Tips and tricks on how to maintain your online privacy and security

Privacy is not only your fundamental right (as per the August 2017 Supreme Court of India (SCI) Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) vs Union of India judgment), but it is also an intrinsic part of your identity that you need to protect from prying eyes. The matter is currently sub-judice over the constitutional validity of the Indian biometric identity scheme Aadhaar, but apart from Aadhaar, there are various elements of your ‘online’ world that you can secure byadopting an online anonymous browsing strategy in the following manner:

• Use a Use a Secure Browser with incognito browsing enabled

You should use secure browsers like Tor, I2P, Tails, Freenet, Freepto, etc. in order to stay anonymous while browsing the net. The benefits of such browsers are that connections are highly encrypted and they help you spoof your location by using the Onion network’s mirror-bouncing(multiple server locations bounced to reach the URL) technology.

The anonymous peer-to-peermirroring featureis helpful to avoid websites from tracking your location. Moreover, these browsers also have a competitive edge over generic browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari by not storing any of your browser histories so that any hacker doesn’t track your activities remotely. However, this service is slow since it connects to at least 3-4 web servers before taking you to your intended URL.

• Use VPN if you are not sure about Tor browsers

A Virtual Private Network or VPN is a network connection that helps you to create a secure connection to another location via a virtual tunnel to the VPN server which in turn connects you to your URL. All the internet traffic goes through this encrypted tunnel so that hackers do not snoop on your online activity. It is not as safe as Onion network since some VPNs do store your data or communications logs which might need to be submitted to a government agency in case of an inquiry.

• Use Ad-blockers always

> Always use Adblock plus and Ublock Origin so that you can block all types of malicious cookies and redirected ads. These ad-blockers are so powerful that they can also help you to block various elements of a web page from loading completely, for e.g. images, video links, third-party ad frames and also pixel-based ads as well!

• Don’t store critical passwords within your browser

Many hackers easily get access to all your online accounts by hacking your browser’s HOSTS file and seeing all the passwords stored in it. You can beat this issue by storing all your passwords in dedicated services like TrueKey by Intel, dashlane, LastPass or Zoho Vault. Most of these services help you enable two-factor authentication for your password access and also help you import application passwords so that you can login with one-click later (like fingerprint login or one-touch access)

• Avoiding falling for scams

Most hackers convince users into falling into a trap by asking them for personal information via emails (distress emails), site redirects (monetary phishing) or community scams (fake dire needs), etc. India has been hit by massive security incidents recently like the Mirai botnet malware (targeted IoT devices and internet routers), WannaCry (banks and businesses hit by ransomware), Petya (ransomware), etc.

The best way to avoid such scams is to avoid visiting scammy-looking websites. Check for the SSL certificate’s validity of the website, download APKs only from reputed providers and do not input personal information unless you are sure about the website/service’s authenticity.

• Reduce your digital footprint

Not everyone wants/needs to see your wedding pictures or where you spent your honeymoon! Avoid making your digital footprint (personal information) public by reducing the limit on who can access this information (like family, friends or friends of friends, etc.). The more activity you do on public profiles, the more information you are putting online about yourself.

• Don’t use untrusted cloud storage

Remember the infamous iCloud hack or the alleged Aadhaar data breach? All the stolen data was stored on cloud servers. Many people are now using services like Pogoplug and Transporter to make their own cloud storage, but they are not encrypted enough! Don’t use any cloud services that are based out of your country like Dropbox, iCloud, Evernote, Etc. for storing really personal information about you. If you still want to use them, use two-factor authentication always!

• Search engines

Don’t forget that Google or Yahoo! keep logs of your search activity even if you are signed out from their accounts. To make your searches completely anonymous, use anonymous meta-search web browsers like DuckDuckGo, Hulbee, Oscobo, startpage and ixquick to do invisible surfing via proxy services.

• Self-snooping

Here is a neat trick I always use to determine what a particular link or URL is redirecting to. Hover your mouse over a link and watch at the bottom of the browser about the URL’s expanded address. If it mentions any word like redirect, adserver, rightlclick, etc. it is an ad and will obviously redirect you to either a pop-up or a blacklisted website.

• Unlinking unnecessary logins

Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. now allow us to login to other third-party sites via our social logins on these sites. This option may sound convenient, but it is unnecessary because not every website in the world needs to know your correct credentials! You can always fill in fake information into unprotected sites (no SSL certificate) to avoid falling prey to hacking.

These are some important tricks you can follow in order to reduce your online presence’s visibility to hackers or stalkers and also give you peace of mind while browsing the vast web. Also, don’t forget to use reputed secure connections, firewalls and antivirus services whenever you connect to the internet!