Let’s start with a few caveats.
Following this guidance will not protect you if you are personally targeted by law enforcement or a foreign national intelligence agency. If it’s law enforcement, don’t even think about it. If it’s a foreign intelligence agency, don’t make it too easy.
I’ve written these posts from the perspective of a U.S. citizen, but the guidance broadly applies. Outside of the U.S., law and regulation may constrain implementation of some of this guidance. It’s up to you to stay within the law in the locality where you live.
Read the privacy statements for products and services that you use. Yes, it’s painful. Read them anyway. And consider opting-out of further data sharing by the service. This is often possible.
The information in these posts should be current as of the date of the post. Things change, but a web search should take you to the most current information.
Take one step at a time. Don’t change everything at once. Work with a new product or process until you get used to it, and before you make another significant change. You may find it useful to write down what you changed just in case you decide to return to a prior configuration.
In some instances, reducing threats to your privacy also reduces the convenience of using a product or service. Ultimately, you must choose the balance of privacy and convenience that’s right for you.
Information provided in this post is subject to the disclaimer in the first post of this series.