Note: this assumes you already do things like keep digitized versions of important documents, use 2FA and multifactor authentication, etc. This isn’t a full privatization journey, just some simple stuff I did.
Step 1: collect list of accounts You need a password manager, and somehow collect basically all passwords/accounts into this manager. Good luck!
Step 2: delete social media The lowest hanging data-harvesting fruit.
Step 3: submit data deletion requests
Using all the information you have in your password manager, start filling out deletion requests. I’m talking that time you signed up for Hello Fresh. Or your Chipotle rewards (and somehow never get a reward). Or your Gap credit card that’s really a scam because of the absurd APR.
As a side note, if your credit card company offers a digital number, use that. And interestingly, Apple Pay is pretty secure—it issues a token for every transaction. If you go to Target, don’t use the Target Rewards, and use Apple Pay, that’s almost as private (from a you/Target relationship perspective) as paying cash.
Also, the number one thing anyone can and should do to secure their life, is freeze their credit cards. Your credit cards should be frozen by default, unfrozen when you need a credit check or a credit line increase (some companies let you do a temporary unfreeze that auto-freezes). Freezing your credit is free. Do it and do it for any family member you worry about!
All of this is a huge pain, just FYI. It would be easier to build a Time Machine and go back to 1994 and slap yourself.
One recommendation: temporarily download the app version of a website. I don’t know if Apple/Google request this, but it’s often easier to find the “delete account” option in an app. If that’s not an option, you have to go through the website. Pray they added a delete account button in your account settings. However, most companies seem to make it as difficult as possible and bury their contact information in their privacy policy page, linked in fine print at the bottom of their website. From there, you’ll either need to find a privacy or help email to contact them, or there should be a form (most companies use OneTrust). Sometimes the email will then give you the form. Sometimes the form link is broken. Sometimes the email is broken. Sometimes no one responds (the solution for these situations is to edit your account profile as much as possible to obscure yourself. I personally will use a fake name, the White House’s address, and an alias email).
Some companies will pretend you can only delete your account if you live in the EU or California. Feel free to cite the specific law for your state if they (Waze) give you grief—it’s amazing what happens when you tell them the exact code.
Most requests will, inexplicably, take 30-45 days to fulfill. In the meantime, go on to step 4. As the requests are fulfilled, archive those logins in your password manager. Or delete them. Any other accounts you keep, opt out of data sharing.
Step 4: privatize your email Sign up for a more private email, like Proton or other services. Take all those remaining accounts and switch them over to proton or an alias email.
Step 5: privatize your backups If you’re using Google Photos as a cloud backup, they’re totally trawling those photos for data on you to target ads to you. Likewise for your documents. Might be a good idea to get your photos onto a hard drive and an SSD backup. There are more private ways to store on the cloud, whether using a more private cloud service like proton or nextcloud, or using cryptomator to encrypt before uploading to Google or Microsoft. For me, I heavily used OneNote for journaling, but I no longer feel comfortable doing that with Microsoft’s AI policies. So I also switched to Standard Notes for my digital journaling.
Step 6: privatize your IOT I chose to remove my doorbell camera and my smart light switches, and deleted the accounts. I kept my Sonos and IKEA Sonos lamp. I wiped my TCL Roku TV to factory setting and blocked it from the internet (and deleted my Roku account). I only stream using my Apple TV, and I now have a limited number of commercial channels (movies anywhere, Tubi, YouTube, HBO Max), all of which I set to limit the data they can share with others. I chose to donate to PBS and NPR, so I have the PBS app, and I have kanopy through my local library. For fun, I also bought a digital antenna. For digital rentals, there’s Amazon, YouTube, Apple TV, and a few others. But there are other options for checking out movies, which brings me to step 7.
Step 7: physical media Speaking of, I went ahead and purchased hard copies of some of my favorite movies and books, and use the library frequently. In fact, if you look though the DVD section, it’s just like Blockbuster—and most libraries default to not saving your checkout history.
Step 8: browsers and searching Switch to a privacy-based browser and search engine. I use Firefox focus with DuckDuckGo on my iPhone, and the Firefox focus also works as an extension for when I need to use safari. I use Firefox on my MacBook, and hardened it. There are more secure browser - I just went with something simple and fast.
Step 9: VPN, DNS, and guest networks Use a VPN on public WiFi, secure your router, and keep your IOT separate from your personal/work computers (use guest WiFis for things like insecure IOTs and your work computer)
Step 10: use E2EE as much as possible Use signal, WhatsApp (it’s not great but it’s better than telegram), and other encrypted messaging.
Step 11: FOSS explore using FOSS for your digital needs
Step 12: future proof A tip: some companies use an intermediary. So your password manager might say you have an account with punchh, but it’s actually a Taco Place using punchh. Make a note of what restaurant the login is for. If you need to delete it, punchh will make you reach out to the Taco Place.
Fun, semi-insane privatization:
Page last updated: 2025.11.16