Most of the internet’s privacy advice still fits on a sticker.
VPN. Password manager. Signal.
Useful? Yes. If you are still using SMS for two-factor, fix that before you read another word. If your browser is about to lose a real ad blocker, switch. If you want a Faraday bag because Naomi Brockwell just explained Terminator 2 with a chip bag, buy the bag.
None of that touches the file that already has your address.
What 2018 got right
A VPN hides your IP from the coffee shop. A password manager stops you from giving the same key to 80 sites. Signal stops your texts from being a group chat with the carrier.
Those are traffic problems. They are real. They are also the problems companies were willing to sell you a subscription for, so they got a decade of YouTube mid-rolls.
What 2018 ignored
Data brokers do not need your packets. They buy voter rolls, warranty cards, and the email you typed at a cash register. In about a minute that email can be matched to your name, age, household income, and home value. You did not type any of that in. Someone else already had it.
People-search sites publish the public version. Quiet brokers sell the rest to insurers, skip tracers, advertisers, and, as WIRED just documented with Flock’s OS Investigate, to software that sits on a cop’s desk.
A Faraday bag will not delete Spokeo. Signal will not delete LexisNexis. Incognito mode does not exist for a file you never created.
The actual stack in 2026
Keep the 2018 tools. Then add the boring legal ones.
- Identity graph: opt out of people-search and the registered brokers. Repeat on a schedule. They put you back.
- Brand side: the retailers, dealerships, and loyalty programs that enriched you. You can keep the account and still tell them to stop selling you. That is what an opt-out is for.
- AI side: export your ChatGPT or Claude history and look at what it already inferred. Proton launched a free "AI Paper Trail" report for this. The model is not a diary. It is a second broker with better manners.
- Browser: if Chrome or Edge is killing full uBlock Origin, Firefox still supports it. DNS-level blockers (AdGuard, NextDNS, Quad9, Mullvad) catch what the extension misses.
- Hardware theater: a Faraday bag is for the hour you actually need the radio off. It is not a lifestyle.
The order matters. Most people buy the VPN first because it feels like doing something. The thing that actually follows you to a new city is the broker profile.
The honest CTA
RemoveMyTracks sends the legal requests to brands and brokers, tracks the replies, and follows up when they ignore the deadline. Soft Ghost is $100/year. Hard Block is $150. Witness Protection is $250 and it is every registered broker we list.
Or start with 3 companies free and no card. Pick the three that piss you off. If we cannot show you a send, we do not deserve the rest.