Online privacy

[the_raging_snorlax]

So lately; over the last 6 months or so I have been getting increasingly cautious about online privacy. As I post this I understand that if any government athority wants to track me down I'm fucked. Later this year if all goes well I'll be starting a professional career and I don't want anything in my personal life to affect my chances of getting a longterm job.

What currently do

- Search using DuckDuckGo mainly (I still use google for public transport timetables)
- I use a fake surname on FaceBook (I doubt this helps)
- I don't download porn

I use the following Firefox add-ons

- Ad-block Plus
- BetterPrivacy
- DuckDuckGo Plus
- Ghostery
- Self destructing cookies

I'm thinking I should stop buying stuff online as much as I reasonably can and make a separate emails for my professional and private lives. When I type my name into Google I don't find any matches in the first few pages that have anything to do with me. I've been considering getting my name changed to be on the safe side, but I think it may make a potential employer believe I may have something to hide.

Your thoughts?

 

[TheCasketMan]

They can still see what you do(not sure if using a VPN helps). Deleting cookies doesn't do anything, because all sites you visit are stored in the DNS. And downloading pr0n is not illegal as long as it is not child pr0n or copyrighted (atleast in the U.S.)
The bad thing is that the gov doesn't even try to hide the fact that they are spying on us, since nowadays, many people known they are in being watched, creating a panoptcion effect, which means everyone will behave morally on the internet, since they know their actions can always be watched at any time.

 

[pyromaniac123]

NSA says hi.

 

[Qtis]

Want better privacy? Use Tor and a VPN.

Don't use any common public services including gmail, Facebook, etc.

Want real privacy in ways that you will be untraceable? Don't use email (seriously this is quite a big thing).

Complete anonymity is hard to achieve, but in most cases you wouldn't benefit from the extra hassle. Using the internet in a smart way (no pictures being drunk or in other "harmful" situations is obvious) will help you more than anything.

 

[Arras]

The only real way is not to use the internet and sending your messages by carrier pidgeon.

 

[FAST6191]

The only real way is not to use the internet and sending your messages by carrier pidgeon.

Traditionally at this point I am obliged to point out there is an RFC for message by avian carriers
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt
The practice of using hawks and falcons to help in signals intelligence is not new either, http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects/fighting-vehicles/other-pigeons.htm

As for the OP I think you might be over thinking this. As others said it is probably best to avoid having a picture of you doing a technicolour yawn, though even that might not be so bad as long as you are not doing it at a funeral or something; the ability to cut loose once in a while usually means you are not going to run off with high blood pressure once I have trained you up and you are actually useful to my company. Now if you wanted to join one of the intelligence services/divisions or a criminal organisation then it might be an idea to avoid having a digital footprint as best you can.
Still
Worried about privacy, uses facebook. Makes sense.
Also no porn? As was said as long as it is not copyrighted or illegal (and Aus does have some odd ideas here) it is good.

 

[migles]

i will gentle grabbing this post to ask my question

so in the media, they said NSA uses quantum technology to spy on computers which are shut down or not connected to internet...

i am asking myself if this is really possible or is just disinformation from the media\nsa... like a psychology strategy to make us behave like they want us to behave...

 

[osirisjem]

I'll be starting a professional career and I don't want anything in my personal life to affect my chances of getting a longterm job.

What exactly are you doing in your personal life that requires hiding ?
Using Facebook and Wanting Privacy certainly are diametrically opposed things.

 

[FAST6191]

i will gentle grabbing this post to ask my question

so in the media, they said NSA uses quantum technology to spy on computers which are shut down or not connected to internet...

i am asking myself if this is really possible or is just disinformation from the media\nsa... like a psychology strategy to make us behave like they want us to behave...

By "quantum technology" I assume you mean things others might say borders on scifi. In that case yeah power analysis, rf emissions, normal light emissions and more can reveal some data, perhaps even a fair bit of it.

Naturally they will also have many other methods to attack "air gapped" computers, indeed many of the projects that were leaked ( https://www.schneier.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=exploit of the day covers a lot of them) were aimed at just this.

Most of that though will be active measures and not just the passive "have this internet backbone copy me everything".

 

[migles]

thank you fast

btw one last question, recently i installed avast antivirus on a friends computer, which is the av i always used (it doesn't eat my computer a lot and its free)

Upon installation of avast it warned about "we send your data to our servers blablabla" which is always nice to warn but there is any av which isn't a "backdoor" ? at least an av which really asks me for send the info the company?

i am afraid of my personal stuff on my computer are being send to AVAST HQ or other antivirus HQ... because i know an AV only works on flagged data which was previously analyzed i don't want a company to read mah dickbutts pictures D:

 

[FAST6191]

Modern AV is a bit more proactive than just scanning samples.

Still of any of the legit av programs (which is to say something other than those quite annoying to remove things that gained popularity the other year) should ask you to send things. This may well be an infected sample of your popular documents (ransom type stuff is on the rise).

I guess you could try one of the open source ones, all I know of are based upon http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/ which is not a great active scanner. Wonderful for mail gateways and linux machines but not something I would really trust to run proper heuristics and the like. For the most part I am happy enough if I just disable the "automatically send samples", uncheck all "send anonymous usage statistics" and whatever else like that happens to be in the options like that.

 

[fatsquirrel]

Damn if I type in my name in google first 2 pages are all about me xD

 

[jonthedit]

Want better privacy? Use Tor and a VPN.

Tor has been compromised in the past by the FBI. If you use Tor you are basically holding up a sign that says,
"I DO ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES!!!" Source

VPNs vary. Check how the VPN you choose logs data and how long each period of logs are stored. (Most VPNs and including the major 'non-logging' VPNs now have logs as of March, 2014.

 

[Qtis]

Tor has been compromised in the past by the FBI. If you use Tor you are basically holding up a sign that says,
"I DO ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES!!!" Source

VPNs vary. Check how the VPN you choose logs data and how long each period of logs are stored. (Most VPNs and including the major 'non-logging' VPNs now have logs as of March, 2014.

That article is about the Tor browser, which is not the same as Tor. Tor browser was compromised, which by itself is a sad thing, but Tor as a network is secure. Or as secure as you can go at the time being..

Also Tor is used for many completely legal activities, which may be prevented due to censorship such as the great firewall of China

 

[Hells Malice]

Unless you're doing something retarded that warrants being tracked, no one gives a shit about you or your life.
Seriously do people really think government workers sit there all day listening to GirlA tell GirlB that GirlC is a total skank slut? Do they care you bought the latest pokemon? What you had for dinner?
No one cares. The only time you need to worry about your "privacy" is when you're doing something illegal. Even then it's only the really serious stuff that would gain ANY attention. But the only way you'd most likely get caught is if you were already being actively sought.
No one is monitoring you.

I guess the one exception is downloading traced torrents that send red flags to your ISP. Though I honestly think it's more of a formality than anything...most ISPs don't seem to give a shit. I've been pirating things on an almost daily basis for years and have yet to receive one letter from Shaw. Even when people get letters, i've heard of people getting 4-5 with no action. Some care, most don't.

I guess the bottom line is, stop caring. You're wasting your life.

 

[the_raging_snorlax]

Want better privacy? Use Tor and a VPN.

Don't use any common public services including gmail, Facebook, etc.

Want real privacy in ways that you will be untraceable? Don't use email (seriously this is quite a big thing).

Complete anonymity is hard to achieve, but in most cases you wouldn't benefit from the extra hassle. Using the internet in a smart way (no pictures being drunk or in other "harmful" situations is obvious) will help you more than anything.

My Facebook account is now scheduled for deletion. Avoiding email sounds almost impossible since more often than not you'll need one when you apply for a job. Any suggestions for a safe (or as close as I can reasonably get) email service?

Unless you're doing something retarded that warrants being tracked, no one gives a shit about you or your life.
Seriously do people really think government workers sit there all day listening to GirlA tell GirlB that GirlC is a total skank slut? Do they care you bought the latest pokemon? What you had for dinner?
No one cares. The only time you need to worry about your "privacy" is when you're doing something illegal. Even then it's only the really serious stuff that would gain ANY attention. But the only way you'd most likely get caught is if you were already being actively sought.
No one is monitoring you.

I guess the one exception is downloading traced torrents that send red flags to your ISP. Though I honestly think it's more of a formality than anything...most ISPs don't seem to give a shit. I've been pirating things on an almost daily basis for years and have yet to receive one letter from Shaw. Even when people get letters, i've heard of people getting 4-5 with no action. Some care, most don't.

I guess the bottom line is, stop caring. You're wasting your life.

I don't care if the government is watching me; well I do, but there's nothing I can do to stop them. And as you say they don't really give a shit about my daily activities. I'm more worried about third parties http://donttrack.us/ and as mentioned previously a potential employer.