If you’re not doing anything wrong, what have you got to hide? . This is a joke that often recurs when it comes to confidentiality and protection of personal data, but this objection is problematic because it implies that privacy consists in hiding something bad. It is not so. In a beautiful article for Wired , the American cryptographer and essayist Bruce Schneier gave a very precise definition of privacy:
We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.
Much of our life is online. With some small measures we can protect it.
Tools and apps that protect data and online privacy
Browser
Brave is a browser that makes privacy and security its strong point. While we browse, it protects us from phishing (a scam that deceives you into providing personal, financial or access codes), malware and malvertising (a new cyber threat designed to deliver malicious software through online advertising). In addition to these protections, active by default, Brave offers the possibility to customize the settings site by site. So while we are protected from unwanted tracking, we can instead support those sites whose seriousness we are certain. Brave’s servers do not store information, which means that our browsing data remain on our computer, inaccessible to third parties until we delete them. Another point in favor of Brave.
Other browsers that help protect our online privacy are Vivaldi , Safari and Firefox . Using them we can also get an idea of the amount of trackers blocked daily. Really enlightening!
DuckDuckGo has been around for nearly a decade offering completely private online browsing. It does not store IP addresses or other identifiers so we can rest assured that our navigation will remain anonymous and we will not be profiled. DuckDuckGo has all the amenities of Google Search – rich results, maps, images, videos, news, shopping, etc. – and in addition some additional customization settings such as the choice of colors, fonts and font size that allow the user to feel truly master of his online browsing.
Signal is the most secure messaging app of all according to IT experts. It is built with an open source protocol (public, therefore evaluable) and uses end-to-end encryption to keep conversations safe. It does not collect personal information or data or share it with others.
One of Signal’s biggest supporters is Edward Snowden. Can you trust Signal when asked ? he replies: “I use it every day and I’m not dead yet”.
The typical features of the messaging app are all there: in addition to text messages, voice messages, voice calls, video calls, group chats, documents, gifs and stickers. The latter are a little less numerous than other apps because Signal also requires the stickers to be end-to-end encrypted.
Video calls
How many video calls have we made since we are in lockdown? Countless. Also on this front we can protect our data by choosing privacy-conscious software. For Apple users, FaceTime is fine . Apple does not store calls on its servers, and calls are protected by end-to-end encryption when they are sent from one device to another.
Jami is an alternative for all platforms and all operating systems. It uses state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption, is fully peer-to-peer, and does not require a server to relay data between users.
Password manager
Essential to protecting our online data is the use of secure passwords (long and hard to guess). It is also important not to leave them written around, unattended. Post-its stuck on your computer screen can be read, but even the note apps where we often write down passwords for convenience don’t offer much security. Many of these apps are unencrypted and it’s easy for bad guys to get in and steal our data. To keep all our passwords it is best to have a password manager. I recommend 1Password : I’ve been using it every day, for years. When I have to register on a new site it offers me secure passwords and when I have to log in the password is just a click away.
HTTPS to protect the data of others online
With browsers, search engines, and apps we can protect our personal data. We can do the same for others by making sure that the websites we manage, personal or corporate, are protected by a secure HTTPS protocol . Unlike the old HTTP, HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer) protects data in transit from the user’s computer to the site server. The personal information that users enter for example in the contact forms will be protected from prying eyes thanks to end-to-end encryption.
And if you intend to place your site on search engines, using the secure HTTPS protocol guarantees you a certain advantage: HTTPS is a recognized ranking factor .