Personal Safety in a Digital World

Last updated Feb. 2025

So. You want to take steps to make yourself or your family more safe from digital dangers, but you aren't really sure how to go about it. Maybe you've seen resources on this, but they don't seem aimed at you. They might have a lot of info, but they don't teach you how to prioritize, or how to start.

This webpage is a place to start.

This page swings back and forth between things to understand and things to act on.

Explanations will be kept as short as possible. They will rely on links for you to follow if you don't understand or aren't convinced. Actions will be in the form of commands; some will be simple, some will have links to guides. The further you get, the harder the actions get; you will have to be learning as you go.

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Stage 1 - Getting Started

1. Understand: You are being surveilled.
   Several of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world rely on highly invasive surveillance of as many people as possible. Governments follow roughly the same playbook, and countless smaller corporations, special interest groups, and criminal organizations follow it too. They all do this because it works.
   Privacy issues are involved in nearly every digital safety problem there is, from identity theft to propaganda. You might not understand yet how "your data" can be weaponized against you. Do not let this stop you from taking steps to protect yourself and your loved ones. Privacy is a pillar of safety.
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2. Understand: Knowledge is power, and convenience is a trap.
   The best antidote to surveillance technologies is knowledge about what the devices around you are doing - and how and why they do it. Be suspicious of shiny prepackaged "solutions" that don't encourage you to look under the hood. As you learn the way things work and migrate away from things that work against you, you will find yourself more able to make things work for you.
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3. Understand: You can make a difference.
   Perfect security is not possible, and perfect privacy is not the goal. Different people face different risks and dangers. You don't need to learn all the risks and solutions before you take real, beneficial action. No matter who you are, thoughtful, serious, incremental steps will reduce risk and make you more safe.
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4. Act: On your computer, install and use Mozilla Firefox as your main web browser. There are other options that prioritize your privacy and your control of your devices, but Firefox is the "old reliable" solution. Come back to this webpage in Firefox.
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5. Act: Inside of Firefox, change your default search engine to DuckDuckGo. Here is a guide.
   Why: "Personalized" internet search engines are one of the major tools for surveillance and one of the most powerful tools for manipulating your online behavior. You need to be able to filter online content down to just what you care about, but you need it to happen in a way you can see, understand, control, and occasionally turn off.
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6. Act: Inside of Firefox, install the Privacy Badger extension.
   Yes, there are alternatives, but this is the gold-standard anti-surveillance browser addon. (If you have the time, read their FAQ. For now, don't worry about what you don't understand.)
   . . .
7. Act: Inside of Firefox, install the uBlock Origin extension.
   As of 2025, this is the gold-standard general purpose ad-blocker. Why: Privacy Badger may already remove the ads that try to spy on you, but ads are also one of the major carriers of malware and other objectionable content. Use the uBlock Origin settings themselves to selectively 'pause' the adblocker on trustworthy sites - and turn the adblocker back on if your trust is violated.
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8. Act: On your mobile phone, install Signal.
   Clicking this link on your phone should open the installer.
   Why: You should not trust the confidentiality of messages or phone calls that are not end-to-end-encrypted, so use Signal (or an adequate substitute, once you have learned enough) wherever possible, and don't send anything particularly sensitive without first making it possible to use end-to-end-encryption, i.e., but getting the person you are messaging to also install Signal. (We will need to deal with email and other things later).
   . . .
9. Understand: You are being surveilled.
   Several of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world rely on highly invasive surveillance of as many people as possible. Governments follow roughly the same playbook, and countless smaller corporations, special interest groups, and criminal organizations follow it too. They all do this because it works.
   Privacy issues are involved in nearly every digital safety problem there is, from identity theft to propaganda. You might not understand yet how "your data" can be weaponized against you. Do not let this stop you from taking steps to protect yourself and your loved ones. Privacy is a pillar of safety.
   . . .

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