I started my privacy journey about 3 months ago. I’ve made a lot of changes to my lifestyle, and attempted some others (without success), and I was hoping to get some feedback from the folks here.
What I’ve Done So Far
- Fedora Linux for my at home operating system.
- All files removed from OneDrive/Google Drive and moved onto a NAS.
- Started using Synology Office instead of Microsoft Office.
- Started using Synology Photos instead of Google Photos.
- Mullvad VPN running on all devices.
- NextDNS running on all devices and router, along with Mullvad integration set up.
- Brave browser with brave search for things I need to use regularly that are already tied to my identify (banking, budgeting, etc.).
- Mullvad browser for random searches and other temporary things.
- Simple keyboard on my phone (might be pointless since I’m running Samsung anyways).
- Switched to Proton Mail.
- Switched to Proton Drive. I will be using their office suite as well when I don’t want to use Synology Office with people.
- Switched to Proton Pass and use it to create aliases.
- I’ve already used Bitwarden for a long time, so I’m continuing to use that in conjunction with the other tools.
- Ente 2FA for MFA purposes. May switch to Yubikey at some point.
- Hardened as much of the services that I could not escape as possible (turning off Samsung customization service, disabling a ton of telemetry and other privacy issues on Windows, etc.)
- Started using GreyJay.
- Using Privacy.com for online purchases.
- Using MySudo for any online signup.
Things I Tried but Cannot Do
- My work laptop must run Windows for lots of exclusive software.
- I must use a Samsung phone. It is required by work for security reasons.
- I message maybe one person using Signal. Everyone else in my life refuses, and will only use SMS/MMS (or iMessage if they’re on Apple).
- I tried to use Notesnook, Standard Notes, and Joplin, but did not find them powerful enough and just could not justify moving over the massive Obsidian library that I already have all configured.
Are there any blind spots that I might be missing here that I should be addressing?
Edit: One other thing that I have found interesting since starting this is that I expected it to end up costing me a lot more money than it would. But even with Mullvad, Bitwarden, and Proton subscriptions, it’s not that bad at all. The Synology was an expensive one time cost, but breaking free from Google Photos and OneDrive subscriptions will make it up in just a few years, which is awesome.
Edit 2: I forgot to mention, I’m also using MySudo and Privacy.com, which have been pretty awesome as well.