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Ask HN: How do you shed your digital skin?

This weekend I have decided to clear and delete a lot of my old accounts and emails and start afresh. I have done the following - backed up necessary files and important stuff - installed debian on my personal machine - removed and deleted old email accounts - deleted old social media accounts - cleared ad preferences from facebook and disabled account - searched for personal information or emails to find leaks Interested to know what things I can do to minimise my digital footprint going forward? Any other tips to see what personal information is publicly available?

albertgoeswoof 8y ago
If you want to avoid being tracked across services or leaving your email out there in the future, use something like https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co to keep you email secure
__d 8y ago
Use DuckDuckGo, not Google. Use an ad blocker in your browser. Always use private mode tabs, or clear your cookies frequently. Set up a cheap VPS, and tunnel all your traffic through it over a VPN. Configure it with your own DNS server. Use a firewall to block all traffic to known tracking services. Set up your phone to use this VPN too. Don’t use social media. Don’t use GMail, GCal, GContacts, etc. Use ‘+’ extensions on your email to create single purpose addresses that you can track and blackhole. Don’t disclose your real name, birthdate, phone number, etc, for the online services that you have to use. You can get dedicated phone numbers from eg Twilio for 2FA. Don’t use loyalty programs. How far you go here is really just a matter of how much you care. And how much you’re prepared to sacrifice some aspects of modern life.
uniqueid 8y ago
What's the point? I reckon some years down the road, everything on the internet today will fit on a thumb-drive. Fit in your pocket, and also be available to whole world, including terabytes upon terabytes of leaked private data from Gmail, Facebook etc. Including private data, and instantly searchable using some kind of technology that blows 2019 Google out of the water. And probably anyone you encounter will have AR glasses hooked up to that data. AR glasses with facial recognition; instantly display your life story, your college transcripts, spy-cam footage of you from a public rest room, your doctor's records, your baby photos, etc. Maybe the answer is a yearly visit to a cosmetic surgeon, and a yearly legal name change.

albertgoeswoof 8y ago

If you want to avoid being tracked across services or leaving your email out there in the future, use something like https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co to keep you email secure

__d 8y ago

Use DuckDuckGo, not Google. Use an ad blocker in your browser. Always use private mode tabs, or clear your cookies frequently. Set up a cheap VPS, and tunnel all your traffic through it over a VPN. Configure it with your own DNS server. Use a firewall to block all traffic to known tracking services. Set up your phone to use this VPN too. Don’t use social media. Don’t use GMail, GCal, GContacts, etc. Use ‘+’ extensions on your email to create single purpose addresses that you can track and blackhole. Don’t disclose your real name, birthdate, phone number, etc, for the online services that you have to use. You can get dedicated phone numbers from eg Twilio for 2FA. Don’t use loyalty programs. How far you go here is really just a matter of how much you care. And how much you’re prepared to sacrifice some aspects of modern life.

uniqueid 8y ago

What's the point? I reckon some years down the road, everything on the internet today will fit on a thumb-drive. Fit in your pocket, and also be available to whole world, including terabytes upon terabytes of leaked private data from Gmail, Facebook etc. Including private data, and instantly searchable using some kind of technology that blows 2019 Google out of the water. And probably anyone you encounter will have AR glasses hooked up to that data. AR glasses with facial recognition; instantly display your life story, your college transcripts, spy-cam footage of you from a public rest room, your doctor's records, your baby photos, etc. Maybe the answer is a yearly visit to a cosmetic surgeon, and a yearly legal name change.