Listcrawler Privacy: How I Keep My Browsing and My Phone Number Private

Thanksgiving, 2021. My sister's house outside Milwaukee. Fourteen people, two tables pushed together, my phone face-up next to the gravy boat because I was waiting on a flight change notification. It buzzed. The preview said "Hey, it's Jade from last week, you around Friday?" in big friendly letters, right there for my nephew and my brother-in-law to see.

My brother-in-law didn't notice. My nephew was twelve and was only interested in the rolls. I flipped the phone over so fast I knocked over a water glass, which honestly drew more attention than the text would have. Nothing came of it. But I went home that weekend and rebuilt my whole setup from scratch, and I've been kind of a privacy nerd about browsing Listcrawler and everything around it ever since. Here's what I actually do.

Incognito mode hides less than you think

Private browsing is useful. I use it every time. But a lot of guys think it makes them invisible, and it doesn't. What it does is stop your browser from saving history, cookies, and form entries on that device once you close the window. That's it.

What it doesn't do is hide anything from the network you're on. Your internet provider can still see which sites you connect to. The router at your house keeps logs on some models, and whoever set up the router can often look at them. If you're on someone else's Wi-Fi, they can see roughly where you went too. Incognito protects you from the next person who picks up your phone. It doesn't protect you from the pipes.

Never on a work laptop. Never on work Wi-Fi.

I'll say this one plainly because I've watched it go badly for someone. A guy I used to work with in Indianapolis, not a friend exactly, got walked out of the building after IT flagged his browsing. He was using the company laptop in his hotel room on a work trip and figured incognito covered him. It didn't. Company devices often have monitoring software installed, and company networks log traffic. You agreed to all of it in some onboarding document you didn't read.

My rule is simple. Work devices are for work. Work Wi-Fi, including the office guest network, is for work. I don't even check the weather on the corporate VPN if I can help it.

A separate email that knows nothing about you

I have an email address that exists only for this. It's not my name, not my birth year, not my old AIM handle with a number tacked on. I made it on a fresh account, I didn't link it to my main phone number for recovery, and I don't use it to sign up for anything else. No newsletters, no shopping, no fantasy football.

The point is that if that address ever leaks, or someone types it into a search engine, it goes nowhere. Dead end. That's what you want.

The second number, and the Google Voice trap

Giving out your real cell number is the single biggest mistake I see. Your real number is tied to your name in about a thousand places. Reverse lookup sites, your Venmo, your dentist's reminder texts. Anyone with it can figure out who you are in under a minute.

So I use a second number. Google Voice is the common choice, and there are second-line apps that do the same thing. The catch with Google Voice, and I fell into this one at first, is that it lives inside a Google account. If you set it up on your main account, it shows up in the same app ecosystem as your regular Gmail, your calendar, and your contacts. If anyone else has access to that account on a tablet or laptop at home, they may see it. Make a separate account for it, sign in only on your own phone, and turn off contact syncing for it.

I talk more about which apps I keep on my phone and how I organize them in the Listcrawler app page.

Lock screen previews will betray you

Back to Thanksgiving. The fix here takes thirty seconds and almost nobody does it. On an iPhone, go into Settings, then Notifications, then Show Previews, and set it to "When Unlocked" or "Never." Android has a similar option under notifications on the lock screen. Then go into your second-line app specifically and turn previews off there, or turn its notifications off completely and just check it when you mean to.

Also, lock your phone. Actually lock it, with a real passcode, not 1234 and not your birthday. Face ID is fine. A phone that unlocks for anybody who picks it up at a party is a diary left on the coffee table.

Synced history and the family iPad

This is the story that scares my friends the most, so I tell it often. My buddy Tim, who you might remember from another guide, uses Chrome on his phone and is signed into his Google account, like basically everyone. His wife had the family iPad, also signed into Chrome. Same account, because years ago Tim set it up that way to share bookmarks and recipes.

She went to look up a lasagna recipe, started typing in the address bar, and his browsing history autofilled right there. Not incognito history, but the stuff he'd browsed in a regular tab one night because he forgot. That conversation did not go well. They're still married, but he describes the following month as "the longest of my life."

Check what your browser is syncing. Chrome, Safari, and Edge can all sync history, open tabs, and saved passwords across devices. If any other person has any device signed into your account, assume they can see whatever you see.

Photo backups and autofill on shared computers

Two smaller things that bite people. First, if you ever save an image or take a screenshot, it probably goes straight to iCloud Photos or Google Photos, and if you share a family library or an album, it can show up on someone else's screen. I just don't save anything. If I accidentally screenshot something, I delete it and then empty the recently deleted folder too.

Second, browser autofill on a shared family computer. Saved usernames, the email address I mentioned above, even search suggestions. I simply never browse on a shared computer. It's not worth it.

Keep your name, face, and handle out of it

I don't send photos of myself. I don't sign messages with my real first name. I don't mention my employer, my neighborhood, or the fact that I have a dog named Waffles, because someone could find Waffles on my sister's Instagram in about four minutes.

Same goes for usernames. If you've used the same handle on Reddit, Xbox, and a fishing forum since 2012, don't use it here. Type your usual handle into a search engine and see what comes up. That's exactly what someone curious would do.

Scrub yourself from the data brokers

This one isn't about any single site. It's about how much of your life is already sitting on people-search pages. Sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, and BeenVerified compile your name, address history, relatives, and phone numbers, and they sell that to anyone who asks. Each of them has an opt-out page. It's tedious, and some of them make you confirm by email, and the listings sometimes creep back after a year. I do a round of opt-outs every January, the same weekend I start my tax paperwork, because both are equally fun.

It won't make you invisible. It does make it a lot harder for a random person with your phone number to put together who you are.

None of this is paranoia

I used to think guys who did all this were overdoing it. Now I think it's just basic hygiene, like locking your car. Most of it takes one afternoon to set up and then you never think about it again. For the in-person side of staying safe, which is a separate topic, read the safety tips guide.

Set things up, then browse

Get your second number, your separate email, and your notification settings sorted first. Then pick your city and browse with a little more peace of mind than I had at that Thanksgiving table.