Your Privacy on the Internet
An extract...
Introduction: The Internet Street-War
It is often quoted that ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’. Despite the fact that the quote excludes people from Wales, Scotland, Ireland and half of the population of England, it is a good analogy. However, castles are not as secure as they used to be. In this day and age, they are suffering from dampness at the least and many have even crumbled to little more than a quaint attraction that is unable to defend itself from even the most harmless tourist.
Our privacy has deteriorated to a similar state, especially on the internet. Hidden eyes are spying on our habits from almost every angle imaginable. Some of the threats to privacy go as unnoticed as the microscopic mites that share our beds, others have claimed the right to tear down the door and empty the whole castle of furniture leaving only the safe, which is empty because they had the combination.
What has happened to the Knights that defended the pilgrims and castles? Have they been exterminated like the Knights Templar just because they wanted privacy?
Wherever they are, they are not here – you will have to defend your own privacy. Do you need protection? Yes, a loss of private information can leave you vulnerable in many ways, thus weakening your personal security. Private information such as your email address, telephone number and postal address, once obtained can ultimately weaken your ability to protect yourself and your family.
Some will say that the law will protect us but that is not true: they punish law-breakers but they cannot mount guard twenty four hours a day. And, besides, although democratic governments are said to have the interest of their nation at their centres, you must not rely solely on them to protect you. Government, or their leaders, may have very different reasons for wanting to erode your privacy. Many a politician has used underhand techniques to squash opposition and dissent and in some countries, disagreeing with the government results in extreme persecution.
Although much protest is being voiced about the threat of government eavesdropping, they are in reality overworked and out of their depth. They are years behind the other, more motivated, threats out there: big business and the internet ‘outlaws’.
We see many large and ‘respectable’ companies in a mad rush to start trading on the internet but few of them are making a profit. The rush is not for the immediate profit but for information about you: as much as possible. This is a privacy violation and a risk to your security. Information is power, and information about you gives people power over you. Businesses are, ultimately, after one thing: your money. The more information they have on you, the more they can manipulate you and part you from your money.
‘Cybercriminals’ may also want to part you from your money but many simply get a kick out of being malicious. The cybercriminal is not as common as the big business threat but when they strike, the damage can be far more severe because they do not have to stick to legal methods of manipulation or attack.
Neither the government, criminals nor marketing companies are going to tell you that they are spying on you, but rest assured, they are. You are as weak and exposed as a lone lamb.
Protecting your privacy and security on the internet is like dealing with outlaws during the Gold Rush before the sheriff came to town. The incredible growth of internet technology and activity far outpaces the ability of the government or consumer-protection organisations to protect us. Even if regulations could be effectively enforced, the internet is so overwhelming that the enforcers would be hard pressed to monitor the daily explosion of new threats. The defence has to come from you. The good news is that you can learn to protect yourself effectively so no government, business or criminal will be able to break through unless you let them.
A reporter in Prishtina, Kosovo, released a report on the fighting just after being evicted from her home – thanks to the internet and its ability to protect her from the Yugoslav government. Reporters all over the world are using the internet to report on some of the worst atrocities of this century in some of the most repressive countries.
While you are unlikely to attract an attack from the Yugoslav government, you may be the subject of lesser, but still disturbing, attacks. This book will describe effective ways to protect yourself against many forms of intrusion from the small bugs that track your movements by infesting your hard disk to unwarranted government monitoring; from the colleague who borrows your password to the perverted cyberstalker.
The question most of you may ask is, ‘If I have nothing to hide why should I need privacy?’ Let me ask a question in reply – would you agree to letting anyone read your letters or listening in to your telephone conversations? Not many people would answer yes to that question but the internet is different, many people are monitoring you without your knowledge and the information they collect is held in huge databases and sold to anyone that wants it. You don’t have to be a terrorist to have people spying on you – if you surf the web, you will be spied on.
Take an example: Your children have moved to secondary school and seem to be mixing with bad company. So, one weekend, you decide to surf the web and look up information on drugs because you are worried that your children may come in contact with people that may offer them some. You find some useful sites and some others that look very strange, you buy a book from an online bookshop on the effects of illegal drugs, and you sign up for a newsletter run by reformed drug addicts to help others. Your activities are logged by large marketing companies.
At work, your yearly review comes round and you are asked some pointed questions about drugs and find that your promotion has been postponed for a year. Why? Because your personnel department bought your profile from one of the marketing companies and wrongly assumed that you had a problem yourself.
Another example: Your daughter joins a children’s chat room and makes a friend called Lucy. Lucy and her have struck up such a good friendship online that they agree to meet in real life. Lucy says she has been hurt by her parents and therefore insists that your daughter be alone when they meet. Lucy turns out to be a forty-year-old male paedophile. Your privacy and security are very much at risk.
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