80/20 Online Privacy And Security
I sometimes despair about 80/20ing online privacy and security: I fear this is one of those things where you either go to superhuman lengths to get privacy or you accept that you're getting nothing at all. (Richard Stallman abjures cell phones, key cards, credit cards, and browsing the web on his personal computer, while I am unwilling to give up any of these things).
But there's three things I do that I find convenient and mildly helpful. Please note: many times when I recommend software online it immediately gets worse, so apologies if that now happens with these.
1Password
Password manager that the nerds tell me is good and effective. I also use it for 2FA codes, which is kind of a violation of 2FA rules, but works for me. It also integrates directly with Fastmail to create arbitrary masked email addresses, allowing me not to give away my actual email to every random internet company.
cost: $36 per year per person, $60 per year for families
Fastmail
Email service that lets me create endless masked email addresses, one for each online signup. I also like having all of that go to a separate inbox from my main personal or work email addresses.
cost: $60 per year per person, $120 for families
Privacy.com
Virtual credit cards. Lets you create a new, separate virtual card for every website or purchase.
This is the company I trust least on this list, in that I don't understand how they're making money or what they might do with my data in future, but given my options it feels better to me than giving my Main Card details out to every website.
You can restrict your virtual cards to a single vendor, and/or set spend limits on the cards or shut down individual cards completely, which seems great as a security feature. As a side bonus it helps you easily track where you're spending your money.
cost: free tier is weirdly good enough. Again, don't understand how they're making money.
Bonus note: looking at this list, if you're short on cash, Fastmail seems the most disposable – if you could find another way to generate masked emails you could skip it.