Table of contents
Introduction
Privacy on the Internet is a fundamental right and there are many steps you can take to protect your personal information. Various companies and services have developed sophisticated strategies to collect as much information from you as possible. A fundamental aspect of many people's daily lives is the operating system they run on both their desktop computer and their mobile phone, and while the most popular ones offer great usability and features, they are usually not in favor of your privacy.
Below are the options that, after a few years of testing, I have found to be the most usable and at the same time the most privacy and security oriented.
Desktop
I would recommend using one of the more popular GNU/Linux distributions here, as they have many contributors and are well maintained. Some options that I find great are:
- NixOS
- ArchLinux
- Debian
- Fedora
You should stick with one of them and use it for at least a few months or years, or commit to it completely. Most of them are the same anyway, and with Flatpak there is already a universally usable packaging system that contains most of the relevant software you might need if it is not included in the distribution's package repository.
There are other great options, such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD, but these may not be as easy to use as GNU/Linux, and there may be problems with hardware compatibility and software availability.
Mobile
Your main choice here should probably be GrapheneOS.
GrapheneOS is an open source, privacy and security-focused Android operating system that runs on selected Google Pixel devices, including smartphones, tablets and foldables.
As mentioned in the quote, note that you need a supported Google Pixel device to use GrapheneOS and I would not recommend using any other privacy focused or hardened mobile operating system as they do not come close to its usability while maintaining these aspects.
Conclusion
Aside from operating systems, there are of course many different components that are needed to meet one's digital needs. If you are interested in digital privacy, I would advise you to check out the Privacy Guide's Recommendations, there are probably several things you can replace with more private alternatives without much effort. Having a VPN connection that is always enabled on all of your devices is also a good utility to have, and it is not that expensive.
Some services require personal information for verification or payment purposes, but just know that you can greatly limit the information you disclose about yourself by making the right choices.