Going straight to the point: I’m trying to reduce my dependency on big tech companies that make money from their user’s personal data. I read the “PrivacyGuides” and I see that not every step I took so far is included in the guides, so I want to verify whether there are big concerns I’m missing. This is what I’m doing different from the guides:
1Password as my 2FA Authenticator
I store my OTP secrets, alongside the passwords, in 1Password. Of course I understand the risk here, I just don’t understand how separating them would make me significantly more protected when I’d still need both apps installed on the same device. Given 1Password is recommended in the guides as a password manager, but not as a MFA Authentication tool, either there’s something really wrong with it, OR storing passwords and OTP secrets together is much worse than I think it is. What am I missing?
Cloudflare DNS via WARP
I use Cloudflare DNS via WARP (was previously using Google DNS). They promise privacy. Are there significant privacy concerns that make them not a recommendation? Besides being a big company.
PIA VPN
I don’t often turn on VPN; but when I do, I use PIA. I’ve been using it for almost a decade. It’s cheap, it works well, they promise they don’t keep logs, and their servers are fast and stable.
Here’s why I’m hesitant to try a different VPN: I bought 2 years of NordVPN when it was sponsoring every big youtuber out there and most reviews were putting it as the best VPN service, with 5 stars. It was just a big waste of money. I’m not sure how anyone can recommend them. I was playing a game hosted in a different country, and with PIA it’d never disconnect, while with NordVPN I’d get disconnected every 2-10 minutes, regardless of the VPN server I chose. So I renewed my PIA subscription, even though I still had almost 2 full years on my NordVPN subscription. I’m hesitant to try yet another VPN service when the one I’m using works so well.
What’s wrong with PIA?
Brave Tor
I don’t often use Tor; when I do, I use Brave. What are the privacy concerns that make Brave recommended as a browser, but not as a tor browser?
Brave Shields
Before switching to Brave, I used Chrome with uBlock Origin. After switching, Brave Shields seemed to work more than well enough. I didn’t see any need to use uBlock Origin anymore. What’s so bad about Brave Shields that make it not recommended?