diy hrt: how to safely search & order online
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ONLINE RELATING TO DIY read this <3
as many institutions seem to be already complying in advance and without resistance to gender affirming care bans (eye roll) i wanted to back into posting on here about accessing diy t.
first of all, stop using Google as your search engine. google search histories HAVE ALREADY been used in court, meaning law enforcement could request your search history and use it against you. incognito browsers do not actually give you any meaninful privacy either.
here's your mini digital security checklist:
-download TOR (aka the onion router) a free, privacy-focused browser. it's legit, it's used by many, many people for many different reasons. it has important features that help keep you more private online - their webpage has a great description of how it works.
-download a good VPN. (no VPN you've seen advertised in a youtube video will actually be good.) often they require payment, for a free one the ProtonVPN is fine. as long as you're in a country where usage of TOR is common it's less of a big deal, but still good. launch your VPN before launching TOR.
-while on TOR and your VPN, create a private email. ProtonMail is fine, there are other options if you want to look more deeply. only access this email through TOR, and create a very strong password. when you're shopping for your diy, you'll need to create an account with an email, so use this email for that and not for other things.
-get some bitcoin. it's annoying especially when that pay with paypal/bank transfer/credit card option is so easy, but it's really worth it. we go way into depth about this in the guide but the more familiar you get with using crypto for privacy, the more protected you can be when making purchases online.
the guide in our pinned post has more info including lots of places to look for different btc, mail, vpn, and other privacy services. and add on if you have other digisec checklist items!!
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