Operational Security (OPSEC)
OPSEC is a process, not a single tool. It's the practice of identifying what sensitive information exists, who might want it, and how they might get it. The core of tech OPSEC is compartmentalization. This means using different email addresses, usernames, and even devices for different aspects of your life (e.g., personal, professional, private). This prevents an adversary from correlating data from one compromised area to another. For example, a data breach at a social media site shouldn't expose the password you use for your online banking.
Anonymity and Privacy Tools: VPN and Tor
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider, hiding your IP address from the websites you visit. It's a fundamental privacy tool. However, you must trust the VPN provider not to log your activity. The Tor Network provides a higher level of anonymity by routing your traffic through a series of volunteer-run servers, or 'nodes', making it extremely difficult to trace the traffic back to its source. Tor is slower than a VPN but offers superior protection against traffic analysis.
Secure Communications
Standard SMS messages and phone calls are not secure. For private conversations, use an end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging application like Signal. E2EE ensures that only the sender and the intended recipient can read the message content; not even the company that runs the service can access it. For email, using a provider that offers PGP encryption integration, such as ProtonMail, provides a similar level of security for your written correspondence.
Mobile Device Security
Your smartphone is a powerful surveillance device. To secure it, start by using a strong, alphanumeric passcode. Be extremely judicious about app permissions—a calculator app does not need access to your contacts or microphone. Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use to prevent tracking. Regularly review and delete apps you no longer need. For extreme privacy, consider using a 'de-Googled' phone running a privacy-focused operating system like GrapheneOS or CalyxOS.
Disposable Tech: Burners
For sensitive operations, using a 'burner' phone or laptop is a key tactic. This is a device purchased anonymously (often with cash) and used only for a specific purpose, with no connection to your real identity. A burner phone should use a prepaid SIM card also purchased anonymously. Once the operation is complete, the device is physically destroyed or disposed of, breaking any link between the activity and yourself.
Data Destruction
Simply deleting a file does not remove it from a hard drive; it only removes the pointer to the file. To securely erase data, you must use specialized software that overwrites the data with random characters multiple times. For solid-state drives (SSDs), secure erasure is more complex, and often the only guaranteed method is full-disk encryption followed by physical destruction of the drive's memory chips.