Want your online life to be a little more private? We have had a lot of fun trying to evade the watchdogs. Let me share some of my tricks.
Getting started…a creative, fun process.
First, create your fake profile. This can be fun. My sister gets packages for Turd Ferguson at her house. My friend gets calls for Kris P. Bacon. You can look for me under Ginger Grant. Then you’ll need a fake address and age. Make a note of this new profile. Or you can run wild and create a new, creative profile for as many online apps as you like!
For your fake address, sometimes websites are pre-programmed with a list of all post office addresses. The best way around this is to find a new subdivision that is still getting built. Make up a house number just past the last new-build house on one of the new subdivision’s streets. You may also use “General Delivery” as your address for up to 30 days. This is generally used if you are “homeless”, aka, living out of your Airstream.
With this…let the fun begin!
Google your name first. Google your phone number next.
Get a leg up on where your data is being handed out. Each site that has your private data listed on search engines has to offer a link to request your information be removed. Sometimes it’s not the easiest procedure, but when all else fails, try the contact link. You should be able to get all of your information removed from these sites in a few days. Feel free to remove your family’s information as well. Sometimes I just have random people’s information removed just for fun! If anyone hassles you, let them know the person you are asking them to remove is under 18.
If you’d like help with this, sign up at www.easyoptouts.com for only $20 a year and they’ll give you a leg up. It won’t get everything, but it’s a great start! For consumer information about these types of programs, see what Consumer Reports has to say! Also try the free reports offered by www.optery.com. They are good!
Stop using your credit cards for online purchases.
Get a privacy.com account. This will allow you to pay for all of your online purchases with your checking account, which is hidden behind a virtual card that you set up with privacy.com. You can set up a “credit card” for each website if you like, then you can set up limits. Perhaps the virtual credit card may only be used one time. Or for example, for my Hulu virtual card, I set it up to have a max of $35 limit per month. Then when you make your purchase online, you can use the craziest billing address you can think of! Or use your fake profile one. My brother uses a hotel address from 30 minutes south of here. We think that is the funniest thing!
Get a VoIP phone number.
We used VoIP.ms to purchase some phone numbers. Be sure to set up the number under your authentic, real information so it doesn’t actually get shut down. Once you have a number, get the Groundwire app for your mobile device. Use this to receive calls and text messages with your new phone number. The settings can be a little complicated, so you may need to Google some of it. Use this phone number for all of your online accounts. That way your cell number will start to fall off spam lists and you’ll get less robocalls. I recommend getting a number outside of the state where you live. Once robocallers get your number, they will many times call you from a number in the same state. Then you’ll know almost for sure when a spam call is coming in.
Get a password manager. Don’t store passwords in your browsers.
Download BitWarden on your phone and computer and be sure to start adding all of your accounts to it. Every time you log in, it’s super easy to copy and paste from the app to your browser or app to log in. The app can generate a unique password for each account. You’ll love all the features that come with it and that you can make notes in it It’s the best!
You don’t ever want to get locked out of this account, so be sure to generate a two-step login recovery code and store it some place very secure (or two or three places), that tech companies don’t have access to, like in your safe with the other important papers. I also keep a copy in Proton Drive, as recommended below! You will need a 2FA app to add the key into in order to generate the code if you do get locked out. Note, the 2FA for Bitwarden is dynamic and changes every 30 seconds, so if you log in outside the app, you’ll be asked for the code.
If you pay the low annual fee, you get a beneficiary designation as well, so this is a great way for when you finally get hit by that bus, your family can track down all of your accounts, from big bank accounts to Amazon shopping history. When you get to be my age, you start to think about what part of your legacy you might not want to be found. Just pay the extra $10/year…it’s worth it.
Get a Proton account.
VPN I pay for the business account. From that, I get a VPN service so my IP is blocked. I can choose another IP from the U.S., Canada, or almost anywhere else in the world. Some websites won’t allow you to access your account when the VPN is on since many bad people use these as well. It’s easy to disconnect and use your normal IP when this happens.
Email You can create up to 15 emails with the paid account. You can use your own domains as emails in this application too, you aren’t stuck with @proton.me email addresses. There is a mobile app for getting emails on your phone or table, and there is a Bridge application that you can use with Mac Mail to get your emails with all the rest of your accounts.
One super cool feature is that Proton Mail removes all the little trackers from emails that you receive. If you open an email in your browser on the Proton site, it will show you how many trackers it blocked. It will also warn you when you click on a link in the email that it has a tracker in it so you have the option to not follow through. You will LOVE this! And you’ll see how much you are really being tracked on the web!
Drive Get plenty of storage space to store your documents. Privately. When you use apps on your computer, like MS Excel for example, all of that data is privy to being seen by it’s corporate owner Microsoft. Your data isn’t as private as you’d like to think. So having storage space for private documents by apps that don’t spy is nice to have. I keep photos of my credit cards, financial statements and other important documents in there.
Now let’s protect your phone’s IP too.
Download WireGuard app to work with your Proton VPN on your device. My mobile is now running thru Canada, so I get to experience the internet as if living further north a few hours. By having both the WireGuard and Proton working together, you’re always covered by VPN.
And one more step to make sure nobody is watching you…
NextDNS is great to install on your computer to block malicious domains, trackers and ads. It’s a little tricky to set up, but give it a whirl.
Let’s make some domain aliases to really trick them.
Now things get even more fun! SimpleLogin is an app partnered with Proton, so you can use your login from above to get started. Set it up on mobile with the app and use your browser on your computer. You can create aliases to any of your 15 email addresses and use them for setting up accounts or to track how is passing your email address around. They own a bunch of rando domains, so your alias email will have some generic ending, but you set up the beginning. For example, I set up the alias twitter.pointy542@aleeas.com. If I receive any junk mail to this particular email address, I will know that the devious Elon Musk is up to even less good than previously thought. You track these account emails in our BitWarden so you don’t have to keep track of them.
Get a private messaging app.
Avoid Facebook and other messengers owned by big tech companies as they have access to your private conversations. Instead, start using Signal. You’ll be surprised how many of your friends are already on there. You can send text messages and make phone calls. The best thing about it? That horrible gap between Android and iPhone goes away! Yay! Look me up under Baby Ginger when you get on there!
Get private registration on your domain names.
Your information can easily be obtained from the huge domain ownership database, so it’s best to pay extra for the privacy coverage. That way your private information is protected. You’ll want to make sure you purchase your valued domains under your real company or personal name so that if anything ever happens, your domain is protected and nobody can take it away from you. I have seen numerous clients not pay their annual fees and start to process to losing their domain. A few of them actual have and it’s really hard to get it back.
Be fake.
Don’t allow sites like Google and Facebook to build profiles and track your usage. Feed them misinformation to confuse the heck out of them. Don’t store passwords in your browser or in an Excel file (because Microsoft would have access to that). Generate plenty of fake stuff when using these websites. Remember in tech world, you are a trackable, money-making product! So…have some fun with that and stir up the data soup!