How I Safeguard My Digital Life 🕵️‍♀️

Why

Around 2019 I found myself going down a rabbit hole of software after listening to some Podcasts. Mainly Darknet Diaries, Destination Linux.

Proton

Proton is like if you want to use Google, but also tell your Government. NOT TODAY SATAN.

I’ve been using them since about 2019 as well going on 5 years and have invested close to $2000 over the years on the sub alone. The reason for the high price is I am locked in on the Visionary Plan.

Proton Currently has 5 soon to be 6 apps in its arsenal.

Mail

• This has been my go and I have never looked back. All my Domains are routed through them for mail and with their SMTP Submission I’ve even been able to use it for alerts for my Proxmox and Trunas Servers.

VPN

• I’ve used many VPNs and this has been far by the best if I am out and about and need to get on the internet and don’t trust the public Wi-Fi I just hop on the VPN and boom!

Drive

• This Cloud storage when it was released had to be one of the more exciting things when I saw it. To be able to have a more privacy-centered PaaS is what at this time got me excited about choosing Proton. when I first was able to test this product. I was allocated about 2TB of space which is nice if you backup a lot of pictures or you want some extra space. Then about a year later when it was released I was Gifted another 1 TB of space. At the time of writing this, I’m at about 6TB of space shared on my account and I have not even touched the Surface.

Calendar

• Calendar has to be one of my favorites as before I never really touched Calendars. With proton, it makes it really easy to use and as the whole topic of this article very private. The downside is an iOS user I’m currently not able to set it as my default Calendar. Which is a bummer but still very nice to have. They also actively work on updates. So I know It’s a matter of time. It’s also possible to import other calendars into Proton. The same goes for Mail as well.

Pass

• Pass is a great password Manager that I use as my backup. Bitwarden is my current primary. We’ll talk about them next. Proton Pass allows you to use it offline and has apps for iOS and Android currently. No Desktop apps atm but that’s not a loss for me. Proton Pass allows you to import almost any other manager into them and just start using them it also supports TOTP and multiple vaults. The only downside I have is that there is no shortcut key to autofill and it goes by domain name and not hostname so with my Lab passwords it gets irritating at times. Besides that, if you’re looking for a password manager I highly Suggest Hopping on the Proton tain.

BitWarden

• Bitwarden has been my go-to Password Manager for about 5 years now. I could honestly not live without this tool. I currently pay them $10 a year for the Premium Plan and has been so worth it. I’ve also self-hosted this tool with Vaultwarden. A Great Self-Hosted Alternative. Bitwarden also supports TOTP and Passkey as well which is great for that extra security or in the case of PassKeys password-less login. TAKE THAT HACKERS. With that being said Bitwarden is a great tool to keep your passwords safe and secure and they’re a Great Company.

Epilogue

So here we are at the end of this Post. I enjoyed writing this and telling people what I use to keep myself a little safer on the Internet. I know it’s not very detailed and just a run-down but I wanted to share this with people as I see a lot of misuse of the internet or just very bad Internet hygiene. Till next time. My next post will be about my HomeLab!