Privacy is a fundamental human need, and is instructive to ask anyone who disagrees with this if they prefer to have doors protecting their bathroom space while showering in the morning. Although of course, privacy is not a binary system, there are degrees of it that we should be afforded, and that are worth protecting.

However, in our modern software and tech climate, many of us have begun to accept that this is no longer a thorough possibility. Many homeowners now welcome voice assistants in their home, which have been theorized to listen to conversations and track certain words in order to recommend products on your social media timeline. The veracity of such claims is undecided.

The truth is that anyone who wishes for complete privacy while still integrating with modern tech norms and devices will have to ensure a capable degree of technological know-how. Most people simply accept that some baseline measures they can use to stop software fingerprinting their identities for advertising metrics is as good as they get. But how can you get there? In this post, we’ll discuss that and more:

Social Media Management

Of course, social media is one of the platforms upon which many people feel comfortable sharing details about their personal lives. It’s worth reviewing this approach depending on your needs. For instance, activating two-factor authentication and only using an authenticator app rather than an SMS message for that is useful, and can heavily improve account security. Additionally, grading your privacy settings so that you’re private to only friends, uncoupling your profile from indexed search results, and making sure you care about the visibility of each post you make is a worthwhile use of your time.

Decentralized/Private Mail

Decentralized and private mail services can provide you with complete privacy and also uncouples your own mail necessities from platforms that you may not be able to trust. This is how blockchain-focused alternatives such as the dmail network exist. Such an option can help you overcome privacy concerns, the worries of data ownership, and advertisement overload. With high-level data security, options that run counter to even the privacy-focused Protonmail can grant you more in the way of user privilege. It’s worth considering your options.

Uncouple Optional Tracking Settings

While many free software suites will track your metadata in order to make you a profitable customer, it’s true that to a certain extent, you can limit this. For instance, preventing the tracking and location options in Windows can be a worthwhile place to start. With your mobile phones, such as your iPhone, dictating the user access each application is provided has become a new user-focused possibility rolled out in subsequent software updates. Novice tech users of this nature can understand these concepts and enact them capably, as well as remaining aware of questionable players on the market such as the TikTok application, known for its intrusive data requests.

With this advice, we believe you’ll figure out just how “private” a novice tech user can be online. This is a good start for any, especially as it relates to caring about privacy rights.