Take Back Your Privacy

A free, practical guide. No email required. Not a funnel. Just useful.

Step 1: Your Browser

Your browser is your front door to the internet. Lock it.

  • Switch to Firefox or Brave. Chrome is built by the world's largest advertising company. Draw your own conclusions.
  • Install uBlock Origin. It blocks ads, trackers, and malware. Free, open source, and the single best thing you can do for your privacy online.
  • Use a private search engine. DuckDuckGo or Startpage. Google search tracks every query you make.

Step 2: Your Passwords

If you reuse passwords, fixing that matters more than anything else on this page.

  • Use a password manager. Bitwarden (free, open source) or 1Password. Every account gets a unique, random password.
  • Enable two-factor authentication on email, banking, and social media. Use an authenticator app, not SMS.
  • Check if you've been breached. Go to haveibeenpwned.com and enter your email. Change any compromised passwords immediately.

Step 3: Your Phone

Your phone knows more about you than your closest friend.

  • Audit app permissions. Does your flashlight app really need your contacts? Revoke anything unnecessary.
  • Turn off location services for apps that don't need it. Weather? Fine. Social media? No.
  • Disable ad tracking. iOS: Settings > Privacy > Tracking > off. Android: Settings > Privacy > Ads > Delete advertising ID.

Step 4: Your Email

Gmail reads your email to sell ads. You can do better.

  • Consider Proton Mail or Tuta. End-to-end encrypted, based in privacy-friendly countries.
  • Use email aliases. Services like SimpleLogin or addy.io let you create unique addresses for every service. When one gets spammed, you know who sold your data.

Step 5: Your Network

Your ISP sees every website you visit. Your router is probably broadcasting your activity.

  • Change your DNS to a privacy-respecting provider. Quad9 (9.9.9.9) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1). Your ISP's default DNS logs everything.
  • Use a VPN for sensitive browsing. Mullvad or ProtonVPN. Pay with cash or crypto if you're serious.
  • Update your router firmware. Default passwords and outdated firmware are how most home networks get compromised.

Step 6: Your Cloud Storage

Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox can access your files. "End-to-end encrypted" means something different to each of them.

  • For sensitive files, use Cryptomator. It encrypts files before they reach any cloud service. Free and open source.
  • Or self-host. Nextcloud gives you Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts, and more — on hardware you control. That's what we build at logout.cloud.

Step 7: Your Messaging

SMS is unencrypted. Facebook Messenger is surveilled. iMessage is better but Apple-only.

  • Use Signal. End-to-end encrypted, open source, no ads, no tracking. The gold standard for private messaging.

That's It

You don't need to do everything at once. Start with Step 1 (browser) and Step 2 (passwords). Those two changes alone put you ahead of 95% of internet users.

If you want to go all the way — self-hosted cloud, photos, email, DNS blocking, VPN — that's what logout.cloud is for. But this guide works regardless.

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