Help with Privacy
-
Ive just startee getting into privacy, but i had a few questions.
- I havent switched operating system yet due to fear of losing my data. I have a lot of pictures, contacts and messages i dont want to go missing. I have a one plus and i really love it. I do not want a pixel phone. Is there a way i can maintain privacy without changing phones?
- If i delete google play services, will my phone not work correctly?
- I have been replacing my apps with open source apps, is that helpful?
- What vpn should i use? I have malewarebytes.
netGuard to control which app connects to which site and which apps are blocked ☞ https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.faircode.netguard/ or https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard
-
You're well on your way to making some really good choices. I also have to ask, are you using a password manager already? And if so, which one are you using? I use keepassxc on linux and keepassdx (from fdroid) on android and sync the database with a flash drive. I don't trust any clouds, and so I don't have any of my files on clouds. Also, are you using Monero yet?
How does a password manager work? I never understood it. I dont want to mess up my password to where im locked out of those accounts. And i also want to be able to remember my password because ive been signing out of accounts. If i dont remember the password and i wont be able to use my accounts. Source: its happened before. And what happens if someone steals the password manager and gets all your passwords? My cousin is one of those weird people who created a unique password for every account and writes them in book. And im like what of someone steals the book? Like what if someome steals the flash drive.
Am i thinking too much into this?I havent used monero. Im also afriad of crypto. Can you tell me more?!?! I would love to start but i dont know anything about it.
-
netGuard to control which app connects to which site and which apps are blocked ☞ https://f-droid.org/packages/eu.faircode.netguard/ or https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard
-
How does a password manager work? I never understood it. I dont want to mess up my password to where im locked out of those accounts. And i also want to be able to remember my password because ive been signing out of accounts. If i dont remember the password and i wont be able to use my accounts. Source: its happened before. And what happens if someone steals the password manager and gets all your passwords? My cousin is one of those weird people who created a unique password for every account and writes them in book. And im like what of someone steals the book? Like what if someome steals the flash drive.
Am i thinking too much into this?I havent used monero. Im also afriad of crypto. Can you tell me more?!?! I would love to start but i dont know anything about it.
So the entire point of a password manager is to give each website a unique password so that if one password gets compromised, your passwords for every other site are not compromised. Based on current computing power, each password you have for an online service really should be about 20 characters and totally unique and random. And for a human, that's basically impossible to accomplish. So what you do is have the password manager do that work for you and then you have one master password which accesses the password manager database. By doing so, you only have to remember two passwords. One password is to actually log into your system, such as your Linux login password, and the other is to log into your database on your password manager, which then has all of your other passwords. What I do for backing my password database up is that my primary computing device is my phone and so my password manager lives on my phone and once every three months I copy that password database to two separate flash drives in two separate physical locations. I then also copy it to my laptop. So I have two computing devices with the password manager file and two flash drives with the password manager file which are in separate locations. Even if someone were to steal the password manager database file off of one of my flash drives or something like that, they would still need the database password in order to access it. And I've made mine over 20 characters long, so no computer is going to be able to crack it unless it's a quantum computer, which do not currently exist.
If you are able to manage online banking, then you will be able to manage Monero. The main difference between your online bank account and Monero is that if you lose your wallet seed phrase, it's not recoverable. Unlike your bank account, where you can give them ID and your identification numbers and get your password reset. That is yet again another good reason to put your seed phrase in a password manager so that you can't lose it. My personal suggestion would be the monero.com wallet made by cake wallet. Cake wallet offers multiple cryptos where monero.com only offers monero. Monero is digital cash. So you should get some and spend it on food and other such necessities and then get some more to replace it. Just like you would bills in your pocket. In terms of fiat currency, it will fluctuate because it is another currency. Just like how the euro will fluctuate in value against the US dollar, etc. In order to avoid that problem, it is best to fiat cost average where no matter what the current price says it is in your fiat currency, you're always going to put X amount of fiat currency in it per month. So you might say, I'm always going to put $10 into it no matter what the price is. And that will help to smooth out the volatility compared to the fiat currency. You can also check out places like XMRbazaar.com, which offer goods and services for Monero, or even my store at https://xmrbazaar.com/user/AuroraGeneralStore where I sell items for Monero and keep the prices stable over long periods of time so that you know what to expect.
-
So the entire point of a password manager is to give each website a unique password so that if one password gets compromised, your passwords for every other site are not compromised. Based on current computing power, each password you have for an online service really should be about 20 characters and totally unique and random. And for a human, that's basically impossible to accomplish. So what you do is have the password manager do that work for you and then you have one master password which accesses the password manager database. By doing so, you only have to remember two passwords. One password is to actually log into your system, such as your Linux login password, and the other is to log into your database on your password manager, which then has all of your other passwords. What I do for backing my password database up is that my primary computing device is my phone and so my password manager lives on my phone and once every three months I copy that password database to two separate flash drives in two separate physical locations. I then also copy it to my laptop. So I have two computing devices with the password manager file and two flash drives with the password manager file which are in separate locations. Even if someone were to steal the password manager database file off of one of my flash drives or something like that, they would still need the database password in order to access it. And I've made mine over 20 characters long, so no computer is going to be able to crack it unless it's a quantum computer, which do not currently exist.
If you are able to manage online banking, then you will be able to manage Monero. The main difference between your online bank account and Monero is that if you lose your wallet seed phrase, it's not recoverable. Unlike your bank account, where you can give them ID and your identification numbers and get your password reset. That is yet again another good reason to put your seed phrase in a password manager so that you can't lose it. My personal suggestion would be the monero.com wallet made by cake wallet. Cake wallet offers multiple cryptos where monero.com only offers monero. Monero is digital cash. So you should get some and spend it on food and other such necessities and then get some more to replace it. Just like you would bills in your pocket. In terms of fiat currency, it will fluctuate because it is another currency. Just like how the euro will fluctuate in value against the US dollar, etc. In order to avoid that problem, it is best to fiat cost average where no matter what the current price says it is in your fiat currency, you're always going to put X amount of fiat currency in it per month. So you might say, I'm always going to put $10 into it no matter what the price is. And that will help to smooth out the volatility compared to the fiat currency. You can also check out places like XMRbazaar.com, which offer goods and services for Monero, or even my store at https://xmrbazaar.com/user/AuroraGeneralStore where I sell items for Monero and keep the prices stable over long periods of time so that you know what to expect.
-
Thank you for your response!
I'll give a password manager a try! Which one do you recommend?Monero is interesting, ill take a look! Should i be using tor with it?
I suggest keepassxc on desktop and keepassdx on android. If you are an iphone user keepassium is pretty good (mom approved).
As for whether you should be using Monero with Tor. You don't have to, and it's a lot slower if you do, but you do get some benefits if you do in certain scenarios.
I run my own local node which has a copy of the blockchain so that I don't have to trust anyone except for myself and do not have access to a static IPv4 or IPv6 address and so I host my node as a Tor hidden service. By doing so, I can access my own personal node from anywhere in the world, no matter what network I'm on. And again, since I trust myself, I know that I'm getting correct data. By default, Monero.com and Cake Wallet use the Cake Wallet nodes and they are a rather trustworthy entity. So I would feel safe recommending just using them until you become more advanced and want to run your own. If you access the nodes through Tor, then obviously they won't know your IP address. Whereas if you don't access them through Tor, they would know your IP where you connect from. And it's really up to you to determine whether that's a problem for you or not. If you already use a VPN, you could just use that as well.
-
- Thank you so much! Ill see what i can download. Lineage os is not avaliable for my specific one plus phone. I'll check with some other ones.
- I wanted to delete because thats how google mostly tracks people. Is there another system processes i should delete?
- Makes sense! Ive been changing them to make sure my data isnt taken.
- Yikes i didnt know that. I also use malewarebytes for antivirus so i just started using their vpn. So i paid for it, so i hope they arent bad actors...
antivirus software is, most of the time, spyware.
it shouldnt be needed on android anyway, if you keep it updated and don't sideload stuff.
-
antivirus software is, most of the time, spyware.
it shouldnt be needed on android anyway, if you keep it updated and don't sideload stuff.
Yikesss. Ill discontinue it. I definitely got a few viruses on my computer back in the day. And i sail the high seas from time to time, so i dont want to get any foolishness from that.
I also do not update my device on time. Usually when i updaye my phone or windows computer, something be wrong with it for several weeks, so ive stopped updating them until it force updates. Do you why that is?
-
I suggest keepassxc on desktop and keepassdx on android. If you are an iphone user keepassium is pretty good (mom approved).
As for whether you should be using Monero with Tor. You don't have to, and it's a lot slower if you do, but you do get some benefits if you do in certain scenarios.
I run my own local node which has a copy of the blockchain so that I don't have to trust anyone except for myself and do not have access to a static IPv4 or IPv6 address and so I host my node as a Tor hidden service. By doing so, I can access my own personal node from anywhere in the world, no matter what network I'm on. And again, since I trust myself, I know that I'm getting correct data. By default, Monero.com and Cake Wallet use the Cake Wallet nodes and they are a rather trustworthy entity. So I would feel safe recommending just using them until you become more advanced and want to run your own. If you access the nodes through Tor, then obviously they won't know your IP address. Whereas if you don't access them through Tor, they would know your IP where you connect from. And it's really up to you to determine whether that's a problem for you or not. If you already use a VPN, you could just use that as well.
Thanks so much! Im gonna give those a try! I probably wont be fancy enough to back them up with a flash drive. I should tho.
Yep definitely not smart enough to do that yet
I'll have to stick with retoswap or buying it through the actual website. Im gonna get a different vpn based on all these comments. Im gonna try mullvad, is that good one? -
Thanks so much! Im gonna give those a try! I probably wont be fancy enough to back them up with a flash drive. I should tho.
Yep definitely not smart enough to do that yet
I'll have to stick with retoswap or buying it through the actual website. Im gonna get a different vpn based on all these comments. Im gonna try mullvad, is that good one?I have not used mullvad myself, but i have heard from others that they are a good choice
-
Yikesss. Ill discontinue it. I definitely got a few viruses on my computer back in the day. And i sail the high seas from time to time, so i dont want to get any foolishness from that.
I also do not update my device on time. Usually when i updaye my phone or windows computer, something be wrong with it for several weeks, so ive stopped updating them until it force updates. Do you why that is?
quality control on these updates are honestly on a downhill. especially on windows and some android manufacturers.
they are stil necessary to keep your computer safe though, but you don't need to install them immediatly. i usually wait a bit until they had time to retract them if they break something big.
-
quality control on these updates are honestly on a downhill. especially on windows and some android manufacturers.
they are stil necessary to keep your computer safe though, but you don't need to install them immediatly. i usually wait a bit until they had time to retract them if they break something big.
Makes sense, i always ignore them until necesary. My cousin alwat told me to never let the computer update. Hes a programmer and i didnt know why.
How often do they update another android distros like graphene and lineage? Like at similar intervals?
-
I have not used mullvad myself, but i have heard from others that they are a good choice
-
Makes sense, i always ignore them until necesary. My cousin alwat told me to never let the computer update. Hes a programmer and i didnt know why.
How often do they update another android distros like graphene and lineage? Like at similar intervals?
told me to never let the computer update
probably beause sometimes, they sneak in stuff we may not want with updates. totally undersand him.
graphene and lineage
every few days, or every day on some devices.
but i update it every month or so and its good enough. alternative, open source software wont really come with garbage anyway, so its more about whats convenient to you.
-
I already have a proton account, so I have access to proton VPN. Otherwise i most likely would
-
told me to never let the computer update
probably beause sometimes, they sneak in stuff we may not want with updates. totally undersand him.
graphene and lineage
every few days, or every day on some devices.
but i update it every month or so and its good enough. alternative, open source software wont really come with garbage anyway, so its more about whats convenient to you.
Yep thats why my windows taskbar doesnt hide anymore. They messed it up on one of the updates. So frustrating.
Makes sense. I do want to try the open source software!
People say graphene is the best but im not buying a pixel when i love my one plus. And the way people say the battery life is digusting
Linegage ive heard good things about. But they dont have one for my oneplus device. And im afraid of not having my shit backed up.
I just want to try degoogling without resetting my device! -
I already have a proton account, so I have access to proton VPN. Otherwise i most likely would
-
Yep thats why my windows taskbar doesnt hide anymore. They messed it up on one of the updates. So frustrating.
Makes sense. I do want to try the open source software!
People say graphene is the best but im not buying a pixel when i love my one plus. And the way people say the battery life is digusting
Linegage ive heard good things about. But they dont have one for my oneplus device. And im afraid of not having my shit backed up.
I just want to try degoogling without resetting my device!you can start by replacing the apps you already use. don't need to overwhelm yourself and do it all at once.
replacing chrome for firefox is a good place to start.
it will depend on what you are using and how. some things are hard to replace, some has multiple better alternatives.
-
you can start by replacing the apps you already use. don't need to overwhelm yourself and do it all at once.
replacing chrome for firefox is a good place to start.
it will depend on what you are using and how. some things are hard to replace, some has multiple better alternatives.
Yepp! Firefox was an easy change. I use it on my computer!
I love the helioboard. But i feel like im making a bunch of spelling mistakes with it
Thats truu. I do not like sms alternatives, any recomendations? Im currently using quik and i dont like how clunky it is. It looks weird.Yeah i need to take it easy i just want to change everything all at once
I changed my notes app, calendar app, keyboard, clock app and sms all on the same day -
Yepp! Firefox was an easy change. I use it on my computer!
I love the helioboard. But i feel like im making a bunch of spelling mistakes with it
Thats truu. I do not like sms alternatives, any recomendations? Im currently using quik and i dont like how clunky it is. It looks weird.Yeah i need to take it easy i just want to change everything all at once
I changed my notes app, calendar app, keyboard, clock app and sms all on the same dayi dont use sms a lot, so i dont have a good rec here. i just need one that can block the spam.
