Understanding and Choosing Protection Levels

Overview

PrivacyLearn.com offers different protection levels to help you balance privacy protection with system functionality. This page will help you understand each level and choose the one that best fits your needs.

Sometimes, scripts provide only a single protection level. But often, you may need to make a choice. Choosing the right protection level is important for balancing privacy and functionality.

Best practice: Start safe

Start with the option with least impact and choose other levels based on your specific needs and technical expertise. All best practices including this one is explained in detail on this page.

Impact Reference

Different protection levels have different impact.

Every script page on PrivacyLearn.com indicates what kind of impact that the script has.

Level	Privacy Level	Impact Level	Recommended For
Normal	⬤⬤◯◯	Minimal, functionality maintained	All users seeking better privacy and performance
High	⬤⬤⬤◯	Moderate, minor potential issues, all reversible	Advanced users prioritizing privacy and performance
Maximum	⬤⬤⬤⬤	High, significant functionality impact	Specialized environments (e.g., forensics labs)

Allow some time after applying each level to test system functionality before considering a higher level.

Level Descriptions

Normal

Everyday Privacy (Enterprise-Grade)

The Normal level provides enhanced privacy while maintaining system functionality. It's designed to be safe and effective for daily use.

What it does:

• Removes non-essential telemetry data and caches
• Maintains all essential security services
• Preserves full functionality of applications and system services
• Retains all user data (e.g., personal files, bookmarks etc.)

Suitable for:

• Home users
• Gamers
• Privacy-conscious professionals
• Anyone new to privacy optimization

High

Advanced Privacy

The High level significantly enhances privacy by making more aggressive changes, accepting some functional trade-offs.

What it does:

• Disables optional services that could leak data
• Performs comprehensive cleanup of non-essential data
• Preserves core security services
• Maintains critical application functionality
• Retains all user data (e.g., personal files, bookmarks etc.)

Suitable for:

• Privacy enthusiasts
• Security professionals
• Developers
• Users who understand system administration

Impacts:

• Some non-critical features may be affected
• Requires reviewing disabled features

Maximum

Strongest Possible Privacy (Military-Grade)

The Maximum level implements maximum privacy protection with potential significant impact on system functionality.

What it does:

• Disables any feature that could potentially leak data
• Makes comprehensive system changes
• Maximizes privacy at the cost of functionality

Suitable for:

• High-security environments like military, banks
• Forensics laboratories
• Systems dedicated to privacy-critical tasks

Impacts:

• May break important functionality, not recommended for regular users
• Removes non-critical personal files (bookmarks, trash bin)
• May disable security features that collect data

Note

Protection levels are cumulative:

• High includes all Normal protections.
• Maximum includes all High and Normal protections.

This ensures comprehensive coverage as you increase the protection level.

Best Practices

Starting Out

• Start with Normal ^(safe) and gradually increase to High ^{(some impact)} or Maximum ^{(high impact)} as needed
• Test changes in a controlled environment when possible
• Always maintain system backups before changes

Managing Protection Levels

• Gradually increase protection level as needed
• When downgrading (e.g., High → Normal), revert current changes first
• When upgrading (e.g., Normal → High), you can apply directly
• Document changes (bookmark script pages)
• Document custom configurations

Maintaining Protection

• Check monthly for script updates and improvements
• Reapply protection after major system updates
• Monitor system stability
• Periodically review if current level meets your needs
• Adjust settings as privacy requirements change

Troubleshooting

• Keep backups of your configuration
• Document any issues encountered
• If problems occur, revert changes systematically

How to Choose Your Level

• ≈ 5 min to complete
• Tools: Documentation
• Difficulty: Simple
• ≈ 10 instructions

Follow these steps to select the most appropriate privacy protection level for your needs.

1. 1

   Assess Your Needs

   Evaluate your requirements and constraints

   1. Determine your required level of privacy protection
   2. Assess how much system functionality you can sacrifice
   3. Evaluate your technical expertise level

   Most users find Normal protection sufficient for daily use

2. 2

   Consider Use Case

   Choose a protection level based on your scenario

   1. For personal computers → Choose Normal
   2. For environments with special privacy requirements → Choose High
   3. For high-security environments → Choose Maximum
   4. For custom requirements → Select and apply scripts individually

   Start with Normal protection and increase gradually if needed

3. 3

   Review Changes

   Carefully review and prepare for changes

   1. Review all selected scripts before applying them
   2. Understand the impact of each modification
   3. Create system backups before making changes

   Document any changes you make for future reference

Troubleshooting

• ≈ 5 min to complete
• Tools: Operating System, PrivacyLearn.com
• Difficulty: Simple
• ≈ 9 instructions

If you encounter issues after applying privacy protection, follow these steps to identify and resolve the problem.

1. 1

   Document Issues

   Record which functionality is affected

   Be specific about what stopped working and when

2. 2

   Search Documentation

   1. Search for related keywords on PrivacyLearn.com
   2. Check documentation for specific scripts that might be involved

   Many common issues have documented solutions

3. 3

   Revert Changes

   If documentation doesn't resolve the issue, start reverting changes

   1. Revert the specific scripts related to the issue
   2. If that doesn't work, revert their parent categories
   3. As a last resort, revert the main operating system script
4. 4

   Protection Level Rollback

   If you don't remember which level you applied, systematically revert all levels

   1. First revert Normal
   2. Then revert High
   3. Finally revert Maximum

   Document which reversion fixed the issue for future reference

Common Questions

Reapplying Protection

Do I need to reapply protection?

Yes! Reapplying protection is needed because:

• After major system updates that may reset privacy settings or add new telemetry options
• Scripts are frequently updated with improvements such as bug fixes, increased safety, more protections

Check at least monthly for script updates and reapply after major system changes. You do not need to revert existing protection.

Switching Levels

Can I switch between protection levels later?

Yes, you can change protection levels at any time:

• Start with Normal protection
• Test system functionality
• Gradually increase protection if needed

Many users start with Normal protection and add specific High features only where needed.

Consider reverting before downgrading (e.g., High → Normal). Upgrading (e.g., Normal → High) can be done directly.

Mixed Protection

Can I combine different protection levels?

Yes, you can customize your protection by:

• Starting with Normal as a base
• Selectively adding High or Maximum features
• Choosing specific scripts from each level

This approach lets you balance privacy and functionality for your specific needs.

Document which features you've enabled from each level to make future maintenance easier.

Work/School Computers

Which protection level should I use on my work or school computer?

Normal is generally safe for work environments.

• Consult IT department before applying any changes
• Avoid Normal/Maximum levels which may interfere with work tools

Some privacy settings may conflict with corporate security policies or management tools.

Protection Indicators

How do I know if the protection level is working?

You can verify protection effectiveness through:

• Disabled state in operating system settings
• Reduced background network activity
• Fewer diagnostic data uploads
• Improved system performance

Each script includes documentation on how to verify its effectiveness.

Multiple Devices

Should I use the same protection level on all my devices?

Protection needs vary by device usage:

• Personal computers: Normal or High based on privacy needs
• Gaming PCs: Normal to maintain game compatibility and optionally try High
• Development machines: Consider High for enhanced performance
• Servers: Normal with specific additions

Customize protection based on each device's specific use case and requirements.

Technical Details

Technically, PrivacyLearn.com is built on top of open-source privacy.sexy scripts, though it represents them in a slightly different way. See the About Page for more details.

The mapping between PrivacyLearn.com and privacy.sexy recommendation levels is as follows:

PrivacyLearn.com Level	privacy.sexy Selection	privacy.sexy Recommendation Level
Normal	Standard	standard
High	Strict	standard and strict
Maximum	All	standard, strict and none None stands for status of recommendation not existing i.e. non-recommended, null, nil, undefined.

privacy.sexy Recommendations

privacy.sexy is composed of executables - independently executable actions with documentation and reversibility. Each executable can be either a Category or a Script. Scripts have a recommend property that can be set to "standard", "strict", or undefined.

privacy.sexy offers three selection levels that determine which scripts are included:

• Standard: Includes only standard scripts
• Strict: Includes both standard and strict scripts
• All: Includes all scripts (including non-recommended ones)

For more detailed information, see:

• Guidance on script creation including best-practices
• privacy.sexy collection file documentation
• Collections README

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About the Author

undergroundwires

• Certified security professional
• 7+ years experience securing banks
• Open-source developer since 2005
• EU advisor, Public Speaker, Moderator

About Us

Reviewed By

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• Privacy enthusiasts and professionals peer-reviewed
• Millions of end-users tested across different environments

History

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