Before social media and online marketing, the greatest risk for the average individual to have their personal data leaked was through the phone book. I remember looking through the phone book as a kid thinking about how strange it was to be able to reach any person in town just by dialing numbers in a certain order. It was surreal to me how many voices I could have access to just by clicking buttons, and sometimes my brothers and I would test those numbers out for fun when we could.

Back then, you could have your information removed with one phone call. The global information landscape has changed a lot since then. Unfortunately, there haven’t been adequate protections nor guidance set to manage these changes. This has led to the current state of privacy: companies that require our information to supply us with resources then distribute our data to countless third parties, who further broker our data for their own profit. The consequences for that profit fall to the individual, who often are unaware of how their data is distributed. Today, the average individual is one malicious (or opportunistic) act away from crisis. Our personal information might be publicly accessible– leading to spam, scams, phishing, and even doxing becoming normalized.

In my opinion, it’s not healthy to motivate people through fear, and that’s not the intention of this post. In fact, most of us probably have not experienced large-scale fraud or life-changing events due to our lack of data privacy. That, to me, indicates a general prevalence of good-will: most people don’t want to hurt others even if it will improve their own lives.

However, assuming the good intent of strangers, while mentally healthy generally, is not a replacement for privacy protection.

Here are 7 steps you can take before 2025 to start the year with a fresh(er) slate:

1. Clean up your phone:
   1. delete the apps you haven’t used in the past two weeks (you can download them again when you need them, this makes the following steps easier)
2. Disable voice assist on your devices:
   1. iPhone: Settings > Siri & Search > Uncheck everything; go through the apps and deselect “learn from” and all other options
      1. if you have limited time, start with social media and google apps
3. Get a VPN
   1. many VPNs offer a free trial, so you can test them out before deciding on one
4. Switch to a browser that blocks cookies, trackers, and ads (I use Brave, but have read good things about Vivaldi and DuckDuckGo)
   1. Check the settings to make sure the browser is not storing cookies, you can also set it to delete all data and history upon closing
5. Disable location services & tracking
   1. iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Off
   2. iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking > Off
      1. Deselect any apps that are tracking to remove permissions
6. Stop linking Google & Social Media accounts to other services
   1. Go through https://myaccount.google.com/privacycheckup/ and pause & remove history of items you don’t want saved
7. Start to remove your data from People Search websites
   1. use databrokerswatch.org to send removal requests yourself, or find a Data Removal Service that you trust to initiate and maintain removal of your private data from these databases
      1. Many of these databases only remove your data temporarily upon request, and will typically post your information again 3 months after the request is made
      2. Some companies feed their data to the others, so a removal request sent to them will typically ripple through to removal from their subsidiaries
      3. Even if you hire Vermillion Dreams or another Data Removal Service, consider familiarizing yourself with the data broker list and the information resources available at databrokerswatch.org; including whether you are currently protected by any state or federal laws

If you’ve completed these steps and are looking for more, I recommend the book Extreme Privacy by Michael Bazzell. He encourages developing a routine of consistently removing your own data (rather than hiring others to remove it) while taking further steps to protect your privacy from being broadcasted again. Ideally, removing your data will become easier over time as information is permanently removed.

Written by Lux Holm–

Vermillion Dreams is a project seeking to empower working class individuals through sharing information. Follow along as I share what I learn about data privacy, mental/emotional hygiene, and permaculture.