You Are the Product
Have you ever felt as though Facebook or Youtube were overhearing your conversations? Perhaps you’re here because you’ve found yourself talking or texting with a friend about an obscure topic when, moments later, online advertisements seem to be marketing the very product you were just talking about.
You won’t be wrong if you were to guess that many apps on your phone or computer are listening to your conversations and reading your text messages. There are a few things you can do to reduce your exposure to prying digital eyes and maintain a measure of privacy.
Here are some tips to help you drive safely down the information superhighway:
1. Use a Secure Web Browser
Most web browsers freely share information about your computer or phone with the web sites that you visit. This information, including your IP address and a fingerprint of your device, make their way back to advertisiing companies which track your browsing habits on the worldwide web.
Get yourself a safer web browser:
Brave is a fast web browser. It blocks a ton of advertisements and trackers. DuckDuckGo, is also a privacy-minded browser that does not share your information with websites. It is only available for Android and iOS devices at this time.
2. Scrap the Apps
Remove Facebook and Instagram from your phone. These two apps are some of the most invasive pieces of software. They ruthlessly track your every move and Internet habit. Instead of using these apps, you can use one of the browsers recommended above to visit their websites at www.facebook.com and www.instagram.com.
3. Text and Group Chats
WhatsApp recently announced a change to its terms of service which has sent its users flocking to services like Signal and Telegram. WhatsApp might protect the content of your chats, but it makes no such assurance of privacy when it comes to sharing other data including your phone number, contacts, call details, payments, etc. Similarly, your phone’s standard text messaging applications are less secure than open source messaging apps like SIgnal and Telegram.
Get off WhatsApp and your phone’s default messaging app and start using Signal and Telegram. This might be the easiest transition to make.
4. One Good Password Is All You Need
Passwords are often the weakest link in your Internet security chain. Remembering a good password can be as easy as remembering a weak password.
We have two recommendations:
- Get yourself a password manager (think of it as an online vault for passwords)
- Create and remember one really tough password. (We’ll show you how easy this can be.)
Password managers can help you create very good, nearly-impossible-to-crack passwords. Not only that, but they can remember your usernames and passwords for the hundreds of sites you visit.
After you get yourself an account with a password manger like LastPass or Dashlane, lock it down securely with a good password. Here are some tips on how to create a secure password You might also want to check if your trusty, favourite password has been discovered during a data breach. Visit this site to verify. Don’t worry, you won’t have to type in your username or the site where you use the password.
5. Encrypted Mail
American corporations have little respect for your privacy. Your email messages are stored in unencrypted format on their servers and they will happily share your private conversations with law enforcement agencies when asked to do so. Switch your mail service to Switzerland-based ProtonMail or Germany-based Tutanota. Your emails are always saved in encrypted format and, when you send mail to other users of the same service, they are encrypted from start to finish.
6. Virtual Private Networks
Ever notice when you’re browsing the Internet that they seem to know exactly where you are? This usually happens because your web browser or other app shares your unique IP address with websites. There isn’t a straightforward way to escape sharing your IP address—because it is where you live on the Internet—but you can re-route traffic via a server in another city or country using a Virtual Private Network. Think of a VPN as your secret on-ramp to the information highway. It is easy to set up and manage a VPN on your phone or computer. Most VPN providers charge a few dollars a month for their service, and some are free. ProtonMail (the guys we recommended for encrypted mail) offer a free VPN service. ExpressVPN is one of many paid VPN providers that recieves positive reviews.