Is our Privacy intact in the internet era?

Gone those days when we keep our doors and windows closed to sit back and stay relaxed while at home; and we also feel very safe in our personal rooms thinking that no one is stealing our privacy.

Now we are inhabitants of a virtual world which is surrounded by tech crawls. We also feel proud about having n number of gadgets. Needless to say that, these tech stuffs have made our life easier; we are using the gadgets round the clock from setting alarm in the morning, reading e-newspaper, checking email updates, setting reminders for the day, follow the drive mode in maps, taking selfies and posting them into social networking sites. The list never ends. 

In this changed lifestyle, are we keeping our privacy intact? Most of us are thinking that, we are having a good privacy because have got the best gadgets with latest OS and robust antivirus software. We aren’t safe, in other words we are much more vulnerable to lose our privacy. 

How to protect our privacy?

The virtual world is more prone to exposure of privacy than the real world. And there is no fail-safe plan to protect ourselves from the internet devices due to its diversity in usage. Thus, we need to be alert and take remedial steps for each type and kind of gadget we use.

The following list encapsulates the common task we do like browsing, using apps / software and gadgets. Furtherance, it highlights the quantity of privacy disclosure and how to protect our privacy thereof.

·         Web Browsers

Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge are some of the popular web browsers that we use. The browser collect information with respect to the sites we browse and based on our interest it shows ads or search results. 

While browsing in public internet enabled devices we can protect our browsing trails through private browsing mode. All of the browsers have got a private browsing mode with different nomenclature such as:

a.       Mozilla Firefox’s Private Window

b.      Google Chrome’s Incognito Tab

c.       Opera’s Private Browsing

d.      Microsoft Edge’s InPrivate Window

·         Android & iOS Apps

While browsing through a shopping site or a news site in our android devices, we used to get notifications to install their app. It isn’t a good idea to install apps for each and every site, because it will share our browsing trail. 

 

a.       Before Installing: The Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store are not that robust to check the ads or transmission of information to the developer company. We need to be rational and ask ourselves whether we really need to install it.

b.      While installing a useful App the App permissions also needs to be looked. For e.g, a news app should not be allowed to use the microphone and camera of our smartphone.

c.       Privacy Settings need to be reviewed and customized under settings of each app. For e.g, WhatsApp has got Last Seen, Profile Photo, About and Status visibility options; these can be set on how we want our visibility.

d.      Preinstalled Apps: Most android smartphones have got its own User Interface (UI) on top of the stock OS. These devices have also got preinstalled apps, which needs to be reviewed and if required it can also be uninstalled for clutter free experience. For example, preinstalled keyboard has got full user access for sharing anonymous unencrypted information about the keystrokes done by the user.

e.      Google Maps & Here Maps are helping us to navigate from one place to another easily. However, these software used to share the places we visit most often and ping relevant notifications.

·         Security Software & Operating Systems

Security or clutter cleaning software needs to be installed from trusted source. It should be from leading security agencies as well; for e.g, Symantec, McAfee, Quick Heal etc.  

a.       Prey is an Anti-theft solution for tracking devices & protection. It helps in finding laptop, phone and tablets when stolen or missing. It will send the GPS location and snaps of the user through the webcam/ front cam. However, this can be used in a wrong way by someone else; we should be very careful while lending over our gadgets.

b.      Pirated OS used to install rearm cracks which act as loop mode to avoid online activation timeline. The user used to skip the file while scanning through antivirus; later on it acts as a backdoor Trojan to gain administrative control over various application software into the computer.

c.       Rooting is a proven idea for reducing the bloatware and to enjoy custom Android ROMs.  Technically rooting doesn’t make the device vulnerable; but it may give root privileges to some applications for executing malicious codes. So always root the phone with trusted ROMs from XDA developer. We also need to update with custom security patches.

d.      Recover My Files is a tool which helps us to recover the accidentally deleted files from pen drive, hard discs and even from mobile handsets. We usually do factory reset before selling our mobile devices. Avast antivirus company has found that half the second hand devices had been suffered from a bug of Android that leaves data vulnerable to recovery, even after it has been deleted. Secure Delete is a free tool which can be used to clean delete the files.

·         Malware or Adware

Back-channel software have also a serious security flaw which secretly show targeted ads into the web searches.

a.       Superfish software used to preinstall in Lenovo laptops. The program was intended to allow Lenovo and other companies that paid it to secretly insert targeted advertisements into the results of users’ web searches. Superfish removal tool from lenevo can help uninstalling the adware.

b.      Browser hijacker is designed to change the browser's settings so that the search will be redirected to different websites. It also changes the homepage and search engine preference without our permission. Norton Power Eraser tool can be used to remove unwanted popups and site redirects.

·         AI & Robots

Artificial Intelligence and Robots are being developed to support the human beings through learning and problem solving machines.

a.       Xiaomi Mi Robot & Rumba Vacuum Cleaner Robot have shared the home layout designs with the company and its business partners. Initially it was meant to be used for better cleaning of home. So it’s better to use manual cleaners.

b.      Siri, Cortana & Google Assistant help us to accomplish everyday’ s digital task. These learn from our day to day usages for transforming themselves as a good virtual assistant. To protect ourselves from unusual assistance, we should least use them and also turnoff the always on capability under the settings tab.

Privacy is a Fundamental Right:

Recently we have seen progress in protecting our privacy and awareness thereof. We need to keep our eyes open, so that we could able to see what these companies are trying to do. To keep our privacy rights we have to decide which device we are going to purchase or give for repair.

 

 In July, 2017, the Apex Court of India has made a stand that, “privacy as fundamental right”. This statement came on the topic ensuring Aadhar based food distribution under right to food act. If so, then the court probably has to determine separately the various aspects of privacy and the extent of violation that could trigger a constitutional remedy.

                Let us hope that, we also should adapt privacy as our fundamental right. Having said that, we first need to be able to look into the privacy loopholes so that we could protect our privacy.