Genuinely. I mean, I’ve been on the internet since I was little and I would say that my digital footprint is quite massive. Thankfully I never put photos of myself on social media or the like, but still, a significant amount of data can be easily correlated back to me. So, what now? What do I do?
I know I need to unplug, fast. But I have no idea how. My google account is linked to potentially hundreds of sites, each with their own store of my information, forums with my messages, etc.
How do you guys go through all of that? I have GDPR to rely on and the sliver of belief that a company will actually delete my data, but how do I go about untangling and reducing this mess?
I know that I can’t completely go off the radar, I don’t intend to. But I do feel the need to scrub everything I have written on the internet as best and fast as possible.
State trojans screenshotting my e2e apps, Palantir being fed with basically all of my private data to predict, analyze and sell me, billionaires deciding how to enslave us further and politicians that just can’t resist becoming authoritarian. There has honestly never been a better time for me to say this: The world has gone to shit.
We’re all becoming the next china, Japan survives and privacy conscious people move there, history continues!
But in all seriousness yes we have a chance to fight back and there are digital rights organizations out there you can actually support and be loud on those issues and if at all possible, call your local representative that you oppose that stuff.
With all that tools like VPNs if not then Tor and Tails are at our disposal right now.
I know that was not a serious claim but funny enough that is not the case nowadays if your threat model involves the police or government in some way. While Japan does have a culture of privacy, all that is slowly changing for the worst. You get NO rights if you get arrested by the police there. You might as well plead guilty because if you aren’t, because the people building a case against you cannot risk losing face.
Given that Chinese computer scientists are pioneering the technology behind automated traffic analysis and other Tor-detection methods, I wouldn’t be so confident about that. There is only so much that Tor Bridges and VPNs can do.
Lets make sure that similar great firewalls don’t get introduced in the west.
Sure, but being excessively pessimistic about it doesn’t help either. If these people who have virtually unlimited budgets and big interest have not yet fully succeeded in censoring the internet, chances are that we will be good at least for a while.
Just not sure how Japan does any better in terms of privacy protection. The truth probably is the government there lacks the technical know-how and capability to surveil and control - they are simply not sophisticated enough, so they just let things go, which is not a bad thing!
I have the same fears your post and the thread title refer to.
If GDPR is available to you, use it. Otherwise, there is nothing much you can do about data is already out there, except to keep note what data about you it is.
Start from there, and think about present and future data. Do you need to keep using your Google account and social media, or can you opt out? Can you use VPN or Tor to hide your IP address, or Tor Browser to improve your internet anonymity? Can you not carry your phone around as often as you currently do?
I don’t know how serious of a threat to the masses state trojans are unless installing them becomes mandatory. I suggest you think about your own threat model, start with measures that are the most relevant and easiest to implement for you, and progress from there.
But that just covers some of the technical measures against the world going to shit. I encourage you to consider what social, political and legal actions you could take, both individually and alongside others. Join digital rights organizations who are fighting for everyone’s digital rights, and start conversations with your peers about digital rights and stopping enshittification.
Thinking that privacy and freedom are just like any other cause is a mistake. Without them, no cause that threatens those in power can be fought for effectively. A surveillance state will undermine progress. It amazes me that some activists who fight for other causes don’t seem to grasp this, for instance violating people’s privacy or having poor digital security practices, which makes me not want to join them. @InternetGhost in the Techlore forum:
If I expect for the surveillance state to get worse in the future, I have to take advantage of my freedoms today to stop it. I won’t be as effective in resisting in the future when my rights are diminished. If I expect to be less free tomorrow, I need to use my freedom today to protect my freedom tomorrow. Otherwise it will only be harder to fight back.
To be honest and up front, I have not yet read this post nor the replies to this post. The title seems far too pessimistic to take seriously. There are serious ways to fight for what this community believes in, and most people who fall into a doomer mentality aren’t willing to do that because they presuppose the very reality that their pessimism makes them believe in, so they complain in privacy communities and are insulated from the real work that could be done to achieve the very thing they and all of us want. Talking about it here will bring awareness, which is good. But it is also useless if that awareness also comes with the belief that there is nothing more to be done and that the world is ending or whatever doom there be. Pardon my tone.
Two things will happen if you try this fast: 1. You will make mistakes. 2. You will get stressed and maybe face privacy fatigue. It took years for this to happen. It could take years for you to fix it.
How I started was by locating all the accounts I have and changing the login email, username, etc for accounts I couldn’t delete. The rest were deleted. Sometimes I made a new account.
I was lucky in the fact I only had about 100 accounts to deal with.
Go though your gmail and look for subject lines with “confirmed” and “welcome”. Most likely these are for accounts you have. Googling your gmail address will also show you where your address is being used. Your password manager is another place to look.
Keep this in mind - the older the data, the less valuable it is. Start with your more active accounts which I presume has more up-to-date information.
I would encourage anyone to do whatever it takes to protect your privacy; however, the vast majority of politicians are more concerned with the bribes, the compromat, and their own staying out of prison or being suicided. In other words, they are in no way concerned with the voters unless it is lip service to get elected.
You will have to find more creative ways to accomplish the goal.
@Pear isn’t simply complaining in privacy. They are asking a serious question, asking for advice. That’s wholly okay. Most of us don’t know what to do about all of this. So we discuss things with each other and try to figure it out together. And their question is related to privacy, so it’s 100% appropriate for this forum. Suggesting they “aren’t willing” to fight for what this community believes in discounts the literal title of the post, which asks the question “how.”
I would suggest that policing people for their feelings is what isn’t helpful. We’re in a dire situation right now. The world is on fire. That drives some to fight, some to cry, and some to cycle through both. And then there are those who are ignorant to the reality, thinking everything will be just fine. Perhaps. But history tells us it will get worse before it gets better.
If that is in fact the case, then that’s good! But I still stand by what I said as a general, explicit countermeasure to the doomers who are attracted the the post’s title and happen to read this thread.
Anyway, after having read OP I still have some issues:
To me, OP is like the coworker at the office who rightfully complains how the boss is not doing anything to keep the microwave clean, yet doesn’t bring it up to them and only goes so far as to not personally use the microwave. If they complain about the boss, their actual solution should include changing the boss’s behavior. However, if they only complain about the microwave, and then it’s fine that they only go so far as to not personally use the microwave.
OP is not complaining about the microwave, they are complaining about the boss. And from my perspective, it only makes sense that you intend to change the boss’s behavior when complain about it. Most people here, when they complain about the boss, actually intend to change the boss (i.e., they are asking how to implement broad, institutional change); and most people here who ask how avoid using the microwave (what tools and resources do they personally have at their disposal to fix their level of privacy) intends only to complain about the microwave, not the boss.
I hope OP finds whatever resources they need to achieve their threat model. I still have an irk in my that is annoyed at the fact that there exists some people who aren’t willing to do the dirty work despite wanting change. I therefore do not revoke what I said in general because it is still vitally true for those within the doomer mentality. But now I see that perhaps it does not necessarily apply to OP. OP is simply asking for advice, and I was simply irked at the fact that they brought up broad and institutional issues without the intention to have discussion surrounding it.
Ah, yes. I agree that action is more important than words. 100%. And we’re in this mess because of inaction. Well, also because of ill-advised action. But I believe you are correct in stating that it’s important to take action to fight the injustices we see.
I appreciate the civil discourse on this. And that you were willing to hear me out.
In any case, like you, I hope Pear is able to find the right solution to clean up their internet presence. There’s lots of good advice in here. That’s a good start.
This is by no means an entire solution, and exceeds what OP asked for, but here is an idea that addresses the thread’s title. The escalation of coordinated attacks against privacy we are experiencing today, and betrayal by politicians and big tech, make it apparent we all need to act like cypherpunks, more so than ever before. Cypherpunks write code. For those of us, I’ll include myself, not already working on privacy tech projects meaningfully or at all, now is the time to start.
I take this quote out of context just to emphasize a point, please forgive me. Privacy is not just an individual concept but also a social concept. We cannot have privacy in an anti-privacy society unless we remain isolated. Further, we will be more effective at building privacy in collaboration with others than when we act as atomic individuals.
You can’t always erase your entire digital past, but you can build a decentralized, ethical, and resilient present.
Instead of trying to escape surveillance entirely,
focus on creating systems that don’t rely on it to begin with.
That’s how real resistance is born.
Like others have said here, OP can start by deleting old accounts and migrating the ones still in use.
Then, start using hardened browsers like LibreWolf with fingerprint-resistant extensions, route traffic through Tor or RiseupVPN or MullvadVPN, and progressively de-Google your life.
Host your own services at home like email, notes, media, social platforms, anything you can reclaim.
It won’t be perfect, and it won’t be fast. But every step matters.
For the average user, yeah, it’s hard to unplug. But once you do, you’ll never want to go back.
And then? Don’t stop there.
Start building the future so others can follow the path you carved.
Privacy is not just personal. It’s a public good. And building it together is the most powerful resistance we have left.
