It has been quite some time since originally posting, and most importantly I’m somewhat lazy. My threat model is geared towards surveillance capitalism, and stakes are low if I fail. No stress on my part, and incremental gains are welcoming.
Accomplishments
Most of my strongest gains were likely low hanging fruit, in no particular order:
- Delete social media, even LinkedIn (for better or worse)
- Always on VPN, aside from streaming services
- Switched entirely to Proton
- Use Email Aliases entirely
- For officially shared email usage, I have a domain name and not giving my Proton mail directly
- Reduce the number of apps on my phone to a bare minimum
Still using iOS, but with E2EE RCS between iOS and Android, it unblocks me from switching over, so I’m hoping to do that soon.
On more granular notes
- Utilizing SecureBlue for driving distro for laptop, albeit some pain with this as its messes my development flow I’m used too
- Already run OpenWRT on LAN with DNS adblockers (albeit most providers bypass this a lot more nowadays on first-party DNS serving for ads)
- Also utilize profiles on browsers, periodically cleaning data on them from time to time
- Create separate Discord accounts for OpSec on different uses
- Migrate from Windows => Linux for gaming
And yeah, the above points aren’t entirely too special, but privacy gains start to have smaller increments on gains with increasingly more friction.
Next Steps
- Remove dependency on Amazon, utilize individual retailers, and reduce online shopping when possible. Focus on local stores when possible.
- Migrate to GrapheneOS, because I want to
- Do a formal threat model (made an example for someone else, might as well do the same for me) to figure out whats next for me
- Onboard close social network to also switch to low hanging fruit (i.e. Signal)
- Migrate Phone “cloud” storage, ideally even just Photos. May pay for Ente, but its kinda expensive, considering self hosting, but also a pain
Thoughts
If I’m honest, most gains are from reducing digital footprints, not trying to mask them. Every day its getting harder and harder to anonymize oneself online. The default operating idea of the internet is that you will be tracked unless your communication is encrypted, and ultimately it feels like the equivalent of CCTV following movements as you visit most sites. Therefore, most of my “next steps”, aside from migrating to GrapheneOS which I think is fun, I want to target the idea of “do I really need this”, and take a step back. After that, its really securing communication with my social circle.
My main gripe is still using Windows. There are some windows specific apps I have I’m not quite ready to part ways with, and can’t be bothered with half-broken Wine. However, I’m deciding if I want to bite the bullet for not-as-good alternative on Linux.
As I said, the more I lean into digital privacy, the reality is it’s simply easier to not use it when you can. There is no OpSec around social media if you have no social media. Less is more. But less digital presence means more effort in meatspace. i.e., switching to brick and mortar stores is not as easy as having something shipped to your home in 3 clicks.
Primary challenge is that most businesses, especially local ones, primarily communicate through social media, and it can be difficult to stay active and aware of what’s happening in your local area. This also applies to friends, who communicate through memes for staying in touch in a fun way without needing full conversations 
which can also shift to de-prioritzing hanging out, cause why hangout when you can chat online and watch Netflix by yourself at home? It is a shift to be intentional with communication, and the desire to be in person with people more as I don’t get the social dopamine hit from social media.
Other compromises are things I don’t have viable alternatives for, or don’t feel like taking the time to deal with. Ride sharing apps are just too convenient for me and almost necessary. I connect my SmartTV to the internet (though have opted out of everything possible). But most of this is largely media, and its currently more convenient than constantly working with a self hosted Jellyfin. However, the blunt alternative to streaming is offline activities, and watching less television for say books, or tabletop games.
