hello everyone,

i am in the beginning stages of starting my privacy journey. i have read a lot of what privacy guides has to offer and have learned a lot about this topic and what i am actually trying to protect. however, i still have a looming question or two and would like some advice.

while i do want to better protect my privacy, i also don’t want to make my life more difficult or accept weaker security. i primarily work as a journalist and i sometimes cover stories that can make people mad. right now i have no reason to believe i would be a target, but in this line of work it is a possibility to be aware of. as a result , i have to take security more seriously than most. kind of like a better safe than sorry type of deal.

aside: i realize with how i am typing it might be hard for many to believe i am a journalist. i am intentionally typing with minimal grammar and intentional mistakes because i don’t want anyone comparing this post to my work and potentially linking my professional identity to it.

up until this point i have been using windows. i did take steps to improve my security by using bitlocker to encrypt my drive, made sure the computer i use supported advanced security features and so on. however, i have become increasingly aware of how much of my privacy i am sacrificing online and am trying to walk it back. for my first main step i am wanting to ditch windows and delete my microsoft account.

as far as security and professional work is concerned, i feel like macOS with lockdown mode might be a good fit for me. based on some reading i have done, apple does a lot to secure their devices, so long as i do my part to have good internet hygiene and be responsible for my own online safety by keeping myself informed of threats that may impact me. this would also pair nicely with my iphone that i do enjoy using. if i go this route i would also opt to use icloud with advanced data protection. the main exception here being that i would choose to use bitwarden for my password manager in case i ever want to leave the apple ecosystem.

i don’t mind changing email addresses on accounts and things like that and i keep local backups of my important data, so i think this would be a good fit for me. i also don’t talk to people using email, so i am okay with it not being encrypted at rest. to me email is mostly for receipts, signing up to websites, etc. i think icloud email would provide reasonable security and privacy for these needs. who knows, maybe one day the advanced data protection would cover emails too.

i realize this is a journey and not an actual destination, but am i being naive to believe in the promises of privacy apple is marketing? i know it won’t be a perfect solution, but it does look like most of their software processes things on-device or has it end-to-end encrypted. this alone makes me trust them a lot more than other big tech. couple this with their strong security with minimal hassle, and i think it might be good enough for me. don’t get me wrong, i would still try to increase my privacy when possible, but i also want to stick with protecting my privacy long-term and want the biggest gains with minimal friction and no sacrifice to security.

do you all think i might be making a mistake? to give a little more information, here is a highlight of the common threats i am concerned with and why:

anonymity: this will mostly come in the form of creating different identities for different parts of my life. for example, i publish things online under different identities to make it more difficult for people to relate online activities with my real identity

targeted attacks: i am not under any threat of being targeted right now, but with my line of work it is possible in the future. i also really do worry about being stalked, which has happened before. i am not sure if stalking falls under a targeted attack, but i will list it here.

passive attacks: i think we all need protection from malware, data breaches, etc.

service providers: i need to use services that offer end-to-end encryption for things like notes, pictures, and so on. however, my emails/contacts don’t need to be encrypted since i only use signal to discuss things and add important contacts. i do sometimes talk with family members via text and phone calls, but this is not avoidable and i try to be very mindful of what is shared there.

mass surveillance: i just want to protect myself from this to the extent as everyone else. sometimes i write about law enforcement or people in law enforcement and that can be a little intimidating/scary, if that matters here.

surveillance capitalism: i’d rather companies not make money selling my data. i understand this will be impossible to fully protect against. i know apple may not be ideal with this aspect, but i do feel like they are way better than most and that i could still guard myself reasonably well in this category even using their software

public exposure: this is what i worry about the absolute most! largely because i need to protect against stalkers and the general public. possibly even people in law enforcement who might want to dig into me a little bit without an actual legal warrant. i already use a service that helps me delete my info from people search sites, but this is a category i have been working really hard to try and improve.

censorship: the organizations i write for worry about this for me to an extent. at the moment this isn’t a concern for me outside of what normal people face.

now that you know a little bit more about my situation, what do you all think? am i making the right choice here or am i making a mistake by thinking apple will be any better with my privacy?

i did look into linux and i probably could force it to work, but it would probably have a lot of friction and it does not seem to offer the same level of security if i am ever specifically targeted. especially when it comes to protecting the boot process, which is really important to my needs.

i look forward to any advice you could all offer me.

thank you. once again, sorry for the poor spelling, grammar, formatting, etc.