privacy

General October 16, 2017

How to browse the web really anonymously

I’ve seen a lot of articles on the web about how to browse the web while keeping your privacy. By that I mean, nobody knows who you are, what you are browsing, no history kept, no temporary files remaining on the machine. Most of the articles on the web are created to make advertising to some VPN products. What is the solution? I think that the only solution is to use Tor, more specifically, the Tor Browser. The Tor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked. Tor Browser lets you use Tor on Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, or GNU/Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained (portable). There is no other solution… VPN is just a part of the solution. In the end, the VPN provider records every single action you make online. By setting (temporarily) the…

automotive March 11, 2016

Responsibility for Vehicle Security and Driver Privacy in the Age of the Connected Car

Source: Responsibility for Vehicle Security and Driver Privacy in the Age of the Connected Car Sponsored by: Veracode, Created by IDC Author: Duncan Brown IDC conducted in-depth interviews with leading vehicle manufacturers and automotive industry representatives, as well as 1072 drivers across the UK and Germany. These are the questions that the survey had: What are the cybersecurity implications of the connected car? Around 30% in both countries are somewhat concerned” that such aids could be hacked and fail to operate as intended. If you then also include those who were “very concerned” and “extremely concerned” the total increases to over half (57%) in Germany and half (50%) in the UK. Who is responsible for ensuring the applications are secure? When considering who would be liable for a vulnerability in an application downloaded by the driver, nearly a third (32%) of drivers in Germany would hold the app developer responsible while for a quarter (23%) it’s the vehicle manufacturer, and for 22% the app store where they downloaded it. While only a fifth (20%) think they themselves should be liable. Where does product liability lie with regard to the connected car? German drivers (41%) and British drivers (51%)…

News July 30, 2015

Windows 10 and “we own you”: questionable default privacy settings

First thing you see after the Windows 10 migration is done is the “Customize Settings” dialog below. In a few words, Microsoft is trying to “own” the user that just got the “best OS of all times”, at least according to Microsoft. 1. Just turn everything OFF 2. Let “Smart Screen” ON, turn everything else OFF If you install a lot of software and you experience problems with them, you may want to enable the last option, “Send error reports and diagnostics to Microsoft” Last, after installation, you will see that near your programs, there are ads for Games that you don’t have. In the screenshot below you see Candy Crush Saga, which I don’t have installed. Once I click, I am redirected to the store to download it. Conclusion: When you install Win10, make sure that you go in the detailed configuration of the settings. If you don’t do that you’ll have to do all these configurations manually.

privacy, raspberry pi, security March 31, 2015

Set up an Ad-filter with Privoxy on Raspberry Pi for free

I hate ads… They are for many companies, unfortunately, the main source of income. So, they are a necessary evil in today’s world where everything is expected to be free of charge. In general, I use an anti-advertisements filter in the browser. Now I use AdBlock for Chrome. It is available for FF and IE as well. But, what do you do with mobile devices which, normally, don’t have such a filter? You use a filtering proxy or gateway. To set up a gateway with a transparent proxy (or filter) is more complicated. To set up a filtering proxy is very simple and here is how you can do it easily. What you need Raspberry Pi B (1 or 2) – you need a network interface and a large enough SD card (8 GB should do) Raspbian – the de facto OS for RPi Privoxy – as Privacy Proxy Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user…

privacy, quoted January 28, 2015

Comments on Privacy for “Data Privacy Day 2015”

My comments on Data Privacy Day 2015: Top Experts Comment on Privacy Issues (+Infographic) from http://www.cloudwards.net. Our society has become in a very short time digitally connected and the consumers didn’t have the time to understand the implications of data privacy on their lives. We can be sure that every provider of an online service is doing everything legally possible to obtain maximum information about its users. This is person related information, as well as information that the user is voluntarily (or not) sharing with others in online platforms. Because many people don’t take their online actions seriously or don’t understand the consequences, they tend to act differently in their online life than in their offline life. If I would have to give just two pieces of advice that one should remember about privacy, they are: When online, don’t tell or share with anyone something that you wouldn’t also tell them loud in a room full of people listening. It sounds scary? Think that re-sharing your comment with the entire world is usually one click away. Once you publish or upload something online, independent of your security and privacy settings, it doesn’t belong just to you alone anymore. It also belongs to the provider of…

privacy August 18, 2014

When do you hire your Chief Privacy Officer?

“Chief Privacy Officer” or “Data Protection Officer” is the name of the new job which will appear mandatory for businesses that are either located in the European Union or are doing business with EU. But, only if certain law is approved in October this year. Source: Networkworld.com The new law would apply to all companies operating in the European Union, no matter where they are based, and authorities would have the power to impose multimillion-dollar fines on any company that misuses Europeans’ data: either 100 Mil or 5% of the worldwide income of the company, whichever is higher. This is a lot of money… If passed and implemented as expected in the EU, there would be uniform data-privacy regulation for EU countries with a probable time frame of 2016 to take effect in full. Apparently, there is a clause in the law that stipulates that a company should obey this law if it processes data of at least 5000 individuals. This number might change … But, leaving the law aside, what does privacy mean? According to Wikipedia: Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacyconcerning the storing, repurposing, provision to third parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself…