dreadknight11Nov 27

How to maintain maximum anonymity in the future?

https://lemmy.world/post/39382786

How to maintain maximum anonymity in the future? - Lemmy.World

My fear is that special AI systems will appear that will analyze every message I send and every action on my device. What skills should I have? What Linux knowledge should I have? What should I know about routers and how the Internet works, VPN, and so on? I’m still on Windows, and it’s starting to scare me. I just found out that the system records almost everything I do and sends the data to servers. And someone also told me that if I want an anonymous system, I have to figure it out myself, completely.

Show threadDontTakeMySky

For anything like this, start with your threat model. Are you trying to protect yourself from Microsoft, from your ISP, from the Ad agencies, or from the government? Depending on which you’re most worried about it will change the actions you’d need to take pretty drastically.

Trying to chase “maximum” anonymity without deciding who you are anonymous to is too vague.

It sounds like you’re at least worried about Microsoft though. At minimum, turn off all the settings you reasonably can to limit what is collected about you. “Windows Privacy Dashboard” used to be a good third party app that made that easy, not sure if it’s still relevant (it’s been a few years for me).

Next level of effort would probably be switching to Linux. Realistically any distribution would be loads better than Windows for privacy.

Using a VPN stops your ISP from seeing (most of) your behavior online, but the VPN company would see it instead, so it’s just trading one adversary for another if you’re focused on privacy. (Not saying it’s useless, but it’s not the panacea that people make it out to be.)

Next most beneficial step would probably be moving your data (emails, photo backups, chat messages, etc) to trustworthy locations.

Anything beyond that depends on who you’re protecting yourself from.

Nov 27 at 10:14amWeb
Show threadslazer2auNov 27

And on the whole your ISP knows what you are doing. It’s not entirely true unless you are in specific countries where you have a government CA certificate installed in your browser.

A normal ISP can see you are accessing bing or google, but don’t know what you are searching for. They can see you are accessing Netflix, but can’t see what show you are watching. VPN providers will likely see the same information.

More concerning is your browser, it will know what show you are watching and what thing you searched for on Bing or Google.

Show threadDontTakeMySkyNov 27

+1

A lot of the VPN hype is sort of left over from before we had “https” everywhere. Most of your Internet traffic is encrypted these days.

I guess there’s a slight advantage with VPNs (vs ISPs) having your data is you can at least choose your VPN provider more freely than you can choose your ISP so in theory you can pick one you can trust.

But this is chasing a pretty small amount of anonymity for most people. It’s not worth it most of the time.

And tbh, you’re most likely worried about the Ad companies and social media giants, not your ISP.

Show threadGregorGizehNov 27
I mean, vpns have additional value by allowing people to circumvent geoblocks, possibly local censorship, and in general the whole nonsense tied to access based on where you are and what nationality you have.
Show threadDontTakeMySkyNov 27
Definitely. And theres also the ability to use it to “hide in the crowd” if you have decent OPSEC and are being anonymous in other ways.
Show threadCameronDevNov 27
Maximum anonymity would be to fake your death and go live in a cave, never speaking to a human ever again. Which is obviously silly.