I've talked about this in the past, but in general, operational security, opsec, is severely lacking in the hobby. Nobody understands it, and that leaves *everyone involved* vulnerable. Let me fix that for you.
Some generalities you should operate under, if I may:
-If you send information to someone, assume they keep it forever, assume that other people have access to it both with and without their knowledge/consent/intent.
-A phone in your pocket tracks your location within 10 feet anywhere it has service. It sees every wifi network around you. It sees every bluetooth device around you. It doesn't need to connect to any of the above in order to track you. It serves that data to a variety of parties without your direct consent because you gave it blanket consent to do so when you clicked "I agree". Every app installed on your phone has access to this information, directly or indirectly, even the apps that you cannot uninstall.
-Your activities on a device are 100% tracked and used to deanonymize you. A VPN doesn't really help. Deanonymization is easy, and sold as a turnkey service to anyone who wants it.
-Protonmail only protects your messages if the person you're emailing also has proton mail, otherwise everything is out in the open and gets read and categorized by everyone in charge of sending that email to its destination.
-Every credit/debit transaction you make, every payment app you use, broadcasts those payments, and where and when they happened, to the world. You, yourself might not be able to see it, but, it's now part of your digital identity forever. Cash does not have this problem.
I get that all of the above sounds bleak as hell. That's because reality *is* bleak as hell. Quite literally the best you can do is remove yourself from the 'low hanging fruit' category. If you have a separate phone for your hobby activities, good. You've probably already exposed yourself with it. Turn it off, hit it with a hammer and throw it away. Then, buy yourself a visa gift card, go on ebay/swappa, buy yourself a used phone.
Once you get your used phone, DO NOT TURN IT ON. Go find public wifi, libraries are an easy one, indie coffee shops are another, coffee shops usually require you to buy something, buy something with cash, I know it's inconvenient but, you can stare at the barista's tits the whole time so, silver lining. While you're doing this, leave your real phone at home. If your car is new, and web connected, don't park it by the place with the free wifi, park it a few blocks away at some other establishment. Bonus points if you then frequent that establishment with your debit/credit card before getting down to business.
So, you're in public wifi, nobody's tracked you yet. Turn your burner phone on, set it up. Use new accounts/emails/etc ONLY. Using that phone, buy a VPN service. NORDvpn is a popular option, others exist, doesn't matter, get one, pay for it. Install that VPN app, turn it on, turn on the feature that turns off network access while the app isn't running. Nothing bad has happened yet if you've limited yourself to this guide. Good job so far. If you've gone outside of this guide, sledgehammer your phone, start over.
Crypto: Buy monero. If you need a primer on this, google it, watch a youtube video, it's not hard. All other crypto is the same as using your debit card, ie, tracked, unless you can buy it with cash.
Apps/Communications. First things first, you need web browsers. Yes, plural. Good choices are Brave, DuckDuckGo, Vivaldi, Firefox. Get all of them. Pick one, use that to login to your hobby email. Pick a different one, that's how you'll browse for ads. Pick a different one again, use that for hitting socials and researching girls you're interested in. Pick another one, use that for paying for your VPN service and anything else you need to pay for. If you have any activities outside of that, you need a browser for those activities. Never, ever, use a browser for something it's not supposed to use. When you're done with a browser activity, force close it. Don't allow it to run in the background.
Notice, you don't have a SIM card, you're not paying for cell net access or service. This is intentional, those track you, you can't turn it off, so you're not going to use it. Instead, you're going to pay for your texts with cryptocurrency, specifically Monero. Here's a list of companies that'll allow you to do that: https://cryptwerk.com/companies/sms/xmr/ Most have apps that allow you to text through them, some don't, so, do your research there, use your research browser. You'll also need to be able to make calls, here's a link for that: https://cryptwerk.com/companies/voip/xmr/ same story as above.
I know that instagram/snapchat/facebook/twitter/etc are very convenient places to find potential girls. Ideally, you wouldn't use them at all, less ideally, use the website versions of them, some allow this, others don't, but, in a dedicated browser, pretty safe to do so. Much less ideally is, installing the app when you need it, then uninstalling it when you're done and before you move locations. I personally do not use any of the above, it's simpler.
Once you're all setup, put your hobby phone into airplane mode, then turn it off, walk back to your car, go home.
Hygiene. Your hobby phone, and thus your hobby activities, cannot be turned on within 5 miles of where you live or where you work. It also should never be turned on while you are on the move, that is, walking, or driving, or the sort. Failure to do this will deanonymize you in an instant. If you slip up, sledgehammer your phone and start over.
Data Don'ts. Don't give out your real name. Congrats, your name is Johnny, a little on the nose, but, nobody's going to question it seriously. Don't give out pictures of yourself, leave that as a mystery. Don't give your your TER username. Forget you have p411 (it's a massive honeypot, likely compromised without the operators knowing, likely already tied back to you). Fine to show all of the above in person, provided they're not written down or noted in any way.
I can hear you now, but Sauce but Sauceee, doing all that will limit the girls I can seeeee. Who cares? There's not a shortage of women in this world who will let you get your beak wet for a little scratch. None of these women are running secure operations. None of these women are above leverage. None of them care about any of this, nor can you trust them to care as much as you, nor can you guarantee they won't make a mistake if they are. Zero. Act accordingly.
In terms of screening requirements, simply ignore them. A solid 80% of the time, they're not mandatory. You have money, they have a vagina, anything that prevents one being exchanged for the other is bad for business. If she wants a business card, well, business cards are cheap, and you can print *whatever you want* on them. Use your imagination, Johnny McRealson's Personal Services LLC with your VOIP number on it will do fine, she's not going to check, and probably couldn't if she wanted to because google sucks now. If a girl puts up a fuss, move on and don't bother her.
Now with your great power of being an absolute ghost, use it responsibly, be good to the women you see, odds are their lives are harder than yours. Also, don't use any of the above to do something illegal, it won't keep you hidden from the feds for more than 60 seconds or so, and they'll use the fact that you're doing it to make things harder on you.
