Sometimes it feels like the only way to maintain any kind of privacy or
control over your data is to pay for it with subscription services that add up
over time, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Privacy is not reserved for those with the means to afford it.
It belongs to those who are motivated to create it for themselves.
So here are five freeways that you can do that today.
This is all things secured. My name's Josh.
My goal with this channel is to help you build better privacy and security
online,
and we're going to start with number five and work our way down to what I
believe to be the most important cost-free way to build privacy.
Most of us have been using the free email options that have been made available
to us, things like Gmail, outlook, Yahoo, and many others. Now,
I recommend Proton Mail and it is a freemium service,
but there are so many ways in which you can keep that free email account and not
have to upgrade until you absolutely need it. So now you get the benefits of
end-to-end encrypted email,
being able to send and receive sensitive information with your cpa,
your lawyers, or even just family and friends,
even if you're not ready to pay for encrypted email service.
I think it's good to get into the habit of using an encrypted email and
understanding that there's something beyond just your Gmail inbox,
something that can feel and look exactly the same but have a lot more
privacy and security built into the process.
I've already done a video on all the different secure email alternatives to
Gmail that are available, so you can watch that later.
The software that we use on a day-to-day basis, whether that's messaging apps,
internet browsing, or even social media,
it's a bigger threat to our privacy than most of us realize.
A lot of our data is collected and created into a profile that we no longer have
control over,
and that's why using a lot of these open source and privacy first apps can
be so beneficial. I'm talking about things like Signal for your messaging as
opposed to WhatsApp, Messenger, or even iMessage. Now,
some of those claim to be end-to-end encrypted and maybe that end-to-end
encryption has been built up over the past few years,
but Signal has been end-to-end encryption and privacy first from the beginning,
and that's what makes it such a powerful tool for those who want to communicate
and make sure that any of the communication that we do is private and can't be
seen by anybody else.
The same goes for Brave or Firefox or any alternative to Chrome that is
better for your privacy than what Chrome will offer you.
I've already done a video talking about why you should no longer be using Chrome
and this is free.
There's no reason not to be switching over because it feels the same.
It's easy to make that switch and it's so much better for your privacy moving
forward. Now, I've talked a lot about virtual credit cards in the past,
and the benefit of this is the fact that most of the time it is free to us to
use because it gets paid for in the fees that happen no matter what credit card
you use, whether it's your physical plastic credit card or a virtual one.
So switching over isn't going to cost you anymore,
but it's going to offer you a lot more privacy benefits. Now, in the past,
you've probably heard me talk a little bit about Privacy.com,
which is an option that I've used.
The problem is is that they as a company have shifted their focus more towards
the enterprise and business users as opposed to US individuals, and that's okay,
but that's why I'm starting to look elsewhere for my virtual credit card
services. Now, if you're a US resident,
I've been trying and really like a new FinTech company called Klutch Cards.
They offer the same really granular control over your virtual credit cards that
allows you to create one-time cards cards with limited spending.
It even lets you create cards for different family members that limits what they
can do and controls how your kids are spending using their virtual credit cards.
Best of all, you can even take those cards and use them on Apple Pay,
which is something that I couldn't do with Privacy.com. Now,
this isn't a sponsored segment,
but if you would like to try out Klutch for yourself,
you can use the referral code secured and you'll get $20 after your first
verified transaction using your new card. If you're outside the US,
you can try out Revolut,
which is a more international service that does the same thing.
It gives you free access to these virtual credit cards to protect your financial
information so that if there is a breach on any of these websites,
shopping sites, anything,
and those credit card numbers get put out there and are on the dark web,
it doesn't pose a risk to you because you can easily turn those off and you've
already set a spending limit on those numbers anyway.
One of the best things you can do when you leave your house is to lock your
door. It's a no-brainer. Well,
the same thing for passwords. If you are not using strong passwords,
you've already put yourself at a higher risk than the average person.
The problem I hear from most people is that they don't want to pay for a
password manager, like one password or dash lane or any of these other options,
and I get that. I mean, personally, I really like one password.
I've been using them for years and that's why I recommend them.
But there are free options available.
Actually put up a poll on this YouTube channel a couple of months ago asking
which password manager people like the most,
and I got eviscerated in the comment section for not including Bitwarden. Now,
there is a free and a premium version of what they offer.
You can also self-host, if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it,
but it's an opportunity to be able to take control of your own data. The free
version of Bitwarden allows you to get your feet wet in the password,
manage your game so that you can understand how it works, why it's so valuable,
and how it can help you to create stronger passwords, store those passwords,
and then make it very convenient for you you to use those anywhere you go
on the internet. Listen to me,
if you're not using a password manager right now and you refuse to pay for one,
the free version of Bit Warden is a great option and you'll find a link to that
below. Now, my final piece of advice,
and this is something that I try to hammer home as much as I can,
this applies to almost every single person. No matter how old or young you are,
no matter how much money or little money you have,
you need To set up a credit freeze.
Setting up a credit freeze is really easy. It only takes a few minutes.
It's just as simple as going into all of the major CRAs - credit reporting
agencies - and telling them that you wanna put a freeze on your credit.
You don't want them to approve any other credit requests that come in.
That means that if your data ever gets exposed and somebody anywhere in the
world tries to use that to open up a new line of credit or to open up a bank
account, it will automatically get stopped before that fraud even happens.
Now, that's super valuable because a lot of the services that we have at our
disposal, let's say identity monitoring is an example,
only help us after the fact they monitor so that when something
happens, we can react quickly.
But a credit freeze is something that you can do proactively to make sure that
this kind of problem doesn't happen in the first place. But wait,
doesn't a credit freeze stop me from opening my own credit? And this is true,
and in fact,
when I went to open up a Klutch card that I was talking about earlier,
they had to email me and say, "Hey, your credit is frozen.
We cannot issue you this credit card." So I went into Experian online,
I thawed my credit, it took me three minutes,
and then I reapplied and got approved for the Klutch card. Within three days,
that thaw was automatically returned to a credit freeze.
So now nobody else can make a request or try to open up a new credit card
using my information.
And that extra bit of protection goes a long way in making sure that you are
protected from any kind of identity theft in the future,
if you think I've missed anything here,
leave that in the comments below and then you can watch this video next about
how to set up that credit freeze.
I'm going to walk you step by step through the entire process.