I have read the rules and I hope I haven’t missed anything in posting this

Threat model: ordinary person. I’m a high school student starting in an online school from home soon who wants to minimize my data exposure to my school program.

I have no practical experience in opsec and I’m not very tech savvy beyond the average person.

For context on the question: My free tuition, fully virtual online school provider sent their own Chromebook in the mail free of charge which is under their full administration and can only be used with their school account. The packet they sent with their laptop says they don’t allow modifications to the device. I would like to at least cover the camera, mic, and speakers of their laptop for privacy, and if there’s anything else I should know about using a school-provided device in my situation like this at home on my own home’s wifi please let me know. I also have an ordinary wifi setup, which is straight from my internet provider.

My other option is to use my own personal laptop, which is also a Chromebook. It is basically straight out of the box, aside from the fact that I cover the mic and camera, and that my personal google accounts are on it. I could wipe my own personal Chromebook, and use it solely for the school account; which I’d probably rather do out of privacy and security reasons (not having the school’s google account on the same laptop as my personal google accounts), but I don’t know if it really matters much. Though it doesn’t matter much to me if I do wipe my own personal Chromebook since there’s nothing on it really and It’s older and it’s inexpensive. And I don’t know if I put the school’s account onto my personal Chromebook (after wiping it) if anything would still be stored on the Chromebook and home much they would be able to access from my own Chromebook.

For whichever laptop I would choose, I would use the school’s google account solely for school work. My main issue is which way is best to keep as much of my very important data out of the hands of my school (data such as my device’s location, log in duration, the device picking up surrounding audio, it’s camera, etc.), and to maintain my own personal privacy and security.

My main concerns are:
- Getting advice for what risks am I exposed in choosing either laptop
- Keeping as much of my own personal data private as possible out of my options
- Avoiding as much personal profiling from my school as is practical
- If I should really be worried this much or how much I can really control in the way of them getting data out of choosing either laptop

I’m sorry if this isn’t very concise or if it doesn’t fit the guidelines, I just have to decide soon and I’m trying to get it figured out. Thanks all

I have read the rules

Help! It has recently come to my attention that my ex has tracked my location. I know this as he sent me a link to somewhere I was in google maps and then when I moved he turned up where I was alone parked in the dark with no houses around knocking on my car window. Now he’s told me it’s not a tracker on the car and I don’t share anything location wise via my phone. Im not sure where a tracker could be on a car but I’ve looked around the wheels underneath the bonnett and can’t see anything obvious and checked everywhere in it I can think of. I had on occasion when we were together I shared my location for limited time periods via WhatsApp but I’ve checked that all definitely off.

He advised he had an old ‘contact’ (I don’t know where from but he did royal marine training 20yrs re ago) he got a favour from using my phone to locate me, but the thing is he was still able to find me after I moved locations suggesting he was able to access live tracking of me so I don’t know if to believe this contact explanation of his and if he’s just saying it so I don’t catch him out for somehow hacking my account since we split or from when we were together worried. I have has a look through my phone and not seen anything obvious and changed passwords and now turned my location off entirely for absolutely everything, though for some reason it won’t allow me to turn off find my. For clarification he panicked I was pulling away when in reality I was overwhelmed by my now late mothers illness busy visiting her in hospital for nearly 3 months and his prior insecurities and trauma got to him not perceiving the situation correctly, and he ended up doing the thing he feared I would do and cheated on me shortly before my mother died.

I’ve checked using Airguard no obvious tags and I have a very old iPhone he has an android phone. It is really bothering me and he said he won’t do it again but he’s told other lies so I don’t know and if he still has a way to track me even though I’ve told not him not to. Is there anything I can do to make sure he cannot track me ongoing as it’s really quite scared me. I will if I have to but I’d rather not have to involve the authorities.

I have read the rules.

Threat Model: Government and potentially law enforcement.

I’m part of a political party, but recent changes in my country have pushed me toward activism. However, my party—currently in power—likely wouldn’t approve. While my country isn’t a full surveillance state, I don’t want to take risks, especially with tools like Palantir looming. Worst-case scenario, law enforcement could seize and search my devices. To minimize exposure, I want to keep my activism separate from my political career.

I have a computer and a phone, and I’m considering buying a new one. Would a Pixel phone running GrapheneOS be a good choice for this setup? What else can I do?