I have been diving into ways to keep my online presence more private but it feels such as every step forward comes with a bunch of questions. I know there are a ton of tools & methods out there but it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start.
what is your take on using VPNs or Tor for browsing?? Are there better alternatives to these, or should I just stick with them? Also; I have been reading about the risks of public Wi-Fi and how it can leak personal info—any tips for staying safe while using it??
And one more thing—what about encrypting personal data? Does anyone here use apps or techniques to ensure your files and communications are secure?
If you're in a country that censors the internet, please use Geph, as it's specifically designed for use in strict censorship environments. Don't trust VPN advertisements on YouTube, as software like NordVPN simply doesn't work in China or other authoritarian countries. A common misconception is that VPNs ensure your safety when using public Wi-Fi. In fact, even without any VPN, your connection is still protected by TLS encryption, and no one can access the content of the webpages you visit.
You can combine Geph with Tor by setting Geph as the front proxy for the Tor browser, giving you both Geph's high-speed connection and Tor browser's anti-fingerprinting capabilities. I recommend paying attention to browser fingerprinting, as it's a method to track users beyond IP addresses. If you don't want to use the Tor browser but still want to hide your fingerprint as much as possible, you can use Firefox. You can enable many anti-fingerprinting options in Firefox's configuration page and install uBlock Origin.
For operating systems, I recommend Linux Mint, which is user-friendly for beginners and has a much lower possibility of virus infection compared to Windows. You can choose to encrypt your disk during installation, which is very simple.
Information security is a rabbit hole, and there's always more to learn. You can get additional learning materials from these websites: