Your First 30 Minutes of Privacy

A practical starter checklist you can do today (no paranoia, no perfection required).

Most “privacy advice” fails because it’s either too extreme or too vague. This guide is different: it’s a short, realistic set of steps that materially improves your privacy in about 30 minutes.

You don’t need to do everything. Do what you can, then build from there.

Pick the closest match:

• Everyday privacy: less tracking, fewer leaks, fewer risky defaults.
• Higher-risk: activism, sensitive work, stalking/harassment concerns, high-profile identity.
• Business / organisation: protecting clients, donors, internal documents, accounts.

This matters because the “best” tool or setup depends on your situation.

If you do only one thing today, do this.

1) Use a password manager

A password manager helps you create unique passwords for every site (so one breach doesn’t cascade across your life).

• Set it up.
• Import passwords if you already have them saved in your browser.
• Generate a new strong password for your email account first (email is the “master key” to everything else).

2) Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)

Start with:

• Email
• Banking
• Social accounts (X, Instagram, etc.)
• Any account where losing access would hurt

Best options (in order):

1. Authenticator app (good balance of security + convenience)
2. Hardware security key (best, but optional)
3. SMS (better than nothing, but weakest)

Quick rule: Protect email first, then everything else.

Your browser is the biggest tracking surface in everyday life.

Do these three things:

1. Enable tracking protection
   Most modern browsers include built-in tracking protection. Turn it on (or set it to “strict” if it doesn’t break your daily sites).
2. Review extensions
   Extensions can become a privacy risk. Keep only what you truly use.

• Remove anything you don’t recognise or haven’t used in months.

3. Separate identities
   Use separate browser profiles for:

• Personal browsing
• Work/admin accounts
• “Research”/random clicking

This reduces cross-site linking and accidental logins.

There is no perfect messenger for everyone — choose based on risk level.

Everyday use

• Use a modern messenger with strong encryption by default.
• Avoid mixing “public identity” accounts with sensitive conversations.

Higher-risk use

• Prefer tools with strong security reputation and clear encryption defaults.
• Be careful with backups (some apps back up message history to the cloud in ways that reduce privacy).

Simple habit: For anything sensitive, assume screenshots exist and metadata matters.

Most privacy losses come from permissions and defaults.

Do a quick permissions sweep

On your phone:

• Check Location permissions: set most apps to “While using” or “Never”
• Review Photos/Files access: restrict where possible
• Disable microphone/camera permissions for apps that don’t need them

Turn off ad tracking options (where available)

Most phones have a setting related to personalised ads or ad measurement.
Turning this off won’t make you invisible, but it reduces needless tracking.

Backups matter — but so does what you back up.

• If you use cloud photo backup, know it may include metadata (location/time/device).
• Consider separating:
  • everyday photos
  • documents
  • sensitive images

Minimum move: Don’t automatically sync private folders or screenshots unless you intend to.