Privacy and Security in the Digital age of today may sound like a lost cause, but trust me, it matters, and ignorance can have severe consequences. Most people say that “I don’t care about privacy! I have nothing to hide!” Yes, you may have nothing to hide, like your social security number or credit card, or car license plate. “But wait, those are different, I need to hide those to protect myself!” Well, you just said my point, you may have nothing to hide, but you have everything to protect! Digital privacy and security is all about protecting oneself from the threats out there, of which there are many.

Why? All the big companies say they protect my privacy

That’s when I point out all the times where that has been proven untrue. Facebook is a notorious example, with Cambridge Analytica being a big example. I want to ask you, you ever wondered why all these ads seem to be awfully similar as to what you are thinking about recently? If you realize that, that is a glaring problem with companies like Google, they collect your personal data to send to advertisers to squeeze money out of you. A signal ad campaign that Facebook denied is a prime example of that, where they reveal things about you in the advertisement.

These big companies are just saying that they care about user privacy to appeal to the recent trends. These companies know that most people will fall for this trap, giving in to their ecosystems. The ecosystem trap is a very real thing, and is terrible for privacy, and I could argue, security too, because there is one central service to collect your data and stores sensitive info about you. Privacy and security is something that the user must do themselves to achieve.

Nobody Else cares, why should I care?

I should reiterate, privacy and security is not about others, it is about YOU! Another thing about protecting your privacy and security, is that it can also potentially protect the privacy and security of others, since there is one less point to rely on for the threats. Another reason you should care is that it has real world impacts, some regimes, hell, even “free” regimes like the ones in the US (until the 2024 election) and Europe, can use surveillance to do things to you that hurt you in the long run (even if you abide by the law).

Ok, I am sold, where do I start?

The first thing to start is what threats you want to protect yourself against. The threats to protect against can be simple, casual surveillance like advertisers and script kiddies and threats that get exhausted easily all the way to national threats. The “Advanced Persistent Threat” (A.P.T) threat model is the only threat model I will not talk about, because these threats are much, much more advanced than any other threat (think government agencies and advanced hacker groups). That threat model requires that you talk with a cybersecurity specialist, or someone who really knows what to do in this situation and active advancement over the threat (remember, these threats are persistent, hence the name).

Threat model list

These four threat models are the grand majority of threat models that are easy to access and manage (there is the A.P.T threat, but see above for why it isn’t shown). One recommended way of threat modelling is to assess what to protect for right now, and plan accordingly, which is a good way of modelling your threats. Another way for threat modelling is to plan for the future (recommended like a year to three years from now), and plan with that in mind, I only recommend this if you have an active presence and have some popularity, online or otherwise.

  1. Basic threats, I recommend everyone starts with this (more of a security model)
  2. Slightly more intense threats, like targeted ads and basic police force protection (more of a privacy model)
  3. Spray and Prey models, like spammers and scammers, or any models that spray to many users and prey on some users
  4. Much more advanced spray and prey threats, moderately targeted threats that may go after you directly, Stephen

These threats are modeled somwhat after TechLore’s way of threat models, and was partly modified myself. I hope that I can differentiate between these models.

Conclusion

This is the beginning to your journey to increase your privacy and security in the digital age. I hope that I made a guide that holds up well to this day and age, it may not hold over time, but I hope it holds for at least some time. One thing to always remember, always be on the lookout for anything that can invade your privacy and always keep up to date on the news relating to digital privacy and security. Plus, you should look at every guide here for all the threat models, since the stronger models depend on what weaker models use. If you want to use something else other than this series guides, check Privacy Guides, the Privacy Subreddit (even though Reddit sucks now), or the Techlore YouTube channel (which has a really good series called Go Incognito).