please help me, im a person with anxiety trying to navigate privacy
Hi everyone, just wanted some kindly advice on a few things. For context, I’ve stulmbled on this page and r/privacy (can’t post there since I don’t have much karma and my account is fairly new) for a different topic a day ago but got sucked in a rabbit hole and here I am. I am 20 and while I’m pretty young I’m not the most tech savvy person ever. I also do have anxiety and kind of overthink things, maybe to a high degree and this sub kinda has increased it or rather made me a bit paranoid to use anything tech related now but I’m getting help but wanted to hear just general thoughts. I’ll be honest I respect how dedicated most of you guys are but also intimidated lol mainly in how you guys have found ways to mitigate and change and I don’t feel at the point or sure if I want to get there or to that level. But anyways:
- I recently downloaded brave and Firefox on my laptop. I actually like them both compared to google or chrome but is there one that’s better or is using both fine.
- I noticed Firefox uses google as a search. Is that okay to use or should I just a different search engine like DuckDuckGo?
- In regards to mobile (apple/IOS) what’s the best, so far Firefox was the only one I could sync with my laptop vs with DuckDuckGo and Brave I cant sync or recover old bookmarks or other stuff, maybe thats just a me thing im doing wrong or missing?
- I still use google, trying to I guess lower my use and not use it as my main browser . And I don’t really use Microsoft products unless for school and sometimes the browser but it’s not something I really use as much . But I do still use Gmail as I have a personal and school account, I use YouTube too but messing around with freetube. I also do use google slides and docs for school as well. And when I did use Firefox to sign up I used my Gmail account. Just last night since i can barley sleep now, deleted all my stuff from google photos. Will I need to give these up completely or just find some sort of balance?
- What’s your take on ai. Personally I mainly use it as a tool for personal use like creative writing but school for like notes, creating practice quizzes, or explaining topics. I used Claude (which ik itsnt the best, but its a lesser evil ai compared to most and i simply use it as a tool)and recently heard they might be rolling out again verification and is actually how I got on this sub as to curious what people were saying . Can I still use Claude or ai if I don’t share any personal info or age verification. I do use open router, not often just maybe a week ago messed around with it but not sure how safe it is.
- How do you guys stay level headed. Specifically about caring for privacy but not getting obsessive. That’s my big thing where like I value convenience and privacy but seems like can’t really have both? I understand why we need privacy not to hide things necessarily but because we don’t know anyone to know what we do. That being said how do you decide your trade offs or not let privacy take over your life. Cause honestly this sub initially made me doom and gloom and kinda came off as fear mongering. Albeit I do understand why you guys care and why it’s a core issue and right as people, especially with how the world is going.
- How am i supposed to ever get a job, dont most sites request your info and then it gets stored? Or going to a doctor? Or anything really? like i went to a small gathering and kinda freaked and went to hide away as they took photos and stuff. I feel just very incapable of not thinking or privacy and i barley function as a result now. I feel in fear of just everything, like everything is tracked. i feel scared to search things or even buy things. r/privacy made it worse and while i cant blame them for how they think or do things, I feel in panic mode 24/7. i cant think about anything else, i cant sleep peacefully, barley function, school is getting difficult where i can barley focus to study, too scared to look for a therapist, im just lost.
Basically, what is the minimum i can do to stay have more privacy, im already trying to do less of google, so i hope my efforts are still meaning something even if i dont completely degoogle 100%
Thank you for everyone who responds. I want to hear from you and your perspectives just to gain some insight. Hopefully I’m not asking too much. And sorry for any bad grammar and how long this post is!