this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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For taking action regarding your OS, Shut Up Win is good. It works on both 10 and 11. You don't even need to install it, just download it (it's free) and double click to run it. If you stick to the 'recommended' settings you'll have a more private OS without disabling anything you might actually want. As you get more knowledgeable or confident you can apply the stricter settings. And to revert changes just run the file again and turn off what you turned on.
Switching to Firefox was a good step but I'd take it one step further, export your passwords from FFox, download BitWarden for each of your devices and import all your passwords into BitWarden. You need to create an account with them (all this is free by the way) and it would be good if you had a non-GMail account to create your BitWarden account.
Tutanota are a well respected company and offer a free (but limited in terms of storage space) option, including a calendar. If you like their service you can pay (about $3 per month) to get much more storage space and other things.
When I left GMail, I made a list of all the 'official' stuff (banking etc) and family/friends that had my email. I then emailed them informing them I was changing my email (one email, BCC'd). I then changed my email on all the less vital stuff I could remember and lastly set an auto responder on my old GMail saying the gmail account was no longer in use. This bit takes some time there's no getting around it.
Lots of people have recommended Proton, so I won't. But there are quite a few good, easy to use privacy respecting options to replace your OneDrive. I personally really like Filen. They have a free 'starter' option (10gb space) to see if you like the service. You just create an account and install the apps on all your devices.
Going back to FFox, install the extensions uBO which will kill trackers for you, MultiAccount Containers which allows you to use (and create your own) Containers so (for example) you could set a Container for Facebook and know that if you access facebook in that contained tab all the crap Meta put on your machine can't access any other part of your browser.
Search engines you can use that are privacy respecting include DuckDuckGo and StartPage.
You might also want to consider a VPN. They don't make you anonymous but because they encrypt your data before it leaves your device(s), your ISP won't know what site's you're viewing. Most of the good ones use their own privacy respecting DNS too. Good ones include, IVPN and Mullvad.
Just wanted to add a bit about Proton since you mentioned it and I use it quite heavily.
Pros:
Cons:
Otherwise these two are largely like-for-like for e-mail. There's no benefit to Proton being hosted in Switzerland and I didn't move to be warrant-proof or anything silly. The idea is really just moving emails away from an advertising company and paying for a quality service.
Thanks for reply
As for Bitwarden and Tutanota (which someone else recommended) is there any reason to use those over proton
And I said In another reply that proton drive can’t edit files which isn’t a total deal breaker for me just somewhat inconvenient, does Filen allow me to edit files without having to download, edit, then reupload
As for browsers even on edge before this transformation I used UBO and now I’m using it with Firefox and duck duck go but I’ll check out startpage as an alternative browser
As for vpn proton has one but I never really knew what they did other than allowing me to open any site on my middle/high schools and Wi-Fi. I mean is that what they do? Like hide websites from (excuse the lack of my technical knowledge) router but not the router sending the data where ever it needs to go.
But anyways thanks for the super detailed response super helpful :)