TheTwelveYearOld

This is straightforward with browser addons like uBlock Origin where you can add and choose blocklists, but I did searches for doing so system wide and using a VPN but didn't find clear answers. I could use a DNS service that provides blocklists but isn't it best practice to leave DNS to the VPN provider? I looked up blocklists and VPNs but didn't find relevant results.

On Android, I didn't find any apps that let you filter blocklists and using your own VPN other than Rethink, but the blocklists feature requires using Rethink's DNS.

So what's the best way to filter ads and trackers on both 3rd party apps and on OS's like Android (specific Samsung phones) while still using a VPN?

I've had a Galaxy S22+ for 2 years and still want to use it. When I look up how to maximize privacy on Android, many results say to install custom ROMs which I can't since its a US model and the bootloader is locked. I just want to minimize tracking and sharing of personal information. I could use a firewall app like RethinkDNS to block trackers, but could I completely block tracking from Google and Samsung? Are there any lists of packages to uninstall to improve privacy? (I've used ADB to remove a bunch of bloatware. Ex: pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.arzone)

Like when I read 3 Billion National Public Data Records with SSNs, Addresses Dumped Online, am I supposed to access that data dump or something to see if I got pwned? Are there equivalents to haveibeenpwned.com for this type of stuff? Any guides on what to do when these happen? I feel like I'm doomscrolling or watching the news, and feeling depressed about the world as a result because I should be doing something but I can't or it seems like I can't.

Even though I know better than to put such personal info online, but that doesn't eliminate the odds of them getting into breaches like these, and having started to be careful about digital privacy has opened my eyes to the sad state of privacy.

I tried looking for lists but didn't find any.

The Work Number is US-specific and where your employers input your salary data for future employers to see. You can opt out here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze/.

One example would be state disability programs, they already need my real name and identity to work with me. Are there any downsides to sharing a simplelogin alias containing my real name vs no containing my real name? I just think it would be easier record keeping for them.

I just tried changing my email on studentaid.gov to a simplelogin alias (using SL is a habit at this point) and I got notifications that emails from it were bounced while trying to verify the email change with sent codes. I looked it up and found a bunch of Reddit posts about issues with SL and iCloud.

I want to keep a timeline of the places I go like Google Maps can, and export it to mac for my diary*. The maps app doesn't have to be great, it just needs to keep a timeline in the background, I would still use Apple Maps as my main navigation app.

*(ideally I can automatically export it somehow, perhaps with the Shortcuts and Scriptable app but just tell me any apps with a timeline and export feature)

That's a use case for aliases, catching if any company or service gives out your email to be abused by advertisers and whatnot. I tried looking for stories but didn't find any, I wonder if you have any to share.

I want to be logged in so I can do most things on Reddit like post and comment. I want it to be a web frontend rather than an app because I keep many tabs on Reddit open in my browser while doing research on things (like digital privacy for instance!). I did some searching and didn't find any currently working frontends with login support.

It seems like the main benefit of such frontends is the lack of trackers and fingerprinting, but what if the browser, like Firefox, already did that with UBlock Origin and fingerprinting protection?

It's now been two weeks since I created an account and tried making a post, but immediately so I got a message saying my account is on hold. I tried emailing Jonah Aragon who's listed on the site, and messaging the mods on the forum, but still haven't heard back. Any ideas for what to do? This is really annoying.

Solution: I came up with this uBlock Origin filter rule: startpage.com$removeparam=/abp|lui/, I started by removing all the paramters and then took them out one by one while testing if searches made on startpage.com worked with them: startpage.com$removeparam=/abp|t|lui|sc|cat/. I also got a response from u/SPSupport that the paramters don't show when I search from the URL bar with my search engine set to https://www.startpage.com/sp/search?query=%s, which I did.

I want to be able to see the search query in the URL, and have a URL that I can always go back to if I restart my browser. I set the HTTP request method in settings to GET instead of POST since that shows the query, but it adds a bunch of extra paramters:

• The URL I want: https://www.startpage.com/sp/search?query=wizard+of+oz
• The URL I get: https://www.startpage.com/sp/search?query=wizard+of+oz&abp=1&t=device&lui=english&sc=evp2qxFIy8iZ00&cat=web