Hi privacy community. I genuinely want to hear from both people who are very private and those who didn’t go to such an extent.
I started my journy since high school and replaced a lot of stuff since then.
Ditched most of Google’s app . Only 2~3 apps on my phone require google play store(Banking/School’s app/ Train ticket).
Switched to Protonmail + Email alias, and manage my passwords with Bitwarden.
Got off social media and made sure I removed all data that can be found about me in quick Google searches.
Switched to Linux for desktop.
But
I can’t get rid of gmail because I still need those apps, and some professors heavily relies on google services.
Windows ain’t getting off my laptop because I need to make sure document format and software compatibility don’t become reasons I fail a class.
I feel like the obstacle I hit isn’t just convenience anymore, it’s my life and the situations I’m in.
I wish to hear what kind of dicisions / realizations / mindsets you guys had in your journy.
Thanks in advance.
This is what I think: You cannot be 100% private, but you can be 95% private. Most of the tracking I want to avoid is from websites, mail and my devices OS.
With ublock origin in advanced mode, thunderbird + Protonmail, Linux (I’m dual booting and also have a windows VM for the things not working on Linux) and a VPN I can reach a satisfying amount of privacy without wasting too much time and effort. I’m also hosting an unfederated matrix server for private communications but I rarely use it.
To have better privacy than this I’d need a lot more effort, but the return wouldn’t be big enough, so I’m good. The only other thing I’d like to do is switching to a phone with grapheneOS or something like that.