Internet Privacy

What is privacy?

I would define privacy as the ability to control access to information related to you in any manner.

Privacy is not only keeping your passwords, bank details, health information and personally identifiable details out of the public eye. In the modern world, it means much more than that, it means being in control of your data.

Is privacy a myth?

Sundays are usually the days I hit the barber shop and usually our conversations border around religion, politics and mostly basketball. In an unusual turn of events, the topics that we discuss later come up as suggestions on YouTube, Google ads and other social platforms. That is the reality we are facing in this era. Privacy is dead!

What does this mean for us?

With reference to the brief example above, many might think we are doomed! Time to bury our smart phones and revert to using smoke signals (well, there’s no privacy in that either, ‘your smoke’ can be seen by the public.) but there is some hope. The silver lining is technology that has been created by a community with the same concerns as yours. Besides technology, digital hygiene plays a huge role in maintaining your privacy as well.

Getting back control of our information

I will highlight a few options that you can use to help improve your privacy online. These options are based on the most used services on a day to day basis.

Browsing

For a long time, Google has had a monopoly in the search engine industry. The reason behind it’s great success is the ability to collect endless information and telemetries from your browsing sessions and use them for what they claim as ‘targeted ads’.

DuckDuckGo is a similarly powerful search engine but without the disadvantage of online tracking. It ensures privacy by not profiling it’s users and performing all searches anonymously. Am sure you wouldn’t be surprised to know that it is my default search engine even on Google Chrome Lol! (https://duckduckgo.com/)

Emails

There is a careful balance when it comes to security and privacy, they are not the same. Most email service providers will boast of top-tier security but will not mention absolute privacy. This is because they don’t want you to know that they own and use your data. In this section, I would like to introduce Proton Mail.

Do you sometimes wish you could open a secure email account that didn’t involve having to give out your birth day or your mother’s maiden name? Well, proton mail does just that, it doesn’t ask for any personally identifiable information when setting up an account and on top of that, it uses end to end encryption of data. (https://protonmail.com/)

Instant messaging

This is arguably one of the most controversial topics because many people tend to base their loyalty on the most popular services (by numbers) since it’s easier to reach friends that way. That shouldn’t be an excuse to sacrifice your privacy though.

Signal messaging app is one of the few applications out there that ensure data privacy by providing end to end encryption of your communication. The company itself will not be able to read your messages if it intercepted it. Furthermore, the software that runs signal is free and open-source meaning anyone is able to verify and contribute towards improving it’s functionality.

Best practices to ensure data privacy

To summarize this, privacy mainly lies in the hands of the user. Practicing digital hygiene is very important in maintaining your privacy online. I will finish with some tips that may help you achieve this:

• Avoid giving out your information in exchange for a free service. Remember, if it is free, then you are probably the product.
• Always use VPNs on public or shared networks. The thought of connecting to a free WiFi hot-spot sends chills down my spine. It should for you as well.
• Limit the amount of information you share on social platforms. It’s unbelievable accuracy of profiles that can be built about people by using open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools nowadays.

At the end of the day, you choose the amount of information that you are willing to give to either, strangers online in the name of ‘followers’ or ‘trusted’ service providers who give you ‘free services’. Choose wisely!