If there’s one thing that internet has taught us, it’s that privacy issues have always been a hot-button topic. Whether it’s social media, online shopping, email or even searching the internet, privacy matters.
Why does it matter? The answer is protection. Protection from identity theft (which almost always leads to having money stolen from you), protection from keeping the prying eyes of Big Corporate and/or Big Government out of your life, and so on.
Concerning internet privacy, certain things are better while others are worse.
"Don’t use the internet if your privacy matters to you."
Every time I write one of these articles there is always the "smart" person who says the above. It is a stupid statement because it doesn’t solve anything. It’s like saying, "If you don’t like your commute to work, don’t drive."
When you have a privacy issue on the internet, you don’t just abandon the medium altogether. Instead you work with it and understand your options.
Internet search
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Depends how you use it.
In the beginning there was no such thing as an account for a search engine, but now there are. Google, Bing and Yahoo! all have the option to sign up for an account and by default will record every search you make.
And even if you don’t have an account or if not logged in, all your searches are recorded regardless.
Concerning privacy, the worst way to use a search engine is with a site-specific account that’s logged in.
The best way is to use an alternative means of searching that uses no accounts whatsoever and "scrubs" (meaning cleans) the search results properly. For Google searching, that’s Scroogle.
What makes a Scroogle search better than Google concerning privacy? All Scroogle searches you make are deleted from their server access log within 48 hours. And with Google? Never.
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Worse.
This applies to webmail and not traditional POP or IMAP.
The worst thing concerning privacy is the fact that in certain webmail services (Gmail) there are machines reading your mail. It’s purposely done to identify certain keywords so the system can hock targeted advertising at you.
The advertising isn’t the problem because that’s always been in webmail. The problem is that every single one of your emails is being scanned. Every word. And while it’s true they’re not being scanned by humans, each of those scans is being stored somewhere and there’s not a thing you can do about it.
Bear in mind that not all webmail is horrible in the privacy department. In fact, some offerings are absolutely wonderful. Such an example is Hushmail. And their privacy policy is spelled out in very plain English; a refreshing thing to see.
Your ISP
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Better.
Years ago ISPs had obviously vague Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy documents. This was due to the fact internet was still a very new thing back then and nobody really knew how to handle privacy issues properly with it.
Today this is no longer the case. ToS/AUPs are very well written now and spell out completely what you can and cannot do, and moreover what information is shared and what isn’t.
Online shopping
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Better.
The internet is filled with horror stories of how people collectively lost millions of dollars due to online fraud, stolen identity, being ripped off and so on.
But you’ll notice these stories are fewer today. This is due to business, banks and credit institutions taking the internet seriously as a viable means of commerce, and implementing systems to protect consumers.
And no, I’m not saying online commerce is perfect. Far from it. But it is notably safer and better. Your personal information concerning your finances by and large is protected well.
Software – General
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Better.
There used to be a whole bunch of software that did nothing more than infest your computer with the goal of getting every scrap of personal information possible. Many remember these not-so fond times.
Today if any software maker puts out anything that even hints at being a personal-info grabber, it’s immediately blogged, Twitter’d, Facebook’d and the entire world is made aware of it within minutes.
Social Media
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Worse.
Facebook in particular is a complete train wreck in the privacy department. Signing up for the system is like applying for a job. All information must be true and accurate, and gosh darn it, if you move, YOU’D BETTER UPDATE THAT.
Don’t believe me?
Check out Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, section 4. The one that truly sticks out is point 5:
You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.
I will do this? Excuse me? Thanks for barking orders at your users, Facebook.
Social media has a long, long way to go before it gets to a point where privacy isn’t an issue.
Software – Updating processes
Better or worse now concerning privacy? Better.
One who is privacy-aware would immediately say, "Auto update features in software are by nature not very good concerning personal privacy."
And you’re right.
But what has changed is that you have ways of staying in the loop while having all auto-update features turned off.
Such an example of this Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification. If you’re the type who would rather not have Windows auto-update everything for you because of personal privacy concerns, but also don’t want to manually check for updates all the time, you’re covered. The Advance Notification service is available via email or RSS. This means you can be notified of updates completely outside of your Windows OS.
In the OS X operating system, for outside-OS/outside-app notification you use Growl.
In Linux it depends which distribution you’re using. One example is apticron for Debian. It will fire off emails daily notifying you of newly updated packages.
Your privacy is better protected due to the fact these options are actually available whereas before they weren’t. If auto-update features are a bother but you still want to keep your OS and software up to date, it’s very do-able now.
Overall
Things are better now concerning the internet as a whole and your personal privacy. Privacy/Terms documents are spelled out very well, options are present both in OSes and software titles where you can completely opt out of all auto-update features, and as far as the other stuff is concerned (search engines, social media, etc.), you have choice. You can Google with Scroogle, a Facebook account is not required to have by any means, and if webmail bothers you, use a mail client this way so you don’t have to switch email addresses.
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