Are we cyber-safe? Why it’s paramount to take care of own privacy
Mostly after multiple leak information provided by cyber-activists and whistleblowers, the privacy issue started to become increasingly important when it comes to own online experience.
In the prior story, one of the composing sections dealt with discovering what the Data-driven economy is about, deepening how our personal data are used, mainly by Big Tech, and trying to figure out how are they intended to be used.
Generally, we’re almost sure that each piece of information we share online is likely to be going to be used in a not-so-correct way. Presently, we’re not fully sure to answer properly regarding our privacy.
But somebody more expert in this field did.
The foremost topic: What is privacy?
Privacy is a fundamental right, essential to autonomy and the protection of human dignity, serving as the foundation upon which many other human rights are built.
That’s it.
When we speak about privacy, we basically refer to our duty to defend, preserve and keep privately all those arrays of pieces of stuff that are emphatically important to us. For this reason, we’re always careful on all those occasions we have to insert our information, either on a new social media or our email box.
In order to stress our privacy importance, there have also been some regulations regarding all people personal data handling.
One of the foremost is represented by EU GDPR, which has become a pillar component of the EU Privacy law as well as the Human rights law.
How is our identity made on the Internet?
Whether we’re using our personal laptop or scrolling through our smartphone, we’re perfectly detectable in both ways.
Any kind of electronic device has its own IP Address. Whether it’s a PC, a smartphone but also Smart TV and Printers have their own.
This particular string is split into two types: one private address, and a public one, which other subjects use to identify us on the public network (AKA Internet). The moment we turn on our device and connect it to the Internet, immediately an important network server, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), dynamically offers up an IP Address.
By the way, through our public IP Address, there’s the possibility others become aware of our position and other kinds of relevant detail.
If a cybercriminal gets this both prominent and personal information, he will be able to illegally break our Informative system and steal other data, for instance, passwords or credit card numbers.
Worth mentioning, 2011 Cyberattack occurred to Playstation Network servers, which ended up with 77 Million PlayStation players theft.
Did someone say security?
Okay, so far we understood we have a problem. But, they say, every problem has a consequent solution.
Which are some ways I can immediately adopt to boost my internet security and preserve my online privacy? Let’s check some of them:
- VPN(Virtual Private Networks): We’ve just discussed how we’re traceable through our public ID Address. Fortunately, one of the safest workaround to adopt is represented by the use of VPN. Simply put, a VPN allows you to use a different public IP Address as well as all communications channels encryption. Basically, you use your devices with a different IP Address, not your own. Some online services which offer a VPN-based approach are NorthVPN, ExpressVPN and ProtonVPN.
- Open-Source Browser: Ever heard about Open Source? Fundamentally, this word means the project upon a software is built, is public and can be updated by anyone. Whilst, some of the most used browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari aren’t Open source and, perhaps, more inclined to detect your data, this doesn’t happen with Open source solutions, which are usually more user and privacy-oriented. Just to name a few of them: Brave, Vivaldi, Opera.
- Anonymous navigation: The last one is maybe the most powerful but it is required to be careful. Whether anonymous navigation isn’t absolutely a standard feature of almost any Web-Browser, there’s one of them which allows you to pursue this intention: Tor Browser. Its name became popular after the Deep Web discovery, establishing Tor as one of the main gateways to access it. Unsigned int
But… Someone disclosed
Almost on a daily basis, all the media and newspapers deliver us some news about cyberattacks, data breaches, and other types of technological crimes.
Nevertheless, It hasn’t been too many years since we began to usually hear about our both privacy and data importance.
This occurred as a result of a particular episode that took place in the USA multiple years ago. An episode that involved NSA and a former computer intelligence consultant, Edward Snowden.
Mr Snowden came into the limelight, after publicly delivering highly classified information by the NSA.
The case raised worldwide importance because allowed Snowden to reveal numerous global surveillance, run for the majority part by NSA but also by Five eyes, along with the cooperation of telecommunication companies.
This was considered the turning point about the caring of overall data and personal information at a global level.
What can we do?
Connecting to the story’s beginning, we don’t know where our data and information are sent once we type them online.
They always reassure us by telling us that encryption and mathematical methods are being used, that data is stored in inaccessibles databases and, mostly, they’re absolutely not used to generate profits.
Are we so sure regarding these words?
Or maybe we are not?
