22% of Italians have stopped using social media in last year
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/arts/2022/01/18/22-of-italians-have-stopped-using-social-media-in-last-year_6efd3f1d-179e-4432-bfee-0bf7b945b35e.html

https://redd.it/srdusc
@PrivacyGuides

Anonymous payment options?

What are the best anonymous payment options?

I know of:

## 1. Cash

The obvious choice but it's not always an option, particularly when buying stuff online.

## 2. Prepaid credit cards

I've never used these but I think you can buy them from brick and mortar stores like Target, etc.

I suppose you should buy them with cash to prevent leaving a paper trail at the store.

I think you can use them at most places a regular credit card can be used, including online.

## 3. Cryptocurrency

I've never used this before.

It seems be an increasingly common payment option online. I've heard it is tricky to get setup in a truly anonymous way. Would love to follow a tutorial.

---

Are there good "semi-anonymous" options? For example, could I setup PayPal such that the seller would know nothing about my real identity (even though PayPal itself does)?

https://redd.it/sr3dcr
@PrivacyGuides

Is Intel IME worth worrying about?

was looking to get a laptop and was wondering what vulnerabilities having IME would open a user up to.

https://redd.it/sr007z
@PrivacyGuides

How can I loose time or money due to insufficient attention to privacy?

I'm trying to figure out what amount of efforts is rational to take to increase my privacy. Imho rational=saves more money than it costs. I can't really find correlation between success in life and attention to privacy among my friends and family. Neither I can remember any case when my friend said that they lost money because they didn't degoogle their phone, or had some proprietary software on their computer, or didn't have VPN. So this makes me think that putting any more efforts on privacy than normal people do might actually be irrational, and I am too paranoid. Of course I know that privacy is crucial for whistleblowers and journalists, but that doesn't count as usual everyday life.

https://redd.it/srh21h
@PrivacyGuides

how to keep some files highly secured and easily accessible for me?

so i have a lot of personal files and i dont like to store them without protection, like on cloud storage or even a small external drive. Is there any easy solution to protect them and be able to access them easily? i know there are some apps that "lock" the files but im not sure how effective that is tbh

https://redd.it/srh06e
@PrivacyGuides

Which telegram client do you suggest?

I know telegram is not secure but sometimes I require to message those people :(

Which Telegram client for Android is better for privacy?

- https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-FOSS
- https://github.com/NekoX-Dev/NekoX

(Like which one has less dependencies like Google-Firebase etc)

https://redd.it/srjjo5
@PrivacyGuides

Proton, Ctemplar or other ?

I want to migrate to services that care about privacy.

In particular, I am now dealing with email providers, I have identified two that could be for me, I am referring to Ctemplar and Protonmail, both based in countries where the privacy laws are good from what I have read.

Have you tried them? What about both of them?

https://redd.it/srikyi
@PrivacyGuides

Zettlr markdown-editor

I know that joplin and standard notes exist (they are in the guide ofc), but right now im using obsidian which give me the chance of saving my files in the computer not the application, but the app is propietary, soo i came across with zettlr, which also use the zettelkasten method like obsidian (which i fuck#@ng love), and is FOSS


What you people think of zettlr???, is better for privacy than obsidian??? (thas all i care and i would jump on the train)

https://redd.it/srlo43
@PrivacyGuides

Smartwatch - disable app network, ok to use?

Hello, currently I am Gadgetbridge with sport tracker, but there are so many new models of smartwatches and just couple are supported. Is there any real downside (from privacy and usage point) to use any smart watch with official app but revoke internet access? This way it cannot gather and send any data, so it should be ok, is my thought correct? The only issue will be probably with firmware update, but beside that?

Thanks for tips and help :)

https://redd.it/srnhty
@PrivacyGuides

Mail

Do you know any email provider that allows you to register on their .onion site without various verifications?

Is Onionmail a possible alternative?

https://redd.it/sro6jb
@PrivacyGuides

AtlasOS Privacy/Securitu?

So, I have a py laptop. It struggles with basic tasks but I am stuck with it for now. Linux isn't an option for me due to Windows exclusive software that I need that does not work via Wine, and no supported Drivers.

So I went looking for extreme pc optimisation techniques, and found AtlasOS. It is a modded and debloated version of Windows 20H2 designed for performance and security. I still want to maintain privacy where I can (ik windows is nearly impossible to make fully private), so how is this compared to default windows?

EDIT: Ooops, I left a typo in the title.

https://redd.it/sr5rpt
@PrivacyGuides

Filen.io vs iCloud

What's the best between these 2?

I personally trust more on iCloud, since it's apple and it's future-proof, my files aren't going anywere.

But i *think* filen is more privacy-friendly.

​

Should I stick with iCloud, or go with filen? Also is there any future-proof for filen?

https://redd.it/sr8az1
@PrivacyGuides

simplelogin and random addresses (like anonaddy?)

I emailed simplelogin about this and did not get an answer and could not find the answer via thier website (doesnt bode well for support?) so I am thinking the likely answer is "no" but I wanted to be sure. The question is, does simplelogin, or any other service i guess, provide random addresses? That is, anonaddy can create an address that is like **94960540-f914-42e0-9c50-6faa7a385384@anonaddy.me**, so instead of having like **randy.33mail.com** or cat.simplelogin.com (both of which are somewhat easier to associate with one person as they have unique subdomains) you just have one domain and a unique username ... just like everyone else :)

​

Thanks!

https://redd.it/sqwf8d
@PrivacyGuides

If your PC was loaded with Chrome what basic privacy extensions would you/do you use?

So I know Chrome isn't ideal but I use privacy add-ons - uBlock origin, Privacy Badger and Canvas Blocker - is there anything I could replace any of these with or anything I could additionally use? I use a good VPN

Edit: Yes I use Chrome which I know is not the best I'm hoping to make it less worse.

https://redd.it/sr01oh
@PrivacyGuides

Chrome hardening

Hello

Is there an equivalent to Edge Security Baselines for Chrome? I want to harden it and make it more secure but I don't know how.

Edge is good, but right click context menu is driving me nuts. It literally covers half the page with useless stuff and there is no ability to customize it.

Also, please don't recommend Firefox because my required apps don't support it.

https://redd.it/sruxnp
@PrivacyGuides

Bitfinex hack

Any ideea how to bitfinex hackers got caught from a privacy point of view?

reading the original document of the justice department it seems that one of the mistakes was the file uploaded to the cloud (probably gmail). however, the document says that some files were encrypted, including the one containing the public keys. The document mentions that they(justice) managed to decrypt it (does not specify how). quote:
“Lichtenstein Email 2 was held at a U.S.-based provider that offered email as well as cloud storage services, among other products. In 2021, agents obtained a copy of the contents of the cloud storage account pursuant to a search warrant. Upon reviewing the contents of the account, agents confirmed that the account was used by LICHTENSTEIN. However, a significant portion of the files were encrypted. On or about January 31, 2022, law enforcement was able to decrypt several key files contained within the account.”

My question is how do you think they decrypt? i am thinking at few options:

1. They never, but lie and simply received the password from hackers to cooperate.
2. Brute force.
3. Another way which me(us) we are not aware.

Official document for reading:

official doc justice released

https://redd.it/srymbt
@PrivacyGuides

Bitfinex hack

Any ideea how to bitfinex hackers got caught from a privacy point of view?

reading the original document of the justice department it seems that one of the mistakes was the file uploaded to the cloud (probably gmail). however, the document says that some files were encrypted, including the one containing the public keys. The document mentions that they(justice) managed to decrypt it (does not specify how). quote:
“Lichtenstein Email 2 was held at a U.S.-based provider that offered email as well as cloud storage services, among other products. In 2021, agents obtained a copy of the contents of the cloud storage account pursuant to a search warrant. Upon reviewing the contents of the account, agents confirmed that the account was used by LICHTENSTEIN. However, a significant portion of the files were encrypted. On or about January 31, 2022, law enforcement was able to decrypt several key files contained within the account.”

My question is how do you think they decrypt? i am thinking at few options:

1. They never, but lie and simply received the password from hackers to cooperate.
2. Brute force.
3. Another way which me(us) we are not aware.

Official document for reading:

official doc justice released

https://redd.it/srymbt
@PrivacyGuides

Is it harder for a 13 year old or someone younger then 16 years old to use most of the services recommended by PrivacyGuides

I have noticed that some of the services recommended by PrivacyGuides require you to be at least 16 years old and some require you to be at least 18 years old like CTemplar

I noticed the 16 years old requirement with Tutanota and Disroot

Examples

✅ ProtonMail - Requires the user to be at least 13 years old

❌ Tutanota - Requires the user to be at least 16 years old

❌ Disroot - Requires the user to be at least 16 years old to use Email or any of their services that require login

❌ CTemplar - Requires the user to be at least 18 years old

https://redd.it/ss132d
@PrivacyGuides

How Do you Deal with a Compromised Email Alias?

Say I create an alias through one of the many relay services for company X. A while later I then begin receiving spam at that unique address. Company X is one I want to continue to use the services of, but they seem to have compromised or sold my address.

At this point how do you personally handle the situation?

1) kill the alias, generate a new one and replace it w/ Co. X.

2) kill the alias, close the account at Co. X.

3) other (what?)

https://redd.it/ss28ty
@PrivacyGuides

Trying to stay signed out of the Google search results

I have a question and was hoping someone could give me some advice here. I run Firefox (somewhat hardened) with DDG as my primary search engline. Additionally, I have a Violentmonkey userscript that allows me to search Google if needed (It's a "Try Google" buttton at the end of DDG settings). I really don't like to use Google search unless it's absolutely necessary, but being that I'm always signed into YouTube I'm automattically signed into the Google search results as well. So, my question. Is there anyway to stay signed into Youtube and somehow stay signed out of the Google search results?

https://redd.it/ss2z36
@PrivacyGuides

If we heavily encrypt all the files with something like veracrypt or cryptomator before uploading them to a cloud storage , does it really matter what cloud storage we are using ( Dropbox , Gdrive , One drive) ?

I'm assuming uploading them to any popular cloud storage service should be okay since the files are encrypted..

https://redd.it/ss5bft
@PrivacyGuides