The Philippines is one of the increasing number of countries with a privacy law that protects its citizens. Unfortunately, just like most laws in the country, implementing it is its weakness — at least we have not heard of a “big fish” getting convicted criminally for violating this law. That being said, Filipinos must take it on themselves to ensure that their data remain private, specially when online. This year, 2021, privacy will be one of the most controversial subjects online — so it is better to be ahead before **** hits the fan, so to speak. Here are some actions you can do to take back your privacy online:
Beware of FREE
If you are not paying for a product, then somehow you are subsidizing it with your data, i.e., your data is being collected, analyzed and used to generate revenue. A free e-mail service, a free social media service, a free photo sharing service, a free messaging application — you name it, and most likely, these are subsidized by your data that is being collected. What is worse, is that the companies behind most of these products make it their objective to manipulate you to make you addicted so they can continue collecting more data off of you. Always think — how are they going to earn money to keep the free product free?
Subscribe to an e-mail service
First things first, subscribe to an e-mail service. This is one of the most important online services that you need to secure as it is one of the basis of your online identity. It is also the most universal online communications medium on the internet. I would recommend subscribing to Protonmail.ch or fastmail.fm.
Once you have subscribed to an e-mail service, it is recommended that you check out simplelogin.io or anonaddy.com — these two services provide you with e-mail aliases that you can use when signing up on different online services. Having unique e-mail aliases will make it difficult for data aggregators to associate these accounts to you.
Browse as if no one is looking
When you use the most popular browser today, Chrome, what your browsing history is saved, collected, analyzed and used by Google. There is no secret when you use Chrome! Remember Private Browsing or Incognito does not protect you from the prying eyes of Google! Choose a privacy-preserving browser, such as Safari, DuckDuckGo, Firefox, or Brave.
Search Objectively
There was a time when using Google gives you an objective, non-personalized set of results. This is long gone. No two persons’ Google search results are the same! Google provides you with a set of results personalized based on who you are, or at least what it knows as you.
Use DuckDuckGo.com or Ecosia.org as your search engine, or use a meta-search engine (a service that searches different search engines for you — as your proxy) like searx.info.
Block, Block, Block
If I am not mistaken, almost 90% of all websites have one or more trackers in one form or another. These trackers invade your privacy by informing the owner of the trackers about the websites you have visited, when you have visited, using which browser, on what device, among other things. It is best privacy practice these days to have a blocker for these trackers. You can use a browser plug-in such as EFF’s Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin or Better.Fyi. For a network-wide blocker, I recommend deploying your own pi-hole.net or using nextdns.io.
Look before you click
Oftentimes, we receive a recommended new website or a new mobile application from a friend or relative. Be careful before clicking, specially those long cryptic website addresses. Run a website address through Blacklight, https://themarkup.org/blacklight, to see if you will be tracked if you access it. Run a new Android application through Exodus Privacy, https://exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ to do the same. If you are on an iPhone, by iOS 14.3, applications will need to inform you what data are being used and for which purposes.
Do not overshare
We all love taking photos and videos. Before online photo sharing services, photos were printed and kept in physical photo albums — shared only to select people. This progressed to digitizing photos and sharing them as e-mail attachments that were sent to select people. To preserve your privacy, refrain from posting photos that have your face or identify a location. The same goes for your friends and family members.
Oversharing goes specially true for parents sharing photos of their children, from ultra-sound photos to every embarrassing situation they’re in — sharenting, as it is called, takes away your children’s agency! (Parents, did you ask your kids if they want everyone to know every single bit of who they are even before they become adults?) Parents, stop sharenting!
To share photos, subscribe to an online photo sharing service that will not mine your photos as data to train machine learning algorithms (for object recognition, or worse, facial recognition!). I use Flickr.com.
Similarly with videos — choose a service that does not use data collection as a business model. Personally, I use vimeo.com.
Own your content
Posting articles, photos and videos on social media sites means transferring ownership, in a way (perpetual and unrestricted permission to use it), to the social media companies. Let 2021 be the year when you start taking back ownership of your online content. Start a blog at micro.blog or write.as — which are services that allow you to easily download and transfer your own content to another. Remember, before social media, there was, and still is, a network of blogs!
Tighten your belt
Declog your smartphone and tablet by eliminating privacy invasive applications. Yeah, social media apps are notorious — think Facebook and Instagram. Ditch messaging applications like Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Viber, too! And yes, remove all Google applications, which are all data collectors for Google. Unfortunately, if you are using Android, the only way to protect yourself from Google’s data collection is by replacing the operating system with a more privacy-preserving Android version! Why do you think Location History cannot be turned off completely?
Learn to JOMO and not FOMO
Detoxify your online life. Delete Facebook and Instagram entirely — they’re not good for your mental health. If you cannot avoid deleting Facebook for Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), at least learn how to use it — as a marketing tool for your blog! It is *not* a source of news (as it is full of hate and fake), nor is it a means for communication (remember not everyone is on Facebook — I am definitely not — and almost everyone has e-mail). Learn the Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO), remember, if they are truly your friends, they will reach out to you even if you are not on Facebook or Instagram!
As for Twitter, learn how to use Lists and categorize who you follow. Remember the filter bubble (surrounding yourself with those you only agree with), so it is best to know and learn about ideas that do not conform with yours, but avoid re-tweeting mis/disinformation and hatred.
Be visual
Reinvigorate your relationships with family and friends by communicating via e-mail, voice calls, and now video calls, without the distractions of a busy timeline full of hatred, negative vibes, fake news and staged photos and videos! Video calls are better as visual cues are important to minimize being misunderstood. I recommend using FaceTime or Signal.
So here’s to a more private and happier online life for you this 2021! Happy New Year!