Should I even bother?

[Joe87t]

I've recently taken my online privacy a little more seriously then in the past.

Due to this I decided to purchase a VPN service (ExpressVPN) and thought I was on my way.

I then decided to ditch Chrome and start using Firefox instead with a bunch of privacy related extensions (HTTPS Everywhere, among others)

But then I looked around my home and realized, was it even worth it?

I have an Android phone, meaning realistically Google knows everything about my life, no matter what, via my Google account.

I have three different Google home speakers in my house listening to my every move.

Then today I just realized the router I'm using (an Asus) utilizes AiProtection, which is another word for we wire tap every inbound / outbound packet and send it to trend micro to check out.

Overall, I had the Stark reality that I basically have zero privacy, even if I wanted too..so should I even bother with a VPN or anything or just embrace the fact.

Hell, just today I was literally connected to my VPN, I went to taco Bell for lunch, look at my smartphone 5 minutes later and right on my notification view is an unprompted Google survey asking me how my taco Bell was and to rate it 1-5 stars

 

[RMerlin]

Due to this I decided to purchase a VPN service (ExpressVPN) and thought I was on my way.

Instead of allowing your ISP to see your trafic, you are allowing ExpressVPN to see it. First question you should ask yourself: do you trust ExpressVPN more than your local ISP?

I have an Android phone, meaning realistically Google knows everything about my life, no matter what, via my Google account.

Google accounts have many privacy-related settings, with options to opt out. Connect to your Google Account, and review those settings. A lot of things can be disabled, and existing history can also be deleted.

Similar settings might also exist within applications themselves, like Google Maps.

You will never achieve 100% privacy, for the simple fact that the Internet is a public network. Just like going to a store, you will never have complete privacy the instant you step foot outside of your home. Any large store will have security video footage, people walking on the street can see you as well. All you can do is control what you share, and determine what you find OK to share, and what isn't. I have no problem for any website that I visit to know that I visited them, and from which ISP I am coming from. That does not mean however that I will provide my real birth date whenever filling any of these forms that asks for it.

 

[Paliv]

Honestly the way I see it going on the internet is like going out in public. You don’t ever have complete anonymity, it wasn’t built for that. VPNs aren’t designed for that. The were designed for securing data point to point. I use a VPN for public WiFi and geolocation for streaming when things aren’t available in my region. I feel like most people are just trying to hide either torrenting or porn. Mostly it’s a placebo for anonymity, and the marketing about surveillance is getting ridiculous.

 

[Joe87t]

I don't torrent or P2P whatsoever and if I wanted porn I would just go to pornhub so at least I know it's reputable LMAO. I honestly don't do anything shady at all, and have never received a letter from my ISP about anything ever in history, I just figured I would dabble in being safer.

I didn't think just downloading ExpressVPN would allow me to join anonymous and just go wild, but i figured it would at least provide me some benefits that I would utilize, but I'm not too sure.

 

[dosborne]

IMO, if you can afford it, and have the time and energy to make it work, then any added amount of protection is "good".

As you say there are many devices doing who knows what with our info, but if you can easily and cheaply throw a bit of protection on there, it certainly won't hurt.

 

[Joe87t]

Yeah price honestly isn't a big deal. Even ExpressVPN which is considered one of the more expensive options, comes out to 6 dollars a month if you buy there yearly plan.... 6 a month... 3 biweekly.. $1.50 a week, less then a cup of coffee realistically.

I suppose I'll just hope the VPN + Firefox with HTTPS Everything is at least helping somewhat

 

[AntonK]

Have you considered the TOR browser?

 

[Joe87t]

I'm familiar with Tor, but as mentioned I'm not doing anything nefarious, just in general want to have a more "warm and fuzzy" feeling about browsing the web.

I don't need to go on the Tor Network Everytime I want to go on Instagram lol