The Privacy Diet Festina Lente

Festina Lente — Make Haste Slowly

The Privacy Diet

A Practical Guide to Reclaiming Your Privacy Online

by James Patrick

Kindle link coming soon Try the free quick wins
Chapters
9
Parts
3
Comparison tables
17+
Checklist items
49

Who it's for

There's a lot of privacy content on the internet, and most of it lands in one of two traps: so shallow it's useless — just use a VPN! — or so paranoid and technical that normal people bounce off it in five minutes.

This book sits between those extremes. It's written for people who have lives to live and don't want to become full-time sysadmins just to check their email privately, and it's layered so you can go as deep as you want: beginner-friendly settings audits at one end, flashing GrapheneOS and running your own stack at the other.

You don't need to read it cover to cover. Start where it feels right, pick off the quick wins, and come back when you're ready for the next layer.

What's inside

    • Introduction
    • Find Out Where You Are

  2. Part 1 — Your Phone

    • Chapter 1 Understanding Your Smartphone
    • Chapter 2 Privacy Settings You Should Change today
    • Chapter 3 Advanced Android: Custom ROMs and De-Googling

  3. Part 2 — Internet Use

    • Chapter 4 Browsing Safely: Browsers, Search, and Fingerprinting
    • Chapter 5 Secure Communication: Email, Messaging, and Metadata
    • Chapter 6 VPNs: What They Do, What They Don't, and How to Choose

  4. Part 3 — Your Home Network

    • Chapter 7 Securing Your Home Network
    • Chapter 8 DNS Privacy: The Most Overlooked Layer
    • Chapter 9 Self-Hosting: Owning Your Stack
    • Conclusion Making Haste Slowly

Festina lente. Make haste slowly. One change at a time, in the right direction, is how this works.

— from the conclusion