Stop hiding behind apps. Start showing up with intent.
Everyone wants the privacy stack.
The best phone. The hardened browser. The encrypted email.
They ask, “What VPN should I use?”
Wrong question.
You want safety without confrontation.
You want to be private without being inconvenienced.
You want to cloak your data, but not change your behavior.
That’s not privacy. That’s performance art.
Privacy isn’t a product
It’s a posture.
- It’s refusing to give your real name when they ask for it “just in case.”
- It’s deleting Facebook even when your whole family’s on it.
- It’s saying no to convenience even when it makes you the “weird one.”
- It’s walking into a room and choosing silence over surveillance.
You think you’re building a secure life with Tailscale, Signal, and ProtonMail? You are, they definitely are part of the tool chest but if you still log into Google for YouTube, still carry your phone everywhere, or still upload your face and location to Instagram.
You’re not private. You’re cosplaying.
The hard truth: privacy makes you uncomfortable
You will lose friends.
You will miss invites.
You will be misunderstood.
You will feel left out.
But you’ll also be free.
Tools don’t make you private.
Discipline does.
- Mullvad without browser hygiene is a joke
- GrapheneOS without app control is theater
- Encrypted messaging without encrypted habits is loud quietness
You keep asking for the “perfect setup.”
You keep reading articles like this.
Still haven’t deleted your Gmail.
Because tools are easy. Accountability is not.
Want privacy?
Then:
- Stop announcing your life online
- Stop trusting platforms to protect you
- Stop waiting to “learn more” before acting
- Stop expecting tools to save you from your own habits
Build your own rules
- No accounts unless necessary
- No devices that track by default
- No syncing your whole life to someone else’s server
- No sharing unless you’re okay losing it forever
Here’s what I use
I carry a Graphene phone.
I run local first everything I can.
I use Proton and Tuta but I don’t expect them to protect what I leak.
I encrypt before I upload.
I stay quiet and I never assume I’m safe.
Still imperfect. Still exposed.
But moving forward.
Deliberate. Awake.
Final truth
Privacy isn’t about hiding.
It’s about reclaiming agency.
It’s not about being invisible.
It’s about being unreachable.
You want to be private?
Grow the spine to live it.
-GHOST
Written by GHOST, creator of the Untraceable Digital Dissident project.
This is part of the Untraceable Digital Dissident series — tactical privacy for creators and rebels.
Explore more privacy tactics at untraceabledigitaldissident.com.
Recent
- Decoy Accounts, Decoy Data, Decoy Devices.
- Backup Plans for Your Comms, Data, and Identity
- Hardening Your Home Against Digital and Physical Intrusion
- The Day You Ditch Your Phone Shouldn’t Be the First Time.
- REVIEW: SLNT Faraday Bags: Field Tested, Signal Killed
Content
- Hash: 799b26f284dc13d921dd74ee372d9ac0e6fa22b5d84340167237d9dd1d53ac78 You-Don’t-Need-Privacy-Tools.-You-Need-Balls.
- Timestamp: npub1gxsss485j5yvwe7yffp48ddxr7qhshmzl9f8fvzrphltaj5zqaps8xkyrv 7/2/25, 11:09 PM (nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqsdppp20f9ggcanugjjr2w66v8up0p0k972jwjcyxr07hm9gyp6rqyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kytcpzdmhxue69uhk7enxvd5xz6tw9ec82c30qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnswf5k6ctv9ehx2ap0qqsx97c38e9zyk9r3zmxqcyaqxsa03m3l239wslryy4s9hv2xn0adrs2c0c62)