With the explosion of online community websites and the recent privacy policy changes from Google, online privacy has never been such a hot topic than now. If you find yourself with the feeling that someone is watching you, you might be right. Your social media websites are watching you, learning what you like, what you wear, what you eat and what you drive. Your search engine is watching you, learning what you want to buy, what you are searching for. Your phone might be watching you. Learning where you live, where you work, and where you are at every moment of the day. Hackers might be watching you as well. Trying to find out how to log onto your bank account, how use your social security number and so on.
In short, our lives have never been so open and inviting to our friends and business partners, but, also to advertisers, hackers and our employers.
To help us protect our identity and information better in this new environment I have decided to write a short guide. It’s not a guarantee that your information will never end up in the wrong hands; still, following the fifteen points below will minimize the risk of your personal information being public domain.
Set your browser to clear its history when you close it or use private browsing
Clearing your browser’s history can be done automatically, eliminating the possibility you might forget clearing your history when you are done browsing.
Do not accept third party cookies
Third party cookies are cookies that do not belong to the website you are currently viewing. They usually belong to another website that serves as a tracking domain. When multiple websites you visit use the same tracking system, they are able to track you across multiple domains, making it easy for the tracking system to compose a complete profile including whatever personal details you have saved on the participating websites. Luckily it is easy to disable 3rd party cookies from within your browser’s settings, as well as block well known hubs by redirecting them to a local IP using your host file.
Make sure to only use a computer with a dynamic IP address
If you use your home computer, chances are you already have a dynamic IP address from your Internet Service provider. If you use the network at your workplace, in most cases it has a static IP. A static IP never changes, when a website tracks you by IP address, as long as your network uses the current IP address your internet usage profiles will be tracked. Odds are your coworkers usage is tracked as well from the same IP and might end up connected to yours. Avoid going online at your workplace unless absolutely necessary. Try and use your smartphone instead.
Set all of your instant messengers to never remember history
Instant messengers remember your conversation history by default. The history archive is stored in text files on your hard drive. In the event of a hacker, or even your network administrator or coworkers accessing your hard drive either from the network, or from your own keyboard, private conversations and conversation information can be accessed. Remember to set your messengers to disable creating any conversation archives.
Never upload your pictures to Facebook. Use a dedicated photo hosting service
Facebook does not delete photos, only the link to the photos. There have been reported cases where photos where still available three years after the users deleted them. If you want to show photos on Facebook, use a dedicated photo sharing service. Be sure to read the privacy agreement before you upload any personal photos.
Protect your tweets
Unlike Facebook’s privacy settings, Twitter’s settings are simple. Don’t forget to protect your tweets unless you want them to be visible to everybody.
Use strong passwords
Hackers can crack every password. Still it’s a good practice to use a strong password. Don’t use passwords that are too short or that are easy to guess. A good practice would be to simply start typing random keys until a password is created. For example: 6^%kjhglIUGI is a valid strong password. If you need to easily remember a password, start with a word or a phrase for example: RaceCar. Now change some of the characters to create a string password: ~RaC%C@r3. This is a string password that is easy to remember.
Never email yourself passwords
People that use a password they cannot remember tend to email themselves that password. In that case, when your computer is infected with a virus, a hacker can read your emails and can potentially have the passwords for sensitive accounts such as your bank or investments accounts. There are programs, some of them free, that can help you store passwords safely. Password Safe for example is a free program. Try and use them.
Use multiple passwords for different providers
If you use the same password for your email, bank account and a dating website, a hacker can gain access any of the above accounts and simply log onto the rest. Use different passwords for each account.
Always generate per transaction credit card numbers
Never type your debit card into any online page. Try and use a credit card that generates per transaction numbers. ShopSafe® from Bank of America is a free credit card fraud protection service that allows you to create a temporary card number each time you make an online purchase. Most E-Commerce websites hold on to your card number long after the transaction has been done and the numbers are kept in a database. Secure or not, databases are hacked daily. Most recently I found that an old number I used in an online transaction was used and declined in Paris France. The website I bought from had all the security seals displayed neatly on their web pages, yet I had no idea they held on to my card number and that their database has been hacked.
If you have a search engine set as your home page, make sure to read and understand the privacy policy
With the recent changes to Google’s privacy policy it is time to shop around. I use DuckDuckGo. It is a search engine that does not track me and does a pretty good job at getting me the results I need.
Protect your wireless network by MAC address
Wireless networks can be hacked easily. Hackers simply jam them. As your computer tries to reconnect by sending its credentials, hackers pick up the network password from the wireless request. MAC address is almost impossible to duplicate. Every computer has one. To find out yours type ipconfig /all to a DOS command window. The physical address is your MAC address. Make sure your wireless router is set to only allow connections from your MAC address.
Turn off your phone GPS when you don’t need it
Cell phone privacy is a real concern with the new generation smartphones and various applications can and do track your location. Most recently Google was forced to explain why location data is tracked on their servers. Turn your GPS off when you don’t need it. You don’t need your location data tracked by an application you don’t trust.
Do not allow contact syncing between applications
My LinkedIn contacts are kept separate then my Facebook contacts. Allowing my phone to connect them might propagate online and make my business contacts aware of my personal Facebook account.
Lock your phone screen
Locking your phone screen is good security habit. Not only that it will prevent your phone from making calls while in your pocket, it will also prevent unauthorized people from looking at sensitive information while the phone is away from you.
Conclusion
With online privacy laws lagging behind technology, following the guidelines mentioned here will help you avoid any personal information leaks to parties you don’t wish to share information with or might be selling your information to the highest bidder. Remember: if you upload it to a website you don’t own, you essentially lose control over your data. Next time before you upload or share your status with your friends, remember, is this information safe?
