QOTW: How do you protect your online privacy?

[Percy1983]

I don't do very much, I don't use social media much and never post my whereabouts.

[adidan]

I just take my government's advice, you know just shout out passwords to people you know.

Rudd says she doesn't know how encryption works so that can't be important and I mean it can't be that bad if some banks don't care to secure their opening page.

TBH the main security threats i've ever had have been using credit cards in the physical world and companies being hacked in the electronic one.

[Slogbelly]

VPN to encrypt and mask my presence.

[Iota]

Not much and certainly not enough. I think the honest answer here is I'm not overly concerned, as I have a fairly minimal footprint on the internet and avoid any and all social media platforms like Facebook etc.

[Saracen]

"Sorry, I never discuss my security measures"

(slams door, puts bolts across, lowers portcullis and raises drawbridge.)

You forgot to let the attack dogs out and activate the minefield. Amateur.

@Tabby .... mainly, I avoid putting anything but the absolutely essential into the public domain. For instance, the tablet I'm using now has never had any personal info put on it. Well, bar the (temp) email address used to activate it, which has never been used since).

I also don't have a smartphone, and inability to ensure privacy is part of the reason, together with a lack of a more important reason to have one. I don't bank online, don't use store reward cards, don't use reward sites and in fact, rarely use credit cards. Mostly, I shop in cash.

As for protecting data on computers, by far the biggest measure is that my main network does not have any internet connection, no wifi capability at all and would need physical access to gain access .... at which point you'd hit encryption, and the fact that some data isn't even kept online on that. For instance, I have a substantial document archive of everything from passport, birth circificates and financial records, to tax and VAT returns going back decades, to my household gas and electricity records. It's all there, electronically, if I need it .... if I ummm .... turn it on.

It would require considerable effort by anyone determined to access my own network, including burglary, and frankly, there's nothing in there even remotely that valuable, to anyone but me.

Finally, I use different devices for different things, and never mix n match. This tablet, for instance, never has personal info on it but still gets cookie cleared, AV'd etc, along with ad-suppression, careful choice of browser and, depending on activity, connects via a VPN. Oh, and cameras are physically blocked and a blob of hot glue on the mic hole works wonders.


Now, how do I get those damn dogs to shut up? Maybe they caught someone.

[Wolfclaw]

I use a Gmail address for the web, due to it's protection and very few sites get my primary email address unless I definitely trust them 99.99%, as nothing is 100% secure !

[Corky34]

I don't bank online...

So that piqued my interest, can i ask why? Not meaning to be nosy just wondering if there's something I've missed as I've always thought most of the major named highstreet banks who allow online banking respected privacy.

[Saracen]

So that piqued my interest, can i ask why? Not meaning to be nosy just wondering if there's something I've missed as I've always thought most of the major named highstreet banks who allow online banking respected privacy.

I doubt you've missed anything. Well, subject maybe to one caveat.

The "why" is that it's a combination of lack of need, and a large degree of scepticism about security, rather than privacy, as such.

The caveat?

As of 13th January, new regulations come into force allowing banks to open up your accounts, with your consent to 3rd party apps, that will enable them to analyse transaction data, and even make transactions.

So, it seems, if you shop at Saracen Stores, and install my app, I can rumnage around in your spending habits. And if you buy from me, then the act of purchasing would allow my app to take the payment directly, without you needing to arrange a payment method separately.

Did I see this coming? No, not directly, but I did work on the basis that banks can't datamine, for themselves or others, using data they don't have.

So, I've long operated on the basis that for data about myself, and I mean ANY data, right down to the last factoid, is out of my control forever the nanosecond it gets out for the first time.

It's also clear to anyone that understands data warehousing and mining that any and every factoid, about every single person, will be grabbed, stored and used, if these companies can get their grasping little fingers on it. It is also clear that, with increasing relevance over time, ever more granular levels of data are going to be ever more useful to data analytics operations. Already, some claim to be able to predict how you will vote from as little as six spending transations. Imagine what they can predict, and with what accuracy, with thousands of transactions, and five, ten, twenty more years developing analytics tools.

As it is, banking records can be used to, for instance, identity where you were based on where certspain transactions are made, especially recurring and regular transactions.

So, I work on a basic principle .... keep ALL data from ALL big corporates, where it is humanly and technically feasible, UNLESS a sufficiently good reason exists for letting a transaction be identified. I would recommend evrryone to tske this approach, not least because what constitutes "sufficiently" good reason is a personal judgement call. I set the bar high, but others might opt to do so because of a nominal decrease in inconvenience. After all, paying for a coffee by phone rather than cash is about nominal convenience, and yet loads do it And loads don't.


That change in banks allowing access to your account data ougyt, though, indicate that banks and third-party users regard that data as valuable, and once those doors into your data are opened, how long before some massive scale hack breaches it, and downloads millions of users details?

If it ain't in the bank's data collections in the first place, they can't loose it for me.

After all the large scale data breaches we've seen in recent years, anyone that believes these companies are competent to be trusted with it is, in my opinion, severely naive. If people don't care if it's leaked, then fair enough. I hope they don't change their minds in the future, because it'll be too late. But I do mind, hence not giving ANYONE any info I can avoid .... because I don't trust either what they will overtly use it for, or that they are committed to and competent to adequately protect it.

I mean, who trusts banks? After scams, PPI, LIBOR frauds, the financial crash, and so on, who trusts banks to act in OUR best interests? Not me, for sure. Yet millions blithely trust them not to either abuse, or simply screw up, over our data integrity and security?

Personally, I firmly believe that if you do, sooner or later, one way or another, to a greater or lessor extent, it'll bite you in the ass. It ain't about if, but simply when and how.

[Saracen]

Oh, and having gone on rather longer than I intended, I'd stress the bit in my first line about "lack of need". My circumstances and chosen lifestyle minimise that need, more than will be the case to many. I come pretty close to not needing a bank account at all. What I do need it for is minimal. Bear that in mind, and that what's true for me and suits me may not be true for or suit you. I'm not going into much detail on that because, you know, privacy and all.

[Corky34]

I wasn't aware of the banking regulation changes coming in on the 13th, i guess those new banking terms I've not had a chance to read yet tell me about them, stupidly i put them to one side assuming they just reiterated current terms with a few minor changes, I'll have to see how i can opt-out of that as banks allowing third parties access would be a big no-no for me, thanks for the heads up.

Like yourself i don't trust any corporation with my personal data however i used to believe, perhaps rather naively, that governments would regulate the private banking sector in favor of protecting customers above all else, it seems the old adage of money talks has taken precedence though.

[adidan]

Opting out may be easier said than done.

Some are saying if you do so then they'll withdraw payment services. Oh and they can still use your data if there are lawful grounds to do so which sounds ambiguosly general.

The main reason I don't like sharing data, besides privacy, is that I can't trust anyone to keep it safe.

[Saracen]

I saw a feature on TV (Martin Lewis, I think) about the new regs, ahd my amended T&C's arrived about a week later (last week). I read them quite carefully and they certainly suggested that such access was "opt in", but I've so far failed to find the legalese bit that explicitly stated that.

So you are probably okay.

That said, a few years back some thieving <***BLEEEEP***> tried to opt my bank account in to online banking .... without my knowledge.

So ..... could the same happen?

After a discussion with my bank, a flag has now been set and I have it in writing) that ANY such further attempts to enable online/remote banking require me to request it, in person, in a pre-determined branch, and to produce confirmation of identity using a passport (number specified) as part of predetermined ID documents.

If it gets enabled without that being met, the bank are liable, which gives them motivation to be careful.

In short, I don't trust fraudulent "opt-ins" .... though the bank's security processes DID catch the last attemot at hacking my bank, in no small part due to me being very careful with "sensitive" data that might assist fraudsters.

For instance, anybody short of government departments with a statutory right to accurate answers, or a financial institution with a right to know, gets .... inventive .... answers to nosy questions, like "favoutute colour", "first pet's name", first school, etc. Anything that might help an identity thief is carefully guarded, and I keep a lengthy list of what answer was given to what question, sorted by asker's identity.

The most obvious example is I never, EVER give an accurate DOB on forum registration screens, even when I'm not giving a real name either.

[GinoLatino]

Privacy? Online? Ahahahahahah!!!

[Saracen]

Privacy? Online? Ahahahahahah!!!

Complete privacy, I agree. But each individual chooses, at least to some extent, what to put out there. The less you care, the more you're likely to put up, and the more you put up, the less privacy you have.

[adidan]

Complete privacy, I agree. But each individual chooses, at least to some extent, what to put out there. The less you care, the more you're likely to put up, and the more you put up, the less privacy you have.

Very true.

There's plenty of full life stories out there with pictures of their entire families to boot.

Funny, there was a big complaint when there was talk of ID cards years back - along comes social media and it's "here, look at me - this is all my information, please like me".

Nothing stranger than folk.

[Saracen]

Very true.

There's plenty of full life stories out there with pictures of their entire families to boot.

Funny, there was a big complaint when there was talk of ID cards years back - along comes social media and it's "here, look at me - this is all my information, please like me".

Nothing stranger than folk.

Well, some folk.

I guess some people care, some don't care, some care but not enough, and some don't know enough to know if they ought to care or not.

Personally, I care, rather a lot, so take a pretty strict view, to the point that I've been accused, with varying degrees of seriousness, of being paranoid. Thing is, it's not paranoia when 100% know that various big organisations are taking drastic steps to acquire as much data, en-masse, as they can, snd that data analytics is already scarily accurate (and, to my mind, grossly intrusive) which is why, among others, I truly detest Google. As far as I'm concerned, they're less benelovent than SkyNet (the movie one, nothing to do with Sky TV, though I'm only marginally less unimpressed with them).


Anyway, back on topic .... there's nothing wrong with someone putting their life story only if they choose, though I sincerely hope they've thought it through, and don't regret it in years to come.

But nobody ought to be putting info about others online, unless they have explicit consent. Such consentwill not be forthcoming from me, which is why a family member or two has been politely asked to take information about me down. And have.

I can't control everything, but what I can control, I do.