EOTO 2

Final Post

 I would like to use my final post to expand on a topic I briefly discussed in my first EOTO, that being advice for Privacy and Security. The internet is a dangerous place, and there is a lot of misinformation going around on how you can best protect yourself. I would like to take the time to examine some popular pieces of advice and share my opinions on whether they actually work and are worth implementing in day-to-day life.

 Privacy vs. Security

Privacy and Security are two concepts that are often confused in everyday conversation, which makes sense because they are very similar. Practices that are good for one are very often good for the other.

Security is the protection of your data from malicious actors, like hackers or malware. The goal of good security is to protect your data from being stolen.

Privacy is the protection of your data from being watched and abused by the entities you willingly give it to, like your internet provider or Google. The goal of good privacy is to limit the amount of data they have access to.

Practical Advice

There is lots of advice on practices that you should use to enhance privacy or security. Some of that advice is good, some of it is bad. All of it is subject to a tradeoff, though. Every action you do on the internet is a tradeoff between privacy or security and convenience. You almost always cannot have both things at once. Therefore, there are some practices that may be extremely beneficial for privacy and security, but you will not be able to implement them because they are simply too inconvenient. The quest for good privacy and security might seem hopeless because of that, but it is no reason to give up. Just because you have holes in your defenses doesn't mean you should tear down the whole wall. Any defense is better than no defense. Many privacy/security measures can be implemented independently of one another, and you should always try to implement as many of them as you practically can.

 

Number One: Stop Using Chrome

I’ve chosen to begin with a heavy hitter. This is a piece of advice that I absolutely, whole-heartedly agree with. If you can avoid using Chrome, you should do so. Every aspect of Chrome is designed to harvest as much of your personal data as possible. It is (in my opinion) probably the single most common piece of spyware installed on almost every computer. There are plenty of other, more private, web browsers out there, like Firefox, Brave, or Ladybird. If you can use one of those, you should do so.

Pros:

-Stops Google from spying on you

-A lightweight web browser might help your computer run faster\

Cons:

              -Some websites might be broken on other browsers

              -Might decrease security depending on your alternative browser

Number Two: Use a VPN

This is a piece of advice I cannot agree with. VPN companies put a lot of effort into making sure people don’t actually understand what VPNs do, so rather than examine the pros and cons I would like to examine which of their claims are true.

1.      They keep you private from you Internet Service Provider

This is technically true, but it’s not helpful. Yes your VPN might protect your data from your ISP, but now the VPN company has it instead. It’s out of the hands of one devil and into the hands of another.

2.      The encrypt your data to protect it from hackers

This is another true but unhelpful claim. They do encrypt your data, but your data was most likely already encrypted anyway. You don’t need a VPN to do it.

3.      It is safer to use a VPN on public Wi-Fi

This one is just false. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. They are just lying. A VPN works by routing your internet activity through a third-party server to obfuscate who it is going to. If you are on the Starbucks public Wi-Fi when someone hacks their router, your data will be going through that router even if you use a VPN. You will be compromised too.

4.      You can access content from other countries or bypass your country’s content restrictions

This might be the only entirely true claim VPN companies make. You can access Australian Netflix using a VPN. If you’re in a country with internet content restrictions you can use a VPN to reroute your traffic and get around them. If you want to do either of those things, you should use a VPN, otherwise, I do not think it is worth it.

Number Three: Only Use HTTPS Sites

This is a short and sweet one. HTTPS is what VPNs wish they were. It actually encrypts your data. It’s also free for website users, and pretty much every website has HTTPS, so you are probably already using this advice. It’s also so cheap for website hosts to implement that if they don’t, it’s a good indication that they are sketchy. You should only use sites with valid SSL certificates. There are literally only benefits and no downsides.

Pros:

              -Encrypts your data

Cons:

              -None

 

Number Four: Use End-to-End Encrypted Messaging (Signal)

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you’ve probably heard of Signal. Recently some government officials decided to use Signal to communicate their top secret war plans and accidentally added the chief editor of the Atlantic to their group chat, leaking everything. Obvious this has gotten them in some hot water. If you are a member of the United States Federal Government and you are trying to communicate confidential information, please don’t use Signal. Otherwise, it’s pretty great though.

End-to-End encryption means that only you and the other person in your chat have the encryption keys. Signal does not. They store no data from its users. They have actually been subpoenaed multiple times by the FBI trying to get information on criminals from them. All Signal could provide was the criminals’ names, the phone numbers they signed up with, the date and time they signed up, and the date and time of their last sent message. That is all. They are almost completely private.

Pros:

              -Encrypts your messages

              -Does not store your data

              -You can delete local data after a set time

Cons:

              -Probably none of your friends use Signal

Number Five: Use a Password Keeper

Password managers are really convenient. I personally use one. That convenience is very much subjected to the tradeoff though. Despite their claims, password managers are not very secure. They have data leaks all the time. This is because they are a gold mine for hackers and indent thieves. All of that data stored in one place is very valuable and makes password managers an obvious target.

Pros:

              -Super convenient

Cons:

              -Constant data leaks

Number Six: Be Anonymous

Anonymity is fantastic for both privacy and security, and it’s often pretty easy too. All you have to do is not give away your personal data whenever possible. If the phone number box is optional, don’t fill it out. If you don’t have to put in your real name, don’t. Use burner email addresses whenever you can.

Pros:

              -Your data can’t be stolen if it doesn't exist

              -You cannot be tracked if you have no name

 

Diffusion

 

I will go the generic route for this post and examine social media through the lens of Diffusion Theory. There are two ways this could be done: either looking at social media as a whole or looking at one social media platform in particular. I am going to go with the former.

The main reason why I think social media caught on as much as it did is just because people like it. They like seeing what their friends are up to, and social media makes that really easy. I think many people adopted it early because they were tech savvy and realized this was going to make it easier to do that. Many late adopters were likely peer pressured into it. All their friends are on it, so why aren’t they?

There are many downsides though, which are likely the reason why most laggards have still not adopted social media. I personally am a laggard, so I can speak for myself on this one. The primary issue with social media, for me, is its complete lack of privacy. There are two angles to this. First, I do not want random corporations to know everything about me. They have a bad habit of using peoples personal information to manipulate them into developing an addiction. I do not need that in my life. I also do not really want to be connected with my friends via social media either. I find it to be shallow and superficial. If I want to have friends, I want to have real friends, not internet friends. If they want to tell me what they did last weekend, they can do that in person. Those downsides do not outweigh, or completely negate the disadvantages of social media for myself and likely for other laggards too.

I do not think being a laggard is necessarily a bad thing, nor is being an early adopter necessarily a good thing. I think the qualities of the positions on the curve vary a lot from technology to technology and from person to person. Yes, being an early adopter can make you rich or famous sometimes, but a lot of the time you just end up wasting your energy. Yes, being a laggard can make you miss out on some of your friends lives, but it can also protect you from major privacy violations. The quality of each role is not necessarily fixed, but something to be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Antiwar

 

I would like to qualify this post a bit before we begin. It should be assumed by my status as a student that everything stated herein is purely speculation by a layman. All of this is entirely conjecture, and I am in no way whatsoever committed to my opinions. On this topic, I am no better than the average conspiracy theorist. Because of that, I would normally refrain from commenting on a topic like this at all. However, that is the assignment, so here it goes.

I think there are two main reason why antiwar voices go unheard in mainstream media. The first is very simple: war is not a relevant subject right now. We are not currently at war, nor have we been at war to any notable degree in decades. It would be irrational to expect the mainstream media to discuss something that is not happening. If there is no war to be against, how could we expect anyone to be against it? The only way you will find antiwar voices is by looking at smaller sites commenting on foreign wars or wars generally. I do not think it is some big conspiracy, it is just that we as Americans do not care right now.

If I had to get conspiratorial though, there is a possible, more sinister reason why we do not hear antiwar voices. A significant section of the American economy is built on our military industrial complex. It is an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. If people suddenly became extremely antiwar, all of that money would vanish. The mainstream media, being largely owned or operated by massive companies (i.e. the ones that make military supplies or benefit from the industry in some way) have significant incentive to ensure that antiwar voices are not heard. That is purely speculation on my part though, and I do not have enough evidence to commit to that opinion. I am much more inclined to go with my first answer.