Steps to privacy

It took me a while of listening to a number of podcasts, reading a few (short) books and the usual trolling articles and forums before I started to piece together what it was that I wanted to take on in terms of privacy changes.

I started a list (as I usually do!) of the various things that I might want to start looking at and, over time, reorganised it into a bit of a personal privacy plan.

Now, the thought did strike me fairly early on that a blog post about privacy, that details how I have planned how to stay private is a little ironic. So, some of the details are a little vague below and this mainly details the general categories that I’ve been looking to try and improve.

Documents

At this point I was reasonably well organised with my documents, notes, and other electronic files, but I wasn’t very private with it all. I used OneNote predominantly for note taking and storage, OneDrive for all file syncing, as well as Google Drive for a number of other things too. Things were mostly in one place and sorted/filed, but they were still using a third-party platform that was known for going through personal data. So this was one area that I needed to improve on.

File encryption wasn’t something that I had used before, and this was at the forefront of most of the conversations around document privacy. So, I started off with a well known, open source encryption software: VeraCrypt. Once I got over the initial jargon jump, it was easy to use and work into everyday use! I have it on my work computer, home computer and laptop so that I can get access to my files wherever I need, which means a lot more piece of mind! Especially since, after ditching cloud storage, I was carrying my frequently used files on a USB drive.

Online accounts

As part of the plan below, I wanted to purge every online account that I could get my hands on and seriously think about all the ones that I used for various services, to see if I actually wanted to keep them, especially with this new focus on privacy. In the end I got rid of a lot of them, checking each of them as I went through and updated my email addresses.

In some cases I completely deleted the existing account and resigned up using the new email address that I’d allocated for that service.

Privacy plan

Account security

  • 2FA token app
    • One of the few apps that I keep on my phone is a 2FA token generator app. Amusingly, most sites or places where I use 2FA (everywhere I can!) reference the requirement for the Google Authenticator app specifically. I never clicked previously (because I used to use it) but it’s very specific in using that app but it actually makes zero difference, you can use whatever one you want.
  • Yubikey
    • Binance
    • Bitwarden <- Upgrade to premium Bitwarden required
    • Microsoft (doesn’t work for logging in. Not simply anyway)

Backups

  • Backup system:
    • 1x Daily use (size: small):
      • For copying photos on to/from
      • For daily notes
      • Local Calendar file
      • Software:
        • VeraCrypt (portable)
        • Markdown editor
      • RSA keys (only keys for current project)
      • For daily music
      • Travel documents (when required)
    • 1x Travel (size: small):
      • Development notes
      • RSA keys
    • 3x Main backup: PC files, docs and photos backup (size: large):
      • PC encrypted drive backup
      • Separate encrypted hard drive backup
      • Offsite encrypted backup
    • 2x Media backup (size: large):
      • Music
      • Podcasts
      • Movies
      • Series

Calendar

  • Protonmail Calendar

Contacts

  • Currently stored in Protonmail, but would rather use a contact manager
  • I’ve exported into a usable file format and will be building an encrypted database for local use only (not online)

Documents

  • Cloud storage:
    • Convert all OneNote files to .md
    • Organise into daily notes and reference notes
    • Delete cloud storage accounts
  • Encryption:
    • Download and setup VeraCrypt
    • Set up encrypted volumes on the USB drives above
  • Markdown:
    • Use markdown for all the things (it’s amazing)
    • Convert as many notes and files to markdown
    • Markdown viewer: Dillinger.io
  • Photos:
    • Put on encrypted volume
    • Get off of cloud storage as soon as possible
    • Backup!

Email

  • Removing old email provider:
    • Save any emails I want to keep
    • Delete all emails
    • Setup forwarding to new accounts through SimpleLogin
  • Alias
    • Use SimpleLogin wherever possible
      • Can use for free with one mailbox and 15 alias'
  • Addresses:
    • One for family and friends only (maybe not even that much)
    • One for developer related things: GitHub, development related sites, hosting, etc
    • One for permanent online accounts
    • One for temporary and all other things

Money

  • Online only
    • Keep balance at $0
    • For all online purchases where I can’t mask the card
    • Used only when prepaid isn’t an option
  • Incoming
    • Incoming money only and main savings bucket
    • Don’t use the card
    • Don’t use for bills
  • Spending
    • For non-bills
    • Keep a small amount loaded
    • Can use for whilst out and about

Online accounts

  • Find all accounts using old email address and cancel
    • Over 100 old and unused online accounts have been deleted! Crazy…

Phone

  • Burnerapp.com seems to do temporary phone numbers
  • Remove as many applications on phone as possible
  • Get phone VPN
  • Change to Linux phone if possible
    • Convert to GrapheneOS if not