Safety in the web and life. My personal experience.
A glimpse into the past
Today I decided to write about a serious topic. One that I've experienced firsthand.
Since early days of my life, I wasn't very social person. Introvert at best. But older people like me, remember how much more free we was. I mean all this social media, tons of websites that asking your bank creds, id's for everything, etc-etc.
Somewhere around 2010, when boom of social media start growing, i start going in to the shadow more and more. Of course it affected social interaction and it still does. Colleagues sit in 10 interest chat rooms, every other person has tik-tok, instagram and a ton of other stuff. Me? Never. I do not have all this trash.
Reality of our life.
So, how i managed avoid a huge chunk of life and huge chunk of problems?
Well first of all. I am mostly sitting in read-only mode. I read a lot. But trying avoid interaction. Especialy in the web. Only closest persons, whom I trust, know's little more about me than my mother. And of course i am not writing comments under news outlets, in group chats and such stuff.
Group photos? Never. I never let myself be photographed, much less posted on social media.
Ton's of apps and social webs? Never. I have telegram and registred on few websites, including Bear. That's all.
Browser? Only portable, with blocked fingerprinting, ads, scripts and other stuff.
Email? Public and personal. Public must be changed each year. Delete all, each bigtech company have hidden pages about deleting collected metadata. They are obligated to remove everything upon request of the user. But these pages and forms are usually hidden too much. Never use personal email for public stuff and in other way.
Vpn? Well yes. Tunnels, vpns, dpi crackers. Using each day, changing them in circles.
How about goverment stuff? I have all my info in goverment systems. Like id, other papers, but bare minimum, just to use goverment services. Nothing more. And like i said before, everything separated. Public and personal.
If i have choice to use service without bank card, id or other stuff, i use this choice. If i do not have such choice. I think about it 3-4 times before use.
Keep you data with you! Check that your pc have blocked ports. Keep your own documents only offline. Better on sd-card. It's harder to use than flashdrive or portable hdd.
Of course we all using smartphones. Never use official firmware with official apps if you can. Avoid it all costs. Because even such simple thing as google keyboard that coming with android systems as default app - logging everything what you printing. Apple? Hell no. Not in this life. Here is example how apple keep your data from earliest day's Link to read. And for the love of all gods, don't use smart home, smart speakers and stuff like that. Even if you need gps, you can use something like alpine quest without connection, tracking only by gyroscope inside smartphone.
The same course going with official apps and software on pc. If you can avoid Windows - avoid. If you can't, use cleaned version made by FOSS enthusiasts like Revision and other examples.
In present day, anything can gather data. This data called later big data, because researchers, behind this big data, collecting a ton's of info and building(creating) webs of social circles. Person 1 speaks often with person 2, person 2 sends emails to person 3. Person 4 order pizza, there was party, and in this party was persons 1-2-3. Like that, every corporate knows from what you eat, where you driving, when you leave home, what you writing. You think goverment is problem? Hah, hell no. Corporations. I know this, because i was corpo suit too.
But the whole point is not to give up everything, but to create two faces. One for the public. One for you and your nearest and dearest. Even if you've never done anything wrong in your life. It'll still come in handy someday. Trust me. Like that you will be clear in front of goverment and corpos with your's public profile. The more boring you are, the less interesting you are to anyone. And this is a good thing.
Who is this guy?
I've had three instances in my life when official's asked about me.
First was when my dad died. I didn't live with him. And they needed to find a relative. And official prosecutor's offices, with all their goverment mighty - didn't find me, until one of my other relatives give me this news and i walked by myself to officials.
Second instance - I was taking a job in giant goverment corporation. Just to understand - the company reported directly to president. No i am not joking. So at first day, before i sign any papers, they ofcourse check my life. And security department called me to small talk, because they just didn't find anything about me, except for the id.
Third Instance - someone burned building where i was working last three months. Of course everyone was interrogated. Because a lot of paperwork was destroyed. And it's was 'very official' paperwork. As it turns out, there was no intent. It was all a coincidence. And the wiring that shorted out under the roof that was already leaking. But, during this interrogation, nearly 200+ people was fired. How do you think why? Because interrogation bring up on light all social connections, messages, emails, other stuff. When you signed contract, you give your body, soul and social life to them. So yeah, they were in their right. Me? answered two questions and was released after two minutes.
Like i said, keep two faces. Regulary change public accounts. And you already will be more secured than 80% people in your country.
Why did I choose to share?
It's november! Time to destroy old public accounts and create new one. New public email, new telegram account, new phone number, new a lot of stuff. And i will be safe for next year. Like always.
Is it paranoia or loneliness?
Not one or the other. Remember the proverb? Forewarned is forearmed. I have another one: Don't litter in your house.
When we coming in to the web, we leave a lot of prints, litter so to speak. Just keep yourself clean and you are safe. So how this affect on your social interactions? Of course a lot. You won't get into a party that easily, you won't be socializing with people much, you're more likely to be an observer from the sidelines.
But you know what? Best friends in your life, appear just like that. Disregarding conventions and ready to communicate as and wherever you are comfortable. Now in the present days, with the development of neural networks. Tsk sound We're on a plate.
Be safe.