install apps from f-droid when possible

I have not found a good replacement for Google maps yet, especially on the phone when I need navigation.

You can buy a cheap android phone and install miniG to get rid of all the google shite, but you will need to use newpipe for google (it wont cast to chromecast), and I recommend waze for maps.

Why not setup something like zsync then encrypt the files and upload them to backblaze, cheap encrypted backups.

P.s Https everywhere add-on

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