How can I protect my privacy?

DeletedUser200

Excuse me, I don't speak English and use a translator. I live in Mexico and the issue of privacy protection is non-existent. I would like to know if any of my privacy protection practices are correct. I have stopped using a sim card and I am using the internet at home, at work and WiFi in public places.
I can't pay for mullvad VPN or IVPN anonymously, I don't know how to buy cryptocurrencies in my country. Is it a good idea to use Orbot or free VPNs like Riseup or ProtonVPN? Is it advisable to use a dumphone with prepaid sim cards and use it as a WiFi Hotspot for places where you don't have internet?
I'm using grapheneos and if you have any tips I would appreciate it.

raccoondad

DeletedUser200

"I have stopped using a sim card and I am using the internet at home, at work and WiFi in public places."
For what purpose?

"Is it a good idea to use Orbot"
GOS apparently has said some things about the security of Orbot, won't comment because its above my pay grade, however Tor in general is a fine choice network wise.

"free VPNs like Riseup or ProtonVPN"
I like RiseUp and Proton a lot, I would probably stick to a trusted group like those two.

A major question is what you are trying to keep private and from who...

DeletedUser202

Highly recommend starting with https://www.privacyguides.org/es/ (available in Spanish) to understand the basics.

First step after that is to define what your threat model is. There is no such thing as perfect privacy or security, so the steps you need to take depends on what you want to protect and from whom.

DeletedUser200 I can't pay for mullvad VPN or IVPN anonymously, I don't know how to buy cryptocurrencies in my country. Is it a good idea to use Orbot or free VPNs like Riseup or ProtonVPN?

ProtonVPN is good choice for free VPN.

W1zardK1ng

DeletedUser200 Its hard to recommend anything without knowing your threat model. But don't use a dump phone to hotspot, instead get a anonymous prepaid sim card with cash, not sure about Mexico but in US it's possible. When you are at home just turn on aeroplane mode. Also try windscribe VPN its not the best but your experience will be better than free proton VPN. Also don't use public WiFi without a VPN.

DeletedUser200

raccoondad I think privacy is something fundamental that is not being given adequate importance. In addition, in Mexico, cartels have access to data from telephone companies :)

trashaccount

raccoondad

I like RiseUp and Proton a lot, I would probably stick to a trusted group like those two.

Yeah, RiseUP sure doesn't look like they would target people based on political opposition.

AlphaElwedritsch

DeletedUser200 in Mexico, cartels have access to data from telephone companies :)

Really?

DeletedUser200

AlphaElwedritsch Of course, I don't say it, there are mentions of journalists such as the Spanish Marta Peirano. You could check the news where the cartels have access to databases to know who to extort or kidnap. The same in cities such as Culiacán they have security cameras installed that they use to avoid being arrested.

rellhom

DeletedUser200

this also brings up the need for privacy and security and lack of backdoors in general in all software and hardware, as the ability of bad actors in corrupt governments can have way too much power to destroy anyone that is a threat to their criminal dominance over everyone

DeletedUser127

DeletedUser202 ProtonVPN free tier is not a good choice when you rely on stable constant network. I suffered frequent disconnections from multiple services while using it, hence I had to go premium and I switched to Mullvad which has better pricing and you can subscribe for as little as one month and I find them a great replacement for ProtonVPN.

raccoondad

trashaccount you have to usually back up a claim with a source, if you don't want to use a service for political difference reasons, that's fine, but accusing a group of targeting its users for zero reason other then "I disagree with them on politics" is outright malicious and slanderous.

trashaccount

raccoondad I didn't claim anything. Don't understand why you're crying over a suspicion i have. What is "malicious" is recommending cultist's services to random people.

raccoondad

trashaccount "Cultists", you sound fun to be around on thanksgiving dinners.

"suspicion", you made a claim based on not agreeing w/ a groups political stance, without evidence other than their position on the political compass. Which seeing the nature of GOS, is most likely only one axis away from your position.

Yes, I think its irresponsible to suggest malicious activity by system admins based on political stances, I def don't like it as a sysadmin myself.

DeletedUser202

DeletedUser127 Well yes, but OP said they can't afford a VPN right now. So I recommend Proton because I don't know any other free VPN that I feel certain is safe to use. Long term they should of course pay for a VPN if it is something they value.

DeletedUser127

DeletedUser202 anyone can afford a vpn if they can afford a cup of coffee. It's that simple.

DeletedUser200

W1zardK1ng Hello, thanks for the recommendation. Here in Mexico you can also buy sim cards without identification and paying in cash. Is it advisable to use it on a dumphone using it as a hotspot instead of my main phone? I would like to prevent telephonies from accessing my phone's identifiers through the sim card.

DeletedUser202

DeletedUser127 Wait my bad, I misread. OP said they can't pay for a VPN anonymously, not that they can't afford it. So this line of conversation is off-topic.

@DeletedUser200 I don't use cryptocurrency myself, but here's an introduction to buying it if you want to explore that option: https://www.privacyguides.org/es/cryptocurrency/

trashaccount

raccoondad "Cultists", you sound fun to be around on thanksgiving dinners.

For calling them by literally what they are? I'm not singling them out specially. If there was another VPN run by radical maniacs it still would concern me no matter the affiliation.

you made a claim

Can you show me what the hell the "claim" was? Where is it?