E-Mail 'Staying Hidden Online, by Z.M.' To A Friend

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1. These “add-on” are also available for Mozilla’s Firefox.

2. Google owns Chrome. And Google scrapes everything on the internet.

3. No mention at all of VPNs. Glaring omission.

4. All these references to Chrome, but that’s the biggest problem. Get rid of anything Google, including Chrome, that should be step one. Use a different browser that isn’t developed by a company which makes money selling personal data.

   Personally I’d look into the Brave browser, it’s geared towards blocking trackers and ads.

5. Can’t believe anyone would use “security” and “anything Google” in a positive way in the same sentence. Just read Google’s security and privacy statement, which basically translates into “we don’t believe in it”, if that doesn’t scare you away from anything Google (which is almost impossible) you can’t be serious about security or privacy.

6. Don’t want the world to know don’t go online.

7. Facebook claims that it has the “right” to collect data not only on members, but also anyone you (as a member) contact via any device. So you can be tracked by Facebook even if you are not a member. Zukerberg was very evasive in his testimony to congress about how far that extends, i.e. can they only collect the meta data (location) and address? or does it go deeper, like your physical address and your search activities. Personally, I’ve never been on Facebook or been a member, but my brother and sister are, so if they send me an e-mail, can Facebook track everything I do as if I was a member?

8. I downloaded and used Brave for awhile, but have been having more and more problems with trying to open it. Finally this weekend it just quit, and would not open at all. I’m not sure if it’s my (elderly) laptop using Win10, or a problem with the browser itself.
   I looked through their website, and can’t find a Contact Us.

   I will try to re-load it, hopefully tonight, and see what happens.

9. I’ve used DuckDuckGo for years and love it. I’m very basic about computers; I know how to find what I want, but I have no idea what gears and wheels turn to get me there. However, I do a few little things that I hope will irritate the powers that be.

   I never use my real name. Currently, I have about ten aliases and it’s so confusing to me that I keep them written in a notebook. Of course I have different accounts for all these names.

   Just to confuse whoever is watching, I deliberately go to sites and look up things in which I have absolutely no interest at all. I explore bizarre diseases, look up hotels in assorted countries, explore real estate in places I would never live, etc. If anyone is watching, I hope they’ll conclude that I’m totally nuts and give up. At any rate, it will be impossible to find a pattern in what I do. There isn’t one, except to be strange.

   1. Thumbs up, Lolita!

   2. Don’t be mislead. First point is that 99.9999999% of actual “people” are never looked at in any depth. Unless you break certain laws no one will know your name or care. Almost all of what is collected is general statistical information like 50% of people click on ads with pretty girls in them or 40% of people like guns or Chevy’s or McDonalds. This could change one day, Maybe they will decide that anyone who looked at how to make explosives should be arrested. If that happens they can track back to you even if you used a false name or duck go bye bye or anything. The bottom line is that If you go on the internet you cannot hide BUT with 3 billion people on the internet making 100 trillion inquiries a day it is literally impossible to track everyone. But do not think you can hide, you cannot.

10. Tor browser

11. During the Christmas Season with the houses all decorated with lights, music and, celebration, it is pretty easy to see the dead-light-bulb with absolutely no online social presence at all. If you want to hide in plain site consider if you need to look like all the other happy light bulbs: not too bright and certainly not dark.

12. Try Reagan.com for their email service. They don’t sell any information to anyone. It costs $40 per year. I have been using it for years and have never once had any spam or advertising related to the content, and you support a great cause.

13. Google and Facebook seem to have some version the the FBI/NSA software that they developed in the 1990s called Carnivore. It reads emails looking for whatever keywords it has been programmed to search for, and then collects them for future use. That is how you end up seeing ads that you never clicked on previously, showing up because you used a keyword in an email that is associated with that product. So, it isn’t always the Internet searches that identify you, sometimes it is your emails as well. That is why you should never use gmail, yahoo email, and some others as well.
    If you are on Facebook, it searches for keywords in your posts, and then does the same thing by associating ads with your posts.
    Big Brother is doing more than just watching…

14. Use encrypted email account like Safe-mail.net for free. Never use Google or Gmail. Get off Facebook…… (oh, not convenient for you? Then don’t complain). Turn off your location and microphone on your computer. ……and get a good VPN. Oh, and use your smartphone as a phone, only.

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