The Internet allowed me to set up this site in 2005, start a business in 2006, leave my job in 2008, and to start travelling in 2014.
Now it’s 2019. And I continue to do what I want, where I want, when I want. And I remain extremely grateful for the amazing experiences that technology (as well as my upbringing) has afforded me.
But it’s not that simple.
Technology is ambivalent. It can be used for good or for ill.
Also in 2019, we have hacking, online bullying, toxic communities, flame wars, censorship, and disruption to livelihoods by technological advances.
As more of our lives are lived online, information about our friends, our habits, our whereabouts, our finances, our health, etc., is taken by Google, Facebook, and Amazon, sold to the highest bidder, and is out there for bad actors to abuse.
So, I thought I’d tell you what I do to maximise the good and minimise the bad online.
Device and password security and protection
If you lose your laptop or phone, can someone access your information? If that’s the case, stop reading this now, open the security settings or the device and enter a password to access it.
Never use the same password twice! If you’re in any doubt at all, go to this site and enter the email address you most regularly use online.
If I put my email address in there I find that 20 sites were breached by hackers who now have access to my email and password. These were sites such as Adobe, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Patreon, Tumblr.
Clearly, you should have a different password on each site so, if one site you use is hacked, you don’t have to change your password on multiple sites.
I use a password generator to create passwords and a password manager LastPass (1Password is another option) to save them. You should also get the password manager to save your credit card details which is safer than on the browser.
More info on how to secure a WordPress site against hackers here.
Safe surfing – use a VPN
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, allows you to create a secure connection over the Internet.
This dramatically decreases the chances of someone snooping on your communications, the so-called “man in the middle” attack. Use of VPNs is especially important when you are using your laptop or phone over public WiFi in a cafe or a restaurant.
VPNs also helps bypass regional restrictions for video and music as well as help you evade government censorship in certain parts of the world.
You could use NordVPN from $2.99 per month. That’s an affiliate link.
Reduce Google’s surveillance
“We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about. Your digital identity will live forever… because there’s no delete button.”
—Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, 2010.
Google’s access to my information used not to bother me. “I’ve got nothing to hide”, I used to say.
But I’m coming to see the error of that argument. It assumes that the people who have all my information will use it for good. And I can’t be sure about that.
Facebook and Google have admitted to, and paid fines for, stealing information without consent. I’ve found in life that if people have been dishonest once, they’ll be dishonest again. Also, the information is hoarded centrally and therefore prone to hacking.
For me, the potential for abuse is too much to ignore. So there are a number of things I do to limit their power.
Firstly, I can legally tell Google I don’t want them saving my activity. Go to myactivity.google.com navigate to Activity Controls and toggle off the activity monitoring for Web & App Activity, Location History, Device Information, Voice & Audio Activity, YouTube Search History, and YouTube Watch History.
At the bottom of that page, go to Search Settings, and under “Private results” choose “Do not use private results”, and click Save!
The above won’t stop Google spying on you but this is just a legal request to Google to not save some of your information in order to give you better results. I haven’t noticed any difference in Google’s performance since I made these changes.
Here is a great video about how to protect yourself against the tech behemoth.
Surveillance-free surfing and searching
All of your online activity will be tracked if you use Google’s browser, Chrome. So I use Brave, Opera, and Firefox on my laptop, and Brave on my mobile.
Surfing the web using an incognito window on the Brave browser, and searching with DuckDuckGo, allows you to access the world’s information with less of the biasses that Google has imposed on us these last few years – and your search history isn’t saved or snooped on.
The Brave browser is, in my opinion, awesome. It is built on the open source Chromium browser so it feels like Chrome. It has ad blockers built in so it’s quicker. All Chrome extensions work on Brave in exactly the same way. Added to that, it’s much more secure.
By the way, if you really have to use Chrome, here’s a couple of extensions to block ads: Ad Block for YouTube and uBlock Origin. However, if you use Brave, you won’t need them.
Stop the toxic power of the newsfeed and reduce negativity
Really, this is the most important part of this article.
There seems to be an increased “toxic” culture both online and off line these days – especially in America and the west.
The algorithms at Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc., are wired for profit. They’ll make more money if we become addicted to their platform.
This means we are taken down more and more extreme rabbit holes. Salacious talking points and click-bait headlines increase addiction to the newsfeed. And the more outraged, angry, and polarized we become, the easier it is for bad actors to exploit us.
The large tech companies (FANGs) have spent billions on developing algorithms and huge data centers. This sophisticated technology knows, for example, that I’m more likely to spend time reading a meaningless political argument than a positive article about meditation. The algorithms aren’t working for me, they’re working against me.
We are seduced into thinking that the newsfeed is what we want to look at. But, in actual fact, the newsfeed is what they want us to look at.
In the last couple of years I’ve pulled back from social media as I identified the newsfeed as an insidious, addictive, and negative element in my life. Browsing social media newsfeeds is also time-consuming and bad for productivity.
I installed Chrome extension News Feed Eradicator for Facebook – this works on the Brave browser as well. And I deleted the Facebook app from my phone.
I don’t miss any notifications from the Facebook groups I’m subscribed to. I get notifications if I’m tagged by anyone in a post. I can still see if someone messaged me (you can just use Messenger for that). In short, I get all of the benefits of Facebook without any of the negativity.
The YouTube algorithm, also, was a huge time-waster and force of negativity for me. The videos on your YouTube home page and on the “Up Next” right hand sidebar have been responsible for turning certain people onto extremism, conspiracy theories, misogyny and racism. This algorithm, by the way, is responsible for more than 70% of user’s time on the site.
I would rather see videos I’ve searched for than what the algorithm recommends I see. So, similar to Facebook, I’ve installed the Chrome extension Block the YouTube feed, which works on Brave as well, and deleted YouTube from my phone.
The above changes have resulted in huge productivity wins and have drastically cut down negativity in my life.
Further measures to increase positivity
Humans, quite simply, don’t understand happiness! We know we shouldn’t fight, argue, judge, drink and eat too much, etc., but we do.
There are so many things you can do to make sure you are balanced and happy. And I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere on the importance of gratitude, eating well, exercising, volunteering, and kindness.
But, for me, there is one activity that beats all of the above … and that’s meditation.
As I said before, we know we shouldn’t fight, argue, judge, drink and eat too much, etc. But, if you meditate, you’ll find that instead of trying to have good habits, you find it easier to have good habits.
Meditation is the non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. It gives us space to view ourselves and the outside world. And, occasionally, it enables us to see past our prejudices, biasses, and generalisations, that cloud our perception of ourselves and the outside world.
Meditation, therefore, is particular useful in toxic environments. It seems to enable you to “walk away” or to not get involved in arguments, fights or negativity.
In fact, I would recommend meditation to anyone at any time.
What do you think?
I seem to have covered a lot of different topics, that are loosely related to staying safe, secure and sane online.
But this isn’t complete! I need you!! What can you add?
Do you have any tips for securing computers and phones from hackers? Any advice on keeping your personal information free from the tech giants? Any words of comfort to save us from online abuse?
Please add your comments below and let us know what you think.
“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now,”
Jack Kerouac
Great article! VPN equals security to me. I always surf using it. I have Nord VPN and it has many important features for security. Kill Switch, CyberSec and strong encryption are one of the most important to me. In my opinion, paying 3$ per month is not a big price for your privacy and security.
Thank you for your input, Dana. And that’s another “plus one” for Nord VPN. Lots of people recommend it. Kinda regretting using Private Internet Access now.
Thanks for this Rob!
I’ve just installed Brave on my Windows laptop and Android (Google) phone.
I do like the features of Chrome so hopefully Brave replicates them and I can move away from Chrome.
Will give Duck Duck Go a try.
I’ve been using the Newsfeed Eradicator for a while and love it. I’d like to delete my Facebook account as I don’t like the idea of the company and what they get up to and would rather not be a part of it. But I am a member of a few groups I find useful.
I use TorGuard VPN which is OK but I find quite a lot of sites notice I am using a VPN and make me fill in extra captchas. Google has also started blocking app downloads and updates when I’m connected to the VPN which is a pain.
Is that common or just a TorGuard thing?
I’m still deeply integrated into:
– Gmail
– Google Drive
– Google Maps
– Google Photos
– Google Calendar
– Google Play (app store)
– Google Contacts via Android
^ Those services are the best of breed as far as I can tell so will be with them for a while!
Any plans to move away from Apple?
I’d love to go totally “off the grid” but can’t see how it would be possible at the moment!
Joe
Wow, Joe, what an awesome comment!
Honestly, stick with Brave, I love it. (And the rewards thing may just pay off!)
Yup, the Facebook groups and connections with people in my industry are too valuable but great not to be exposed to the newsfeed.
I don’t have such problems with Private Internet Access VPN. Don’t know about Nord.
Yes, I use, basically, the same Google services as you do. Something to think about in the future. Clever entrepreneurs will come up with great alternatives that’ll be easy to move to (maybe wishful thinking there).
No plans to move away from Apple because I’d find it sooo difficult. Glad I have an Android phone like you, though.
Cheers, Joe.
Thanks Rob.
Maybe someone will come up with a replacement for Docs, etc, but then there’s always the risk that they become the next Google. Wasn’t Google’s early moto “do no evil” 😉
I guess everything has to be monetized and at that point, bad decisions can be made….
Brave seems good so far, in so much as it looks and acts just like Chrome, but hopefully isn’t doing all the data stuff in the background. I’m just reinstalling the extensions I was using on Chrome.
I guess it’s OK to use some Google and Apple stuff, so they only get a partial picture of your online life. Rather than going all in with one or two ecosystems and giving them access to everything.
Thanks for this info on PIA. I just signed up for another year with TorGuard the other day so will be with them for another year for now, so will see how it goes.
I have dabbled with Protonmail as an alternative to Gmail, but it’s not as nice to use.
I know Gmail keeps all emails you delete, so that isn’t great.
Thankfully no one has bought me an Alexa yet!
And, also good news that WordPress doesn’t seem to have been corrupted yet!
Cheers,
Joe
There’s still time for WordPress to become an evil tech giant, lol! Yeah, I wouldn’t want a listening device in my home. Although a lot of people plug the camera and microphone on their laptops for that reason (Mark Zuckerberg does).
I am also a firm believer in VPN. We need all the help we can get these days.
Indeed, Karen
Hey Rob, just saw this article that lists a plethora of alternative search engines.
https://www.anonews.co/a-complete-list-of-alternatives-search-engine-to-google/
The above comment is from Lee on Samui by the way, not a spammer!
Thanks Rob, I’ve just migrated to Brave and imported all bookmarks and logins from Chrome. It’s secure, seems faster and has a nice UI. But a good idea to keep Chrome as a backup in case there is something I forgot to do. I use Dashlane and Avast password apps which are both free and integrate with any browser using Chrome extensions.
Yes, I’m still using Chrome from time to time. I use a lot of different browsers, actually. All extensions, like password apps should work on Brave.
Thanks, Lee, I’m sorry if my site didn’t save your details. Great list of Google alternatives!
Yeah, with an increase of identity fraud, you can’t be too cautious online…Sure, using a vpn may seem like a . bullshit to someone, but once you’ve been hacked, it quickly makes sense to protect your identity online. I personally do care about my privacy on Internet, so I’m using your mentioned NordVPN, which seems to be one of the most secure services.
Nice one, Ted, it’s wise to protect ourselves. Like locking the front door.
Had NO idea Brave browser was out there. Thanks for that. Just switched! Nice article!!
Thanks, Tara.
Hi Rob Cubbon,
Great article, thanks for sharing. Do you have any article on managing information overload especially for employees (in IT) who work with lot of info.?
Regards,
Not really the same thing but I have free courses that includes a course on Talking to Clients although we’re talking about setting up a new website and a new business. It includes this video: What to do about ‘Analysis Paralysis’.
And this article From Desperation to Living the Dream is about mindset. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Do you suggest any alternatives to Gmail, Google Maps, Google docs., and Google Calendar.
Sorry, I don’t know. I’m sure competitors will spring up, using security and lack of surveillance as a selling point. Joe suggested Protonmail as an alternative to Gmail, but he said it wasn’t as good.
What a solid blog post Rob, I had no idea about MyActivityGoogle before reading this so I thank you for that I too have just deleted Facebook on my phone,
I however I still have twitter and Instagram on it as I love taking pictures from time to time, I may decide to delete those as well and just upload the images on the web, did you know you can post into Instagram on the web by fooling it into thinking its a device, I use a chrome based browser then inspect element, choose an iPhone or similar and then refresh Instagram.
Have only started using the brave browser and so far I’m impressed. Will have to add my bookmarks and the like on there.
I’m still using Widows 7 and 10 on my main PC and surface pro but as a professional web developer a lot of people have said to try out Linux Mint which I’m seriously thinking about. I have gone though all the privacy especially on my surface pro windows 10 machine.
One last thing Rob, have you checked out Gaia app yet? Something I think you may enjoy fella? Really enjoyed reading this today. Off to find some more inspiration for my new blog (Yep have just started out blogging after developing site for bloggers this past decade)
Best,
Phill
Wow Phillip, that sounds like a cool way to post to Instagram from a desktop! No, I didn’t know that!
Brave will import your bookmarks from Chrome when you sign into Google on Brave.
I’ve heard Linux is a great alternative to Microsoft. Unfortunately, I’m pretty much wedded to Macs as I’ve been using them since the mid-nineties.
Yes, I signed up to Gaia once but didn’t find it useful – I’m pretty well versed in the personal development sphere but I always like to keep my eyes open for new stuff so I’ll give it a second chance.
Amazing content..!! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Varun
Thanks, Mr. Rob, this is the thing which has been bothering since I got first laptop. I was young at that time and I read an article about how your data can be misused. Which made me more conscious about what information is being shared.
You never know what your information is actually being used for which makes it even more concerning.
Thanks for sharing this amazing post which shares a lot of ways we can save us from these things.
Regards
Prateek Singh
Hello Prateek, I think that online security is something we should all concern ourselves with in the coming years as I can see surveillance and hacks increasing. Thank you for your comment.