Your Daily Computer Security Tips

by Syd Tash © 2009 All Rights Reserved

I regularly caution Web surfers to minimize the information about themselves that they give out on the Internet. Web 2.0 social sites such as MySpace, Facebook and others have millions of users who love to share stuff. And that doesn’t include blogs, RSS syndication of content and other sites that gather and accumulate your information. Each of these may have a profile on you. Like mushrooms, these sites and the data they contain just grows and grows.

Data on the products you use, sites you visit, TV programs you watch, your friends, their friends, etc. are constantly accumulating. Meanwhile the marketers (and crooks) are grinning from megabyte to gigabyte, thinking of all this information just lying there.

You have probably heard of the term data mining. Marketers constantly sift through mountains of data and information to create a profile on you, which can be sold to anyone who wants it. Still, as the saying goes, if you haven’t done anything illegal, you needn’t be concerned, right? Well, I don’t buy this argument, and neither should you. We all have a right to our privacy and security. We have a right to assume that our info will not be sold and distributed without our knowledge and consent.

This is becoming more serious because there are moves afoot to link, compare and collate those huge databases where your information resides. Your buying habits, work history, driving record, medical, criminal and credit records and marital and family status may have all been stored separately. But what if they were all pulled together into one comprehensive profile? Would that make you uncomfortable? I thought so. Remember, a computer never forgets. Google has a long reach and longer memory.

If you are reading this in a modern, Western democratic country, do not think you are safe. The less governments know about you, the better, as long as you fulfill all legal requirements, of course. In fact, if you are preparing to search for a new job, get a mortgage or credit card or even just get a cellphone, you would be wise to invest a few hours on the Web, to see what is out there about you.

But you say you have a stack of credit cards and an excellent credit history? That credit reporting agency could still turn up any black or even questionable mark against you from years ago.

There are several ways to reduce the amount of data you give out as you conduct your daily activities on the Web. You can use a proxy server. This hides your IP address. You can think of a proxy as a computer that sits between you and the Internet. Web sites you visit through the proxy will see the proxy’s IP address, not yours. Check this one out: http://www.privoxy.org It also has filters to block cookies and ads, but these can be complex to set up. Start with the proxy.

Today, Web sites can identify your location. Then they serve up (or deny) various offers. To hide this info, look into http://www.torproject.org But what about that all-important email? Glad you asked. Go to http://mailinator.com to send and receive email without leaving a trace. Their slogan, appropriately enough, is “let them eat spam”.

Syd Tash is a longtime computer security consultant, author, and founder of
The SaferSurfing Project. He has been keeping Web surfers like you safe and secure since the last century. Find out how to keep yourself safe online and do your part for a more secure Internet. Join the SaferSurfing Project here
=> http://SaferSurfingProject.com

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