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I hope this is the right place to post this. I've decided to take control of my data back as much as possible a while ago, because i had this constant feeling of being violated, as if i was naked. I've made some key changes, and plan to take many more steps, but that feeling hasn't really gone away. i thought it might take a few years to change my habits and learn a new way of doing things, after which i would feel liberated and comfortable, but the more i learn about how deep this all goes, the more paranoid i feel about the world in general. i question whether or not this internet experiment is even something i want to be a part of, but every day it becomes less and less optional. it feels like privacy in the modern world requires an exhausting level of hyper-vigilance. does it ever become easier, like second nature? is using the internet ever comfortable? sometimes i think that it's too late. i think most people actually do care about privacy, but they've just decided that it's already dead, and there's nothing they can do about it. it's as if the more i try and become invisible, the more i stand out, because it's suspicious in our culture to actually care about privacy and take measures to protect it. i find myself worrying about which cameras in stores have facial recognition, how many Facebook photos I'm in, on and on, things i have no control over, and probably mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. maybe i have a mental problem. Does it get easier? Any advice?

What is your threat model? Applying countermeasures without proper threat modelling and opsec process is often counterproductive, if not useless.

>>10976 Worrying about privacy is like worrying about cancer. You can't spend every second of your life worrying if the carrot you bought was grown on polluted soil and will give you cancer. Take precautions, don't smoke, don't line your mattress with asbestos, don't live next to an industrial waste dump, get checked periodically and live your life. The rabbit hole is endless and you have to know where to stop. The only case where it would make sense to worry this much is if you have a high incidence of cancer in the family or you're a researcher who's studying it. I hope this is a good parallel.

>>10978 This I spend over a month being paranoid after my steam account was being accessed (got through to 2FA using the password) even after changing said password twice within a password manager turns out it was an old account I made 8 years ago on the same email, with a slightly different username using an old password that was leaked various times a lot of worrying over a simple mistake my advice is to go through old accounts and delete them or change your password to a unique one, and especially get a tighter grip on your emails as they give tons of access overall I fear a single person gaining access to my personal info than I do a monolithic corporation having an additional data point to sell to car advertisers a single person with wrong intentions is way more dangerous to your immediate privacy

>>10978 That is a good analogy. i am the type of person to worry a bit more than average about getting cancer too, so i guess it does fit my personality. I'm just generally paranoid, not just about privacy. >>10977 i don't know how to answer this, lol.

>>10976 >i had this constant feeling of being violated, as if i was naked. This seems like a problem with you, anon.

>>10976 I was just about to make a thread about this, asking how to cope with the botnet. I guess I'll answer my own question even though I haven't taken all my own advice yet. Per >>10977, figure out what you're *actually* worried about happening, figure out what causes that to happen and the probability of those causes. Draw it out on paper. Then just worry about reducing those probabilities. This board is a good place to ask those specific questions. I am just old enough to sort of remember using computers that didn't have internet access. It was a "personal" computer, where you had all your stuff. Turn off your router for a few hours one night and enjoy your PDF and music library (you do have one, right?). Maybe type a journal up. Draw something in Inkscape. Mess around with some system config or read the documentation for some software, or whatever. This could be a decent way to change one's perspective with computing. At the end of the day, it does amount to a bit of a psychological problem. You are going to have to let some things go here and there. You have to find a community of people that makes things or has an active culture *in spite of* the botnet leering down on everything, and find something that matters more to you than the botnet. The thing is, unless you are in extreme danger per your risk analysis above, or you are an elite-level programmer actively working on solutions, a paranoid attitude while huddling under siege is actively harmful not only to your own mind, but even the fight for privacy in general. With a positive attitude I think one is more likely to get people to join you on more secure platforms or behavior.

>>11044 >>10978 These are both good points, but I would add that you don't want to get in the mindset of "oh well I can't have perfect privacy so I might as well not bother". The thing is, you can't stop everything but you can decide what matters to you and take mitigating steps. Even something as simple as running an adblock helps tremendously. I don't even mean some abstract political concept of "right to privacy" either (although this is personally very important to me). There are actual tangible benefits to your thinking that result from not being spoon fed an algorithmic cocktail of information and cultural artifacts designed to keep you happy and consuming. You may wish to take this a step farther and stop relying directly on Google products for things like messaging, email, and maps. Perhaps even more tangibly, if you make it a habit to follow the principles of segmentation and a sort of "need to know basis" attitude to releasing info about yourself, you'll be basically undoxxable for anyone who isn't the FBI. Just take it at your own pace. As long as you're actually trying to move in the right direction you're doing fine. You haven't lost until you give up. >>10976 >does it ever become easier, like second nature? To an extent. There's always more to learn of course, but you'll definitely pick up habits like not just handing out your email address and phone number to every corporation that asks nicely for it, or knowing which domains correspond to advertising trackers, or automatically filling out fake information when you get a sign up form for a private party who doesn't have a legal right to know your true information. Essentially you get used to what corporate surveillance and datamining looks like and a little bag of tricks to subvert it. My advice to you is to seriously consider the importance of segmentation when it comes to your identities (note the plural). This is your single best trick when you're starting out and have a paper trail a mile wide: there is absolutely no reason for the name on your social media account to match the name on your credit card to match the name on some store rewards card or whatever. I know this may seem obvious but I think it bears emphasis because I always see people unthinkingly plugging their real names into blatant datamining portals. Only reuse an alias if you positively want it to be linked to another account, you'll probably be surprised how often you'll catch yourself reusing account names for no good reason. For accounts that don't matter (basically ones that aren't social in nature: online shopping, steam, etc.) literally just use a password generator to generate a 16 character string. For whatever reason people seem to default to using either a single common alias or something based on their name. You'd be shocked how many people I've doxxed by going through a stray venmo account or xbox live or something stupid like that where they carelessly reused an alias and then tied that alias to their Facebook. I could go on about this forever so if you want more specific advice just ask.

Regarding the cancer analogy; you know that guy who is stage four but still smokes, drinks beer and eats cheeseburgers because at this point, what difference will it make anyway? In security terms, I'm that guy.

I suggest that when you use social media and google, say that you are under the age of 13. Google is hosted in the United States, and minors are protected with the COPPA

This brings to light an important question. Does it matter if you are actually secure, or just that you think that you are secure?

Don't let the modern era sway your feelings. Even if everyone is telling you that privacy is dead doesn't mean that you have to live that way. Most people have been blue pilled like you wouldn't believe and I mean that in the most matrixy way possible. Humans have chosen the McDonalds and Google world instead of reality. They would rather have advertisements tell them how they feel rather than contemplate it themselves. The truth is that we stepped into the future without anyone even noticing. It happened slowly, over a couple of decades to the point where each point of progression felt natural. The internet went from a place for weirdos to feel at home and normal people to play a few games, to a place where normal people are everywhere and the internet mutated to fit them. The early internet pioneers were very paranoid about security and privacy but then the everyday idiots took over the net and now those conscious about privacy are viewed as off the grid weirdos who eat their own toenails (thanks Stallman).