Surveillance self-defense

EFF's SSD logo: https://ssd.eff.org/en

A shout-out to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (I donate, do you?) and to their tireless efforts to get us all to use communications technology more sensibly. EFF provides the total overview for current best practice, but what I'd particularly encourage you to do is:

1. Use two-factor authentication wherever possible.
2. Use a non-default (no 1212!) code on your mobile device, and don't share it.
3. Communicate using using Signal (how to: Android; how to: iPhone), which provides end-to-end encryption, thereby preventing anyone from reading your messages or listening to your calls without possession of (or previous install of malware on) your device. No, your normal texting, Skype, phone, whatever does not do this: though much communications is encrypted in transit it is typically an open channel between your device and the first hop provider, which means that provider (e.g., Comcast, your phone company) has (and can and does share, either upon government request or by whoopsies) access to the content of your messages. (WhatsApp friends: though WhatsApp does provide E2E encryption Facebook now owns that app and you know better than to trust Faceboo, right?)
4. Do most of your surfing via a privacy-protecting browser (right now I use Tor on my personal desktop--how to: Windows; how to: Mac--and Ghostery on my phone; this last is less about avoiding snoops and more about throwing a stick in the spokes of the Attention Economy).

Some of this is security-related, and some of it is for the sake of anonymity. Significantly, it's not just your anonymity that is preserved by your use of encryption, proxying, and the like: the more people who behave this way the harder it becomes to deanonymize anyone. Think of it as protest or protection, as you like, but get on it.