https://element.io/get-started

Don’t require phone or email. It’s encrypted, and they are continuity improving their system to fix some lack of encrypted content/metadata.

Maybe because it’s easier to remember.

This is so cool, but still not working for me.

I never use Google search engine. I use a forked SearX service.

I’m so sad they didn’t have their “Lockdown Mode” in time to beat those Israeli hackers.

I browse normally by default using Tor network, Cloudflare is a bit slow with the initial validation, but I always get into any website.

Website owners can block users to access via Tor network without using Cloudflare services anyway … so this isn’t any problem about Cloudflare.

I think Google is still the worst with their infinite CAPTCHA validation. Before doing those CAPTCHA validations (which could take you like 10 minutes to complete them all) I rather close the link and ignore it exist, they don’t block, but they make it impossible for Tor users.

https://murena.com/smartphones/ https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/releases/-/releases

This OS is a nice alternative to avoid Google tracking but also be able to install apps from Google Play Store.

I don’t know any guide, it’s easy. Use https://github.com/bekh6ex/firefox-container-proxy if you trust this add-on maintainers, then install tor and run it with sudo systemctl start tor (if you have a distro with systemd). Configure the proxy to use localhost:9050 which is Tor network proxy. You can use Tor network on terminal with the package torsocks like SSH via Tor torsocks ssh user@host.com -p 1234

I am talking about faking the user-agent, screen display detection and language (I think those basically if you even allow JavaScript). For me isn’t neither a problem most of the time.

I know about fingerprints, it is hard and breaks a lot of websites. I even got banned for suspicious activity, so it’s more headache to add this protection to your daily browsing.

What I want to tell is that you should have a main browser private and secure as possible and if someone wants to use VPN, in most of the cases Tor networks already works.

I don’t understand, what kind of ad do you get that needs VPN+Tor?

I don’t remember to have seen any ad on the past months… unless I disable the ad-blocker. And smartphones also have Firefox app which includes ad-blocker add-on to install.

Right now, I would use VPN only to access to my work network. Not as a paid service.

Hello, right now I am on Lemmy using Tor network, with the same browser as I use for everything.

I first open the tor daemon and with a Firefox container add-on + proxy for each container add-on the same browser I can choose which website I want to use direct or Tor network connection. So I can connect directly to my bank account without Tor and the same time explore musics, articles, lemmy and browse much more stuff with privacy (even from my ISP) over Tor network without any effort.

I play all music/videos/streams over Tor browser, and it just goes 1-2 seconds lower than my direct connection. (I’m talking about simple streams, not 4K videos)

The only problem is that a lot of websites also blocks your request if you are using Tor (as JavaScript blocker if you want to access to any Cloudflare network). But it’s just a right click and open with another container if you really need to access.

I think in this situation you need to hire a VPS (as cheap as possible) and use that VPS to tunnel all Tor traffic via SSH so no one can see it on your region (ISP)

Also, let me add, in my opinion, a VPN is a bit expensive monthly and if you just want privacy then take your time to get a decent browser I would say Waterfox and go to about:config to enable extra privacy. Just follow a guide like https://restoreprivacy.com/firefox-privacy/ to set them.

About add-ons, it’s better to have as minimum as possible but for privacy I would do:

• Configure the browser to browser via Tor network on selected websites via Firefox containers.

  • Firefox container helps to isolate sessions.
  • Firefox container proxy to proxy all traffic (also DNS) from containers selected over Tor network.

• Block random requests.

  • uBlock Origin to remove tracking and more annoying traffic.
  • NoScript Security Suite.
  • Cloud Firewall to know which big cloud network are you trying to access and block unnecessary request while browsing other sites/blogs.

• Remove/clean cache/data often.

  • Cookie AutoDelete to just store the cookie/data from sites I really want.

(KeePassXC add-on for self-hosted or offline login/keys storage)

I’m sure I can do more stuff to improve privacy, but I think this is at least a minimum thing you can do if you really care about privacy, BUT it’s free and private as VPN.

Think that, for example, if you want to log in to your bank account, better login directly without VPN or any tunnel. Same as, if I want to update my system, I can connect directly to their servers. If you want to play a game, you would want to connect it directly and not over a VPN (for latency).

You can make a container to browse over Tor network for “social activity” like (Lemmy browsing or any political or private social network or not that you want to hide) and all other traffic over normal network will help to make more noise to identify it’s you in my opinion.

So I told you a way to do the same as a VPN but with some real privacy protection for free. (In my opinion…)

If you have Google Play on your phone you can use it from Google Play, at least it will auto-update itself on a new release.

Yeah, you can hide if you are watching YouTube or Facebook, but the contents are still encrypted via SSL. If your government want to hack you they will send you a malicious link via SMS or a call to infect your phone like with Pegasus but everything you do via internet protocols are normally using SSL which is already encrypted.

So, if your government wants to know your content they will request to Google or Facebook for your data, and you can use as much VPN nodes and stuff you want, the data is still on the cloud and your government can request this data to those companies.

You need to know why you need VPN as it’s too complex to think you are already secure and private.

Okay, sorry, I talk like everyone knows this.

lol sorry, basically… if you use VPN, but you are still logged on the same services, same with cookies and fingerprints… the VPN is useless (unless to watch Netflix on other countries), and I think that’s what most people do.

VPN could be good when you are connected on a public Wi-Fi, which I would say… better connect your laptop to internet over your phone data via USB. haha

True, to watch Netflix you can just hire a VPS on the country you want to be, and with sshuttle easily tunnel your data to that server, but this will only work if you use Linux (if I’m not wrong, you can always use a Linux VM or WSL2 with GUI for the browser I suppose). Hiring a very small VPS for some hours a day is much cheaper.

If you want privacy while browsing, you can do the same or connecting to the Tor network to browse + JavaScript blocking and add-ons to block fingerprint. But for example… Spotify blocked me for a suspicious activity, so some websites requires a minimum tracking of your device to work.

I don’t think VPN are really needed for “privacy” if your browser is leaking all the data about your computer. Those ads are scam for people to think they are so cool using VPN… marketing.

I switched from ProtonMail to Tutanota when I saw they didn’t have privacy as first goal, they wanted to do some drive, calendar and stuff I didn’t need as I have alternatives like NextCloud and other self-hosting open source tools. (plus I read some weird stuff about ProtonMail requesting data from a blogger that was talking bad about them and other issues)

Instead a drive and calendar, I would love to have their mail client without Google services as Tutanota has, on F-Droid. That was my first priority, as I wanted a real privacy service.

It’s funny that I was thinking about this rebranding name some days ago as they aren’t only mail service and a link like drive.protonmail.me doesn’t look that cool like a drive.proton.me, mail.proton.me, calendar.proton.me, a step more close to Google style.

I know perfectly Fedora is not Debian… xD and I use Ubuntu or CentOS Stream 8/9 (I like more rolling releases distros) for servers and only Arch based for my personal computers or even on my Raspberry Pi.

I was saying, if you want something stable, Debian based sounds easy as Fedora has some security policy that can make it hard to do certain stuff. If you want a nice gaming desktop, Manjaro makes it easy to install all you need or even install custom kernels with Steam support.

You can try different kind of distros until you find the one that fits better for you. I was thinking to use Zorin OS for people that want to switch from Windows to Linux, and they basically need a word/browser/printer functions.

If you plan to keep playing games I recommend you Manjaro (as steam is using it to give support if I’m not wrong) or Garuda Linux which is like a Manjaro but more fancy. If you want a distro more nerdy you can try Artix with OpenRC which is also easy and fast, but you need some more knowledge.

I tried a lot of distros and I don’t see anything special on Fedora or any other Debian based distros. I recommend you Arch based distro to be able to use AUR to easily install any kind of app, and you can add https://aur.chaotic.cx/ repos to install them without compilation/build process.