Here’s the ultimate checklist
that every netizen must be aware of, about data sharing, and how to safeguard
their privacy on the Internet
A FEW weeks ago, details of more
than 33 million accounts were stolen from AshleyMadison. com, a popular website
which offers users a chance to have an affair. The group of hackers, who call
themselves, The Impact Team, allegedly said, they did so to highlight how
AshleyMadison. com was retaining data of its customers, after charging them $
19 for the same.
But it’s not the only company.
There are millions of them
operating as free/ paid services, building profiles on their users. Whether
it’s via a browser ( Google Chrome, Mozilla or Microsoft Edge), search engines
like Google. com, Bing. com, Ask. com, etc, or simply shopping apps such as
Flipkart, Amazon or Snapdeal, etc, that come pre- installed on your phone — a
majority of online services are building a profile on you.
So, how do users safeguard their
privacy? While it’s not possible to keep them out completely, users can at
least restrict the collection of such data. Here’s a checklist:
5 mistakes we make each time we sign up
1. Not checking the settings and
opting out of constant surveillance options that are turned on by default.
2. Giving up personal data like
location, address, phone number, whereabouts and photographs wrongly assuming
that the information will be limited to a small group of their friends and
families.
3. Mixing up work data with
personal data.
4. Confusing ‘ tech savvy’ with
being able to depend on as many apps and devices 5. Not encrypting emails and
other communications.
Safeguard your Google/ Facebook
sign- ups
Most services require you to
signup using social platforms like Google and Facebook. But are you aware of
the information that you might be sharing? In a special video by popular anti-
virus software maker AVG, on its official blog, Now. avg. com, its security
advisor, Michael McKinnon, informs that users should regularly review the
security and app settings within any of these platforms. These settings offer
details about the permissions that you are offering to a third party website/
app. Here’s how you can do that: For Google Account: Log into your Google
account and visit the link security. google. com/ settings / security/
permissions. Here, you can remove the permissions for apps you no longer use.
You can also enable two- step verification on Google, similar to what you see
in banks. By this method, you will be required to enter a code ( sent to your
phone) before signing up.
For Facebook account: On
Facebook, you can access the link by visiting Facebook. com/ settings? tab=
applications to review your permissions settings. To prevent unauthorised log-
ins on Facebook, go to settings in your account, and within the tab ‘ Security’
click on Log In Notifications to enable notifications/ text messages. You will
be notified via text message when your account is accessed from a mobile device
that you haven’t used before.
Similar settings are available
for other social networking platforms as well including Twitter and LinkedIn.
Look up their settings page for more details, or ask their experts on Twitter.
On Browsers
1. Never use always signed- in
option in your browser, most notably on the Google Chrome browser. Though it’s
convenient, it helps trackers and websites to know your identity.
2. Most browsers, by default,
have turned on options that allow them to collect data about your behaviour.
But you can always turn them off by visiting the settings page. In Firefox, go
to Options> Advanced> Data Choices to disable data collection. Also go to
Privacy, and select the box which says, ‘ Tell sites that I do not want to be
tracked’. In Google Chrome, you can do so by going to Settings> click on
Advanced Settings option, and then de- select all options apart from ‘ Send a
Do Not Track’ option and ‘ Enable Malware and Phishing Protection’. Also, make
sure you have turned- off location sharing in your browser.
3. If you’re looking for browsers
where you can browse anonymously, a suitable option is to use Epic Privacy
Browser or the The Onion Router ( Tor) browser, available for free from
Torproject. org. Tor is a great tool for those working in NGOs, and
journalists, to keep government agencies from snooping into their online
behaviour.
Ask the app makers/ service providers
Almost every website should
provide guidelines about what data it stores, its data sharing and usage
policy, and they should offer a method to its users to opt- out from its services.
If not, we recommend asking them on their official Twitter page for details on
how to opt- out of their services and delete all personal data. We asked
several of these services for details, most refused to answer. Here are some
who either answered our queries or had answers in their websites:
BharatMatrimony. com BharatMatrimony. com under its privacy- policy page states
that it doesn’t sell/ rent any identifiable information at the individual level
to any third party. Members can chose to un- subscribe from the website via the
un- subscribe page, however, there’s no link given under that on how to go
about it. The steps find mention under Creation/ Modification with the subhead
Activation/ Deactivation in the FAQs page.
Truecaller Truecaller users can
unlist themselves from Truecaller services by first deactivating their account
on the app under the About section. Then visit the link Truecaller. com/ unlist
to unlist themselves from Truecaller.
However, there’s no clarity on
whether it will delete your personal data from its servers as well.
Trulymadly. com Sachin Bhatia ,
co- founder and CEO of TrulyMadly says, “ All information about a user is self-
updated and the existing user can anytime update or remove any or all
information as per their personal preferences. If they deactivate their
account, all their information gets wiped off too. We do not retain any
information other than the email id and phone number.” Thatspersonal. com A
popular website for all things adult, Thatspersonal. com seems to stand true to
its name. The company’s privacy policy states that all online transactions made
on the website would not show the company’s name.
However, it’s not clear if the
company retains details about its users.
Source |Mid Day | 26 August 2015
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