Need of anonimity II. - Rock privacy in 8 easy steps!

In our previous post on the importance of privacy we highlighted why we believe that it matters, how has our view changed on the issue in the past few decades.  In this post we would like to share some more insights, who could be potential threat to your privacy,

Intruders of online privacy – who are they and what do they do?

One of the main problems is that no one have a clue who is conducting surveillance (in more professional terms: there is a lack of the proper attacker model) and what are their reasons of collecting information. However there are a few outstanding, widely known issues, government surveillance is surely such a thing, especially since the PRISM-case.

Many governments – similar to the one in question – sacrifice (a lot of) privacy in exchange of (some) security; for instance, the Data Retention Directive in the EU regulates what information telecommunication companies need to retain in order to help governing forces combating terrorism. Although it is put into practice by most member states, we know little about exact implementations of the directive over fulfillment of surveillance obligations exact technical details at involved telecommunication parties seem to be white spots of the process.

While this type of mass-surveillance has less effect on individuals (except for the ones under targeted observation), it is problematic because it can be executed secretly leading to potential abuses (like it happened in the US), and the secrecy around the implementation can loosen democratic control over these operations (as in the EU).

Meanwhile, surveillance committed for commercial purposes have a rather significant impact at a personal level. This kind of activity includes various actors, ranging from large service/platform providers selling out the data of their users (are you on Facebook?), to marketers using personal profiles to steer their business decisions. For example if you have ever surfed on the net for the best priced plane tickets and watch them going up and down – you may be familiar with behavioral advertising and dynamic pricing. Although there are clearly some legal applications for such uses of profiles (especially if they were collected and used with consent), most are not beneficial for the data subjects.

Thus, these companies get the chance of undetectably influence our choices. Like in the case of Orbitz offering Mac users more expensive hotels, or when it turned out that how ‘bad’ friendships (on social networks) can affect the credit score of someone. Besides, it is also wise to think about others who can access our data and use it occasionally, e.g., as auxiliary data during a job interview.

A lost battle vs. reasons to act for your privacy

At the time of writing, owing to the continuously emerging revelations of the Snowden case we know more and more details of NSA surveillance affecting most people throughout the globe. However, there is probably a lot more to come and it is also likely that the security industry will significantly change soon – so keep that in mind while going on with reading.

Until the fall of 2013 we learn that despite the number of experts NSA employees or the extent of hardware it has, the agency rather seeks cooperation with companies and service providers all over the world to build its own backdoors into software and services. At the same time the NSA possibly influenced the creation of standards and protocols, and enactment of a law was also planned in order to have access to arbitrary other companies (though it was pushed by the FBI).

Fortunately, according to the revealed documents, following a few simple guidelines can make mass surveillance harder, and can help us to be safer online. We still have strong cryptography to rely on, and using open source software is also crucial to succeed. Regularly overviewed open source software is less likely to have embedded backdoors, and if we use standardized protocols, other parties have less chance to influence parameters and stuff (or use software that would do so).

Reinforcing against commercial parties should be done accordingly: while it is difficult to avoid all kinds of surveillance, we can make the duty of the watchers so hard and expensive that we can pass under the radar for most of them. As these companies have several limits regarding founding, technological expertise, etc., usually fighting against a small resisting group simply isn’t worth it. In addition, going for wholesale surveillance is not always a valid business goal for many.

So this is not yet over – take the first steps!

Privacy is not just about revealing secrets – it is far more complex than being a form of secrecy. Your privacy can also be invaded even if no secrets are revealed, implicating that privacy is very sensitive to technological innovations and changes. For instance, someone having a public micro blog on a specific topic (e.g., French cuisine or sports) may not reveal information about the personal life of the author. Meanwhile, timing of the messages and location information attached to tweets can be used to correlate daily routine and other habits. Thus we should be alert of the privacy implications of new technology while it continues reshaping our everyday life.

 

 
It is all ok, want to take some actual steps towards a more online privacy?