This is such a huge rabbit hole, lol. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized that you will eventually have to choose how much convenience you are willing to give up in exchange for privacy. It could be as simple as hardening your browser settings on Windows/Linux to as annoying as only browsing using Tor + a VPN paid for with Monero/mailed cash with Javascript turned completely off on a fully FOSS operating system designed for security like Tails, Kodachi, or Qubes.

Javascript lays bare a LOT of info about your entire PC which can be used to track you by fingerprinting, or collecting a list of traits of your computer which can identify you. Cover your tracks is a great website that can show what your browser is freely giving up every time you visit a website. Try it before and after hardening + try visiting again with Tor browser.

This is a huge playlist from a trustworthy source, Techlore on YouTube. Here is a 30 minute video that will get you a general overview.

I’d start by hardening your browser, a relatively easy step that can really help you get tracked somewhat less without too much headache. Just search youtube for “harden (your browser)” and follow the steps. Mental outlaw has a good video on that as well as Techlore and Sun Knudsen. As for which browser, Brave is Chromium based but mostly de-googled and Firefox is what I prefer because it’s one of few alternatives to Chromium/Chrome.

If you’re really serious about security from government tracking, for instance, you’d want to be researching Operation Security or OpSec. Here is a 10 minute primer on that topic. But if your threat model includes the government because you may be planning to do illegal stuff (do not talk about that on Lemmy, lol), you will want to invest a LOT of time to understand exactly what is required to really protect your identity. A single false step can make it easy for federal agents to track you down.