I’m currently using my own custom workstation, Whonix Gateway + Arch Linux VM , which I created three days ago. I’d love to learn more about Whonix, privacy and anonymity and am asking if there are any things I should consider when using my custom workstation.
Throughout the last 3 years, I’ve seen more and more people get in trouble for the things they did or said online. Benign things mind you. Things like:
- Liking social media post, which lead to a house search + seizure of electronic devices in Germany
- Liking a social media post which led to the arrest of a 45 year old man from Switzerland
- Uploading a LGBTQ critical meme picture to Facebook, which led to the arrest of a man from the UK
- Following certain accounts. Most recently there was a woman (if I remember correctly) who lost her job beacuse she followed the Twitter account “LibsOfTikTok”
Although I’m not on Facebook, I do use other social media sites Twitter, Reddit or Discord. While I’m not the type of person to harrass other people online, troll or be otherwise benelovent, I do worry about the same thing happening to me because of my opinion or the things I give a “like” to.
Which is why I setup this Arch VM backed by a Whonix Gateway. To protect myself from unfair, illegal political prosecution simply because I used speech the government doesn’t like. I plan on using this VM daily, for posting, liking, browsing and just being myself on the internet but anonymous in the sense that my real IP is not attached to those accounts since I’m making a whole new identity and a whole new account for every platform.
I installed the barebones of Arch with my real IP. Then once I managed to install UFW, a desktop environment and get Network Manager going, I configured my network settings accordingly to what is written in a Whonix Wiki under the section “Configure network” (the forum won’t let me post links otherwise I’d link it). I blocked all in- and out going traffic with UFW and only allowed HTTP, HTTPS and DNS out. As for my browser, I’m using Librewolf.
Which brings me to my question; is there anything I should consider while using Whonix this way? Any tips or tricks? I hope I’m not terribly de-anonymizing myself with my Arch VM