
Here are the direct links to delete/export personal data from some popular platforms:

## Google

- [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com/)
- [YouTube subscription manager](https://youtube.com/subscription_manager): Export YouTube subscriptions to OPML. `deprecated`

## Microsoft

[Microsoft account privacy dashboard](https://account.microsoft.com/privacy)

## Meta

- Facebook: [Settings > Your Facebook Information > Download Your Information](https://www.facebook.com/dyi/)
- Instagram: [Settings > Privacy and Security > Data Download](https://www.instagram.com/download/request/)
- WhatsApp: [Settings > Account > Request account info](https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/account-and-profile/how-to-request-your-account-information/)

## Apple

[Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055)

## Reddit

- To export subscriptions, go to [/subreddits](https://reddit.com/subreddits) > Right click on "**multireddit of your subscriptions**", copy and save the link.
- To delete posting/commenting history, use [j0be/PowerDeleteSuite](https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite) or [sr33/ares](https://github.com/sr33/ares).

## Spotify

- **Account overview** > [Privacy settings](https://www.spotify.com/account/privacy/) > **Download your data**
- [Exportify](https://watsonbox.github.io/exportify/)

## Twitter

[Download an archive of your data](https://twitter.com/settings/download_your_data)

## GitHub

[Account settings](https://github.com/settings/admin) > **Export account data** > **Start export**

## Pocket

- [Export reading list](https://getpocket.com/export)
- [Delete reading list](https://getpocket.com/privacy_clear/)

## IMDb

[Your ratings](https://imdb.com/list/ratings) > **Overflow menu** > **Export**

## Goodreads

[My Books](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list) > [Import/Export](https://www.goodreads.com/review/import)

## Netflix

[Your Account](https://www.netflix.com/YourAccount) > **Profile & Parental Controls** > **Viewing activity** > **Download all**

## Discord

**User Settings** > **Privacy and Safety** > **Request all of my Data**


Exporting personal data from all major online services

[Top]

Google

Microsoft

Apple

Reddit

Spotify

Twitter

GitHub

Pocket

IMDb

Goodreads

Netflix

Discord


Social media sites are riddled with ads, trackers, and dark patterns. As much as I'd love to avoid using them for privacy reasons or time concerns, it's just not possible to keep up to date with current events without them.

[RSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS) ("Really Simple Syndication") gives you the best of both worlds. For the uninitiated, it is a way to "subscribe" to websites without having to browse them individually or signing up for newsletters. With a collection of RSS feeds, you can keep up with the latest updates from multiple sources (that offer an RSS feed) from within your feed reader.

Popular sites that offer private/public RSS feeds include GitHub, YouTube, Reddit, and Stack Overflow. There are ways to get RSS feeds for other sites like Twitter and Instagram. In this document, in addition to how to use and manage your RSS subscriptions, I want to suggest an overall general privacy tip to reduce your digital footprint by visiting privacy-respecting alternative frontends for social media sites like Reddit and YouTube.

## Moving everything to RSS

This might sound somewhat _selfish_ but I have stopped subscribing/following anything/anyone online. When every interaction on a site is being tracked and used against you to sell your data and serve targeted ads, I don't think this is surprising.

Instead I use my RSS feed reader. There is no need to log into YouTube and "subscribe" to channels to view new uploads from my favorite channels or "join" subreddits to keep up with top posts on Reddit, or "follow" an account on Twitter. These are things that can be managed with a good feed reader. There are excellent open source solutions to manage your feeds for various platforms:

- [Newsboat](https://newsboat.org) for blogs and text-based sites

  Newsboat is a commandline feed reader for \*nix systems that reads a list of feeds from a plain text file. It provides a powerful syntax to manage feeds with tags/folders, custom title, feed collections, create filtered lists, etc.

- [NewPipe](https://newpipe.net) for YouTube

  NewPipe is a third-party Android app that allows you to import subscriptions directly from `subscriptions.csv` provided by [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com). You can also add more subscriptions, save/create playlists, create custom channel groups and save them locally without using YouTube's interface.

  Other apps that provide similar functionality are [LibreTube](https://github.com/Libre-tube/LibreTube) for Android and [FreeTube](https://freetubeapp.io/) for desktop.

- [AntennaPod](https://antennapod.org) for podcasts

  In addition to an ad-free experience, it provides the ability to sync your feeds online with a [gPodder](https://gpodder.net/) account.

All of these apps support import/export so you can always be in control of your data.

There are cloud based services to manage your list like [Newsblur](https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur), [QuiteRSS](https://github.com/QuiteRSS/quiterss), [Inoreader](https://www.inoreader.com), or [Feedly](https://feedly.com) as well as self-hosted solutions like [TinyTinyRSS](https://tt-rss.org/), or [FreshRSS](https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS).

## Getting RSS feeds for various sites

Some sites like YouTube still support RSS feed for resources on their sites while others like Twitter do not. This section documents direct links to RSS feeds for various popular platforms. Use these tips to create your own collection or use a pre-made collection like [this one](https://github.com/peterc/engblogs).

### Hacker News

- Front page: [news.ycombinator.com/rss](https://news.ycombinator.com/rss)
- Show HN: [news.ycombinator.com/showrss](https://news.ycombinator.com/showrss)
- [hnrss](https:/hnrss.github.io) is an open-source project that provides RSS feeds for various HN resources. Some examples:
  - New threads with keyword "django": [hnrss.org/newest?q=django](https://hnrss.org/newest?q=django)
  - New posts submitted by user 'dang': [hnrss.org/submitted?id=dang](https://hnrss.org/submitted?id=dang)
  - New posts with 100+ upvotes and 25+ comments: [hnrss.org/show?points=100&comments=25](https://hnrss.org/show?points=100&comments=25)

### Lobsters

- Front page: [lobste.rs/rss](https://lobste.rs/rss)
- Tag(s)
  - [lobste.rs/t/programming.rss](https://lobste.rs/t/programming.rss) ([web](https://lobste.rs/t/programming))
  - [lobste.rs/t/programming,compsci.rss](https://lobste.rs/t/programming,compsci.rss) ([web](https://lobste.rs/t/programming,compsci))

### Reddit

Append `.rss` at the end of a URL:

- Front page: [https://reddit.com/.rss](https://www.reddit.com/.rss)
- Subreddit:
  - [reddit.com/r/programming.rss](https://reddit.com/r/programming.rss)
  - [reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/top.rss](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/top.rss)
- User: [reddit.com/u/spez.rss](https://reddit.com/u/spez.rss)
- Multireddit:
  - [reddit.com/user/reddit/m/admin_faves.rss](https://www.reddit.com/user/reddit/m/admin_faves.rss)
  - [reddit.com/r/programming+javascript+unixporn.rss](https://reddit.com/r/programming+javascript+unixporn.rss)

### YouTube

- Channel: [youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw](https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw)
- Playlist: [youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=PL3A5849BDE0581B19](https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=PL3A5849BDE0581B19)

### GitHub

- Releases: [github.com/3b1b/manim/releases.atom](https://github.com/3b1b/manim/releases.atom)
- Commits: [github.com/3b1b/manim/commits/master.atom](https://github.com/3b1b/manim/commits/master.atom)
- Tags: [github.com/3b1b/manim/tags.atom](https://github.com/3b1b/manim/tags.atom)

For a private feed for your recent activity, you can click on "Subscribe to your news feed" at the bottom of your GitHub homepage.

### GitLab

- Activity: [gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape.atom](https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape.atom)
- Commits: [gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/commits/master?format=atom](https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/commits/master?format=atom)
- Tags: [gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/tags/master?format=atom](https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/tags?format=atom)
- Issues: [gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues.atom?state=opened](https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues.atom?state=opened)

### Stack Overflow

- Tag(s)
  - [stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=haskell&sort=newest](https://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=haskell&sort=newest)
  - [stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=haskell+java&sort=newest](https://stackoverflow.com/feeds/tag?tagnames=haskell+java&sort=newest)

### Twitter

Twitter stopped providing official feeds in 2013. However, you can use [nitter.net](https://nitter.net) for this.

- User: [nitter.net/xkcd/rss](https://nitter.net/xkcd/rss)

### Mastodon

- User: [mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss](https://mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss) or [mastodon.social/users/Gargron.atom](https://mastodon.social/users/Gargron.atom)

### Medium

- User: [medium.com/feed/@Medium](https://medium.com/feed/@Medium)
- Tag: [medium.com/feed/tag/programming](https://medium.com/feed/tag/programming)<br />
  [More info](https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/214874118-RSS-feeds)

### Instagram

Bibliogram, a third party alternative instagram front-end provides RSS/Atom feeds for Instagram accounts:

- User: [bibliogram.art/u/starwars/rss.xml](https://bibliogram.art/u/starwars/rss.xml) or [bibliogram.art/u/starwars/atom.xml](https://bibliogram.art/u/starwars/atom.xml)

For sites that don't offer accessible RSS/Atom feeds like Facebook or Twitch, the [RSS-Bridge](https://rss-bridge.github.io/rss-bridge/) project provides feeds based on “bridges” developed for these sites. Consider using it if necessary.

[This gist](https://gist.github.com/thefranke/63853a6f8c499dc97bc17838f6cedcc2) has RSS links to many other platforms.

## Removing apps from your phone

In addition to taking up more space and bandwidth, mobile apps have more direct access to your personal information than websites. However, a browser configured with an adblocker like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger along with built-in privacy options (geolocation/fingerprinting blocker, Multi-Account Containers, and Enhanced Tracking Protection on Firefox, etc) enabled will work across all sites you visit and block all sorts of trackers embedded in them.

If you are willing to give up a little bit of convenience for privacy, consider using these privacy-respecting frontends:

- [nitter](https://nitter.net/) for Twitter
- [teddit](https://teddit.net/) / [libreddit](https://libredd.it/) for Reddit
- [Bibliogram](https://bibliogram.art/) for Instagram

But the question remains, what about features like multireddits or Twitter lists? Well there are ways around it.

For Reddit, if your custom feed has &lt;25 subreddits, you can use the `+` trick to join multiple subreddit feeds and save the link as a bookmark. For example: [reddit.com/r/pics+videos+wtf](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics+videos+wtf) and [reddit.com/r/pics+videos+wtf.rss](https://reddit.com/r/pics+videos+wtf.rss).

There are public multireddits/Twitter lists created by other users for different topics like programming, Linux, security, cats, etc. Just search one and use it.

Use mobile sites if necessary. Most websites have perfectly usable mobile-responsive websites. If you must use mobile apps, you can use [NetGuard](https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard) to block access to the internet on a per-app basis.

## Conclusion

RSS is a really neat way of managing subscriptions while saving a lot of time. I urge all bloggers and webmasters to add an RSS/Atom feed to their site and respect their users instead of displaying an ugly, distracting modal asking for an email.

There are official and third-party ways to get RSS feeds for various websites. There are good open source feed readers to manage these subscriptions. Use alternative sites/apps instead of mobile apps to reduce data leaks.

Use RSS for privacy and efficiency.


Use RSS for privacy and efficiency


_\* Slightly advanced tips_

## Basics

- Understand why maintaining privacy is important. Start here:

  - [privacytools.io](https://privacytools.io/)
  - [r/privacy wiki](https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki)
  - [Permanent Record - Edward Snowden](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiography)>)

- Always look for well known open source alternatives to services that you use:

  - [AlternativeTo.net](https://alternativeto.net/)
  - [ethical.net](https://ethical.net/)
  - [Restore Privacy](https://restoreprivacy.com/)

- Start by using reliable open source web browsers:

  - [Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/)
  - [Ungoogled Chromium](https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium)
  - [Tor](https://torproject.org)

- Install privacy addons:

  - [Privacy Badger](https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadger/)
  - [uBlock Origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/)
  - [Decentraleyes](https://decentraleyes.org/)
  - [Firefox Multi-Account Containers](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/)
  - [ClearURLs](https://gitlab.com/KevinRoebert/ClearUrls), etc.

  See also: [Recommended privacy addons](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?category=privacy-security&sort=recommended%2Cusers&type=extension) for Firefox.

- Use a search engine that doesn't log your search queries:

  - [DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/)
  - [Startpage](https://www.startpage.com/)
  - [Searx](https://searx.me/)
  - [Qwant](https://qwant.com/)

- Disable tracking, fingerprinting, cryptominers and telemetry from browser preferences. Clear cookies frequently, disable location access to sites and cover your webcam unless necessary.

- Quit using Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook products for **personal/sensitive use cases**.

  These companies are great for security of your data (for the most part), they hire top engineers from around the world but are worse for your privacy, esp. if they rely on advertisement for their revenue. If you have to use Google, go to your account settings and turn off all the [activity controls](https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols) and [ads personalization](https://adssettings.google.com/). Go through similar settings on your dashboard for other accounts.

- **Always** choose "Sign up with Email" while signing up on websites. ([?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth))

  Unless mandatory, you should not continue with social signup (Sign up with Google/Microsoft/Twitter/Facebook/Apple/Amazon, etc).

  If you are required to do so, take care of what scopes and information you are permitting the service to use. Platforms usually provide a way to manage this info from your account settings:

  - [Twitter Connected Apps](https://twitter.com/settings/connected_apps)
  - [Facebook Apps and Websites](https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications)
  - [Apps with access to your Google account](https://myaccount.google.com/permissions)
  - [Apps and services with access to your Microsoft account](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=829203)
  - [Manage Login with Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/ap/adam)

- Create separate email accounts/aliases for signups, newsletters, communication, banking, music, gaming, etc.

  Many email providers like ProtonMail and Google allow for unlimited aliases by adding a dot(.) in your email username. For example, `ricksanchez@protonmail.com` and `rick.sanchez@protonmail.com` or `ric.ksanch.ez@protonmail.com` are essentially the same addresses. The messages sent to either of these addresses will arrive in the same inbox. **This tip won't work for Tutanota**. These services also allow [plus addressing](https://blog.mailfence.com/plus-addressing-to-track-spammers/). For example, `john.doe@gmail.com` or `john.doe+twitter@gmail.com` are the same. You can use these tricks to create aliases for signing up on different sites without putting your main address everywhere.

- Avoid using the same username across multiple platforms and websites.

  Your first priority should be using a long, unique and random password for every site but having different usernames is also [important](https://nordpass.com/blog/unique-username-importance/). Tools like [sherlock](https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock) can be used to hunt down your identities across sites within seconds. Use a random [username](https://www.lastpass.com/username-generator/) [generator](https://nordpass.com/username-generator). There are [tons](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=password+40+strong&ia=answer) [of](https://bitwarden.com/password-generator/) [strong](https://www.lastpass.com/password-generator) [password/pass-phrase](https://1password.com/password-generator/) [generators](https://www.dashlane.com/features/password-generator) that you can use. Ideally, you should also use randomly generated strings as answers to your security questions for sites that require them and save them on your password manager using custom fields.

- Research in advance if the service you're signing up for allows for an (easy) way to delete your account. You might regret later when you find out you can't delete your account/subscription. Some websites have tricky account deletion procedure:

  - Amazon, Adobe (require contacting support)
  - TED (no delete account option in account settings)
  - Shopify (you must have a premium subsciption to close your store/account)

  Read this post on Hacker News: [Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26174269)

- Make use of [email aliases](https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/addresses-and-aliases/) or email forwarding services:

  - [AnonAddy](https://github.com/anonaddy/anonaddy)
  - [SimpleLogin](https://github.com/simple-login/app)

- Use disposable email addresses for temporary signups:

  - [Temp Mail](https://temp-mail.org/)
  - [10 Minute Mail](https://10minutemail.com/)

- Use alternative frontends for platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram:

  - [Invidious](https://invidio.us/) (See also: [NewPipe](https://newpipe.net/) for Android.)
  - [nitter](https://nitter.net/)
  - [teddit](https://teddit.net/) / [libreddit](https://libredd.it/)
  - [Bibliogram](https://bibliogram.art/)

  Use [Privacy Redirect](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/) addon that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives.

- Instead of liking/saving anything on Facebook, YouTube and social platforms, use an end-to-end encrypted bookmark service like [Firefox Sync](https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/sync/).

  Platforms these days track everything from what your see, what you click on, share or comment on, and even [how long you looked at](https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/13/8775587/facebook-news-feed-uses-time-read-to-promote-posts) a particular item on your feed. Reduce your digital footprint as much as you can. Export your personal data from Facebook, Google from your account settings and work on deleting all of it.

  - [Download your Facebook Information](https://facebook.com/dyi)
  - [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com)

- Use decentralized services if you need:

  - [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/)
  - [PixelFed](https://pixelfed.org/)
  - [Diaspora](https://diasporafoundation.org/)
  - [Fediverse](https://fediverse.party/)

- Use end-to-end encypted messaging applications for communication:

  - [Signal](https://signal.org/)
  - [Wire](https://wire.com)

- Use E2E encrypted email services:

  - [Tutanota](https://tutanota.com/)
  - [Protonmail](https://protonmail.com/)

- Use E2E encrypted note-taking apps:

  - [Standard Notes](https://standardnotes.org/)
  - [Joplin](https://joplinapp.org/) (E2EE is [not](https://joplinapp.org/e2ee/) enabled by default)

- Use E2E encrypted cloud storage solutions:

  - [Tresorit](https://tresorit.com/)
  - [pCloud Crypto](https://pcloud.com/)
  - [Sync.com](https://sync.com/)

- Encrypt your files before uploading them to Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive:

  - [VeraCrypt](https://veracrypt.fr/)
  - [Cryptomator](https://cryptomator.org/)

- Use a reliable VPN:

  - [ProtonVPN](https://protonvpn.com/)
  - [WireGuard](https://www.wireguard.com/)

- \*Use a better DNS resolver:

  - [Cloudflare WARP](https://1.1.1.1/)

- \*Use Linux/BSD:

  - Made for privacy: [Tails](https://tails.boum.org/), [Whonix](https://www.whonix.org/), [Trisquel](https://trisquel.info/)...
  - Debian based: [Debian](https://www.debian.org/), [Ubuntu](https://www.ubuntu.com/)...
  - Arch based: [Arch](https://www.archlinux.org/), [ArcoLinux](https://arcolinux.info/), [Manjaro](https://manjaro.org/)...
  - BSDs: [OpenBSD](https://github.com/openbsd/src), [NetBSD](https://www.netbsd.org/), [FreeBSD](https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/)...

- \*Switch the OS on your smartphone:

  - [LineageOS](https://lineageos.org/)
  - [Ubuntu Touch](https://ubuntu-touch.io/)
  - [GrapheneOS](https://grapheneos.org/)
  - [postmarketOS](https://postmarketos.org/)

- \*Self-host software on your own server by renting a VPS.

- \*Use [PGP](https://www.openpgp.org/) for encrypted communication.

## Security tips

- Use an open source password manager:

  - [Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com/)
  - [Keepass](https://keepass.info/)

- Enable [multi-factor authentication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication) on as many accounts as you can. Use an authenticator app like [FreeOTP](https://github.com/freeotp/) or [Aegis](https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis/) instead of giving out your phone number to services (**Don't forget to set necessary recovery options and backup 2FA recovery codes for important accounts!**).

- Monitor if you’ve been part of an online data breach:
  - [Firefox Monitor](https://monitor.firefox.com/)
  - [Have I Been Pwned](https://haveibeenpwned.com/)

## Further reading

This is just a list of the most basic options for getting started on digital privacy. There are comprehensive guides, articles, books and websites for more advanced tips. Make sure to research every option thoroughly to determine what works best for you.

- [Digital Privacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_privacy)
- [Awesome-Selfhosted](https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted) - Free Software network services and web applications which can be hosted locally.
- [Two Factor Auth](https://twofactorauth.org/) - List of websites and whether or not they support 2FA.
- [Mozilla Blog](https://blog.mozilla.org/)
- [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://eff.org/)
- [Prism ⚡ Break](https://prism-break.org/) - Opt out of global data surveillance programs like PRISM, XKeyscore and Tempora.
- [privacytools.io](https://privacytools.io/)
- [r/privacy](https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/)
- [The Social Dilemma - Netflix documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Dilemma)
