7
Powerful Ways to Maintain Your Privacy and Integrity Online
By Eliot Estep
By Eliot Estep
The
recent NSA leaks from whistleblower Ed Snowden have publicly
confirmed that digital privacy does not exist. The federal
government and intelligence agencies have
direct server access to the world’s most popular sites and
services including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and
more. This means that all of your data when using these
services including Skype, YouTube, etc has been compromised and
can be used against you whenever strategically necessary.
Always
remember, you are being recorded and monitored
regardless of whether you have done anything wrong or not.
This includes your emails, internet activity, searches, banking
activity, passwords, etc. Basically everything to build a
complete profile about who you are, how you think, how you live,
etc. This is very powerful data gathering and the goal of the
intelligence agencies is nothing less than
Total Information Awareness to be used to control and manage
populations.
For these
reasons, I have compiled some helpful tips to help you maintain
your privacy and integrity when using the Internet. These are
by no means comprehensive, but they can be quite useful and give
you some semblance of peace when browsing.
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1. Use
StartPage.com
for all your searches. Known as
“the world’s most private search engine”, StartPage will
allow you to search anonymously and securely through Google. It
is probably the only search engine that does not collect or
share any personal information about you. You can even access
pages through a proxy quickly and easily. StartPage
functionality can be easily added to your browser for all
searches made through the address bar. If you value your
privacy, this is really a no-brainer.
If you use
Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc then everything you search is logged to
your IP address and is used to build a comprehensive profile
about all your online activity. This means that the government
literally has the ability to know everything you’ve been
interested in, how you type (thus, how you think), and much
more. Protect your searches!
2. Consider using an Anonymizer such as
Tor to
protect your identity. Tor
prevents anyone from learning your location, browsing habits,
and is an extremely effective tool against network surveillance
and traffic analysis. Tor is essentially a network of virtual
tunnels run by volunteers that allows your real IP address to
remain hidden and undetectable when browsing the Internet. It
is used by whistleblowers, hackers, and all those who value
anonymity. You can also use it to access sites that your ISP
has blocked or banned. Keep in mind, if you use Tor to access
personally-identifying sites like Facebook then you pretty much
lose your ability to remain anonymous. Learn more about this
powerful software and please use it responsibly! To get started
quickly, please download the
Tor Browser Bundle. Using this software wisely and
effectively will likely require changing your browsing habits,
so be aware of this.
3. Consider using a private and secure social
network like
Pidder. This is a private
social network that uses encrypted communication and offers the
ability to remain anonymous. If you are truly looking for ways
to stay in touch with close ones in a uncompromised manner, this
could be the site for you. While it will not have the userbase
of Facebook, this is still an excellent alternative for secure
social networking.
4. Use a firewall and a secure wireless
connection. Protecting your
inbound and outbound network traffic is essential. There are
many free software options available for this. I cannot
guarantee the integrity of these programs, but I personally
recommend
Little Snitch for Mac users. It appears that
Outpost may be a good alternative for Windows. The key is
to be able to see what services/sites are trying to send/receive
data over your connection. The more stringent your firewall
rules are, the better. Keep your computer clean by using some
kind of anti-spam/spyware software and minimize your use of
highly sketchy sites.
5. Delete your cookies regularly and log out of
Facebook when you are not actively using it.
Almost everytime you visit a site, you download a cookie from
that site, which is often used to track and collect data about
you, the sites you visit, etc. Therefore, deleting cookies and
temporary internet files from your browser frequently is
necessary. I recommend
CCleaner as an effective way to do this. Most people leave
a Facebook tab open and continue browsing, not realizing that
every page that has a “Like” button actively logs and tracks
their online activity. Facebook collects all your browsing data
and then sells it to third parties, including passing it onto
intelligence agencies. Therefore, when you are not actively
using Facebook, be sure to log out! Why should they know
everything you’re up to online?
6. Cover up or disconnect your webcam when you
are not using it. Did you know
that your webcam can be secretly activated without you being
aware of it?
Hackers and intelligence agencies have the ability to do
this, so effective countermeasures must be taken here. This can
be done WITHOUT the indicator light coming on, so you won’t even
know that you are being watched or recorded. This is why I
recommend taping over or covering up your webcam when you’re not
using it. Why take the risk? Do you really want the government
to have the ability to spy on you while you are in your bedroom?
The same thing can be done on cellphone cameras/microphones, so
be aware of that too. The only way your phone cannot be used to
track/record you is if the battery is taken out, which is
another reason why many new smartphones come with non-removable
batteries these days.
7. Learn to use secure email services like
HushMail
or encrypted email.
Communicating using email is vital and part of our everyday
lives. If we use services like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, those
services are not secure and are compromised. Therefore,
switching over to a secure service such as Hushmail can be
valuable. Or learn how to use
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which is a way to send encrypted
email and files that only a trusted third party can open and
view. Essentially, PGP uses public-private key cryptography,
where you will give out your public key to trusted recipients.
Messages can only be decrypted by using your special private key
file (that you keep safe) and the sender’s public key. You can
even encrypt files so that only a specific person can open them.
Learning to use PGP requires some technical knowledge but can
be very useful for those who want to communicate securely and is
well worth learning, in my opinion. Please see
this tutorial or
this video to get started. There are some excellent YouTube
videos that can really help out with this.
Be smart
about how you communicate online. If you take no precautionary
measures, then you should assume that your communications are
being recorded and monitored at all times. Do not discuss
illegal or secret activities on Facebook or through Skype or
Gmail. Ultimately, we should be greatly decreasing our use of
these compromised services altogether! Be aware of what you
type and consider their ramifications if ever made public. We
must exercise great discretion and discernment when it comes to
our online activities now. The methods listed above are by no
means comprehensive and are just a small way to boost your
privacy. If you have other privacy tips, please mention them
here in the comments for all to see and benefit from. In the
end, it is all up to the user to do their part in maintaining
their online integrity. Safe browsing my friends!
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