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Ask HN: How to minimize internet tracking

5 points by majkinetor 10y ago

I don't feel comfortable any more using number of services that crawl into my digital life unasked, track my behavior, put me in a bubble and suggest various mumbo jumbo that I should do or demand my atention on random basis or based on some suspicious AI algorythm which is probably using 80% of the data I don't fit in. I already switched from Google search engine to DuckDuckGo and deleted and disabled its Web History. Now I would like to generally minimize my exposure to such services, particularly for most private stuff such as mail or storage. I am not unhappy about specific other online services such as Reddit, Github, StackOverflow, Trello, to name a few, which I don't find intrusive, and after all, I used them to get or share knowledge in what I percieve to be acceptable manner. I also find platforms such as SoundCloud convenient although I don't like its interface or the fact that you can't export your data (probably the only such service I use). I wonder what others have found in this regard - tips about good services or some general advices are welcome. I am not counting the ultimate control of hosting your own everything, which is fine for few services but I would like to minimize the maintenance to some sane level (for example alternative to DDG would perhaps be YaCy, Gitlab over Github, Redmine over Jira, TTRSS over Feedly etc. but you get what I aim at).

savethefuture 10y ago
Enable DTN in your browser Get Ublock origin and PrivacyBadger Dont have too many extensions as it leads to an easy fingerprint (https://panopticlick.eff.org/tracker https://panopticlick.eff.org/tracker) https://protonmail.com https://protonmail.com - email Use https://www.guerrillamail.com/ https://www.guerrillamail.com/ for anything spammy DDG, startpage - search Gitlab vs Github Use a private browser session for social media (careful of those super cookies) Dont use facebook and avoid google when you can. Use an alternative non mainstream browser that has the tracking and privacy bits stripped from source. (SRWare Iron is a good example) And never forget that your ISP can monitor everything you do, regardless of what services you use. Setup your own VPS and host your own files. Use an ssh tunneled VPN/web proxy (self hosted) for anything you dont want linked directly back to your ip You mentioned you didn't want to selfhost, but that is one of the most private ways of handling these things. (Build your own tools/services) What other things are you looking to replace?
- savethefuture 10y ago
  Oh great all my formatting is ruined...
- majkinetor 10y ago
  Protonmail is awesome, thanks. Never seen it, and I totally like auto expiration. In that manner its similar to Wickr or Signal. I plan to switch to locally hosted nextcloud over Google Drive. I am not interested ATM in full privacy - it doesn't sound practical at all, but I want to be aware of services that can provide temporary escape when I need it and of those very intrusive services such Google Search. I want to struck ballance between too much of the privacy which leads to every day usuability problems and the situation where I get bubbled and spammed with irrelevant stuff. > And never forget that your ISP can monitor everything you do, regardless of what services you use. No, it can't monitor SSL trafic. > Dont have too many extensions as it leads to an easy fingerprint I am sure only few of them will fingerprint me - for example only one of them - vimium - already reduces the surface quite a lot IMO. > Use an alternative non mainstream browser Chrome can be setup securelly and I can still use it for syncing data that I don't think should be hidden. Too much privacy is probably suspicious by itself on the other hand... > Get Ublock origin and PrivacyBadger Is there any problem using them both ? I already use Ublock.
  - savethefuture 10y ago
    Your isp can still see the websites you visit, and using other analysis you can track what you're doing on the site. The point of the comment was to just be aware that you cant hide. (especially from govs). Chrome has lots of background services that ping home, just another thing to be aware of when you're trying to be anonymous. Using an alt browser can reduce the tracking, but yes obviously it creates a larger fingerprint, blending in plain sight is sometimes better than being too private. One of the best things I recommend though would be Privacy Badger from the EFF, and ublock origin. Those will block google analytics and TONS of other tracks, and it seems pretty common so it leaves a tiny fingerprint imo. Everything might take sometime to setup, but once you're in the flow and figure it all out, privacy can be seamless.

5 points by majkinetor 10y ago

savethefuture 10y ago

Enable DTN in your browser Get Ublock origin and PrivacyBadger Dont have too many extensions as it leads to an easy fingerprint (https://panopticlick.eff.org/tracker https://panopticlick.eff.org/tracker) https://protonmail.com https://protonmail.com - email Use https://www.guerrillamail.com/ https://www.guerrillamail.com/ for anything spammy DDG, startpage - search Gitlab vs Github Use a private browser session for social media (careful of those super cookies) Dont use facebook and avoid google when you can. Use an alternative non mainstream browser that has the tracking and privacy bits stripped from source. (SRWare Iron is a good example) And never forget that your ISP can monitor everything you do, regardless of what services you use. Setup your own VPS and host your own files. Use an ssh tunneled VPN/web proxy (self hosted) for anything you dont want linked directly back to your ip You mentioned you didn't want to selfhost, but that is one of the most private ways of handling these things. (Build your own tools/services) What other things are you looking to replace?

savethefuture 10y ago
Oh great all my formatting is ruined...
majkinetor 10y ago
Protonmail is awesome, thanks. Never seen it, and I totally like auto expiration. In that manner its similar to Wickr or Signal. I plan to switch to locally hosted nextcloud over Google Drive. I am not interested ATM in full privacy - it doesn't sound practical at all, but I want to be aware of services that can provide temporary escape when I need it and of those very intrusive services such Google Search. I want to struck ballance between too much of the privacy which leads to every day usuability problems and the situation where I get bubbled and spammed with irrelevant stuff. > And never forget that your ISP can monitor everything you do, regardless of what services you use. No, it can't monitor SSL trafic. > Dont have too many extensions as it leads to an easy fingerprint I am sure only few of them will fingerprint me - for example only one of them - vimium - already reduces the surface quite a lot IMO. > Use an alternative non mainstream browser Chrome can be setup securelly and I can still use it for syncing data that I don't think should be hidden. Too much privacy is probably suspicious by itself on the other hand... > Get Ublock origin and PrivacyBadger Is there any problem using them both ? I already use Ublock.
- savethefuture 10y ago
  Your isp can still see the websites you visit, and using other analysis you can track what you're doing on the site. The point of the comment was to just be aware that you cant hide. (especially from govs). Chrome has lots of background services that ping home, just another thing to be aware of when you're trying to be anonymous. Using an alt browser can reduce the tracking, but yes obviously it creates a larger fingerprint, blending in plain sight is sometimes better than being too private. One of the best things I recommend though would be Privacy Badger from the EFF, and ublock origin. Those will block google analytics and TONS of other tracks, and it seems pretty common so it leaves a tiny fingerprint imo. Everything might take sometime to setup, but once you're in the flow and figure it all out, privacy can be seamless.