Your safety is obviously important to you. Otherwise you wouldn't continue reading here. The first step towards greater security has been taken.

Not all tasks in this list are relevant to you. Think about your current threat situation and prioritize the tasks using the filter buttons above! This will give you a better overview and prevent you from being overwhelmed.

If we manage to increase the safety of all people, surveillance measures will be less worthwhile. This will also benefit your safety. Share this list in your channels or print out the flyer.

Just as technology and this list are constantly changing, your life, your habits and your devices will change in the future. So take time once a year to review this list.

Cryptoparties are events where you learn how to protect your devices and your communication.

You know the most important numbers and names of your friends, family and acquaintances by heart. You can also log into your most important accounts, such as email, by heart. If you lose your phone or all your devices, you have the option of restoring your contacts.

Remove the battery from your device or store it away to protect confidential meetings.

The NO STALK app from the Weisser Ring can help you to document unwanted events such as calls, text messages and chat messages in a court of law.

Apple devices such as iPads or iPhones can become a problem for some people if they do not want to be found. Protect other people by deactivating the location services on your devices or not using them at all.

Non-smart push-button devices are often carelessly classified as "secure". However, these often cannot be encrypted and do not offer secure communication.

There is an inconspicuous number on the back of your SIM card. Scratch it so that you cannot be identified by it and your provider in the event of confiscation.

The display on your device switches off automatically after a while. To unlock it again, use complex patterns or alphanumeric passwords.

In your smartphone settings, you can specify what is displayed on the screen when your device is locked. Disable lock screen notifications completely so that no chat messages or other sensitive information are displayed.

Encrypt your smartphones with a strong alphanumeric password that is at least 20 characters long. This prevents data from being read very effectively.

Encryption is only effective when the phone is switched off. Therefore, practise how to switch off your phone quickly in stressful situations.

You can apply a special film to your display that prevents bystanders or cameras from being able to read it. These films are available for many models. They use optical effects that mean your display is only visible from a certain angle.

You should never deactivate the PIN protection on your SIM card. If the PIN is deactivated, authorities or other persons can use the card themselves to gain access to messengers, for example.

Memory cards cannot be reliably encrypted on all devices. It is also possible to restore data that was saved on them when they were previously used with other devices. Therefore, only use memory cards if you know what is stored on them and if you have overwritten them beforehand.

You should never use your fingerprint or face to unlock your phone. Authorities with access to fingerprints or images can otherwise unlock the device. Therefore, use complex patterns or alphanumeric passwords.

Be sure to deactivate USB debugging if you are familiar with it. Normally, this function is deactivated by default on all devices and must be consciously activated by you.

Only use power adapters and cables for charging that you trust. Mark the cable and power adapter to prevent them from being replaced.

Verified Boot prevents tampering with your operating system. You should make sure that your device is secured with it. If you have installed your own system, you should activate verified boot.

Sealing can help you to determine whether hardware has been tampered with after returning your device. For example, put a drop of special sealing wax or nail polish on the seams of your device. This way you can determine whether it has been opened.

In your phone's settings, you will find unique, unchangeable hardware numbers such as the serial number, Wi-Fi Mac address, Bluetooth Mac address and IMEI. Make a note of these numbers. This way, you can always be sure that your device has not been secretly replaced.

Make regular backups of your most important data. Your backup doesn't have to be perfect. A bad backup is better than no backup!

If you have the option, you should definitely encrypt your backups to protect them from unauthorized access.

You should definitely store your backups decentrally and outside your home so that you can access them quickly in the event of theft or confiscation.

Restoring your data is the most important part of a backup. Practice this situation! This way you can see if your backup is intact. Make sure that you can restore your backup without access to other backups, password managers and two-factor apps.

In the event of a house search, burglary, flooding or other emergencies, all devices are often stolen or destroyed. Prepare for this by storing unused devices with your friends. That way you'll have a quick replacement.

The police often ask for pins and passwords when seizing a smartphone on a court order or when seizing a smartphone. Do not say anything. Do not unlock anything. Contact a lawyer.

Did you buy the phone second-hand? Then you should overwrite the entire memory once to avoid unwanted data being found on your device.

You should only activate positioning, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or NFC if you really need it.

If you want to be sure that you are not being monitored via Bluetooth, you should use a wired connection for your headphones.

You should simply cover unused cameras with stickers. For example, if you don't use the selfie camera or only use it rarely.

A flat rate generally generates less data than a tariff with minute-based billing or itemized bills. This is because these have to be recorded and stored. Flat rates generate less data. Prepaid tariffs generally do not even generate billing data and are therefore very data-efficient.

Many network operators sell your movement data to various advertising companies. You can object to this transfer.

Deactivate mobile data if you don't need it. An activated mobile internet connection leaves a continuous record of the cellular data you use in your provider's traffic data.

You should not take your phone with you to the demonstration or switch it to flight mode some time beforehand or switch it off completely and leave it like this for some time after the demonstration.

Apps that can potentially detect IMSI catchers or silent text messages will not help you in the vast majority of cases. You should avoid these apps and instead learn why they don't do much and what the alternative is.

Anonymous SIM cards make it much more difficult for state actors and other attackers to choose their targets. Whether silent text messages, IMSI catchers, inventory data information, traffic data information, radio cell evaluations, source monitoring, state trojans or location monitoring. An anonymous SIM card is often the only sensible defense against such surveillance.

Only use your anonymous SIM card in a specific phone. Never use the same phone for another SIM card. This is because the unique number of the SIM and the unique number of your phone are always stored together in the provider's traffic data.

To further increase security, you can often change your anonymous SIM cards. Each time you switch, you should also change the phone used for this purpose.

If you are traveling with friends, acquaintances, family or comrades, you should not use your anonymous SIM card.

Anyone who knows your phone number can easily attack you. Keep your number secret if possible. If you still want to be reachable, you can use messengers with a call function that do not require a number or where the number can be hidden.

Do not use your anonymous SIM card/phone for regular phone calls or text messages. You can see who the target contacts are in the traffic data if they do not also have an anonymous card. This may make it possible to narrow down who you are. If possible, only use the card with other anonymous cards or switch to Internet messengers for messages and phone calls.

You should never order SIM cards and phones directly to your address or pay from your accounts. To leave no trace, you can ask friends to order or collect them for you. Pay in cash.

You should also obtain the credit for your SIM card anonymously or via intermediaries. Therefore, use sim cards for which you can buy credit in cash at cash registers or ask friends to send you the credit code.

You can suppress your phone number when you make calls. This means that the person you are calling cannot see your own number. You can set this for certain people or for all calls.

Sensitive information about you or your relationships could be left as a voice message on your voicemail at any time and without your knowledge. Therefore, deactivate your voicemail for security reasons.

Advanced Mobile Location (AML) has been used in Germany and many other countries since 2019 and is gradually being expanded to locate people in emergency situations. If you don't want this, you should prepare yourself for it.

With a third-party block, you can prevent apps, websites or scammers from charging costs for subscriptions or other purchases to your phone bill.

You should not use your name to accept a call. Use generic phrases like 'hello' instead.

Free Android-based operating systems such as grapheneOS, CalyxOS or DivestOS can help you protect your privacy and are not tied to Google, Apple or Microsoft.

GrapheneOS is an Android operating system with a particularly high level of protection and numerous security features and is therefore listed here as a separate task.

Smartphone manufacturers receive millions to billions from Google or Apple for placing their software on your phone. You should definitely remove these apps.

You should definitely delete your "mobile advertising ID" (MAID), change it frequently (Android) or prohibit your apps from tracking (iOS) if you do not want the data from different apps to be merged and sold again by so-called data brokers.

Keep apps and your operating system up to date. Malware and state trojans often exploit vulnerabilities in software. Up-to-date apps and an up-to-date operating system are therefore important.

Your security is increased enormously if you use a different complex password for all services on the Internet. You should save these in a password manager such as KeepassXC or Bitwarden.

Only use official app stores or F-Droid to obtain your apps. If you know your way around, you can also download apps directly from the manufacturers' websites. Always consider whether you need an app at all.

Your flashlight app wants to access the memory? Not a good idea! Always ask yourself why an app needs permissions and only grant them gradually or when necessary.

You can obtain most apps via F-Droid or Aurora Store without logging into Google or without Google services.

Google Play services and Apple services provide central infrastructures for some apps. For example, push messages are sent via these services. Government agencies use this fact to monitor iPhone and Android devices.

Many popular apps track your habits and preferences. Find out about privacy-friendly alternatives and check the trackers beforehand!

Root rights allow you to use many unique apps. However, these rights may also apply to malicious apps, which is why you should generally avoid root.

You should definitely use open-source, encrypted messengers such as Briar, Signal, Threema, Element or SimpleX. Avoid insecure commercial messengers such as WhatsApp and co.

The two-step confirmation (two-factor authentication) prevents your SIM card or copies of it from being used to access your messages.

Some messengers such as Signal or Threema offer you the option to automatically delete old messages. Use this function to prevent messages from being read in the future, e.g. through confiscation.

Avoid voice messages if possible. Modern AI systems can recognize voices very effectively and assign them to people in a similar way to automatic facial recognition. This is comparable to a fingerprint, which is unique and unmistakable.

You should not use iMessage and keep your Apple ID secret. iMessage has repeatedly been the target of so-called zero-click attacks in recent years.

Lockdown mode (blocking mode) can be used on the iPhone to prevent malware infections. Some features are severely restricted in order to protect the system.

You should restart your phone more often. For example, every morning or before critical conversations. Some state trojans do not survive restarts as they are often not persistent. Although new infections are possible later, this strategy can give you a private window of opportunity.

You should reset your phone to factory settings if you no longer trust it. This method is effective against common spy apps from the app store that may be hiding on your device.

Some smart TVs take screenshots and audio recordings and upload them automatically and unintentionally to the internet. Protect yourself by not pairing your smartphone with a smart TV.

When scanning QR codes, pay attention to the authenticity of the target page and check exactly where the code takes you. Be skeptical if you are asked to enter personal data or bank information after scanning.

You should not carry or store your bank card right next to your smartphone. Malware could read and send the data via NFC. Alternatively, use RFID protective covers for your cards and deactivate NFC.

You should think carefully about what personal information you share online. For example, are you easy to find via search engines? If so, you should try to remove this data.

Alternative frontends for web services such as YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and other websites can help you protect your data.

Passkeys can replace passwords in some applications and apps and make them completely superfluous. Unlike passwords, they cannot be stolen through phishing or data leaks. Use them when they are offered!

Many services and platforms on the internet offer to secure logins with a second factor. Use this option whenever possible.

Your two-factor app is installed on a separate device. This means that your second factor cannot be used to log into your accounts if your device is compromised.

Targeted advertising campaigns (microtargeting) are used by intelligence services, among others, to infect individual devices with malware. Protect yourself with ad blockers!

You can improve your security by using a different name and different email addresses or mobile numbers for registration on all platforms. This way, your accounts cannot be merged through data leaks.

Work with a time delay if you want to share the same message in different channels or groups with different pseudonyms. Otherwise it will be obvious that one person is behind the various pseudonyms.

Your internet access providers (Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica, 1&1, etc...) can see which websites you visit. Tor (The Onion Router) can help you greatly improve your anonymity on the Internet. Use websites via the Tor browser and redirect apps with the Orbot app via the Tor network.

Google, Apple and other manufacturers pass on data to investigating authorities without hesitation. Therefore, use alternative search engines such as duckduckgo.com or stract.com

Many cloud providers cooperate fully with investigating authorities and will not hesitate to hand over your data. Only store encrypted data there.

Remember that you have to trust VPN providers. You pay them, so they know your identity. Many VPN services cooperate fully with investigative authorities.

Your smartphone invisibly attaches metadata such as coordinates, camera type, resolution, smartphone model or operating system to your pictures. With some camera apps, this can be partially or completely deactivated.

Do you take the time to read the privacy policies of new apps and services you register with? Do you care who your data is shared with and what happens to it?

Do you use email? Then you should definitely think about encryption such as GPG/OpenPGP.

It is important to delete accounts that you no longer need. Take the time to do this once a year. Regardless of whether you needed them for a website or an app. If you haven't used them for a while, you should close them. This minimizes the risk of data leaks.

Personal data is leaked from websites, portals and online stores every day. Those affected are rarely informed. The data is sold, traded or is often freely accessible.

You should check the authenticity of emails, chat messages and text messages, especially if they ask or request you to take an action. For example, if you are asked to enter your personal details or password.