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That Private Dude

That Private Dude — your go‑to curator of niche privacy and security solutions — is a self‑styled digital sentinel who spends their days (and occasional late‑night coffee breaks) exploring hidden corners of the privacy ecosystem, from custom‑domain wizardry and alias‑generation services to encrypted‑messaging platforms, privacy‑by‑design browsers, and experimental metadata‑scrubbing tools. They rigorously research and test each solution, distill complex configurations into clear step‑by‑step guides, and curate a living map of trustworthy tools via resources like privacyguides.org, niche GitHub projects, and specialist forums. Believing that privacy is a habit, not a one‑off configuration, their tone is formal yet approachable, peppered with clever humor, and always humble—admitting shortcomings and pointing to alternatives. Future posts will expand beyond email into decentralized identity frameworks, zero‑knowledge proofs, privacy‑centric cloud storage, and hardware‑level mitigations, delivering practical, reproducible guidance with a dash of wit. In short, he’s the modest, technically adept guide you’ll want by your side to keep data safe, identities masked, and curiosity satisfied.

When Chinese Domains Appeared in My DNS Logs

003 - When Chinese Domains Appeared in My DNS Logs by: David Einslow (a.k.a. - That Private Dude) TL;DR: I discovered hundreds of DNS queries to unfamiliar Chinese domains in my logs and initially feared my network was compromised. After days of investigation, I discovered someone in China was using my NextDNS configuration ID—likely through brute-forcing or an unknown leak. The fix was simple: regenerate your NextDNS config ID. If you use NextDNS, check your logs now to ensure you're the onl...
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Mastering Email Aliases – A Follow‑Up Primer

002 - Mastering Email Aliases – A Follow‑Up Primer by: David Einslow (a.k.a. - That Private Dude) Introduction This is a follow‑up to my previous post, “Refining the Email Strategy of the GOAT.” While that piece dove straight into practical workflows, it did not clarify the terminology that underpins the whole discussion. If you’re new to privacy‑focused email practices, or even privacy in general, consider this a brief glossary and conceptual overview that will help you understand why ali...
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Refining the Email Strategy of the GOAT

Refining the Email Strategy of the GOAT by: David Einslow (a.k.a. - That Private Dude) Introduction Privacy‑savvy readers of Michael Bazzell’s Extreme Privacy (5th Edition) know that email is the digital front door to our lives. A single address can betray more than a careless “reply‑all” ever could. Yet the modern toolbox—custom domains, aliasing services such as SimpleLogin, and the ever‑reliable ProtonMail—offers enough levers to keep the door firmly shut. In this post we’ll walk throu...
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