Instagram Hardening – Private Profile is NOT Enough!

Instagram Hardening – Private Profile is NOT Enough!

First things first: Instagram is owned by Facebook. As such, no matter your settings or how you operate the app, you can never obtain real privacy on the platform. There exists a decentralized, ad-free alternative called Pixelfed that seems to have been getting some praise, but without personal experiences I can’t say much about it. Still worth the look if you’re thinking about migrating from Instagram.

Alright, now on to the guide. Here are the concrete steps you should take in order to increase your privacy and security on Instagram.

Continue reading “Instagram Hardening – Private Profile is NOT Enough!” →

On Twitter Bots, Censorship and Social Media Manipulation

On Twitter Bots, Censorship and Social Media Manipulation

During the past couple of months, there’s been an uptick in discussion regarding social media weaponization, censorship, bots and other manipulation. I’ve been following and participating in this public dialogue with keen interest, especially from the privacy and free speech perspectives. Whereas 2018 was the year of Facebook fiascos, it looks like in 2019 the spotlight has turned on Twitter.

So here’s a blog post about Twitter, made with embedded tweets. Let’s go full meta.

Continue reading “On Twitter Bots, Censorship and Social Media Manipulation” →

How to Setup LinkedIn for Better Privacy and OPSEC

How to Setup LinkedIn for Better Privacy and OPSEC

When it comes to privacy and social media platforms, LinkedIn is the necessary evil we have to put up with. While it’s a no-brainer to delete your Facebook account, but as so much of job recruitment revolves around LinkedIn, it’s a lot harder to severe ties with it. Many companies don’t even post their career opportunities anywhere else than on LinkedIn, and prefer applications that come directly through the platform. It’s also a great tool for headhunters to find suitable candidates.

So let’s assume you have a LinkedIn profile, you want to build up your online resume and personal brand, and want to be able to jump on an opportunity if it presents itself. However, you can accomplish all that without revealing every aspect of your professional self for the whole world to see by default. Let’s start of with LinkedIn settings and then move on to behavior on the platform, and other tips.

Continue reading “How to Setup LinkedIn for Better Privacy and OPSEC” →

4 Steps to Harden Your Twitter Account

4 Steps to Harden Your Twitter Account

As data breaches and identity thefts are happening left and right, day and night, the best time to secure your Twitter account was yesterday. Here’s four straightforward steps you should take in order to significantly decrease the possibility of your account getting accessed by an outsider. Most of these things are applicable to other online services as well, so once you’re done hardening your Twitter account, take a critical look at your other accounts both on and off social media.

Continue reading “4 Steps to Harden Your Twitter Account” →

The Best Online Privacy Guides (updated July 2022)

The Best Online Privacy Guides (updated July 2022)

This is a collection of the best, most reputable and generally most acknowledged online privacy guides on the web. The list is updated frequently.

Links are sorted in alphabetical order to avoid any biases, and each of them contains a short snippet quoted from the respective sites. I have not and will not add privacy guides that are created by VPN “review” sites or other such entities that create content just to spam it with affiliate links.

I dare to say that these guides together cover all the bases when it comes to the best privacy practices, OPSEC, and basic online anonymity – even for the advanced users. However, if you think I’m missing a guide, please leave a comment below and I’ll happily review and possibly add it to the list, thank you.

Continue reading “The Best Online Privacy Guides (updated July 2022)” →

Why Quitting the Big Five is Bad Privacy Advice

Why Quitting the Big Five is Bad Privacy Advice

The big five – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google & Microsoft – have got a stranglehold of our digital life. Not just our digital identities, but almost all of our web experiences are reliant or connected to the technologies of these five companies.

Recently, Daniel Oberhaus from Motherboard and then Kashmir Hill from Gizmodo both experimented by completely “quitting” the Big Five, for four and six weeks respectively. Both of their stories are very insightful and definitely recommended reading for anyone. However, quitting the Big Five is exactly the kind of take on privacy that turns many people off from becoming more privacy aware.

I’ve seen this happen time and time again in r/privacy, where people who have just tipped their toes in the world on online privacy and security are getting barraged with comments like “LOL IF YOU’RE NOT USING LINUX YOU’RE SCREWED” and “YOU NEED TO DELETE ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS”. But if we as a privacy community would dial back our tone just a bit, I think we could do way more good than what we’re doing right now.

Continue reading “Why Quitting the Big Five is Bad Privacy Advice” →

Float Tank and Neurofeedback Session at Biohacking Center

Float Tank and Neurofeedback Session at Biohacking Center

As someone who has been interested in the concept of “biohacking” for the past couple of years, needless to say I was pretty existed when I got a giftcard to Biohacking Center Finland as a Christmas present. Despite being rather grandiosely named, I had never heard about this establishment earlier, which was rather surprising. The giftcard was for both an isolation tank session and a neurofeedback session, so I booked them both back to back. The idea was that the tank would calm my mind in order to then get most out of the neurofeedback session, latter of which was completely foreign concept for me. This is my brief review of those sessions, and also the start of biohacking in Finland -tag for this blog. Keep an eye out for that one! Continue reading “Float Tank and Neurofeedback Session at Biohacking Center” →

Before You Buy an Oura Ring (a List of Missing Features)

Before You Buy an Oura Ring (a List of Missing Features)

NOTE: This article is about Oura ring Gen2. If you’re curious to know if these missing features were fixed for Oura ring Gen3, click here.

As one of the pre-order customers, I have accumulated already over 6 months of data with the second-generation Oura ring. I have a lot of good things to say about Oura, and I can confirm that I’ve managed to make positive changes to my sleep and recovery routines. However, I can’t say that the Oura system would be perfect yet – there’s room for improvement especially on the app’s side.

If you’re interested to see in-depth review of the ring, I recommend checking out videos from Bioneer and Alex Fergus. This is not a review, this is a list of things Oura is still missing. Call it a wishlist or feature requests, here are the 6 things you should probably know before buying an Oura ring:

Continue reading “Before You Buy an Oura Ring (a List of Missing Features)” →

Is DNA Based Healthcare Worth the Risk?

Is DNA Based Healthcare Worth the Risk?

All of us are built differently. That’s why our bodies can handle different foods in different ways, different workout routines yield varying results between individuals, and some of us seem to always get the seasonal flu while others stay stuffy-nose-free (seemingly without trying really hard to do so). So figuring out what’s the healthiest – the best – way of eating, exercising and living your life seems like a reasonable and even rational goal.

So how can we figure that out? With DNA testing, or to be more exact, analyzing genome and blood biomarkers. However, this type of testing has some obvious privacy repercussions. Let’s weigh the pros and the cons.

Continue reading “Is DNA Based Healthcare Worth the Risk?” →