comprehensive guide on internet privacy

You can always use something like Bleachbit or Ccleaner to manually wipe all your browser session .sqlite caches after every use, effectively leaving no trace of whatever you were previously using your web browser for. I do from time to time. Plus utilizing browser add-ons like uMatrix which auto-blocks third party connections to your web browser & Chameleon for spoofing metadata while surfing online. Use Tor and a VPN while doing this and it's safe to say no one is going to trace anything.

Agree, but if you don't post you are not really there. A ghost is there without leaving any trace.

What is a ghost exactly? A ghost is an entity that exists but that can hide in plain site, as if invisible to the naked eye.

To become a ghost you must not be seen.

The best privacy is simply not posting something online you don't want others to know about or see. Forward secrecy. The reason people get easily doxxed is they put so much personal shit over the internet that anyone can find, especially malicious hackers. What happens when you don't use the internet for personal egotistic shit?

Great ghost privacy advise

Smartphones in no way can be private. They are GPS tracked via hardware. Easy for other devices to triangulate the geographic location and super easy for hackers to eavesdrop on, plus the third party spyware on them, face it is all legalized spyware, allows them to collect all your data under the TOS agreement, Terms of Service you have agreed with in order to use by default. Basically new phones allow total surveillance of those users, by law, de-facto. Expect no privacy with those devices. If you want real privacy you'll have to learn about older PCs and laptops, with older operating systems, and learn about all things general opsec. Basically the use of VPNs & Tor, harddrive encryption, adopting forward secrecy, alternative web browsers and about:config tweaking, etc.

This all takes time and dedication to research. If you are lazy and want convenience then forget about it.

Yeah no chance on phone:p you will never be a ghost on a smart phone. Come to the linux side, we want to set you free :p . On a phone the best you can strive for is pragmatic privacy

Guys, I'm a computer moron. I use my iPhone11 for everything. My question is, is there anyway to be a ghost on it? I play an rpg and obviously use a card to purchase crap. Is my goose fully and truly cooked? Oh, been using an iPhone since it first came out. I am cooked, aren't I?

Whonix looks good. Will be trying it on my ghost machine. Now we just need an access point that can't be tied to one self. Maybe a public wifi although the risk of getting spotted on a surveillance camera is high.

Great advise. I just always have skepticism towards specialised security OSs, unfounded or not. As far as I can tell, the system relies on tor. So in a sense another potential vulnerability on top of tor. Looks like a solid setup though. If Snowden uses it its probably decent.

In my opinion, vpns are trojans. Unless you paid for their service in anonymous crypto you are better of browsing in the clear.

Well it's the same as trusting a VPN or trusting Tor. I would recommend caution no matter what you do or use. I always recommend having two seperate computers or laptops: one for file sharing and shitposting, the other for personal/work use. Anything could potentially be compromised so if you adopt forward secrecy and routinely wipe your browser session history/cookie caches your communications should remain relatively secure. Especially when using a separate computer/laptop that is not storing any personal information or any identifying data that could be linked to you.

Know who is behind Whonix and can they be trusted?

Compile your comments and response on a lightweight text editor with a spell checker before you post bro. That's what I often do.

There are a TON of different Linux operating systems out there, some more secure than others:  https://distrowatch.com

Btw if you want a very secure private operating system try out Whonix:  https://www.whonix.org

Whonix runs a seperate VM for every program you run and forces all internet traffic into onion routing over Tor proxies. Far more secure than having a VPN.

Welcome to linux. Any linux distribution you choose will be a major improvement over mac/windows in terms of privacy. Both mac and windows are actively spying on its users. No matter what measures you take, those systems will automatically spy on you - your files, capture screenshots, capture sound, capture you browsing etc.

In terms of linux distribution, there are really only 3 different systems. Most other (including mint) are just bloaded repackaging of those base systems. Of the base distributions, I prefer debian, but I would not recommend this for beginners.

For linux beginners I recommend Ubuntu. A decent working system with easy onboarding for mac/windows users. It's  widely used and almost any problem you can run into has already been solved by other users. 

You can learn here! You are more than welcome to ask in depths questions or participate in any discussion. I don't know all, but can probably help you with most aspects. I am sure others will chime in too if there is something you want to learn more about.

I recently switched to linux but feel even more exposes because I have no clue what is and isnt protected. I reas that linux mint is garbage in terms of security and anonimoty. How else can I learn about morw in depth concepts like those caches and cookies you cool kids talk about.

Wiping the browser session caches routinely will help prevent snooping and being doxed by hackers but moreso forward secrecy, basically limiting any identifying information about yourself whenever you post online. If you do something you are not supposed to be doing, or wish to keep private, do it on a non-work/non-personal laptop or PC and do not use it for anything else. Memorize a long password to access the operating system so if it ever gets stolen or someone you know is ever curious they cannot easily get into the user account.

It is preferable to isolate psychical devices for various operations, because THE DATA itself depends on the psychical devices. Common OPSEC but by no means convenient to normies.

Good question, I don't know the answer. Does virtual machines share device ID with the host machine?

Don't use Windows or MacOS.

Isn't using multiple browsers and computers excessive when you can use cookie containers for browsers and virtual machines instead of multiple computers?