ghost.moe
A minimalist guide to digital privacy, security, and anti-censorship.
Welcome to ghost.moe. This guide is meant to help you take control of your digital privacy and security. With more privacy and security, comes less convenience. This is an unfortunate reality. We've broken things down by topic, and each topic has three levels:
- More Convenient: These items will only require a download or checking a box in settings. They shouldn't break anything, be annoying, or slow anything down.
- Balanced: These items can cause some minor things to break, be slightly annoying, or require a change to how you use your devices.
- More Secure/Private: These items will require either technical knowledge, be very annoying, require serious planning, cause things to slow down, break things, or require a large amount of effort.
🕵️♂️ Threat Modeling
The most important thing to consider when you are worried about privacy and security is your threat model. Who are you trying to hide your data from? If you only need to hide your data from your family, you may just need to delete your browser history. If you are trying to hide your data from governments and corporations, you will have to do quite a bit more work than just deleting your browser history. Come up with your threat model, and think about the tools that this adversary has at their disposal. Keep your threat model in mind when going through this guide.
🧭 Web Browsing
Your web browser is typically one of the most used programs on your system. Taking steps to lock down your web browser will greatly increase your privacy.
Switch to Brave or Firefox
Brave is easier out of the box. Firefox can be configured to be more private than Brave.
Use DuckDuckGo instead of Google.
DuckDuckGo does not track your searches or browsing history.
Use Tor Browser for all sensitive browsing.
Tor is the gold standard browser for privacy and anti-censorship. It will be very slow, however.
🦊 Firefox Configuration
If you are using Firefox these settings could be enabled to make it more private/secure. Otherwise, skip this section.
Enable "Tell websites not to sell or share my data"
Note: Websites do not have to adhere to this request.
Enable "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed"
This will make it harder to track you between sessions.
Disable "Ask to save passwords"
If someone gets access to your computer they can't find your passwords saved in your browser.
Disable all "Autofill" settings
If someone gets access to your computer they can't find your information saved in your browser.
Disable all "Firefox data collection"
Minimize the data collected on you, even from products you trust.
Enable "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement"
Controversial explaination coming soon
Enable "HTTPS-only mode in all windows"
Forces encryption between you and the website you visit. Can show a warning message if the website doesn't support HTTPS.
Enable "DNS over HTTPS (Increased Protection)"
This prevents someone on your local network from seeing what websites you are visiting.
Install an adblocker like uBlock Origin
Ads can be used to track you across websites or give your computer malware.
Enable "DNS over HTTPS (Max Protection)"
This can cause warning pages to show up before using insecure DNS.
Enable "Always use private browsing mode"
This will log you out of everything and erase your history after closing the browser. This is very useful on shared computers or on laptops that could easily be stolen.
Enable "Strict tracking protection"
Note: This could cause some websites to break.
📱 Phones
Most people carry their phone everywhere they go. This can be used to track you.
Disable personalized ads in iOS or Android settings.
Android: Settings > Google > Ads > Turn off "Ad Personalization"
iOS: Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising > Turn off Personalized Ads
Manage app permissions.
Set location permissions to “While using the app” or “Ask every time”. Disable microphone and camera access for non-essential apps. Disable system-wide location when not needed.
Remove unused apps.
Apps can run in the background even if you are not using them.
Use a pin or password to unlock your phone.
In some jurisdictions you can be required to unlock your phone with your fingerprint or face, but not with a pin or password.
Use open-source apps from F-Droid.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Limit app permissions manually.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Install a custom ROM like GrapheneOS or LineageOS.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Avoid all Google services.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
🔐 Accounts
Use strong and unique passwords for every account.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Enable password managers like Bitwarden or 1Password.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) where available.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Avoid using social logins (Google, Facebook).
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Use pseudonyms and email aliases.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Segment identities for different activities.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
🛡️ Two-Factor Authentication
Enable 2FA using SMS or email.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Use TOTP apps like Aegis or Authy.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Use hardware tokens like YubiKey or Nitrokey.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
🛰️ VPN
Use any reputable no-log VPN service.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Use VPNs based in privacy-friendly jurisdictions.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.
Self-host your own VPN using WireGuard.
This will be expanded text describing why you should do the above, in more detail.