Online Anonymity - Apps and hardware - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

99gecko · 2012-04-03, 02:05 PM

Despite the obvious irony of not using my real name for a username, I am curious as to what others are using to protect themselves online.

It used to be that monitoring what you wrote or uploaded was sufficient to protect yourself. To that point I discovered last year that my smartphone was geo-tagging all of my camera shots. A rather discomforting revelation. Google has been a recent concern because of privacy issues, and I use a lot of their products. A relative of mine had her Facebook account hacked last year, which led to her email address being hijacked, which caused serious problems for her.

Yesterday I came home to discover my Mastercard may have been compromised (they wouldn't give me details). I suspected one of three possibilities: a) I have been using it a lot very recently to pay for parking downtown Toronto, and that triggered a usage algorithm, b) I have been using it to make more online and paypal purchases, again triggering an algorithm, or c) I was caught up in the recent attack on Global payments Inc.

So I started reading last night about a couple of interesting options for online anonymity and want to get other's thoughts on the issue, and what they are using, either hardware or applications.

Here are a couple of interesting solutions
Tor - anonymity network for masking entry IP addresses; does not provide encryption.
DuckDuckGo - a hybrid search engine that is taking off because of the way it provides anonymity to user searches. I found results lack geolocation accuracy, but you can always still use Google if you want to find a local plumber in one hit.

Jake · 2012-04-03, 03:29 PM

Quote:

which led to her email address being hijacked

Sounds like she used the same password. But this is not anonymity we are discussing but being secure online.

I think many of the issues are common sense. Like signing out. The number of times I have used a public computer and discovered the previous person did not log out is surprising.

I use FB but I don't use apps that ask for my permission to share details.

I don't save my credit card information online. It may be saved without my knowledge but whenever it asks to save it, I decline.

Geotagging is also one of those under-the-radar things. Foursquare is another creepy app. I don't use it.

99gecko · 2012-04-03, 08:27 PM

Foursquare is creepy? Try this one if your on foursquare:
http://girlsaround.me/

Yes, I guess I diverted a bit into online security, but I think they are mildly related:
www.pleaserobme.com ; I guess people pushing their tweets through foursquare allows the unscrupulous to know where you aren't: home

Wayne · 2012-04-13, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99gecko

To that point I discovered last year that my smartphone was geo-tagging all of my camera shots. A rather discomforting revelation.

I find this feature to be very useful and not an intrusion of privacy. The scary thing is that it may be possible for (Apple|Blackberry|Google) to know where you are at any time, or to track where you have been, even if you think you have shut off location services.

North_of_Calgary · 2012-04-13, 08:39 PM

99gecko : What are your privacy concerns with Google? And if you do use their services (even if it's just gmail) the using their "two-step authentication" and the Authenticator App is a MUST. No other web service comes anywhere close to that level of security.

stampeder · 2012-04-13, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99gecko

DuckDuckGo - a hybrid search engine that is taking off because of the way it provides anonymity to user searches.

My vote for DuckDuckGo for routine, mundane searches - the search results are getting better and better as more people are switching to it.

Here's DuckDuckGo's privacy policy.

Here's another good privacy tool, HTTPS Everywhere: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere (the EFF also has excellent reading resources on almost all aspects of user privacy and anonymity, BTW).

majortom · 2012-04-13, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99gecko

Yesterday I came home to discover my Mastercard may have been compromised (they wouldn't give me details)

How were you made aware? Just curious, wonder if that coulda been a scam/fish in and of itself?

stampeder · 2012-04-17, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Collusion is an experimental add-on for Firefox and allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web. It will show, in real time, how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers.

Collusion displays a map of all the presently set cookies on your browser as you surf. I use a Firefox profile that is extremely locked-down so the map remains empty, but if I use more open profiles it is quite chilling to see the chains of tracking that can occur.

ssbtech · 2012-04-25, 07:00 PM

While I have a facebook account, I post very little to it. While I might no be using aps that collect my data, my friends do play those silly games and those games do have the ability to mine my data.

I also refuse to use any of the online cloud based storage services. There's a tremendous value to the data people save online. If you don't think Google, Facebook, etc... are using this data to profit from it then you're delusional.

2012-04-03, 02:05 PM	#1
99gecko Veteran Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Markham, ON Posts: 2,527	Online Anonymity - Apps and hardware Despite the obvious irony of not using my real name for a username, I am curious as to what others are using to protect themselves online. It used to be that monitoring what you wrote or uploaded was sufficient to protect yourself. To that point I discovered last year that my smartphone was geo-tagging all of my camera shots. A rather discomforting revelation. Google has been a recent concern because of privacy issues, and I use a lot of their products. A relative of mine had her Facebook account hacked last year, which led to her email address being hijacked, which caused serious problems for her. Yesterday I came home to discover my Mastercard may have been compromised (they wouldn't give me details). I suspected one of three possibilities: a) I have been using it a lot very recently to pay for parking downtown Toronto, and that triggered a usage algorithm, b) I have been using it to make more online and paypal purchases, again triggering an algorithm, or c) I was caught up in the recent attack on Global payments Inc. So I started reading last night about a couple of interesting options for online anonymity and want to get other's thoughts on the issue, and what they are using, either hardware or applications. Here are a couple of interesting solutions Tor - anonymity network for masking entry IP addresses; does not provide encryption. DuckDuckGo - a hybrid search engine that is taking off because of the way it provides anonymity to user searches. I found results lack geolocation accuracy, but you can always still use Google if you want to find a local plumber in one hit.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

2012-04-03, 08:27 PM	#3
99gecko Veteran Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Markham, ON Posts: 2,527	Foursquare is creepy? Try this one if your on foursquare: http://girlsaround.me/ Yes, I guess I diverted a bit into online security, but I think they are mildly related: www.pleaserobme.com ; I guess people pushing their tweets through foursquare allows the unscrupulous to know where you aren't: home

2012-04-13, 08:39 PM	#5
North_of_Calgary Veteran Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Calgary Area Posts: 2,074	99gecko : What are your privacy concerns with Google? And if you do use their services (even if it's just gmail) the using their "two-step authentication" and the Authenticator App is a MUST. No other web service comes anywhere close to that level of security.

2012-04-25, 07:00 PM	#9
ssbtech Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 492	While I have a facebook account, I post very little to it. While I might no be using aps that collect my data, my friends do play those silly games and those games do have the ability to mine my data. I also refuse to use any of the online cloud based storage services. There's a tremendous value to the data people save online. If you don't think Google, Facebook, etc... are using this data to profit from it then you're delusional.