Big Brother is Real

And it is watching you.

The famous book 1984, by George Orwell, describes a dystopian society where everyone is under constant surveillance. At the time, it was fiction. Now, much of it would be better classified as "current affairs". The unfortunate truth is that we are all being watched every day. The internet is spying on you, in the same way that the Party does in 1984. This is why privacy advocacy matters. We need to make Orwell fiction again. In this article, I have compiled my top 5 tips to avoid Big Brother, as well as some of the biggest tracker services that are watching you.

1: Beware of the Telescreen

Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and other similar devices have been gaining popularity as a convenient way to play music, get information, and control smart home products like lights and thermostats. Products like these are part of the Internet of Things (IoT). While IoT products can have benefits, they are also carrying microphones and sometimes cameras, which they can use to collect your data just like the telescreens in 1984. Amazon workers can listen to your conversations with Alexa devices. Many of these smart home products have vague privacy policies from companies that often engage in shady practices. To protect your privacy, you should keep these devices out of your home.

2: Optimize Your Browser for Privacy

Google Chrome: your worst enemy on the web. To optimize your browser for privacy, get rid of it. If you use another browser already, good job. You will need to check your browser for important privacy features. If it doesn't have one of the following features (tracker blocking, fingerprinting protection, a good privacy policy, https requirement), get rid of it. Then you need to get a new browser. For information on the best browser to choose, see my browser reviews articles. Once you have set up your browser and configured it for privacy, it will be much harder for people to track you. If you still want more privacy, consider a VPN or an extension like Ghostery.

3: Clean up Your Devices

It's not just your browser that's tracking you. Other apps can report to Big Brother too. Before installing any app, check its privacy policy. Make sure your apps aren't mining your data. If an app isn't private, try finding another, more private app that does the same thing. If you can't avoid using an app, make sure to give it as few permissions as possible. On Apple and Widows devices, you can do this in settings by going into the privacy section. On Android, it's under Apps > Permissions. On Linux, it's a little more complicated. One common scenario where people often use non-private apps is when texting Android users from an iPhone. It turns out, however, that you don't have to give Facebook all of your data (Messenger or WhatsApp). For these purposes, use the privacy focused, end-to-end encrypted app Signal. Even with a VPN, this step is still necessary as VPNs will not protect you from apps that steal your data. This is because an app transmitting your data is an intended communication from your device, which will not be blocked.

4: Protect Your Network

One common way that hackers get into your devices is through your Wi-Fi network. While it seems like Wi-Fi routers are a set-and-forget technology, they actually need frequent security updates. You can update your router by going to the provider's website and logging into your account or by entering its model number (which you should find printed somewhere on the unit) into your browser's address bar along with "update router firmware". Another way to protect your network is to encrypt your communications with a VPN or similar service. This will work even when you are on other Wi-FI networks or cellular data. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. VPNs work by encrypting your data and routing it through a server to its destination. This also allows you to get an IP address from a different region to access region locked content, get around government restrictions, or stop websites and apps from collecting location data (note that any software that needs this data, like local weather or maps, will not work). If you can't afford the $100/year price tag, DO NOT get a free VPN. They are just shams to cover up data mining. Instead, use an encrypted DNS handler like NextDNS. They make their money from customers who pay to get more queries, so they don't need to sell your data.

5: Optimize Your Device

Once you have done all of the other steps on this list, the last place that is still mining your data is your device itself. Unless you are running Linux, someone is getting some of your data. To minimize this, you will need to configure your device's settings to ensure maximum privacy. These settings will vary depending on your operating system, but usually control the same permissions, including location sharing, password strength, lock screen notifications, analytics, and app tracking. Ultimately, the only way to truly protect yourself from your OS is to choose one with a strong privacy policy.

Who's Watching?

The following is a list of websites, apps, and services that are most likely to be watching you. Many of the sites on this list have been sued many times in multiple countries for massive violations of major privacy laws. These sites and apps are to be avoided at all costs.

#1: Facebook

Facebook and its parent company Meta mine your data in every way possible. Meta embeds trackers on websites to watch you, tracks you across your phone when you install one of its many apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp), and has violated GDPR and other laws on numerous occasions. The Meta Pixel, a tracking beacon used to monitor web traffic and to analyze how users interact with a site, is one of the most prevalent trackers on the Web. To protect yourself, remove all Meta apps from your devices and install browsers with tracker protection. If you must use Facebook, do so within the Firefox browser with Facebook container extension to protect your data.

#2: Google

While Google is better known for its search engine and browser, it is actually an advertising company. Google operates a vast network of trackers that can be found on any website with Google ads, and many without them. The reason its services are all free to use is because they are just means to an end. That end is to collect your data and use it to sell ads. To protect yourself from this tracking, stop using all Google services and install a tracker blocker or tracker blocking browser. If you are unable to stop using Google services, minimize your use of them, use a tracker blocker, and consider using a VPN.

#3: Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms (eg. TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat) have some of the worst privacy tack records of any app. While Facebook and other Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp made it to the top of this list, other platforms aren't much better (and are sometimes worse). For example, the video sharing platform TikTok has recently been in a lot of legal trouble over concerns that it was sending vast amounts of US user data to its parent company ByteDance in China, which could then be easily accessed by the Chinese government. The platform has also been involved in many investigations into GDPR violations along with other platforms. Social media companies make money by selling your data to advertisers, who can follow you around the web with targeted ads. The only way to keep your data safe is to not use these platforms. If you can't stop using social media, you should take precautions, such as only using them through websites in secure browsers, denying app permissions, entering false data when an app asks for personal information, and using a VPN.

#4: Amazon

If you have an Alexa or one of the many other devices Amazon markets as part of its "ambient intelligence" smarthome product line, this should be at the top of your list. Most of these devices have microphones, and all of the ones that do are listening to you. Amazon even has humans that listen to the audio from these devices. If you look at the list of devices Amazon has proposed, it's pretty creepy. One of the devices is a bedside sleep tracker that watches you sleep with a camera. Another is a robot that follows you around your house. These devices all send massive amounts of data back to Amazon, who can use it to sell ads.

Even if you don't have an Alexa, Amazon still operates one of the largest web tracker networks. Amazon Web Services, an API for cloud services and other web development applications, has embedded tracking features and analytics tools, which give data to Amazon about your web activity. AWS is used by many websites, so you probably visit at least one of them on a regular basis. This data is also used for advertising purposes, and to suggest items on Amazon's online store.

This article was published on January 6, 2023 under Internet Security

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