Index Of The Blog
Privacy has never been sought after as much as it is today. Specifically, the digital kind. These days, nearly every digital interaction leaves some digital footprints or tracks behind. In many cases, it doesn’t even matter if you’re online or not when interacting with a digital medium. The internet, in particular, is a place where every step along your browsing road is tracked, monitored, and stored. And the fact that internet services like Spectrum offers have penetrated most populated areas in the United States only means more people’s privacy is at risk.
Internet Tracking And How To Bypass It
Why do you think multi-billion dollar companies like Facebook and Google, which are firmly entrenched in everyday life, leave many of their core services free? It’s because they, and just about every website on the internet, track you and the billions of other people who use the internet for most of their business and personal activities. Cybercriminals are indeed a great risk and are out to get their hands on as much sensitive data as possible. But even people who acquire your data legally are free to use it in various ways, many of them toeing the gray area in legal terms.
This, in fact, prompted the recent privacy changes and active permissions you now see on most websites, thanks to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. At least you now have the active option to accept or reject cookies being installed on your PC. In the past, many websites would install cookies passively and without explicit permission. Some may have been quite shady and could have been harvesting data on you for a while, then selling it to whoever is willing to buy. However, since everyone is entitled to a certain degree of privacy, and with digital infrastructures still catching up to that reality, here are a few steps to take on your own:
Never Share Key Basic ID Info
This is an appallingly common mistake, and the chances are good that you’re guilty of it yourself. Social media is a great space to connect and engage. It has offered an entirely new way to reach people and express views and opinions. However, some of the information that is publicly visible on your social media could be putting you at risk. The simple basics such as your full name, date of birth, address, and email address give hackers an awful lot to go on. From guessed passwords to fraud, you could avoid a lot of hassle simply by hiding this information, preferably from everyone you don’t personally know.
Avoid Sign-In Tokens
With strong passwords, alphanumeric combinations, and unique passwords for every profile, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Many of us use shortcuts like sign-in tokens to log into things like social media profiles and customer accounts based on a few basic credentials. For example, signing in with Google or Facebook is a simple way to log into most accounts. Nobody wants to waste time guessing a long-forgotten password. But if you value your privacy, you’ll find the few extra minutes are a cheap price to pay. Every website or application you sign into using Google or Facebook allows it to monitor your activities on that platform. Most people wouldn’t want that degree of invasion from a random site or application.
Use Privacy-Configured Browsers
Google is the single largest search engine in the world. It has the biggest index, has immense market capital, and is generally the smartest search engine in the world. And, unsurprisingly, it has reached that lofty position by collecting data on its users over the decades. Browsers like Google Chrome are built around the same mechanism, gathering data on people using the browser, especially when you’re signed in with your Google account. Yes, this is exactly how Google keeps getting better and better. But for private individuals, short of third-party applications, there are very few ways to stop Google Chrome from collecting and storing data on you. The best move is to use an altogether different browser configured to hide your identity from websites, search engines, and advertisers, such as DuckDuckGo.
Never Connect to Public Wi-Fi Without a VPN
Connecting an unprotected device to a public wireless network is an almost guaranteed way to put your digital privacy at risk. If at all possible, you should use a private network, or a mobile hotspot, or even your phone data to connect to the internet. An unprotected Wi-Fi network should be your absolute last choice. However, if you find it unavoidable to connect to public Wi-Fi, make sure to use a strong VPN when you do. Almost anybody connected to the same network can find other devices connected to it if they know how to. Some of them could be potential cybercriminals. It’s better to use a VPN, that masks your device ID, as well as creating an encryption tunnel around outgoing and incoming information. In other words, you will be very difficult to find, let alone spy on.
Skew Google’s Information Profile Accuracy
Finally, consider Google’s proprietary algorithm. A shining example of digital technology, the AI-driven algorithm only grows smarter with each query. It also builds profiles around users, minutely examining their behavior, location, browsing history, etc., and linking it to more relevant results and advertisements. However, there are a few ways to confuse the algorithm and skew the accuracy of the profile. It’s not much, but it certainly messes with the algorithm’s accumulated learning and its ability to track your digital movement.
