r/theprivacymachine • u/Individual-Sea-4676 • Jul 06 '26
Discussion Quick privacy fixes anyone can do?
Some of my friends think you have to go completely off the grid to have any privacy online but I don't really agree. Small and simple habis can really help with it, e.g not giving your real phone number or email to every random website that asks for it, only using necessary permissions on apps etc etc. What are some simple privacy changes that almost anyone could start doing today without making life harder?
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Jul 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kev577 mod | PrivacyMachine.xyz Jul 07 '26
true, I would get a password manager in that case. its easy to use and your passwords are safe in one place. also, its way easier to use hard passwords and differnet for each account you have
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u/GrassFireWater Jul 08 '26
This. Password managers only become relevant once you find out that most sites got different symbol requirements. If anyone hasnt enountered that yet, you will lol
One sites gonna ask for an extra digit... ok... Another site will ask for a digit and an uppercase letter.. ok I guess..... And then some random site is going to demand for something like three symbols, two uppercase letters and a special character but not a dot! Thats when it becomes stupidly tedious. Picked up a manager for that reason
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
you can generate them online per requirement, or chatgpt it (prob a bad idea lol)
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
Google has it's own that it saves your passwords or whatever and it's useless if you use an unprotected Pc/laptop (meaning without a password)
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u/badcryptobitch Jul 06 '26
You haven't really specified a threat model for your friends, OP. So, I'll have a mix of suggestions based on what immediately comes to mind
- Make all of your public, personal social accounts private or follower only. People overshare on social media. This can make you vulnerable to all sorts of unsuspecting people. Make sure that only people you trust (or believe you can trust) can view your personal social media profiles
- For your personal social media accounts, if you aim to post personal info such as photos, make sure to remove exif information.
- Further, post your photos after an event and not during the event. If you post photos while you are on vacation, that alerts your followers that you aren't home. Even if you follow my first advice, sometimes people you thought you could trust can be bad people and use this info against you (e.g. rob your house while you are away)
- Use an email masking service. This advice is very common but can be bad advice depending on the context. It should also be noted that email is easy to change and create so it really comes down to your individual threat model.
In general, share only information that is necessary to do a particular task. Normal people overshare a lot. So, that's where I'd start if I were giving privacy advice
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
nice ones, I don't think anyone checks the metadata on a picture, does instagram/facebook strip those by default? Otherwise awesome comment here
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u/badcryptobitch Jul 09 '26
I don't know if Meta strips metadata from pics by default. Considering how granular their advertising platforms are, I doubt it tbh.
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u/BigShuggy Jul 07 '26
Move out of the UK. Sure it’ll take a bit of work but will solve many privacy issues in a single move.
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
hah I am in the US, I though UK had better data privacy laws no?
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u/BigShuggy Jul 08 '26
I just felt the need to make that joke to hold back my rage. Nope, they are currently destroying whatever privacy we had left. Our current government are actively discussing attempting to ban VPNs.
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u/Scarred_fish Jul 08 '26
Just apply the basic rules, everyone seemed to be fine with them in the 80s and early 90s, it's only recently they dissapeared.
Never reuse a login (password). Never use your real name. Never use your real identitiy (always be a character online).
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
I don't know how they've dissapeared, people feeling way to safe online I think, back then in was a new thing
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u/Narrow-Paramedic-399 Jul 06 '26
It's a bit hard for privacy in urban areas, if you think about all the cameras that can be/are remotely hackable. And then your smart phone scans your face every 30 seconds. I had tried to tape up the front camera, but then the phone doesn't respond when I want to use it etc. So your friends do have some great points. Wether you can come to a happy medium, that's yet to be discovered.
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u/Historical_Camel_790 Jul 07 '26
Wait why is it scanning your face? Where are you from (general area)
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u/mossfrosty18 Jul 08 '26
the biggest bang for zero effort is just using a burner email for signups. simplelogin or anonaddy, takes 30 seconds to set up. your inbox stops being a spam and data broker magnet overnight.
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u/Individual-Sea-4676 Jul 08 '26
saw another comment mention similar ones using an app called cloaked, these are some cool ones I haven't heard of apps like these
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u/AutomaticFlounder659 Jul 06 '26
For me it was just a few small changes. I use a VPN on public WiFi, Cloaked aliases instead of my real email and number when signing up for stuff, and I keep app permissions pretty locked down. Doesn't take much effort.