Background

Welcome to the New Year. This year could be a banner year in the fight to ensure our online privacy. Before now, the tools of surveillance have overwhelmed the tools of privacy. And the perceived need for new Internet content has outweighed the real difficulty of protecting your online privacy. For years, privacy advocates (including myself) have chanted the mantra of exploiting public key encryption. We have told people to use Tor or a commercial VPN. And we have told people to start using two-factor authentication. But we have downplayed the importance of blocking online trackers. Yes, security and privacy advocates did this for themselves. But most did not routinely recommend this as a first step in protecting the privacy of our clients.

But the times are changing.

Last year (2018) was a pivotal time in the struggle between surveillance and privacy. The constant reporting of online hacks has risen to a deafening roar. And worse still, we saw the shepherds of our ‘trusted platforms’ go under the microscope. Whether it was Sundar Pichai of Google or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, we have seen tech leaders (and their technologies) revealed as base – and ultimately self-serving. Until last year, few of us realized that if we don’t pay for a service, then we are the product that the service owners are selling. But our eyes have now been pried open.

Encryption Is Necessary

Security professionals were right to trumpet the need for encryption. Whether you are sending an email to your grandmother or inquiring about the financial assets that you’ve placed into a banker’s hands, it is not safe to send anything in clear text. Think of it this way. Would you put your tax filing on a postcard so that the mail man – and every person and camera between you and the IRS – could see your financial details? Of course you wouldn’t. You’d seal it in an envelope. You might even hand deliver it to an IRS office. Or more recently, you might send your return electronically – with security protections in place to protect key details of your financial details.

But these kinds of protections are only partial steps. Yes, your information is secure from when it leaves your hands to when it enters the hands of the intended recipient. But what happens when the recipient gets your package of information?

Encryption Is Not Enough

Do the recipients just have your ‘package’ of data or do they have more? As all of us have learned, they most certainly have far more information. Yes, our ISP (i.e., the mail man) has no idea about the message. But what happens when the recipient at the other end of the pipe gets your envelope? They see the postmarks. They see the address. But they could also lift fingerprints from the envelope. And they can use this data. At the same time, by revealing your identity, you have provided the recipient with critical data that could be used to profile you, your friends and family, and even your purchasing habits.

So your safety hinges upon whether you trust the recipients to not disclose key personal information. But here’s the rub. You’ve made a contract with the recipient whereby they can use any and all of your personally identifiable information (PII) for any purpose that they choose. And as we have learned, many companies use this information in hideous way.

Resist Becoming The Product

This will be hard for many people to hear: If you’re not paying for a service, then you shouldn’t be surprised when the service provider monetizes any and all information that you have willingly shared with them. GMail is a great service – paid for with you, your metadata, and every bit of content that you put into your messages. Facebook is phenomenal. But don’t be surprised when MarkeyZ sells you out.

Because of the lessons that I’ve learned in 2018, I’m starting a renewed push towards improving my privacy. Up until now, I’ve focused on security. I’ve used a commercial VPN and/or Tor to protect myself from ISP eavesdropping. I’ve built VPN servers for all of my clients. I’ve implemented two-factor authentication for as many of my logons as my service providers will support.

Crank It Up To Eleven

And now I have to step up my game.

1. I must delete all of my social media accounts. That will be fairly simple as I’ve already gotten rid of Facebook/Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Just a few more to go. I’m still debating about LinkedIn. I do pay for premium services. But I also know that Microsoft is selling my identity. For the moment, I will keep LinkedIn as it is my best vehicle for professional interactions.
2. I may add a Facebook account for the business. Since many customers are on Facebook, I don’t want to abandon potential customers. But I will strictly separate my public business identity/presence from my personal identity/presence.
3. I need to get off of Gmail. This one will be tougher than the first item. Most of my contacts know me from my GMail address (which I’ve used for over fifteen years). But I’ve already created two new email addresses (one for the business and one on ProtonMail). My current plan is to move completely off of GMail by the end of 1Q19.
4. I am going to exclusively use secure browsing for almost everything. I’ve used ad-blockers for both the browser and for DNS. And I’ve used specific Firefox extensions for almost all other browsing activities that I have done. I will now try and exclusively use the Tor Browser on a virtual machine (i.e., Whonix) and implement NoScript wherever I use that browser. Let’s hope that these things will really reduce my vulnerability on the Internet. I suspect that I will find some sites that just won’t work with Tor (or with NoScript). When I find such sites, I’ll have to intentionally choose whether to use the site unprotected or set up a sandbox (and virtual identities) whenever I use these sites. Either way, I will run such sites from a VM – just to limit my exposure.
5. I will block online trackers by default. Firefox helps. NoScript also helps. But I will start routinely using Privacy Badger and uMatrix as well.

Bottom Line

In the final analysis, I am sure that there are some compromises that I will need to make. Changing my posture from trust to distrust and blocking all online trackers will be the hardest – and most rewarding – step that I can make towards protecting my privacy.