Survival in The Digital Age - Episode five

ONO has spent the last few months exploring planet earth going here and there enjoying marvelous landscapes magnificent vistas the blues of the seas the greens of the forests Umm just a second please I need a glass of water Tap water is ok isn't it? ONO has also explored outer space ONO says the other space the outer space Yeah but he didn't find anything interesting there he says not yet! although he mentioned it was an illuminating experience He's back here on earth and he's sitting near you and me ON Hello ONO! Welcome back home We have new recommendations for you News: This is what your friends have been up to Survival in the Digital Age Episode 5: ONO's guide to online privacy Every device we are using has its own identification data A mobile phone will have its own unique number Nevermind changing the SIM card to stay anonymous the phone will always be recognised as the same one and if you got any of your own SIM cards using your own ID the phone will also be easily associated with you Mobile communication is also not encrypted the history of your calls and SMSes is stored for a long time and can be also tracked backwards Every computer connected to the internet is recognised by its unique internet number ONO says this is called the IP address or if the device is part of a bigger local computer network it is recognised by a unique what is this called? Media access control or MAC address that every equipment connected to a network has and that's not just computers so it is very easy to associate a person with any mobile phone or computer they are using and to track what they are using it for It is very easy too to see what they are writing and communicating about It is easy to see who is in their networks with whom they are talking and exchanging information We often make it even more obvious by associating our equipment with ourselves more directly starting with getting an internet connection using our real credentials and setting up our devices or using our personal information when registering for various services Once this is done it is very hard to undo And then we also put online our pictures pictures of others contact details, information about events and also other things The nature of our communication is that we are tracked all the time some of the information is used for boring bureaucracy some for statistics some to create our user profile and then send us advertisements and information that will address our personal preferences Everything would actually not be as bad as we might think if we were in control of what we want to keep private and what we wanted available for viewing, recording and using by other people, institutions and governments There are also places where individuals like you and I as ordinary citizens are not allowed to access certain services to look at specific websites or to talk about things others don't want us to There are however others ways of protecting or at least reducing risks of losing your privacy stopping others from building their knowledge of who you are according to your online activities Most of this can be done by changing our everyday behaviours Try to avoid using your own computer to access the internet in a risky situation Use tools from sources you trust and avoid installing them via the internet without testing or making sure you trust them otherwise they might not work as you intended Sometimes the meer fact that you are using anonymising tools to hide your tracks may raise a red flag and therefore implicate and expose you If you have unique information and are worried that it might be lost or compromised you need to do two things: Encrypt it and back it up It is best to do both at once first encrypt then back up and keep the back up copy away from your computer and from the place where you live or work. It is optional to use the storage places on the internet such as Dropbox and others to keep a copy of your encrypted information make sure you read the small print of your user agreement first what we've learned in recent years is that any unencrypted information that is stored online even by special agencies and governments always leaks its way into public view Sometimes you need to guarantee anonymity for yourself or for another person that you work with on confidential issues It is fairly safe to use Skype to Skype calls but remember calls from Skype to a phone or a mobile phone are not encrypted also Skype will keep information about every call in its memory also remember that there are special versions of Skype such as Tom Skype that do not protect your privacy Nowadays lots of our communication happens over the internet We use online groups we use forms, blogs, wikis..etc There are few tips to remember always check your privacy settings Read the often ignored user agreement licenses and use only those online services that allow you to log in and to work on your content using HTTPS or SSL Using social networking might be useful over all but remember you may putting information online that is private and by private we mean that should be only known to you and you might prefer to keep the network of people with whom you work private as well Are you comfortable revealing who your colleagues are and what sorts of points of view habits, hobbies or ideas you have in common? Before you start accessing block content make sure your tools are properly configured that they actually work and that you try them first in a safe environment If you're not sure about any of these get help from someone who can comfortably help you answer these questions There are many ways to scramble your communication or hide your content behind encryption so it is only known to people with whom you share special virtual keys to unscramble and read it These techniques are very advanced making your encrypted information hard to break by intruders even if they have very sophisticated code-breaking tools In some cases however just the fact that you are using these techniques will alert the intruders who instead of using tools to unscramble your messages may target you to get the keys or passwords to this information By choosing to use these more sophisticated tools you might put your peers at a very high risk ONO is making a checklist There are few elementary steps to remember make sure you are aware of them before you try anything more sophisticated Never use easy-to-guess passwords and don't use the same password for multiple services and change your passwords often Always keep your private identity and personal activities separate from your work and other activities If your work is confidential determine which information is safe to publish which is risky and which must absolutely remain private Have you checked the privacy settings of your tools such as your mobile phone, software such as internet browser or email programmes? When accessing sensitive information via the internet are your services behind HTTPS? Do you have regular software anti-virus updates? Do you use a spyware detection programme? Do you have a functioning firewall? Are the passwords to your online services stored online themselves? these are the minimum precautions you must take before launching yourself into encrypting your information using circumvention tools or anonymisers And the last question are you accepting your emails in HTML format? Sometimes instead of using technology It's better to use an old fashion non digital means of communication such as face to face conversation or a letter written by hand or an audio recording or an old fashioned tape or a CD or a pigeon perhaps No, no no ONO says: Ohhh no don't Just use your mobile use your internet Just think about what you're using and when and how and also think who you're talking to Something ok for you might be unsafe for others Be safe