So here’s the thing.

My country is being taken over by fascists.

Economy is already fucked up before the fascists took control, now the economy is even worse. Cost of living is too high. Moving out is not an option. It’s either shitty toxic family, or some random strangers as roommates (I have no friends) in order to split the cost of rent, like it’s literally impossible afford to rent alone. People are getting fired all the time, any small issue with income would mean being homeless, and that would guarantee ending up snatched by the gestapo.

There is no choice.

I’m not sure if I have a legitimate concern. I have never attended a protest (too scared) and I never had any large online presence. I don’t even show my name or face on the internet. I don’t have any wikipedia pages.

So… maybe I’m just over-cautious… 🤷‍♂️

They took black mirror as an instruction manual… 😭

You’re probably not so important that they’d target you.

Not actively, of course. I’m talking about when the authorities one day want to retroactively dig through stuff to find dirt.

The threat would be that they do a targeted attack on my devices and monitor for 72 hours, recording everything happening in my device, before they apprehend me.

(Not that the lack of evidence would stop them from trying, but the less info they get, the better chance I have)

Mullvad and IPVN has too few servers, its very likely all their IPs would already have been flagged. ProtonVPN has like 10,000 servers. (The CEO Controversy aside, it’s OP’s best bet for an IP that isn’t banned) ProtonVPN also accepts Cash.

Not sure how an .onion address helps?

If you are using Tor, the admins wont know who you are anyways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SEnmRtCjWA

Where to?

I see a possible future.

I attempt to get political asylum in EU.

They will 99% chance reject.

Then I get deported to the US.

Then the ICE agents refuse to recognize my citizenship.

I end up in an el salvador concentration camp.

I have trust issues with used phones tbh. It goes beyons the FRP.

Like… who knows if the previous owner is a drug dealer or something, then the authorities got the IMEI, then if I use that phone, the cops assume that I am that drug dealer.

Imagine they got an agency like the United State’s DEA involved, and you happened to be using that phone that used to belong to a drug dealer, the authorities just send a pegasus, upload all your stuff, activate cameras microphones. Then eventually raid your house.

I don’t like the thought of that.

My compromise is to just to minimize big tech tracking.

I mean, 90% of data is because people use corporate social media with real names and real IPs. I don’t use “social media” like everyone else, and that is just cutting away 90% of mass surveillance. I only occasionally look at reddit over VPN (without loggining in and never posting anything), I use Lemmy over Tor. Use Fennec (aka: firefox, but from F-Droid) + uBlock Origin + VPN, for everything else (like watching youtube videos)

I usually only have Fennec and Tor (amongst a few other things) through VPN, everything else is going to clearnet. My though is, if I put the entire traffic over VPN, Google would see my VPN IP attached to my device serial number.

If there is some university thing, I’d just begrudgingly use it. Use browser if possible, but if app is required, probably put it in a “work profile” (the Shelter app from F-Droid can do that) to separate it from everything else, and prevent any such app from seeing my files. Also give as few permissions as possible. And never installing any “profiles” or “certificates” they give you for access to their wifi. They should have a “guest wifi” without such requirements so just use that instead. (Or get a second phone with the “Share Wifi Connection” ability and use that as your “router” and connect your main phone to it.) Or just use mobile data if you can afford it.

For banking, put the app in the “work profile” or use browser if whatever you need to do doen’t require the app.

For uber/lyft/taxi, probably use the browser, or if that doesn’t work, again, put the app in work profile, don’t give permissions until I’m ready to use it, and its getting deleted the moment my ride is done.

For maps, unfortunately I still have to use Google Maps, because I value being alive and not getting lost in some sketchy neighborhood over the privacy… 😓

I feel like Graphene OS is too much of a hassle for me, I’ll have to get a Pixel, which does not have a microSD slot, and that’s a dealbreaker for me.