Create Sock Puppet Accounts
Nothing will stop the surveillance on your habits and traffic, but you can render it less useful by untethering it from your actual personhood.
The point
Every thing you do leaves a trace.
Whether intentional or unintentional, your network activity is tracked by first parties (the content you visit), third parties (the services they use to track user activity), and then gets sold to whoever wants it. And while you've been sold the importance of "identity authentication" for decades now, the reality is a little more complex.
We posit that, in fact, the solution is more along the lines of eroding the value of the data these entities collect by "poisoning the well", as it were. Kind of like signing a petition you disagree with, using a name like "Donald Duck".
As it turns out, there's a lot of value in leaving a false trail; it wastes effort, and devalues the data, rendering its effectivity diminished, and, most importantly, less commercially viable. Because that's what it's likely going to end up being all about. Make the bad behavior less viable, commercially.
No Comment
Regarding social media use, remember that if you do not pay for a product, then you are the product. That said, if you cannot control your urge to self-surveil, you can, at minimum, misattribute it to someone who never existed.
All Accounts Are Disposable
Don't get too attached to the data. It was never yours to begin with, and you can set up a brand new account with a brand new identify right now if you want to.
First Step
Create a profile.
Or 2 or 3.
First, establish some fundamental facts about "you". You can use this handy profile generator to create a sketch, tweak the details to your personal liking, and then save them as a txt file on a thumb drive. Maybe encrypt it, if you're feeling saucy.
Profile Generator
Name:Etha Evans
Address:
2943 Orizaba Ave
Gilbert, Iowa 58501
Phone:
202-225-3861
Social Security Number:
486-86-9936
Credit Card Number:
Amex: 348623902332253
Expiration Date:
11/2026
Security Code:
189
Birthdate:
1943-08-30
IMPORTANT NOTE:All photographs are generated by large language model software. Names are created at random from a pool of options. Addresses are created programmatically, as well, and do not correspond to any known person, living or dead.
Credit card numbers are test credit card numbers, and will calculate correctly, but are not tied to real accounts. Phone numbers are random, as are SSNs. And don't give out SSNs for things when you sign up for stuff anyway! If a site needs your SSN, then it needs the real you, not your sock puppet. Your doctor's office doesn't want to make an appointment for Biff McGee.