I used to not care a single bit about online privacy. Then I started learning about computers and the internet. Now I’m off most social media. I’d like to talk about how to stay private online.
The Problem of Centrality
Most of us tend to miss the point when it comes to privacy. The truth is, we’ve never had that much privacy. Historically, you knew the person at your local grocery store and they probably had a good idea of what you ate each week.
You also had a consistent job, and they knew how much money you made.
Your probably had a gym membership, and they could tell you what days and for how long you exercised each week.
And even in the beginning days of the internet, the services and companies were dispersed enough so that no single entity really had that much information about you. Sure, your bank knows a lot about what you buy and how much you make, but they don’t know what you look like or what you search for online.
Then The Game Changed
Years ago, one internet company realized that the money was in customer data, not customer fees.
This led to unknown sums of money being spent on developing and giving away free products on the internet and in turn logging every piece of data possible about it’s users, then turning around and selling that data to advertisers.
I am not calling anyone out here for foul play, we all should know what we’re getting into. But this situation is scary because our data is no longer dispersed among 50+ internet companies. It’s now dispersed among a few.
A Simple Analogy
The most common response I get when people find out that I am a bit of an online privacy enthusiast is, “Well I don’t need to worry about that because I have nothing to hide.”
When you use the bathroom in public, do you leave the stall door open?
By the time we truly understand the implications of a decade of our data, contacts, emails, texts, and searches residing on the servers of one organization, it will be too late.
A Few Easy Steps to Protect Our Online Privacy
We can wait another decade for regulators to step in and help protect us from the big bad wolf of Big Tech, or we can step up and do our part in using the internet safely.
There really are just a few easy things we can do to stay much more private online. Here’s my recommendation on how to stay private online.
Get a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
My first recommendation is to get a VPN and pay for it. If we don’t pay for it, then we are the product. Meaning, our information is logged and sold to the highest bidder, furthering this lack of privacy online.
I use ExpressVPN, but I made that decision 5 years ago and there might be a better option out there now. I’ve also heard good things about ProtonVPN. Also the DuckDuckGo people use TorGuard and I like them so maybe that’s worth a try as well.
Get a VPN and pay for it and you’ll be doing wonders for your online privacy.
How it works
Basically, when you turn on a VPN, it creates an encrypted connection between you [your computer, phone, or tablet] and the VPN computer. Once that connection is made, all of your internet use is routed through that VPN computer.
Think of it like hiring Bob to do your grocery shopping for you. You tell Bob what you want, he goes to the store and gets it for you, then he returns and gives you your grocery items. The grocery store doesn’t know it’s you that purchased all those groceries. They think Bob did. And as long as you’re paying Bob to do your grocery shopping for you, he won’t be as incentivized to give you up to anyone because he makes his living off serving you.
Reduce Our Social Media Use
While it’s sometimes easy to get mad at the “Big Bad Tech Giants” who misuse and abuse our data, it’s important to remember that we are complicit in all of this unilateral exchange of information.
We give google all of our photos because it’s free to do so and great when we want to search our past photos for that great spring break trip, or find a good photo of our brother.
We use Gmail because they have a great web experience and app! Even though we know all of our inbound and outbound emails get logged and used to build our online profile to be sold to the highest bidder.
And we spend hours a day on Instagram even though we know Facebook owns Instagram and uses all our information, DMs, likes, and other data to add to our digital profile and sell to advertisers.
Encryption and IP address anonymity (Benefits of using VPN) doesn’t do a thing for us when we are browsing YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or sending emails on Gmail. When we create a profile and use services like these, the platforms know who we are because we literally sign in! Nothing is private after we punch in our email and password.
Start Paying For Things
We have grown up in the age of “Well that should be free because it’s online.”
Gmail is free. Facebook is free. WhatsApp is free. Google search is free. Google photos is free. Chrome is free. Instagram is free. TikTok is free. YouTube is free.
If there was one thing worth taking away from this article it would be this, “If we don’t pay for it, we are the customer.”
- Get a VPN (and pay for it)
- Reduce our use of social media
- Start paying for things online (Email, Photo Storage, etc)
These three steps are the foundation to doing our part in staying private online. And while they won’t create an airtight protection on our online privacy, they are a heck of a lot better than doing nothing.