TerribleTortoise

The tilde (~) means that path is located in the per-user home directory. The default behaviour is for user home directories to be only accessible by that specific user.

The encryption you’re referring to is likely specific to Firefox Sync (i.e. syncing your FF settings, history, etc. across devices). Sync is end-to-end encrypted. But I’m not surprised that it’s unencrypted on disk.

Nine Inch Fails

I like to recommend the episode(s) on John McAfee when people first start Bastards. They’re wild and not nearly as dark/heavy as some episodes can be.

If you want to be able to trim off the ends, I suggest a double fisherman’s instead (aka the double overhand stopper) with both strands (hold them together while you tie and treat them as a single strand).

https://www.animatedknots.com/double-overhand-stopper-knot

With either knot, after you trim, you can melt the ends of the elastic cord. It will “mushroom” a bit, which will also prevent the tips from creeping into the knot and coming loose.

A flat overhand bend in the elastic cord is what I recommend: https://www.animatedknots.com/flat-overhand-bend-knot

Justification:
Simple, not bulky, reasonably secure against shaking loose, and relatively easy to untie.

As suggested in another comment, a double figure eight could be used as well. It will be more bulky and a bit less likely to come loose.

You are correct, I had not noticed they did away with that icon until you mentioned it now.