Here's what I have done to try to mitigate various online tracking:
- Installed NetGuard on my phone to firewall everything but the few apps I want to allow access.
- Installed Pi-Hole with DNSSEC encrypted DNS stuffs on a raspberry pi at home.
- Installed a Synology NAS at home for all my backups (no cloud crap being used).
- Migrated to Proton Mail for email.
- Installed Ublock Origin, Decentraleyes, Privacy Badger, No Script, HTTPS Everywhere and Don't Track Me Google on my browser.
- Using Waterfox browser instead of Firefox to reduce Mozilla tracking.
- Set ALL Google history and tracking off in my Google account (I still need a Google account for some stuff including Youtube channel unfortunately).
- Used the ADB Shell function to debloat my phone of all apps I don't need, especially the Google and Facebook stuff.
https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/- Unsubscribed and closed all accounts and email mailing lists I no longer use.
- Closed my Facebook account ages ago before they made it borderline impossible to do.
- Searched for my name and stuff on all search engines to see if I forgot anything obvious.
- Periodically nuke my Reddit history to help prevent the chance of doxxing and data mining.
https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite/It's not perfect, but my digital footprint is a lot smaller now.
Undoubtedly there is a lot of metadata still behind the scenes that I can't do much about, but I'm doing all I can for now.