How to protect privacy when using internet?

VPN
1

I am not a technical folk, and don’t know how to explain exactly. Just see if I can do something to improve safety, privacy, etc.

First, I don’t plan to use other browser, I tried Brave Browser and did not feel comfortable using it. I think I will stay with Google products, since google products (Gmail, calendar, drive, Google voice, google site, etc) are important part of my daily life. In term of convenience, I will stay with Google Chrome.

When I read below article, still not sure how to set up free Google DNS, anywhere I can find step by step instructions for people who don’t know much about technology. I don’t exactly know what it is and how it works, but it is just something better.

It does not need to be DNS, is there anything else I can do to improve safety and privacy? It is not limited to web browsing, it can be whole window PC environment safety/privacy. Chrome is my main browser, and I also edge too.

https://www.recordedfuture.com/threat-intelligence-101/cyber-threat-landscape/dns-servers

Edit: By the way, I already installed tailscale (something like VPN) in computers yesterday, does it already provide privacy already? Maybe I don’t need to do something else.

But I also use chrome android app a lot, so I still want to do something on smartphone. I tried tailscale app, but heard that it will drain too much battery, so I stopped using it. I would like to find something alternative product offering better security/privacy for android phone.

I am not really concerned about speed, I think 300 Mbps download and upload is fast enough for me, I don’t play games or something like that.

2

You mention ‘safety’ and ‘privacy’

These are different.

There is many things you can do to increase how safe you are on the internet.

If privacy is your concern, you wouldn’t be using, or at best minimising the amount of Google services you use. For browser, I’d recommend Firefox. Google, as far as I am aware, is the single largest data harvesting and advertising company in the world - your privacy doesn’t exist in their ecosystem.

3

I always use Google Chrome n I understand about privacy, what do y’all think of Microsoft and edge?

4

First, I don’t plan to use other browser, I tried Brave Browser and did not feel comfortable using it. I think I will stay with Google products, since google products (Gmail, calendar, drive, Google voice, google site, etc) are important part of my daily life. In term of convenience, I will stay with Google Chrome.

well first step in protect your privacy is ditching all of those. And you refusing to seek alternatives will prevent you from achieving your privacy goal.

Edit: By the way, I already installed tailscale (something like VPN) in computers yesterday, does it already provide privacy already? Maybe I don’t need to do something else.

VPNs do not anything for privacy

I would like to find something alternative product offering better security/privacy for android phone.

just switch off of chrome and use a privacy respecting browser that is fingerprinting resistant

5

If you are deep in Google’s ecosystem then you are sacrificing a bit of privacy… in my opinion it’s an acceptable trade-off considering the benefits of using their services, I feel like it’s fair to give them a bit of information in exchange. Others think this is unacceptable and I respect that opinion.

A couple things you can do while using Chrome: install UBlock Origin and switch to a filtering DNS provider like AdGuard

6

Years ago, maybe more than 10 years ago, I switched from Firefox to Chrome, at that time, chrome’s light weight blew my mind. I have not used Firefox for long time, no idea how it is now.

Firefox has less than 5% of US market share now, while chrome has more than 50% of US market share now.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/545520/market-share-of-internet-browsers-usa/

Worldwide 64.43% : 2.33% I will stay with majority of customers.

https://www.similarweb.com/browsers/

7

Maybe VPN is better than DNS, although I don’t know much about either of them. I just install tailscale on both desktop and laptop.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dns-vs-vpn-whats-the-difference/

8

then you are sacrificing a bit of privacy

a bit?

9

Well that’s an interesting conclusion on a post regarding safety and privacy. Most of the world do not consider safety or privacy online if you want to stick with the majority.

10

They are not mutually exclusive. You can still use a DNS filtering service when you are on a VPN.

Whether or not you should use a VPN depends on who you are trying to hide yourself from. Either your ISP can see your browsing habits or your VPN provider can.

If you’re not doing something that will get you in trouble with your ISP (like torrenting movies) you probably don’t need a VPN. They are good to have if you use public Wi-Fi frequently but these days it’s not as critical since almost everything on the internet is HTTPS anyway.

11

I want to do something to improve safety/privacy, not switching to something else, don’t want to get out of comfort zone. Chrome is much more lightweight than firefox, I had used firefox for some years too, long time ago.

At this point, I have installed tailscale software, just yesterday.

12

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FGc7ozajuePpIiyn0I0ab_mpI4qnFI46/view?usp=drive_link

It seems chrome already offering DNS

13

unless you switch, you’re not getting any more privacy

14

Chrome is not lighter than Firefox.

15

Yeah but AdGuard is better than theirs IMO…

Unless you like ads

16

It used to be lightweight, now more and more add-on.

But it should run much faster than firefox, that is important.

17

https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html

This one? Which button, AdGuard or AdGuard VPN? I have already installed and run Tailscale for Synology NAS

18

In benchmarks it’s usually shown as faster than Firefox, but I’ve never noticed a difference. I will say you aren’t really losing out on G services using Firefox. The nice thing about Google services is they are all web apps so you can use them with any browser.

19

There’s nothing to install, you just put their server address in place of Google’s in the DNS settings

20

Maybe I was wrong. I have not used Firefox for more than 10 years, don’t know how long, but definitely more than 10 years.

I am thinking about Firefox.

Let me look into benefits of using Firefox later tonight or tomorrow.

Some things I care (I can think of now):

  1. Can I use gmail to sync bookmarks across different devices?
  2. Can I set up multiple Firefox profiles (like Chrome profiles) with different gmail?
  3. Can I set android phone browser to Firefox as default?
  4. I do want to use Google search, if I use Google Search in firefox, it seems making not much difference.