Guide To Online Privacy

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With the world becoming more and more connected via the internet, the ever changing global society that we now live, work and play in means we face new threats and concerns. Our lives are now online and unlike those generations before us taboos, and traditions, and instincts on for our privacy has not yet fully developed like the real world. The use of this technology is not free, we give up parts of our privacy to access websites, use social media, do online shopping, find jobs, and make use of GPS. Every time we use one of these platforms or tools, the data we give up in order to use it is collected and stored.

This data can then be used for a huge number of various reasons, some of these reasons are ethical, and some are not. Collected data is a very precious commodity that large companies such as the big five (Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon), or hackers want to gain access to. This could be done to make money by simply selling it on, holding it at ransom, or used to influence the online market via targeted adverts. This is all done without the vast majority of online users having any protections against their data being collected. This privacy guide will help you to be more private and safe when using the internet.

It should also be noted that this guide is best paired and should be used in conjunction with my report. The report covers information such as why you should care about your online privacy, how it’s being effected, and the aims & objectives of the project. THe report can be found on the ‘about page’.

*It must be stated that this guide *IS NOT PROFESSIONAL ADVICE **

Method One - Social Media Awareness

There are many differnet ways to care for your online privacy. Social media can be a tool used for breaching privacy, and that this is usually down to the users own actions. While social media has opened up many new ground-breaking forms of social interactions and job opportunities, what users post to their feeds matter. A simple photo of your front door or location check-in could lead to an attempted burglary. In order to incrase your level of privacy, make sure that you are not sharing your location, posting your frequent whereabouts, or sharing posts that could be used to hurt you in the future (watch your digital footprint.) In some more hardcore cases you may want to delete your social media profiles on platforms such as Faceboook, Instagram, or twitter. This is however a “trade” scenario, you will gain increased privacy, but lose access to social media. This could lead to being left out of social events, or even job opportunities. Being aware of what you post, and where you post it is crucial in protecting your online privacy.

Method Two - Location Services

A lot of the apps and services we use today may now ask or in some cases even require the user to have their location services turned on. Depending on what you’re doing and the reason the app uses these services, it is always good privacy practice to regulate what apps you give this permission to, and remeber to turn your location services off when not needed. Your location services can be found in the settings on your phone. It is also a good idea to check what apps are requesting your location data as some of them can be pointless.

Method Three - Password Management

Making sure that your accounts are secure with a strong password is not only vital to your online privacy, but also to your general cyber secuirty. If you password is weak it can easily be cracked and used to gain access to your account. This is also the reason why you should never use the same password for different accounts A long and memorable phrase with some special charcters, such as numbers or symbols is the best practise for secure passwords. Making use of a password generator, that generates strong passwords is also a good idea. These will however, be harder to remember and may therefore require a password manager.

A password manager is simply put, an app or program that stores your passwords securely. Some password managers will be better than others, some may require a subscription, and some will be more trustworthy. A good password managers needs to do a number of things, these are:

These key points are what make a good password manager. A few recommendations are NordPass, and Bitwarden. Keep in mind that a “master password” will be needed to use a password manager. So either spend some time thinking of a strong one or make use of a generator.

Method Four - Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two factor authentication is a simple security system that requires two different types of identification to gain access to your account. Most commonly is a password and some form of code that is usually sent to the user securly via sms or email. Using an app such as Google’s 2step verification will allow you to generate one time password (OTP) that can only be used once, and with the linked account.

Method Five - Browser Choice

Browsing the web you will encounter pop-ups that mention cookies. Cookies are small pieces of code that collect information whenever a website is visited. These cookies are sent to your browser and can collect data across all of the places you visit on the web. This is not always a bad thing as some cookies are required for sites to run correctly. Some however are used to collect data such as shopping habits, or the sites you visit. To incease the level of privacy you should control how cookies opoerate.
This can be done by navigating to the browser settings in your browser and changing a few options under the privacy section. While this may offer some level of increased privacy, even at a basic level this is not much. Switching to browsers and search engines such as:

For complete beginners or people that want the least amount of hassle I would recommend using either Brave or Firefox. Firefox is one of the most popular browsers in the world, and for good reason, the level of customization users have is excellent. Firefox has a massive selection of free user made add-ons such as “no script extension”, or “ublock origin” that can do anything from change your theme, to lock Facebook and it’s tracking techniques in a box. Firefox also has as function that lets users create specific profiles for privacy that can be copied and used within a few clicks. Brave, created by ex-co-founders of Firefox, is a privacy focused browser that has all the features of a privacy set up Firefox built in from install. Brave features high level script blockers, ad blockers, and cookie blockers, that are activated as default.

Method Six - Email

Making use of just one email for all of your accounts is the norm for most people that use the web. This however, is a big threat to your online privacy. Having all of your accounts linked to one email could lead to them all being compromised. Make sure to use different email accounts for different things. For example, create an email address to use just for shopping, one for social media, one for work, and one for your banking information. Obviously this may be a trade off for ease of use, as you will have to remember more information, but this will prevent one data breach from leading to many, and will increase your level of secuirty.

For a more advanced level of security and privacy, switching your email provider to one that is encrypted is a good step. Switching to email services such as Protonmail that offer encrypted email and excellent services for free will increase your level of privacy, and stop third parties from tracking your data.

Method Seven - Secure Sites

When using the web there are signs to look out for so that you know a website is safe and legitimate. The big one is what is known as HTTPS (hyper transfer protocol secure) This is to form secure encrypted connections across the internet. All websites, especially those that require you to login, or use payment methods should use HTTPS. Most broswers such as Chrome, safari, or Firefox will clearly show the reader when a site is not secure.

You should always make sure that sites are https secure before entering login credentials, or payment informaton.

Method Eight - VPN

On of the most secure ways to safeguard your privacy is to use a VPN (virtual private network) These are tools that connect to the interent anonymously by masking your IP address. This not only increases your privacy but also your security. Connecting to a public network such as free wifi in a cafe can leave your data vulnerable to eavsdroppers. Depending on what you’re doing at the time, messages, log-in information, or even banking details could be viewed by others. VPN’s will hide mask your data so that you can use the internt anonymously.

There are different types of VPN’s available, some are more secure than others, some are free, and some require a subscription. Some of the best options to choose from are below:

Paid:

Free:

Another benefit to using a VPN is that it can let you access extra content on streaming platforms like Netflix. These platforms will only show certain films of series in certain countries. This can be worked around by using a VPN. Chaniging your IP address to a location like the U.S will let you access all the content that you usually could not.