The Privacy Diet James Patrick

Start Here · My whole home · Your path

Block ads and trackers

In your browser, and for every device on your Wi-Fi. Work down the list — each step builds on the ones above it.

Pick a different goal · Change device

Start here

  1. Quick Win 1

    Switch Your Browser

    ⏱ 15 min    ★ Impact: High

  2. Compare

    Browser Extensions

    The minimum useful set of privacy extensions, in priority order.

  3. Tutorial

    Test Your Browser, and Read the Results Properly

    Three checks for the browser you use every day — blocking, fingerprinting and leaks around a VPN — what a good result looks like for Brave, Firefox and Mullvad Browser, and what to change when one fails.

    beginner⏱ 20 min

  4. Compare

    Encrypted DNS Protocols

    DoH, DoT, DoQ and DNSCrypt — what each does and how hard it is to deploy.

  5. Compare

    DNS Resolvers

    Five resolvers by operator and logging policy.

  6. In the book

    DNS privacy and Pi-hole

    The Privacy Diet · Chapter 8

Run it yourself

Optional, and a bigger step: host it on a small server at home so the data never leaves your house. Do these in order — each one assumes the last.

  1. In the book

    Plan the server: threat model, hardware, networking

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapters 1–4

    Decide whether self-hosting suits you before buying anything.

  2. Compare

    Self-Hosting Trade-offs

    What you gain against what you take on, stated plainly before you invest.

  3. Compare

    Homelab Hardware

    Six starting points by cost, power draw and what each is good for.

  4. Tutorial

    Installing Ubuntu Server for a Home Lab

    From USB stick to a headless, static-IP, auto-patching box you can SSH into — the machine every self-hosting guide assumes you already have.

    beginner⏱ 60 min

  5. Tutorial

    SSH: Key-Only Login and Sensible Hardening

    Turn off password authentication, lock down root, and stop the log noise — the twenty minutes that closes the most-attacked door on any server.

    beginner⏱ 25 min

  6. Tutorial

    Docker and Compose, Properly Installed

    The right repository, the docker group and what it actually grants, a Compose file you can read, and the update routine that keeps a homelab from rotting.

    intermediate⏱ 45 min

  7. In the book

    Storage

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 7

  8. In the book

    Reverse proxy, HTTPS and local DNS

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 8

  9. Tutorial

    Reverse Proxy and HTTPS, Set Up Once

    Chapter 8's Nginx Proxy Manager from empty folder to a trusted padlock: the shared proxy network, a DNS-only API token, one wildcard certificate for every service, and a way to test it all before Pi-hole exists.

    Every service page assumes this is done.

    intermediate⏱ 45 min

  10. In the book

    Secrets and .env files

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 9

  11. In the book

    Pi-hole and Unbound

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 10

  12. Tutorial

    Pi-hole + Unbound: Going Deeper

    Deploying Chapter 10's DNS stack step by step, proving Unbound is really doing the resolving, one record for every subdomain, and the IPv6 leak that quietly bypasses it.

    intermediate⏱ 60 min