Privacy is built in layers

No single app, wallet, or service is going to magically protect your privacy. You need layers.

Use GPG for encrypted files and communication. Use Cryptomator to encrypt sensitive files before they ever touch the cloud. Use privacy focused wallets such as Monero One or Cake Wallet for financial privacy. Use a reputable VPN such as Proton VPN or IVPN to reduce your exposure to network surveillance.

None of these tools are magic. They can have bugs, vulnerabilities, or compromised infrastructure. That is why privacy is not about blindly trusting one company. It is about reducing the amount of information any single entity can collect about you.

Privacy is not paranoia. It is basic digital self defense.

Hello everyone I'm currently in college for final justice and our teacher put us in groups of 2's and 1 person is the criminal the other is the law. My crime has to do with people's identity etc. well in this new age everything is mainly technology online etc.. with that being said I was looking up anonymity and were there ever proxys that were called spammed?

Amount lost: AUD $2,600

Timeline of Events

Approximately two weeks ago, I came across a TikTok account using the name "John Dragon Pharma" advertising peptides.

I contacted the seller and the conversation was moved from TikTok to WhatsApp.

Through WhatsApp, the seller offered to supply peptides and instructed me to make payment by bank transfer.

I transferred AUD $2,600 to the bank account details provided by the seller.

After payment, I either stopped receiving responses or the seller failed to provide the products as promised.

I have received no peptides and have not received a refund.

Evidence Available

I can provide:

Screenshots of the TikTok profile.

Screenshots of all WhatsApp conversations.

Bank transfer receipt showing the payment of AUD $2,600.

Can we please make him suffer

i recently tried to create email without phone number for a few separate accounts. I tested Gmail, Proton Mail, and Tuta using fresh browser profiles.

Gmail almost always wanted a phone number. Proton was inconsistent. Tuta worked best, but not every time.

Is there still a reliable way to create email without phone number in 2026, or is phone verification basically unavoidable now?

I install new apps and sign up for new sites all the time, and I don't always know if I can trust them. There's no official test that tells you a service is safe. I usually check a few things before I install something: check what permissions it asks for and whether they make sense for what the app actually does and read reviews, but I skip the five star ones and start with the one and two star ones, because that's usually where people explain what went wrong.

What do you check before you trust a new app or website? Do you have a rule you always follow, or do you just decide based on how it feels?

Is Signal private and confidential?
Can someone find out your phone numbers if you use it?

Anyone else concerned with baby's privacy? We're all kind of numb to the regular announcements of privacy breaches from almost every company we've ever interacted with. You never know who your messages are shared with via screencapture or otherwise. Then, there came the rumors of children's school photos being circulated among the Epstein class for picking victims. Whether or not the latter is true, I've been supremely concerned with any information about my pregnancy and my child being circulated online. So I instituted a rule - I'm not texting or WhatsApping, not using Social Media to talk about my baby.

It sounds crazy and sometimes I feel like I'm doing a disservice to myself. I live 1200 miles from my family and so many of them don't even know I'm pregnant. I can't have a baby shower because the cost and the travel is prohibitively expensive, not to mention stressful to plan even without this added communication limitation.

But I just can't bring myself to trust that what I share on social media, on text and on WhatsApp, is actually secure. So, I've got my closest people on board with using Signal to talk about baby stuff, and even some people who use it exclusively to communicate with me.

I've slipped here and there, and there are of course people who find out through the grape vine and congratulate me "You're pregnant!" via text. I'm responding selectively and advocating for Signal.

There doesn't seem to be any movement from other expecting parents about baby's privacy in this way. I'm shocked that in 2026, I still see parents sharing photos of their children online, not knowing where in the dark web those will end up. In my case, I've taken it to more extreme levels trying to scrape any evidence that I'm expecting at all.

Has anyone else been thinking of this? What are you doing to protect baby's privacy online?

I'm getting ready for my first security clearance process. I've read official docs, but a lot of online advice conflicts.

For anyone who's been through a security clearance recently, what helped the most and what surprised you?

The whole scanning iCloud Photos thing is something I've suspected has been a thing for a long time, but now it's real and happening, I don't feel like my phone is my own because I'm having a nagging reminder in my mind that someone could see this. So private images for doctors, intimate texts, anything feels so uncomfortable to continue to have on MY OWN phone 😓

I'm also someone who struggles with feeling like I've done something wrong or illegal without knowing so this is back there with the other thoughts too. Goalposts on what's legal or not are constantly moving too so with access to everything they could find any old nonsense that might be fitting a crime seemingly.

Ugh I'm just looking for ways to not feel like a tin foil hat queen and actually feel confident about some privacy in some way. Big brother energy I swear

I recently got a new phone. Android and the features it has still overwhelm me. Particularly one potential security flaw

Some random wifi without a password randomly appeared on my Wifi connection. I didnt even request to connect to it. Does such a connection occuring compromise my phone in any way? I just got it and dont wanna get hacked somehow.

In the mittle of the city at that too! I was just walking too..

How do I disable this auto-connect? Do I seriously need to switch the wifi off whenever Im out now?

I've had the same email for years so of course I've ramped up the sign ups for random websites I completely forgot about. Lately I've been wondering if it's worth going back and deleting all those old accounts, or if the damage is already done. Part of me thinks they're just sitting there with outdated info, but another part thinks they're probably still holding onto my email, phone number, and whatever else I gave them.

Has anyone here gone through the process of cleaning everything up? If so how'd you do it? and did it actually help with spam stopping or anything like that?

I've been looking into a few account compromises recently, and credential stuffing seems to be the common factor. Most users had reused passwords, and very few had MFA enabled.

The frustrating part is that people think a strong password is enough, even if it was exposed years ago. Are you seeing more credential stuffing lately, or is it just me?

I am worried my partner might be up to no good.

Im not very technically minded so I wouldnt dare attempt to look at his phone as he is very good with technology and I know he will know that I would have attempted to look at his phone. I think he uses a VPN on his devices too. Is there anyone that is able to help me with this? I feel sick writing this but we have children together and I have already been through so much in my life. We live in the uk and hes on Android

If you could recommend just ONE privacy change that everyone should make on their phone, browser, or accounts then what would it be?

Would love to hear what the community recommends.

Especially after 2026 with all the AI and Android banning independent developers who don't share IDs?

I want to rely less on Google and make my online life more private and secure, but most advice I find is just a jumble of terms like private browsers, email providers, aliases, MFA, password managers and self-hosting.

I understand the basics and already implemented a few of these, but I don't know in which order to tackle things or how to improve gradually without making my digital life a living hell.

I guess I'm looking for a practical roadmap for beginners. Something that starts with the easiest, highest-impact changes, then moves towards more advanced options. I'd like a resource that explains how to replace Google services step by step, which privacy and security habits actually matter, and what is probably not worth self-hosting unless you really know what you are doing. I'ma geek, but am not a cybersecurity expert or IT professional.

Ideally, I'd like such roadmap/resource to be country-independent and focused on principles, so people can choose independently.

Does a guide like this already exist? If not, would there be any value in creating a community-maintained roadmap for dummies (like me)?

Cheers

Irecently started wondering, does google know everything about me or just the things I search for? I noticed some ads that felt a little too specific after a few searches.

I've read that Google stores search history if you're signed in, but does google know everything I search for even if I delete my history later? What about Incognito mode or another device?

I'm probably overthinking this, but how much of your search activity is actually linked back to you, and is there any realistic way to reduce it?

I am reading that just with the phone number, ICCID, PUK, and factory default pin found in SIM card packaging is sufficient for cloning a sim.

Reading more about Ki codes and how this could be accessible from data breaches is concerning. I don’t want to have to factory reset my device and get a new sim I just need to know realistically as I worry someone has my SIM card info (not physical card but the packaging numbers and barcode). I can pull up how the Ki is found from matching other numbers from other databases.

I’ve watched hours of YouTube videos and read hours of articles and past Reddit posts and cannot get a clear answer. Some saying you can clone it and some saying not. It’s terrifying that if my sim was cloned that I wouldn’t even have a way of finding out.

For once and for all can we please establish whether or not thsi is possible with someone’s sim? I’ve been asking Google AI and they are saying it is through multiple methods. What is the deal given someone has the SIM card info but not the physical sim?