setting up an online anonymous presence.

fx9

Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2021
Messages
92
Reaction score
57
Credits
1,098
Hi folks.

I'm revisiting after some time away. I set up a Dell Inspiron 7472 14-inch laptop with Linux Mint last may. Intel Core i5-8250u CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD etc. I built a new house this summer so things got sidetracked on the set up side.

I am moving over from a chromebook and the purpose is to get away from a completely monitored and tracked experience.

I have previously asked about privacy, but I am confused as to how to stay anonymous and what I should expect. I have set up linux mint on a new computer, no personal info on it. I am using a VPN, and I have firefox and tor browser installed. The only thing that I have done on the computer that can link anything to my real identity is sign into my VPN account linked to my CC purchase.

I am not doing anything questionable. I just think I have the right to privacy.

What I would like to know is how to set things up to keep myself private. I don't have any social media accounts, I don't intend to sign into anything Google, but I do have some frivilous forum accounts linked to an age old email address I'd like to keep. Is it best to create new logins with a private email?

Basically, I don't understand is how to disconnect myself from my current online presence. Should I just expect to always have some aspect of trackability? I intend to set up the chromebook with Mint once I am completely backed up on the Dell. I could set up it up for forums, online shopping, banking etc. and keep a very topical online presence. I could use seperate browsers on the Dell to accomplish the same thing, or use Tor to access everything. Is a virtual machine anything to consider for unavoidable links like banking, Amazon.

Is Tor and VPN enough?

I don't mean to overthink it, but I am coming from a completely open system. If I create a document on the Chromebook it is written to the cloud and I have to download it to save it to my system. Google gets a copy first. If I use a VPN I am still tracked through my browser, and the list of infringements goes on and on. They lull you with convenience and the trade off is your privacy. I am just trying to move away and understand what will hinder my efforts.

Thanks for any clarity!
 


I think you are off to a good start, but you also need to consider that, for the vast majority of trackers and stalking third parties, your individual identity (i.e., your name) doesn't matter at all. Google, Amazon and Facebook are not looking after your name, because they don't need to know your name to know who you are regarding their interests. With the online unique footprint of your behaviour they get what they want, which is to cash it out in terms of advertisement revenue.

Understanding that was a breakthrough for me. Thats why, to my understadning, privacy and anonimity are different things, and for many purposes you shouldn't have to renounce to your own identity online. That's why I have implemented a lot of privacy measures but, at the same time, I post under my name.

If you feel vaguely represented by the above thinking, then you need to move on to block the advertisement trackers. Block third party cookies, minimise browser fingerprint and use a DNS hole for the ad trackers would be a next step.
 
Another thought is: what is your threat model? What is it that you want to defend yourself from?

My answers are mainly "information filters". From the internet feeding me information that may reinforce my biases creating echo chambers, to the obvious disinformation and misinformation. Therefore, my measures are almost 100% oriented to prevent behaviour tracking, so that I never receive "tailored experiences" or "stories more interesting for me".

Depending on the answers, your privacy measures would be different.
 
Another thought is: what is your threat model? What is it that you want to defend yourself from?

My answers are mainly "information filters". From the internet feeding me information that may reinforce my biases creating echo chambers, to the obvious disinformation and misinformation. Therefore, my measures are almost 100% oriented to prevent behaviour tracking, so that I never receive "tailored experiences" or "stories more interesting for me".

Depending on the answers, your privacy measures would be different.
I'm 100% with you on this. I am absolutely on board to remove funneled and restricted information.

It's not really a matter of threat or defense as much as eliminating those elements. If I can keep as much as possible private or anonymous I don't need to focus on mitigating any individual aspect.
 
Also consider, "Private from whom?" (adding to @gvisoc)

A three-letter-agency? Not much chance. Not even with Tor, unless you remain exclusively on .onion domains and leak absolutely nothing.

Your ex-wife? Pretty easy, if you retain good opsec.

Google? Just block third party cookies and ads.

Facebook? Same as the above.

Going back through forum accounts to create new accounts? Who is that hiding you from? There's no web-consortium of forum owners sharing your email address between them.

A VPN just means you appear to show up from another location.
 
In my experience the people who use the internet are a lot worse than the software, the latter puts you at risk of being disappointed and taking "your" money, people can hurt you in much worse ways...

So thinking about who uses the internet and why might help you in this regard. As everyone else said, it is pretty easy to keep the internet from tracking you: the problem is wanting to use the internet while staying anonymous! Now that's a pretty wierd conundrum...
 
fx9 wrote:
Code:
I don't mean to overthink it
Not overthinking is probably a good defence against paranoia. Unfortunately, the reality is that technology and those with the highest levels of skills with it, won't leave users alone. It's commercially profitable and that's an incentive. Technology is always advancing both in security and hacking. One may consider whether they want to keep up with the developments, and the level at which they want to keep up with it, and decide on whether they wish to maintain their skills at that level on an on-going basis.

Privacy is the modern world is quite different since the internet became so fundamental to so many parts of people's lives. When I think of all the electronic traces of myself that now exist on servers in government, numerous private businesses like banks and merchants, hospitals, medical professionals, academic institutions etc let alone on all the private computers that I've had contact with through messaging or other communication, the mind boggles. There is no way I have of controlling it. I regard it as all hackable given the sorts of data break-in stories that regularly hit the press. That doesn't mean I'm worried about it though.

If you read the privacy policies of governments, companies and websites, there's nearly always some fine print when information becomes releasable.

I don't have any recommendations about which privacy strategies to take because it's such a personal preference. I don't however, want to be mislead or deluded about the power of the measures I adopt. I don't wish to think that I'm being private when I may not be. I'd like to know the degree of risk I'm exposing myself to, but, as an ordinary user, I'm not so sure I can really work that out that much with the sort of accuracy I'd prefer.
 
It's definitely not a paranoia issue. And I'm definitely not trying to circumnavigate three letter agencies. They won't care much for my posts on wine making. I just really don't understand what I can and can't protect/anonymize.

It's not about getting hacked, hustled, or robbed either. I guess I just don't want to put all this stuff in place and create a false sense of privacy that does not exist. If I don't cover my bases there is no point in starting.

So, what I am gathering is that there is no way to really dissapear myself online. There is no point in trying to keep the computer free from my identity. I can access my forums, search my searches, and carry on as normal. Put some tracker blockers in place so I don't get customized search results, block ads, and that's about as friendly and private as a fella can make the internet?

Just relax and keep on keeping on?
 
So, what I am gathering is that there is no way to really dissapear myself online....

Just relax and keep on keeping on?

Yes, and yes, just watch what you say and do. When people are doing illegal things and "disappearing" themselves, they are just routing their connection through another layer of servers. Certain child porn aficionados have gotten caught because Tor lulled them into a false sense of security. After they lulled themselves into a false sense of security, those agencies basically just socially engineered them into gaining access to their tor network.

Social engineering is the best hack. Hillary Clinton's campaign got hacked because someone sent her advisor/manager an email that said "you need to change your password". THEN, the advisor talked to their security technician, to which the techinician said "you should do what the email says", which resulted in the advisor/manager sending the "old" password to the hacker

:p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
As others have said, and as my own research has shown, beyond truly anonymous online is not possible, particularly if someone really wants to track you. On the other hand, I also don't like big tech and big government just hoovering up data.

From what I can tell, the most simple balance to be had is to set up your browser apropriatley - blocking tracers, third party cookies, ad blockers etc. You can also use a mac changer and a VPN. The above in combination should keep you about as private as you could reasonably hope.

And who knows, maybe some people see wine making as a particularly nefarious activity!
 
the problem is wanting to use the internet while staying anonymous! Now that's a pretty wierd conundrum
And that...^^^^^ .....is the whole situation in an absolute nutshell.

well said @CrazedNerd
 
THEN, the advisor talked to their security technician, to which the techinician said "you should do what the email says", which resulted in the advisor/manager sending the "old" password to the hacker
It never fails to amaze me how inept specialists can be.. I don't think Tor would protect me from the rant my real opinion would inspire. Sooo, I will implement the keep your mouth shut method here.

Unfortunately, gotta keep the hands free to type. Clearly you can't remove all vulnerabilities, but I think I'm getting it.
 
Does it make sense to copy my chome passwords and bookmarks to firefox, use that for forums, netflix and all that nonsense and use Tor when I want to search and browse, or does it make more sense to get a password manager and use tor as much as possible?
 
It never fails to amaze me how inept specialists can be.. I don't think Tor would protect me from the rant my real opinion would inspire. Sooo, I will implement the keep your mouth shut method here.

Unfortunately, gotta keep the hands free to type. Clearly you can't remove all vulnerabilities, but I think I'm getting it.
One thing I've learned the hard way so many times is that someone often will surprise you online in terms of how they respond to your opinions...can be a good thing, but I had to chuck Facebook permanently, such a malicious website in my opinion. I've read about lots of horrible things about Googles internal politics but it doesn't bother me nearly as much as facebook.

Now: be careful about saying anything political! Politics has so many unfair generalizations which is why I don't complain about the tight watch of it on here.
 
You can never be 100% anonymous online. You can take steps like changing your identity online such as deleting and creating new email addresses, never using the your same real name on profiles or your emails unless for professional usage/billing. Create a fake many fake names, DOBs, state, and country. Use email addresses, change your phone number to a VOIP # ( I use voip for my government related stuff) or prepaid service plan that doesn't require you to sign up for anything. Use strong passwords for anything online and offline obviously. Search your name based on where you live and have it deleted from all sites hosting any public record of you.

I've done all of the above myself and a little more. But there's more you can do to minimize your online identity. But nothing will stop a government agency from finding / identifying you, you can make it hard for them to but they still can.

Some years ago I got into some trouble online but the two government agents that paid me a visit admitted that it was difficult to find me based on all the false information I had. They found me based on my devices IP; I knew I was being monitored few days before it happened. So yea you're not completely safe online.
 
True anonymity will always be a fairy tale. Anyone telling you that it's somehow achievable is lying and doesn't understand how internet technology actually works. The only real thing you can be is private online. That being said, avoiding proprietary software as much as possible is the first major step in maintaining your privacy. From there on, what other types of software you use (browsers, video players, email, etc) is really up to you.

For me, I use LibreWolf (FireFox fork) as my daily browser. If you haven't tried it already, it's a hardened version of FF that blocks out trackers by default, has numerous privacy enhancements enabled by default in about:config, has no telemetry, and plenty of other great features. You could also go a step further and use the Lynx browser. Its a terminal browser that's roughly 30 years old, and all you have to do is type the command "lynx" and whatever site you want to visit, then use the key commands to get around. Because it doesn't load images by default, it not only enhances your privacy, but also your speed. I tried it briefly, but with working 2 jobs now, I have very little time to sit down and learn everything about it. Be aware that going from a GUI browser to a terminal one takes time to get used to if you're not familiar with the latter (I learned that from first hand experience).

For video players, I use the SMTube/SMPlayer combo. SMTube fetches YouTube videos and SMPlayer plays them. Its harder for YT to track you because it obviously doesn't use a browser, and there's no signing in. The only trade-off is you can't upload videos, post comments, or like/dislike. Another thing you can try is the PeerTube software, which allows you to create your video-sharing site. Like every other platform on the Fediverse (a series of social media sites using federated software), it doesn't use any trackers, back doors, or other privacy-invading spookiness.

As for email, I've mentioned in your previous threads that I use ProtonMail, so no need to repeat myself. While I never got it properly set up at the time (because there's hardware-related work needed to access the server), I did try the ClawsMail email client briefly. Like SMTube, there's no trackers because it doesn't use a browser to connect.

There's plenty of other categories and names of software I could mention, but I'm not going to write the Great American Novel doing so. As for the TOR browser, I understand you're trying to protect your privacy, but you never gave further details about what you're planning to use it for (and no, I'm not asking for your life story). Yes, you can browse the clearnet with it, but would you be using .onion sites as well?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OP said

Basically, I don't understand is how to disconnect myself from my current online presence. Should I just expect to always have some aspect of trackability?


@Andriko said

From what I can tell, the most simple balance to be had is to set up your browser apropriatley


@SpongebobFan1994 said

True anonymity will always be a fairy tale.

and he made other suggestions pertinent to your questions.


A few years ago, when I was more flush than I am now, I purchsed Abine's DeleteMe
(kind of expensive) and it truly made a difference in my online presence for one year. This surprised me rather pleasantly. Reviews suggest the same. THIS IS NOT SPAM but what I consider an apropos alternative, given your original inquiry.

Back to @Andriko and setting up the browser --

I can only give what I have tried and more or less like for doing their proclaimed jobs, more or less. Attached is a screenshot of Vivaldi extensions used. The same can be used for Firefox, but its setup is more complex if a modicum of security is expected from it.

BTW, using different browsers for different tasks and NOT saving passwords via software is a suggestion, as well. Memorize them and make sensitive ones at least sixteen characters long is another suggestion from hackers online (whitehats, of course).
 

Attachments

  • Vivaldi_extensions.jpg
    Vivaldi_extensions.jpg
    137.9 KB · Views: 227
OP said

Basically, I don't understand is how to disconnect myself from my current online presence. Should I just expect to always have some aspect of trackability?


@Andriko said

From what I can tell, the most simple balance to be had is to set up your browser apropriatley


@SpongebobFan1994 said

True anonymity will always be a fairy tale.

and he made other suggestions pertinent to your questions.


A few years ago, when I was more flush than I am now, I purchsed Abine's DeleteMe
(kind of expensive) and it truly made a difference in my online presence for one year. This surprised me rather pleasantly. Reviews suggest the same. THIS IS NOT SPAM but what I consider an apropos alternative, given your original inquiry.

Back to @Andriko and setting up the browser --

I can only give what I have tried and more or less like for doing their proclaimed jobs, more or less. Attached is a screenshot of Vivaldi extensions used. The same can be used for Firefox, but its setup is more complex if a modicum of security is expected from it.

BTW, using different browsers for different tasks and NOT saving passwords via software is a suggestion, as well. Memorize them and make sensitive ones at least sixteen characters long is another suggestion from hackers online (whitehats, of course).
But it wont protect you if the websites database with user data is compromised. If the website didn't encrypt user data or if the encryption is cracked then you'll need to set a new password. A 16 character password or longer with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters is best for protecting yourself against brute force attacks.
 
A few years ago, when I was more flush than I am now, I purchsed Abine's DeleteMe
(kind of expensive) and it truly made a difference in my online presence for one year. This surprised me rather pleasantly.

How did it surprise you?

I'm also awaiting a comparison between password managers and using firefox's password storage like OP asked about if any of ya'll want...I still just prefer to remember everything best i can because if you start forgetting things a lot then, or you get too sleepy/lazy, that's a vulnerability
 

Members online


Latest posts

Top