Safe Online

TLCR: Use FOSS only, avoiding as much Big Tech as is possible, both hardware & software, on any computational device (see Linux Geek). Don't use single-site Apps on anything (TV; PC; Phone) as they're ad-conquered content funnels and personal data extractors. Don't sync anything that includes personal data; avoid the Cloud & AI. Always use uBlock Origin. If you set yourself up for intrusion by exposing data, don't be surprised when breaches happen. Stay safe out there; read on!

⬆️ Safe Surf! Here's a PC screenshot of a typical DuckDuckGo search; taken on Firefox using the necessary uBlock Origin (UBO) via Linux Mint on my Tech service desk NUC. Use UBO always, on every device, as it's the front-line defense; think of it like anti-virus, which works after infection, whereas UBO is preventative. Most of the award-winning Firefox extensions will not impact CPU performance on Linux; FF on MS/iOS is another matter.

At DuckDuckGo.com; Settings; Cloud Save Enabled; load settings with 12345qwert or customize your own; it saves until browser cache is cleared. All FOSS products will work best with other FOSS products; namely, the Firefox browser (on all PC/laptops & especially phones), and only on Linux-based systems. Gnome also has its own Web browser, and the Midori–Mozilla hybrid by Astian.

All the Chromium Projects are controlled by Google; even the Brave browser, my favorite: I use it for testing on a PC & a phone. There are pieces of the code-base that Chromium Developers must agree not to remove; I assume this includes the portions that allow the browser a back door, should Alphabet/Google wish to exploit it.

One must understand capitalism in general, and the compromises made, to push it all down people's throats. We live in a society that would have been foreign to most of our species throughout time. As money came to replace the trade of goods and services, more people must find evermore ways to make monies, but without producing anything that could be directly traded. Now it's almost all BS jobs.

I only do business online, where my debit card must be exposed, from a Kit-built NUC-PC that's Ethernet tethered via a wired Ethernet router; I do not use WiFi at home; my phone can Hotspot for updating a Smart TV and a tablet biannually. And at a POS I use my debit card, not a phone. Users trade privacy and safety for seeming conveniences, when it's easier to Tap & Go than fussing with a phone; but complete dependency is their design paradigm to hook the gullible.

I show & tell always; if it's not Small Tech or FOSS, you will not get optimum results doing anything, when mixing Big & Small Tech. How any Small Tech will preform on anything controlled by Big Tech, should be assumed compromised. Android came from FOSS, and though it's not anymore, it is less dominating than MS & Apple when it comes to user ecosystem isolation. Even Pixel phones can have Android replaced (more at Linux Geek).

Consequently, the Big Tech giants MS & Apple, will not ever play fairly with anything outside of their ecosystems; even if their App/Play Stores allow a user to install FOSS Apps like Firefox Mobile. It is in Big Tech's financial interest to write code that explicitly (but covertly) causes small glitches when someone tries to use any Small Tech product on any Big Tech product.

Even though Big Tech controls much of the Web's search functions, they cannot control what happens when it's not directly within their website. DuckDuckGo and StartPage are not Google; they may share Web content and resources, but the only way for Google to collect search data is when one is on google.com or their Apps.

DuckDuckGo is among the best, especially once a user knows how to set it up, as mentioned earlier. DDG aggregates its search for better results; they pull from many sources like Yahoo, Stack, Bing, Wikipedia, and other 3rd party providers.

Many will praise one web search engine or another but the Wild Wild Web is not owned by any one entity, and surely not Google. Before there was Google, there were others; I still remember when Yahoo Search started to advertise as Yahoo powered by Google. Back then we thought: What the heck is Google?

One must assume that all Big Tech is spying, but it's not paranoia; one must accept that Big Tech are data farmers, so it's their duty to do so; they have shareholders to appease. But Big Tech entities all have different profit portfolios.

Walmart is #1; it makes its mega bucks selling goods; Amazon too, but they got their tentacles into many places; Alphabet makes most its profits from Google ads, but they're diversified so AI & Cloud is catching up.

⬆️ Safe Phone! The Fairphone 5 and the Unplugged Phone are set apart from all others that I currently know of; Fairphone is the only phone with a 5 year warranty, and like Linux it has perpetual updates and upgrades. Release versions on any electronics is only about planned obsolescence.

All stock Android phones can be made Android-Lite. Disable Apps that cannot be deleted; open App Info, clear the storage & cache, force stop, then disable, and especially Chrome; make Firefox the default. It will give warnings but I've done this to every Android phone without issue, just don't disable system-dependent ones like Android Accessibility or any "System" App. Finally, in FF settings: Open Links in Apps is set to Never.

Run Firefox mobile with UBO as well. Here's a screenshot of Firefox Home page; I save Collections to FF home page, or there's the option to save like it's a single-site App, by selecting Add to Home Screen, and here's a screenshot of the Reddit App I made; also Starbucks.

What makes phones so insecure is that they're airwaves dependent (Cellular & WiFi mainly). Amazingly, people still insist they are more secure. But one way to add a bit of security is to Shelter Apps. Aside from all of that, they're still just Ad-App Traps.

Apps are little more than Ad funnels, which intentionally go to one site; it's just like bookmarks in any browser, except that App Developers dictate the terms of interaction; that's by design. Using Firefox (on Android & Linux) with uBlock Origin, phone owners have much more control. Since I do not use or recommend anything from the Apple closed ecosystem, I have no experience with how Firefox works on their products.

Because Ad-App Traps are just bookmarks funneling users to their site only, controlling the interaction narrative, the phone owner cannot block ads or otherwise modify the App; this means the App keeps the door open so rotating Ads can be sent to the App; multiply that times every App on the phone. What takes place out-of-sight with Apps would terrify you: Even paid for ones!

Using Firefox for Android with UBO, I use it like I do with a PC/laptop. A phone is good as a portable device, but it does not a replace a PC/laptop. Phones are best for navigation, communication, clock & calendar, weather forecasts, music, and taking quick pics; I sync pics with Amazon Photos App, but mostly for sharing (e.g.), not backup.

I stream nothing on a phone; I play onboard music files with Musicolet 🎥. I'd never buy a phone without an SD card slot option. My Moto has within a 1TB SD card; it has my current 16,362 song library on it, all in FLAC format and with album art it takes about 350GB of space. My photos take about the same space, and I use a tripod and handlebar mountable Action Cam for longer videos.

I've been checking out for free, via the many Public Libraries I've been to over the last few decades, music CD's, and ripping them Asunder, either in the Library, or at home if it's my local PL. Got a CD/DVD USB drive in 2010 that I still use today. DVD's rip to MP4.

Any signal traveling by air is more vulnerable than hardwired tech. This has been the case for a few decades, but with wireless now ubiquitous, most Tech companies played it down; they still do. There's people who once argued with me (on Reddit) that phones are the safest devices there are; they are either simpletons, or they're (more likely) employed, where wireless tech is their income and cannot afford for this truth to be mainstream.

But this is why I've been warning people about an over-dependency on phones; they are not computers. Single-site App sandboxing helps, but it's what takes place in between the phone itself and the tower they rely on for all communication. There's no way I'd give my debit card info to any App/Play Store. And all this assumes one can trust App Developers themselves!

It is possible to hack a hardwired PC, but not nearly as easy as it is, via the airwaves. In this particular article, China is doing it. One would have to have physical contact with equipment, and even then with everything going buried fiber optics, hacking that would require skills well beyond mere Tech hacking.

Now some youth are ditching Smartphones; buying talk & text only phones, or some the size of standard phones today but have no internet access. I was in my mid-30's before any modern tech was common, so it's easy for me to do without any of it (I'm That 70's Show ;-). But most are consumer drones fully indoctrinated by the ad/media world; I imagine avoiding Tech is harder than for me.

⬆️ Safe PC & TV! For PC's & laptops, avoid Big Tech Operating Systems (OS) like MS & Mac; use Linux only, but even therein, one must install all things via the built-in Software Manager (Repository) that comes with the Distro. There's too much compromised out in the Wild.

The days of command line on Linux are ending and should be limited to experienced users; I myself use it, but only to install what's already in the repositories, only all at once, and only on a new OS install, e.g. (double-space between programs): sudo apt install vlc clementine asunder handbrake easytag dropbox gparted xfburn. Distros will include, then exclude, different ones but if it's already installed it will bypass it.

Big Tech must/will always make any/all Small Tech clash, for one simple reason; they want everyone to use proprietary products, because they make zero monies from FOSS products; in fact they lose money. MS wants you to use Edge and iOS Safari, but since Chrome is popular, Big Tech has worked with the Chromium Project to keep back doors open in its base-code; they must; there's too much money at stake. That's why the Chrome browser works good on any OS.

So, if a user has (an array of) issues or glitches with, say, Firefox on Windows or Apple, this is expected, since they want the experience with Firefox to be negative so the user will go back to the web browser they manage (Edge & Safari, or even Chrome as it's tweakable): This is just good business. I prove this by sending people to Reddit Firefox for a perpetual scroll of empirical evidence.

Add to that; if frustrated users will complain about Firefox (or any other non-proprietary product) all over Social Media, all the better for them; free advertising. Heck, why not just have your many thousands of employees pose as users and do just that. Hmmm...

Smart (or App-Trap) TV's outsmart users to do their bidding. App-Trap's are content funnels and data extractors where the user is their product; they heavily restrict where users can go while using them; Apps tightly control and restrict how users interact with the Wild Wild Web. Most are drones who comply with this collective, and why it's so successful.

The Web has an estimated 2 billion active sites on it, but the average TV or Phone comes with fewer than 2 dozen single-site Apps, mostly within that brands ecosystem. The Wild Wild Web has been fully tamed by Big Tech, and everyone presses into it. To be free again, one must first abandon the single-site Ad-App Traps on everything.

Be a smart user and get an App Free TV; or just don't allow it to connect to the Web unless it's temporary for manually-ran updates. All modern big screens can be a PC monitor; all come with HDMI Inputs, and all modern PC's come with HDMI Out. Even an App TV is safe if there's no Web connection to it.

That's where the mini PC excels; it's called a media PC but can be used like any PC; I'm on one now. The Starlabs Byte is awesome; it's configurable with Linux OS's to choose from.

With a Linux mini PC, an HDMI cable, and a media keyboard, you're set. Connect an antenna for local stations and be a cordcutter. Play everything (full screen) via the Firefox browser with UBO running, and gone are the days of streamed ads.

I have Amazon Prime basic; Hulu basic (13 months $99); Paramount+ basic (free with a Walmart+ account); and Pluto On Demand. It also works with Peacock & Netflix basic, and YouTube. UBO cuts out all ads; I've never seen one. But, I'm on Linux Mint using Firefox; your experience will differ if you mix any FOSS with anything Big Tech (e.g. FF on Windows).

⬆️ Safe Geek! I've been a side-gig Webmaster since 2008 and side-gig techie since 10. As a self-learner most of my life, I taught my teen self woodworking and later as a carpenter, building new homes as an employee; then I became a General Contractor at 26 years old (94) and mostly self-employed since.

Knowing I was not going to be able to labor like that forever, and tiring of the Industry and the business (E.g.), I thought it time to learn new skills; computers (like all electronics) were tangible things I'd dismantle & reassemble; I could tinker with them, like installing Linux on dead PC's donated to me (in the early aughts). I'd replace the HDD with a SSD; back then I'd install Ubuntu.

Learning basic code from sites like W3 Schools (and others) allowed me to build simple websites; that and Ctrl-U when I saw something liked. I began on the defunct Geocities then later I paid Web Hosts, then even later I used (and still use, for a decade now) the awesome FOSS Host Neocities.

What began as free Tech help for friends, led to evermore seekers; it became a side-gig. I was a cheaper alternative to The Geek Squad, whenever they were nearby, but some had things on their hard drives they did not want the Geek Squad employees to see. They did not need an appointment either.

I ran free ads in Craigslist, and was busy for a long time. I was building simple websites for people, as well as fixing computers, profiting from the Windows fiasco; the blue screen of death, ransomware, etc. It amazed me how much cash people were willing to pay to get their "data" from a ransomed PC; people never back-up data; their "faith" in Big Tech is naively misplaced. But what unfurled was the psychology behind the Tech.

Most people are too easily led by ad world. Add to that the needy hunger to be accepted by others, even though most "others" rarely give a crap about anyone but self. And brand loyalty always fascinated me; a cult-like devotion to a product-brand that one does not own, or work at, or profit from; and worse, that business doesn't know they exist.

Other small advantages are free but limited cell phone service; half-off discounts with Walmart+ & Amazon Prime accounts. I do not own a car so literally everything gets delivered. I never go out and bring anything back except take-out. I Micro-Mobile!

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