I’m new to this privacy thing, besides getting a vpn and tor. With this thing of ICE deporting people for simply having differing opinions, I’m paranoid. Is there anything I can do to avoid that happening to me? I’m not an immigrant nor do I look like one or sound like one, but it could reach to other people too. I am a woman and part of the lgbtq+ community. I’ve already deleted my pronouns and bios showing support for Ukraine, Palestine, and showing hate towards N*zis, I’m now wondering if I should delete my accounts altogether. I’m not entirely sure how to use tor or of any other method, I have experience with Nord though. Thanks.
Start by understanding what Tor and onion routing do in general, especially compared to a VPN. Read through this: https://support.torproject.org/about/ at the minimum. Also, understand that using these tools won’t keep you safe or anonymous if your intention is to log into any of your existing accounts. The goal should be to separate what you want to do anonymously and make sure to not have any overlap with whatever your existing accounts are since those are already very much tied to you.
To actually use Tor I’d recommend starting with Tails: https://tails.net/about/index.en.html on a USB stick. If eventually you want to have a laptop or similar device that can persist some data maybe checkout Whonix: https://www.whonix.org/. The best setup would honestly be Qubes OS, but it’s definitely not a good starting point for anyone not already familiar with unix-ish systems.
anonymity is hard and easily broken by human mistakes, but parents comment is absolutely on point.
the methods and tools you use depend on your threat model, but now is always a good time to begin getting more comfortable and improving your digital hygiene. as parent points out, while privacy (like security) really cant come in a box, tails is a great start.