Become an armchair activist and protect your privacy online

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

I’ve realised that companies like BT that are willing to break the law on data protection—and allowed to get away with it, it seems, by our government—won’t ever change without a bloody revolution unlikely to ever materialise. So, if you want to make sure your privacy is protected online and you don’t get targeted advertising and detailed profiles built up based on the websites you visit, then you need to act.

First, if you’re with BT, switch to using Firefox instead of IE or Safari or any other browser. Why? Because there’s a great plugin available from the Dephormation website that permanently blocks BT Webwise and the infamous Phorm from sticking their noses into your hard drives. It doesn’t work with other browsers, and can be configured to not only keep Phorm et all off your computers, but can also confound website owners—usually corporations—already using Phorm and similar data-harvesting services. I had switched back to Safari, because my iPhone syncs with it, but I’ve found a workaround: a program that synchronises bookmarks between all browsers (and yes, Apple, requiring Safari for the job is an absolute stinker of a tie-in worthy of Microsoft).

Second, let’s tackle that beast of data intrusion otherwise known as Google. Go to ‘Tools’ and ‘Add-Ons’–again, in Firefox—and go seek out the GoogleCustomizer plugin. This allows you to block advertisements appearing based on whatever you’re searching for. It also allows you to defeat Google’s attempts to build up a profile over time based on your searches, among other good, privacy-protecting measures. It is essential.

Now grab the CookieSafe extension, same method of getting as above, which allows you to see what cookies any website wants to install on your hard drive. You choose, on a per-site basis, which cookies to allow and which to refuse. Sometimes you’ll find a site might not work if you block its cookies and, of course, not all cookies are doing anything bad. This site, the one you’re reading, uses cookies. But I can assure you I don’t access them, they’re there to help you to log in, to keep your login information stored on your local drive, and other non-threatening functions.

Last but not least, AdBlock Plus, obtained by the same route again, allows you to enjoy an ad-free Web experience no matter what sites you are visiting. If an ad does get through the filter this extension installs, you can just click on the offending garbage and add it to the list of do not wants.

There are many other measures you can take to empower yourself online, these are just a few easy steps you can take. You can also obtain, in addition to a standard firewall, programs like Little Snitch–which is a Mac OS X application, though Windows equivalents must surely exist—which prevent anyone or anything accessing data on your computer without your permission and, just as importantly, allow you to control which applications ‘phone home’, if and when. Too many applications don’t simply do what you’ve paid for: they send data, some of it personal, to the companies who made them. Adobe is one of the worst offenders, along with Microsoft (of course).

You may, on the other hand, have absolutely no qualms about business executives knowing your preferred brand of baked beans, or the fact that you bought a sex toy last Tuesday, and the batteries for it on Wednesday, then paid off a bill on Thursday using your online banking service. If so, I can only suggest that you replace the walls of your house with translucent glass and let us all have a good gander. Why should big business have all the fun if you don’t give a monkey’s about your privacy? Come one, come all, I say! Or—my personal preference—come none, not ever, without my absolute informed consent.

These are my computers I sit in front of to type, to shop, to chat, to play, to work. They are private. I pay for an Internet connection, not a pipeline by which Big Brother can know everything I do online. So, if you feel the same, don’t just sit there. Become an armchair activist and start protecting yourself!

If you’re too damn lazy to care, or think because you don’t understand the computer you’re using then, somehow, you’re safe from intrusion—a warped bit of logic, but it happens—you’re probably already getting hundreds of junk mails a day and wondering why. It will only get worse without direct action—and, for once, that doesn’t have to involve standing in the rain holding a placard.

categories: all wired up, in the news, rattle bag