Measures that you can take to protect your privacy online
“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
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You should probably change your browser
Using a secure browser is one of the first things you should be doing to be safer online. Most browsers, by default, contain lots of private information about its user such as browsing history, usernames, passwords, and autofill
information, like your name, address, and even phone numbers. Most of us use Chrome to browse the internet, but there has been serious questions raised regarding the way it treats its user's privacy. Considering that google is one of the biggest advertisers on the web, it shouldn't come as a surprise that they try to mine their user's data to improve their ads.
Firefox is the browser that I use and would personally recommend over Chrome. It's fast, reliable and most importantly its secure and respects the privacy of its users. Mozilla, the creators of Firefox, has been at the forefront of the battle for digital rights and their values are reflected in their products. Sure, there are more secure options such as the Tor Browser, but for an average user, Firefox is the best choice as you won't have to make any sacrifices on speed or features. The best part about Firefox is that you can tweak the browser yourself to make it even more secure.
Once you install Firefox, I would also recommend you to install some addons that blocks advertisements, trackers and cookies like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger along with HTTPS Everywhere.
Consider using a VPN
One of the simplest and
most effective ways to stay secure and protect your privacy while also giving you the ability to circumvent internet censorship is to use a VPN (virtual private network). With the growing number of cybersecurity threats, using a VPN is becoming more and more necessary. I would definitely advice you to use a VPN whenever you are using public WiFi. I personally use ProtonVPN and would recommend the same as the company behind it has a great track record when it comes to safeguarding their users' security and privacy.
Maybe it's time change your messaging app
One of the major headlines from October 2019 was that an Israeli spyware called Pegasus was used to snoop around two
dozen Indian users of WhatsApp, including notable journalists, lawyers
and activists. So we know that WhatsApp's security is no longer impenetrable and ever since they were acquired by Facebook, there has also been growing concerns of corporate surveillance.
The most secure and private messaging application available out there right now, without a doubt is Signal. Endorsed by the likes of Edward Snowden and Bruce Schneier, Signal uses an advanced end to end encryption protocol that provides privacy for every message every time. Signal has pretty much all the features that its counterparts have. And from my personal opinion, I have found Signal calls to be much more clearer than normal calls or calls made through WhatsApp. It is true that the userbase of Signal is very small compared to WhatsApp, but that doesn't mean that you should give up hope and stop using it. Instead, you should try to convince your friends, family and colleagues to switch to Signal.
Start using email services that respects your privacy
Popular services like Gmail and Yahoo read your emails to target you with advertisements and to customize their other services. The fact that your mails can be read by someone else, even if a bot, should make you concerned. If reading a letter addressed to someone else is not okay, why would it be okay for companies like Google and Yahoo to read your mail so that they can make money by showing you more personalised ads or customise their other services for you and make you stay on their websites more? Would you be okay with your postman or someone in the postal service reading letters that you receive or send?
Also, the way their encryption is set up, the companies can instantly turn over your data to the government and this can be a threat as we are seeing the rise of increasingly authoritarian regimes across the world.
Luckily there are companies out there that offer secure and private email services. As a user of their service, ProtonMail is my top choice in this segment. Having end to end encryption and servers based in Switzerland, a country that has very strong privacy laws, ProtonMail is as good as they come when it comes to security and respecting their users' privacy. There are also several other options that are equally good like Tutanota and Mailfence, that you can check out.
Keep your private internet searches private
Its no secret that Google snoops on its users, so does most other major search engines like Bing, and Yahoo. These websites have also been exposed to have assisted with illegal surveillance programs by security agencies like the NSA's PRISM. Google has become a synonym for internet searching and most of us use it as our homepage. I think its time to switch our loyalty to websites that are more privacy-friendly.
StartPage and DuckDuckGo are the two leading websites in this segment. StartPage gives Google search results while completely safeguarding your privacy and security. So if you want to enjoy the search quality of Google while protecting your privacy, StartPage is the right option for you. DuckDuckGo, whereas serves you results aggregated from multiple sources like Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, etc. while safeguarding your privacy. There are also many other options that you can try out like Qwant and the relative newcomer, Infinity Search.
Stop using Zoom. Period.
Indian government recently released an advisory against using Zoom. That should be enough to convince you to stop using it. Unfortunately many still have been using it or have been forced to use it by the institutions they study in or the companies they work at. Its encryption techniques have been called into question for a while now, with researchers even finding links to China. It is exactly these questionable encryption methods which made PSA take the decision to not host any of our online events, such as the Online Discussion Forum that we frequently organise, on Zoom. The program we instead used is Jitsi Meet. This open source application is recommended even by organizations such as Amnesty International and personalities likes Edward Snowden. The best thing about Jitsi is that on top of the security it provides, all of its features are free, unlike Zoom.
Prefer open source over proprietary
Do you know what is common between all the tools that I asked you to stop using in this article? All of them are proprietary. They were all built by their developers with the sole motive of making profits. And most of the secure alternatives that I have suggested are open source programs. While I am not saying that open source softwares contains no security loopholes at all or that simply being open source makes a program more secure, the fact that their source code is openly available for peer review means that the security loopholes are found out more easily than proprietary software. Many open source projects, including the ones I have suggested in this article, have hundreds of volunteers across the world working on bug patches and upgrades collaboratively making these programs more flexible and adaptable.
Keep your OS and programs up to date
A lot of us have the habit of skipping updates for our operating system, and the programs and applications we have installed. Sometimes we do it to reduce our internet charges and sometimes they are just annoying. But the fact is that its important to keep your programs up to date. Pretty much all of these update will have something called 'security patches' in them. These fix the known security vulnerabilities in the program. Hence skipping these crucial updates basically mean that you are leaving your device vulnerable.
Conclusion
The biggest thing to understand is that nothing can give you complete digital security and ensure your right to privacy online one hundred percentage. The amount of cybersecurity threats is increasing day by day and so is the capability of governments and corporations for surveillance. The best we can do is to take as many precautions as we can. As a conclusion to this article, I want to quote a paragraph from an article written by Bennett Cyphers that was published in the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Finally, keep in mind that none of this is your fault. Privacy shouldn’t be a matter of personal responsibility. It’s not your job to obsess over the latest technologies that can secretly monitor you, and you shouldn’t have to read through a quarter million words of privacy-policy legalese to understand how your phone shares data. Privacy should be a right, not a privilege for the well-educated and those flush with spare time. Everyone deserves to live in a world—online and offline—that respects their privacy.
This article was written by Sreedev Krishnakumar, TYBA
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