I have been trying to take my digital privacy more seriously as of late, but I find myself falling into a cycle of all-or-nothing. I will do a little bit to improve my privacy and then will suddenly feel like I need to go full-on down the rabbit hole. This leads to burnout, and then I’ll convince myself that it’s all futile and I should just use what’s most convenient.
How do you all find a balance that works for you? Or do you just change things constantly?
The most important thing in all these things is to actually consider what you need, and what your’re willing to pay for it. The Internet is both extremely good and telling you about niche but really really good sorts of things, while really really bad at not making perfect the enemy of the good.
So, as an example - look up any product category. The highly advertised options are rarely the absolute best option, but the absolute best option is often like getting sold on a McClaren when you need a Toyota. Or an F350 when you really need Ranger.
So - in privacy, often the online people are talking about avoiding government “Enemy of the State” type surveillance and risks (look up the movie if you don’t get the reference). And that level of opsec and precautions are going to do the job, but at a huge cost in practicality and connection with the rest of the world. Now, are you going up against a government? If not, you have to figure what you are going against, @RandomDude said - do a threat assessment.
I will say one thing - I won’t publicly disclose my own threat assessment for several reasons, but I’m sure online there are some examples you can look up. Are you looking to weaken Google / Ad tracking? Are you looking to not send all data to your ISP for marketing? etc. And there are reasonable things you can do there.