I built a small set of scripts to decrypt when the initrd starts and can load from a file in the initrd (from separate volume), EFI, or various combinations of passphrase in GRUB. The main intent isn't to keep out somebody with physical access to the machine and sufficient time but rather makes it a lot easier to make the data unrecoverable when the drive is disposed of.

It took me several attempts to get this right, but it's a game changer.

What kind of CPU is in that laptop? The vast majority of x86 CPUs from the past 10 years include hardware acceleration for AES encryption so that the performance hit is negligible.

Sigh. It doesn't impact performance. That had a had a higher chance of being the type of partition you created. Also, in the PRIVACY group are you really confused about why you want privacy?

What would actually happen is a bios level rootkit that installs a nearly invisible tiny rootkit on your device everytime it starts, but this is only if you are an important target. Most police departments can also just pay a private hacking company to steal your keys by using undisclosed exploits. Encryption can work well for other things but anything you wouldn't want state or corporations seeing, you are better off just not ever putting it on your machine.

You can be private somewhat through obscurity. Using free software that doesn't log you, not using any machine that's in anyway tied to you to do stuff, setting up your own point to point connection to use someone else machine as your access point. Never having a microphone or camera anywhere near your hacking machine. I'm not really that type of hacker, more of a programmer/hardware person, but it can be done somewhat safely if you take every effort to protect your identity.

This is what I would do if I want ed to do something on the internet that might actually really piss off the FBI and NSA. Something like releasing the Epstein files to dozens of independent journalists around the world or something.

I'd get cash, and leave my phone at home, go to a thrift store and buy an old laptop. Wait a couple of months, and never power it on. I download dozens of Linux distros a year before this, something as small as possible, and lightweight as possible. Nothing network, maybe even tails.

Then I'd have it sitting on a thumb drive for many months before I dropped the files. One day before a lot of rain was coming in, I'd walk, not drive or anything, without my cell phone, using the tree cover to avoid spy satellite rewind surveillance, to a location where there is open wifi or an Ethernet jack.

Then I'd use several layers of proxying and VPNs, although this would be slow as shit. All on fresh accounts. Using nested VMs, each carrying an additional layer of VPNs. I'd use this as my set up my own network, by exploiting some random machines in the wild to get my last couple layers of VPNs.

Being careful to only type one word per second and not misspelling anything or in anyway aiding in any type of correlation attack, I'd first upload it in an encrypted format to a web host to speed up the next part, then I'd copy it to many places. I would then send it to as many people as possible, probably using a script to hit many emails addresses at once. As soon as the files hit the drive, I would assume I had about 5 minutes before the black helicopters showed up. At 5 mines I'd take a super strong magnet and start destroying the laptop, then I'd run away, find another safe spot, and then incinerate it.

Then I'd never tell anyone, go home, take a nap, wake up, talk to chatGPT about my amazing nap that I overslept on, and carve out some hidden spaces at abandoned houses and stuff to stash the actual drives with the info.

If you do anything less then this, you will probably get caught. Legal evidence is one thing, but you should never underestimate the numerous surveillance technologies they employ for unconstitutional surveillance. You n leed to be mindful of fingerprinting, (using only a throw away device and destroying it afterwards in a way that it's not obvious that it was you) nothing that has ever touched your network or any files that that came from your PC or anything. It needs to exist in a totally separate universe. No connection whatsoever) you need to be mindful of cameras, license plate scanners, cellular modem surveillance, spy satellites which can see back in time to follow someone's footsteps back through time. Correlation attacks, common word usage that can denote your region, common misspellings that you do, the particular way you type, root kits, assume every device is compromised and if you buy a device with a camera, don't even open it until it's been sitting for months and then remove the cameras and microphones, and never power it up anywhere near your house.

Another thing to be mindful of is fingerprinting your downloads, don't download something on your PC and use it on your device.

Be wary of your footprints, this is why I said you would want to do this before a storm but perhaps maybe you would even tie wood to your shoes.

If you did this you could leak something like the Epstein files and probably get away with it, but if you are one of the few people who live in a neighborhood who is a hacker, I would expect that you'd have dozens of FBI agents watching every move you do and combing through your past to find any infraction that they could try to blackmail you with.

Never ever, trust an electronic device is better advice.

idk man, but I'd still much rather have encryption, even if I'm up against the alphabet boys:

• They'll be up a creek if I escape, die, or vanish into the woods first
• If I hid a disk somewhere, I'd rather know they found it when they come to torture me, than have it inspected without hearing a word
• If all else fails, they'll at least have to expend a modicum of effort and resources to fight me

You know you're fucked if they use a wrench. That means you don't have to be seen publicly ever again. There's a chance for you if they're using a rubber hose...

Do both

Browsing history, Downloads folder, cache, etc. That's good to have encrypted.