Some thoughts and suggestions for privacy in a modern world.
This is NOT meant as protection against dedicated stalkers, or active threats. They would require police assistance, so think carefully, and seek professional advice if required.
This is intended to minimize public online exposure, and give some minimal protection online and in real life, making it possible to communicate, but give a bit of control about what you let others know about you. It's pretty basic, and not to technical, so everybody should be able to follow along, and implement these things, and use them in everyday life.
So, why limit public exposure ?. Because our data is being held in more and more databases, we leave more and more traces of ourselves online for the world to see. That can be good, fun and help build relationships, and keep in contact with friends and familly. So, isn't that a good thing ?. Most of the time, yep, sure is. BUT, not every person you meet is nice, or have your best interests at heart. So, keep that in mind.
There's only a couple of steps, and they are :
About addresses
1. Get an unlisted address
2. Ask friends and relatives NOT to hand out your address, be carefull where you use it, who you give it to, and why.
3. Separate online profiles from your address if possible
Phones
1. Buy a cellphone, pay in cash ! (or buy a used one, again use cash, not credit card, )
2. Buy a prepaid card, and DO NOT top it up with a credit card, use cash and vouchers if possible.
This number is you "public facing number, and can be given out if you absolutely must. Think about who get's it, and why.
3. Again, tell friends and family NOT to give out this number, no matter who asks, and tell them to ask you before they do.
4. Pay attention to what number you call or text from. Use you public number for all outgoing calls.
5. Get one more phone number, this can be a normal paid service.
This is your personal number, and is used for close friends and family, or someone you have to have contact with at all times, (counselors, police..and so on)
Make sure that this number is NOT given out, and make sure everybody understands that, if they do, it will change again.
Email and messengers
1. Get a couple of Gmail accounts. (Don't use your real name, Google will never check it)
Use it to register you new prepaid phone to Google Services. Strip out all the apps you don't need, and go through the settings of all others, making sure they are set to minimal level, just enough permissions to function, not more.
2. Use some privacy related messenger, Signal is a good choice. It won't ask you for a name, just a telephone number, use your "public" prepaid number for this.
3. Use one mail for "public", like you did with the cellphone, and one for private use. Make a third for signing up for online services :)
Social Media
1. Don't..just don't :)
2. If you must, again use a couple of accounts, one set for maximum privacy, just for close friends and family, and one for public use.
"A word of caution" !
Think about what you post. So, no selfies, or nudes, no info about you or friends, where you are, where you go, or what you do. Ask friends not to take pictures of you and post them online, especially make sure they don't "tag", where you are. Scrub them of metadata, like timestamps or GPS info. Make sure you know who you make friends with, and limit what they know, and have access to.
Again, it's pretty easy for someone to make friends with your friends, and use that as an access path to you and your private info.
Checks
Check online databases listing numbers, email, and addresses. If you find your own info, ask it to be removed. Remember, some phone directories list numbers as default, an unlisted address won't stop this. Contact your cellservice provider, and ask them to hide your contact info.
If you own and operate a website, make sure that the whois records don't give out anymore details than is needed.