The basics I follow online: start the browser in private mode. Use a search engine that does not profile you, such as DuckDuckGo or Startpage. Run a tracker blocker such as Privacy Badger and an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin.
Clear cache and history on exit. Insist on HTTPS. Encrypt DNS with a service such as NextDNS or DNSCrypt. Route traffic through a VPN. Keep anti-malware current.
We study, monitor, and watch others for a short list of reasons. Curiosity, to understand a thing. Maintenance, to improve it. Fear, to catch changes or threats early. Discovery, because close study turns up the unexpected.
Decisions, since policy should rest on evidence. Money, because knowing a market or a competitor pays. National security and public safety. And passion, since infatuation and love are their own kind of watching. Most surveillance debates are really arguments about which of these reasons is in play, and whether it justifies the intrusion.
When a thorough evaluation finds no threat and an agency keeps monitoring a person anyway, that is overreach. In the United States it runs into the Fourth Amendment on unreasonable searches and the First Amendment on speech and association. Surveillance without evidence or reasonable suspicion violates those rights, whatever legal label it ends up with. Suing over it is possible but hard. You have to show that the monitoring went beyond legal bounds and violated a constitutional protection. You also have to show that no reasonable basis for continuing it existed.
No permission is granted to use my profile, writing, or images in any study, dataset, or project, current or future. Any such use is a violation of my privacy that I will pursue.