I had no idea that my foray into digital gardening thanks 01 - 🪴 My Digital Garden, 🌿 Getting off the algorithm, would lead to this, but I now am feeling called to digitally prep, so to speak.
Here’s a plan to de-google my life, with the goal of not allowing surveillance capitalism (this is a working goal, obviously difficicult to get 100% correct - its the vector not the point), regaining my autonomy not only digitally, but generally, and reacting to the world chaning, and the non zero chance of real doomsday scenarios.
Here’s the plan. Hopefully I’ll write a ‘prepping guide’ one day - thats the hope anyway.
I’ve realized that I am extremely vulnerable to corporations taking my data. Big time. I use google for everything, i churn credit card points, sign up for loyalty programs, and almost never use a VPN, because - why bother? My data is already there, and the convenience it creates isnt so bad right?
Somehow, recently I’ve found the day to day surveillance becoming creepier and creepier. I’ll have to write on that more - maybe its a thing I can add to Why I don’t use Amazon
Privacy vs secrecy - walking around town anonymously vs walking around town invisibly.
DeGoogling:
Easiest cherries to pick (Identity Siloing):
- Email Separation - maybe even create your own domain that each email is for something different. Maybe that domain is blockchain. Let’s go nuts.
- Browser separation - brave, tor, mullvad, duckduckgo, librewolf, firefox - all for different sections of my life. Use Kagi or duckduckgo for search engine - META search
- Password Manager: offline is best, but different company from everyone else
- YubiKeys: 2 factor authentication that is real.
Higher hanging fruits:
- VPN. Actually easy, just not as highly effective.
- Privacy DNS resolver
- Build offline cloud storage (NAS)
- Crypto wallet (duh, why is this taking me so long)
- meshtastic network for K and I (how did i only just learn of this?)
Stretch Goals:
- Be able to use hardware to create devices that do things for me instead of me paying a subscription. Because subscriptions tie you to the ecosystem. And create dependance.
Identity Siloing
Tor Browser → anonymous research (medical, legal queries NO ACCOUNTS here) Brave → everyday browsing Mullvad Browser → financial + personal accounts Firefox (profile) with UBlockOrigin → work / OSU Gmail LibreWolf → experimental / unknown links
| Identity | Uses | Browser | Bookmarks | KEEPassXC database |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon State | COLDEX, univeristy Grants | Firefox compartment with UBlock | work passwords | |
| Financial Identity | Banking, RealEstate, Insurance, taxes | Mullvad Browser | ||
| Casual Personal Identity | Firends and family, | |||
| Throwaway ID | random signups, shopping | Brave | ||
| Creative Projects () | Blog, Bluesky, Threads, | Brave | ||
| Anonymous research | deliberate anonymous research | Tor | ||
| Paypal | Mullvad |