It is true!

Everyone is spying on you.

By what ever method you access the internet, there will be someone trying to watch what you do, where you go, what you say and most important, to find as much personal information about you and your family as possible.

You are vulnerable by all of these means.

Your PC and smart phone: Web browser and emails.

Smart phone apps, social media, maps, games, email, just about any app you choose to install may be collecting information about you and your daily habits.*

Your phone is a tracking device that can log your every move.

One of the biggest leaks of your personal data you are giving up yourself. Social Media.

People gripe when something on social media does not work...they cannot seem to find any support.  There is a reason Facebook, Twitter etc. don't provide any meaning support options. YOU ARE NOT A CUSTOMER ! YOU ARE THEIR PRODUCT! You and other users are given the privilege of dishing out all your personal information and your eye so they can sell ads and data to actual paying customers. They get support.

There's also a quieter kind of tracking that doesn't need cookies at all. Even with cookies blocked, a site can often still recognize your specific device by its "fingerprint" - the particular combination of screen size, fonts, browser version, and installed plugins your device presents is often unique enough to identify you across visits without storing anything on your machine at all. This is why "private browsing" mode alone isn't the privacy shield people assume it is - it clears local history and cookies, but it doesn't change your device's fingerprint one bit.

Five quick wins, if you do nothing else:

• Install a tracker/ad blocker. uBlock Origin (free) cuts most tracking scripts off before they ever load, and a privacy-respecting browser like Brave builds similar protection in by default.
• Switch your DNS. Your ISP can see every site you visit by default - see our About DNS article for privacy-focused alternatives.
• Review your phone's app permissions. Location, microphone, and contacts access get granted once and forgotten - go check what's actually turned on, and turn off what you don't need.
• Use a password manager with a unique password everywhere. One reused password is how one breach becomes every account - see our Scams article. Bitwarden is a free option this author uses personally.
• Stop searching on Google. Try DuckDuckGo, which doesn't log searches tied to your identity.

None of these take more than a few minutes, and together they close most of the easy, high-volume tracking - the rest of this section covers the deeper stuff: VPNs, TOR, email, mobile, and more.

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* A note to conspiracy fools who worry that the "government wants to put a chip in me to track me..." Doh! If you own a cell phone you are willingly taking that "chip" everywhere you go!