5 Privacy Moves to Block Spies, Trackers, & Data Brokers

Stalkers, advertisers, and hostile actors are digging for your data every day. 

Your phone is revealing your location. Your credit card transactions are leaving a trail. Adtech building a profile of your habits. The digital world thrives on surveillance.

The good news? You don’t have to make it easy for them. 

Here are five power moves you can take today to shrink your digital footprint, protect your finances, and become harder to track.

1. Get Privacy-Focused Communications

Your phone is both your lifeline and your biggest vulnerability. Calls, texts, and metadata are all harvested, profiled, and sold. The first step to fighting back is locking down your communications.

Smartphone moves that matter:

• Choose a privacy-first phone: De-Googled devices like those running GrapheneOS reduce exposure. Avoid tying setup details to your real identity.
• Consider a secondary device: Using one phone only for sensitive activities (like banking) dramatically limits what’s exposed.
• Defend against SIM tracking: Rotating SIMs, encrypted SIMs, or eSIM options add another layer of protection.
  

Secure your messaging apps:

• Signal is reliable for strong encryption, but if anonymity is key, Session goes further.
• Use both. And encourage your circle to shift with you.
  

Even with these steps, remember: standard smartphones still leak location, app usage, and behavioral data to Google, Apple, carriers, and third-party trackers.

2. Protect Your Financial Data First

If attackers get into your Netflix account, it’s annoying. If they get into your finances, it’s devastating. Locking down money should always come first.

Freeze your credit:

• Prevent new accounts being opened in your name.
• Use services like FrozenPII.com for step-by-step instructions.
• Don’t waste money on credit monitoring or identity theft insurance. They notify you after damage is done.
  

Use a “clean” money-only device:

• Buy a cheap laptop, iPad, or Chromebook used solely for banking and investments.
• No email, no browsing, no apps. Just money.
• Pair it with a VPN, antivirus, privacy browser, and ad blockers.
  

Shop with virtual credit cards:

• Disposable card numbers from services like Privacy.com, Amex Virtual Pay, or Capital One Eno protect your real account if a site gets hacked.
  

Strengthen account access:

• Use a password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password) to generate long, unique passphrases.
• Turn on two-factor authentication (Google Authenticator, YubiKey) on every important account.
  

👉 Freezing credit and separating devices are the single strongest financial defenses you can implement.

3. Shield Your Browsing Habits

Every search, click, and scroll tells ad networks who you are. To stop being a product, you need to reframe how you browse.

Step one: ditch Chrome.
Switch to privacy-first browsers like Brave, DuckDuckGo, or Mullvad Browser.

Step two: block trackers.

• Install ad blockers like uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, or Ghostery.
• Advanced users can set up AdGuard on a Raspberry Pi to block ads at the network level.
  

Step three: encrypt with a VPN.

• Choose a no-log VPN like NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, or ProtonVPN.
• A VPN hides your IP, encrypts traffic, and makes fingerprinting harder.
  

Step four: use secure DNS.

• Options like NextDNS, Quad9, or Control D protect against spoofing and tracking.
  

Even if you refuse to give up Chrome or Safari, at least use a strong ad blocker. Remember: each ad you see means dozens of companies are profiling you.

4. Manage What You Let Services See

Every time you sign up for a service, you’re handing over data. That data is linked, sold, and used against you. Start saying “no” more often.

Audit your permissions:

• Disable unnecessary location, microphone, and camera access.
• Turn off personalized ads in your device settings.
• Scrub social media permissions and consider creating “sock puppet” accounts for business needs.
  

Recommended tool:

• Block Party App. It helps you lock down social media privacy settings.
  

Most apps ask for far more access than they need. Cutting them off limits the breadcrumbs you leave behind.

5. Become Harder to Track

Data brokers thrive on connecting the dots between your accounts. If you use the same name, email, and phone everywhere, you’re easy to trace. Breaking that link is key.

Compartmentalize your identities:

• Use different usernames for different accounts.
• Set up separate email addresses for purchases, logins, and sensitive work.
• Try ProtonMail or TutaNota for secure mail. Add SimpleLogin for email aliases.
  

For advanced privacy users:

• MySudo and Cloaked offer full “identity management.” E.g. creating compartmentalized email, phone, and payment profiles.
  

For quick throwaways:

• Use burner emails like 10MinuteMail or GuerrillaMail.
  

The more fragmented your digital identity, the harder it is for brokers, advertisers, or stalkers to build a profile of you.

ObscureIQ Insight

Digital privacy tools will not make you invisible. But they can make you harder to exploit. 

Making these five power moves to raise the cost of tracking your data and put barriers between your personal life and those who want to monetize or weaponize it.

Start small: freeze your credit, install a privacy browser, and set up an alias email. Build from there. Each step makes you less of a target.