By CHRIS FERGUSON
First and foremost, you shouldn’t bring any devices, such as a smartphone or a smartwatch, with you to a protest. Cell connections are frequently hijacked by law enforcement without a warrant. Any information you send through that connection can be traced back to you. This is possible no matter which of the following steps you take. Even if you’re using a VPN (explained below) they can still capture the encrypted data and store it. The most secure way to secure your digital footprint is to stay off the Internet.
1. The Foundations: Accounts & Access
Before worrying about trackers, users need to secure their front door.
Password Hygiene: Don’t trust the password manager built into your phone or browser. Move away from reused passwords and use a password manager such as Bitwarden or NordPass. Make sure you back up your passwords to an encrypted storage site like Proton Drive or Cryptpad.fr.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Set up multifactor authentication on all accounts that offer it, including your bank, social media, your email, and your phone carrier. You can also use an authenticator like Proton Authenticator.
2. Browser and Device Hardening
This is where most daily tracking happens. Police and government officials have unprecedented access to your device.
Privacy-First Browsers: Stop using Chrome/Safari and switch to Duck Duck Go, Firefox with privacy extensions or Brave. If you’re on your phone, you should download them from your app store. You can download them from the website for your computer, either Mac or Windows.
Essential Extensions For Firefox: Install these from the browser. One of the perks of these extensions is that you’ll see WAY fewer ads as you browse. Click the menu on the top right, then click “Extensions and Themes.” Then search for the extension and click “Add to Firefox.” Install uBlock Origin to block trackers and ads. Additionally, add Privacy Badger, AdGuard Ad blocker, Decentraleyes, Facebook container, Sponsor Block (blocks most ads on YouTube) & DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. One of the perks of these extensions is that you’ll see WAY fewer ads as you browse.
Protect Your Device: Disable face unlock and biometric unlock on your phones and computers. Police can compel you to unlock your device with your face or fingerprint, but they require a court order to get your PIN.
3. Network Privacy
How data travels from the device to the internet.
Use a VPN: This is the only tip on this document that will cost money. Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) like NordVPN or ProtonVPN. Do NOT use a free one, as they make money by collecting your web traffic and selling it. A VPN is great because they encrypt and hide all your traffic from your Internet service provider and third parties. The reputable ones (like the ones mentioned above) don’t keep logs. In addition to keeping your traffic hidden from your ISP, they can make you appear to be online from other countries, which can do things like affect the prices you see on airline, travel, and other sites. Additionally, you can access geo-restricted content such as videos, music, and movies by tricking the providers into thinking you’re in another country.
Change your DNS: DNS helps your device connect to online services, and every device that connects to the Internet uses it. Your ISP can and probably does keep a record of all the services you connect to. Worse, they often sell that collected data, and they’re usually not very fast. These public DNS providers don’t keep logs, and they encrypt your traffic, ensuring that your ISP (or anybody else) can’t see which sites and services you’re connecting to. Changing your DNS is a simple way to increase the privacy AND speed of your browsing, and most of them block malware and phishing sites. Many of them offer the added service of blocking things like adult sites if you wish. There are many trustworthy free public DNS providers, such as Cloudflare, Google, AdGuard, and Quad9.
4. Communication & Messaging
End-to-End Encrypted Messaging: Texting is not secure. There is some protection available in the Android and iPhone ecosystems, but it isn’t foolproof. This insecurity is highlighted when a person on an iPhone texts someone using Android. Those messages are not secure. Signal is considered the current gold standard in keeping your conversations truly private, preferred over Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messages. People should use Signal because it’s the only major messaging platform that treats privacy as a fundamental right rather than a paid feature. As it’s run by a non-profit, Signal is not beholden to shareholders or advertisers, meaning it has no incentive to track your behavior or harvest your data. It does not show ads. Every communication from text and voice memos to group video calls is protected by industry-leading end-to-end encryption that is now enhanced with quantum-resistant protection (PQ3) to secure your data against future threats.
Private Search Engines: Search engines like DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, or StartPage instead of Google. Switching to a privacy-based search engine like the ones mentioned is one of the most effective ways to break free from surveillance and reclaim your digital anonymity.
Unlike Google, which builds a permanent, multidimensional profile of your life by linking your search queries to your IP address, location, and personal account, private engines do not track or store your search history.
This prevents the creation of a “filter bubble,” where algorithms decide what information you see based on your past behavior, and it stops the intrusive “retargeting” ads that seem to follow you across the web. Furthermore, because these engines don’t monetize your personal vulnerabilities or interests, they provide a more objective search experience, shielding you from data brokers. This reduces the risk of your sensitive information being exposed in a data breach or following you across the web.
Email Aliasing: Use services like Firefox email relay or iCloud Hide My Email to prevent your primary address from being sold to data brokers. They provide you with a burner email address that forwards to your real email address while hiding it at the same time. This comes in very handy when you want to unsubscribe from something, as you just disable the address and never hear from it again.
Encrypted Email: Use a service like Proton Mail or Tuta to keep your emails away from prying eyes, advertisers, and trackers. Not even the companies providing the emails can see what the contents are. With Proton, you can email other Proton users and those emails will be encrypted end-to-end with no effort on your part. You can also securely email anybody and encrypt it with a password.
If you have Gmail, you should enable confidential mode as a start. Unfortunately, there aren’t many simple encryption options for regular Gmail users, and you should avoid sending sensitive information using it. Never send information like account numbers, PINs, or Social Security numbers via email.
