How do you maintain privacy in this modern world?

[MrPopo]

Another privacy tip I neglected to mention is that I don't use Google for search anymore. I only use DuckDuckGo.com now, since they do not track your search query information like Google does.

If you believe that I've got some lovely real estate in Florida I can give you a good deal on.

[Tanooki]

The amusing thing in this thread is all the paranoia J T has, yet he's on the internet and has a presence. They can tell you whatever you wish to believe, but you're not invisible. Sure you can turn off ad tracking easily enough with tools and other meta collectors, but if someone wants to see you and find you, they will. Unless you're planning go all unibomber with a hoodie, big shades, and living in an unpowered shack in the middle of the forest only to emerge on rare occasion to get some necessities you're screwed, and even then you would be caught on camera anyway. The best satellites now for spying can see through solid objects to see you quite clearly and what you're doing. There isn't a tin foil hat big enough for you to hide under.

[J T]

Another privacy tip I neglected to mention is that I don't use Google for search anymore. I only use DuckDuckGo.com now, since they do not track your search query information like Google does.

If you believe that I've got some lovely real estate in Florida I can give you a good deal on.

I use a different app/add-on called Ghostery that will show a purple pop-up box with a list of all of the trackers on the website you are currently viewing. Some sites have an alarming amount. Racketboy.com has few, except for the main page which hosts a google.analytics tracker. Duckduckgo.com is one of the few sites that shows zero trackers. It is central to how they run their site, so yes, I do believe them when they say they do not track.

[J T]

The amusing thing in this thread is all the paranoia J T has, yet he's on the internet and has a presence.

It used to be that you were crazy if you were paranoid. Online though, you're crazy if you're not paranoid.

Look, I am an intelligent person. I am aware that I am using the internet, and that is inherently risky for privacy and data security. Consider my time on racketboy to be flying by the seat of my pants. You may find it amusing, but to me it's sad that a person actually needs to consider their online communications a risk at all.

And yes, if a specific person is determined to find you specifically, it is exceedingly hard to not be found. The scary thing, however, is this: in the past you weren't surveilled until an interested party wanted to find you. Now you are surveilled just because technology has made mass surveillance easy, and big data analytics have provided a means to make sense of large swaths of information, including finding specific targets to stand out from the noise of the crowd. You see it's not that you are watched because you are suspicious, it's that you are watched to find out if you are suspicious to begin with. That's quite a different thing. That's Big Brother. That's Minority Report. The loss of privacy is a direct threat to freedom since nobody can truly speak freely when they know they are constantly recorded, catalogued, and judged by the most technologically sophisticated means available.

I know I haven't found a way to be truly invisible online, and pure invisibility is essentially impossible to achieve, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to take what precautions you can to avoid readily giving away large piles of information about yourself that are easily verified as coming from your unique ID, then stored in a cloud somewhere. If they don't have enough data points from you, the analytics bots are less likely to find you very interesting because there isn't enough power in their statistics to achieve conclusive confidence in their findings. So it's best to do what you can about privacy, even if you can never get it perfect. It's all about finding a suitable level of risk.

[MrPopo]

You realize that there were no longer murders in Minority Report. I look forward to such a future.

[J T]

You realize that there were no longer murders in Minority Report. I look forward to such a future.

Well, congratulations. We are a lot closer to your utopia than mine.

[MrPopo]

My actual utopia would involve me being surrounded by kitties while I play video games all day. But Seattle City Light said they'll shut off the power if I stop paying them, so I gotta keep working for now.

[KalessinDB]

The best satellites now for spying can see through solid objects to see you quite clearly

Hyperbole much? They are certainly able to track a heat signature, but to phrase it the way you did makes it sound like they can virtually peel away layers to see you like they didn't exist. If you believe that, I think you might need to understand better how cameras and photons work.

Pro tip: CSI tech makes for great TV, but isn't exactly reality.

[RCBH928]

I share a lot with you. I don't want any one to type in my name in Google and have record of my life.

I almost never use my real name online. Like you I try to use duckduckgo. I stay off social networks mostly and never have my picture online.

One thing I am trying now is I registered with ProtonMail. I do what I can to support paid-services over free ones that really sell your information to others.

What worries me is if you stay off the social networks and use stuff like VPN it will raise red-flags about you. Unlike others whoa re exposing their lives to the world, it is as if you are trying to hide something.

You can't have 0 trace, but you can keep public info to a minimum.

[MrPopo]

What worries me is if you stay off the social networks and use stuff like VPN it will raise red-flags about you. Unlike others whoa re exposing their lives to the world, it is as if you are trying to hide something.

Because you are.