Managing Privacy

This is a concise (though not exactly short) guide to managing your online privacy. Why should you be concerned? Really? Okay, there are lots of people who want to gain unauthorized access to your accounts, perhaps you are the rare breed of person who don’t want everyone you went to high school to know how to find you and last but not least, companies are harvesting massive amounts of data about your surfing habits. Fortunately, it’s not terribly difficult to protect yourself from such privacy violations, here are my most recommended actions:

Website Signup

There is a great new service you want to sign up for or you want to leave a comment on a website, but they require your name and email address.

Minor dangers/annoyances: Spamming your email address, being added to a database that can be sold to third-parties

Big danger: if you have to setup an account (with a password) it may be readable. If you are one of those people who uses the same password with all of your accounts, you just gave them (the proprietors of the website and anyone who hacks into their site) all the information they needed to login to your email account.

Fix It

1. Use a temporary email address. This is a great solution as you can check the temporary email address for your confirmation email, enable your account and you never have to hear from them (or their affiliates) again!  This chart (from Lifehacker.com) shows a comparison of temporary email providers.
2. Never use your “default” password in conjunction with your email address or an account name you reuse, EVER. I am not going to tell you that it makes sense to have a different password for all of your accounts, but employing a method that protects your privacy is simple and effective. The method I use is having two email accounts and a few memorable passwords. My Gmail account I use most often, and I have a Yahoo account that I sign up for services with.
   1. In determining what username/password combination to use on a website, ask: “What is my trust level for this website?” Trust level should correspond with how well known the site is (e.g. yahoo.com, google.com, nytimes.com vs. big-bobs-chickens-and-flooring.com, bitconsultants.net). If the trust level is high, you are probably safe to use a frequently used username and password. I still do not recommend ever signing up for a service using your email address and the password to that email address, it is very bad practice. If the site seems legitimate but you’ve never heard of it before, use a username and password combination that you never use with email/online banking/etc. If it doesn’t seem legit but you still want to create an account, use a temporary email address like those listed above.

Saving Passwords

You are on a shared computer (work, lab, hotel, etc.) accessing one of your accounts and you are asked if you want the browser to save your password

Major Problem: With a few clicks, someone can very easily read your username, password and what website it corresponds to. It’s not even a “hack”. Try for yourself (if you are in Firefox), click Tools > Options > Security > Saved Passwords > click on Show Passwords on the bottom right-hand side and …. uh-oh. Don’t save passwords if anyone else is going to use the computer, or while you are there, check the Use a Master Password option and set a password to protect your other passwords.

More: Never, ever use the following passwords:

• password
• password1
• 123456
• [your first name]
• [your pet's name]
• letmein
• monkey
• qwerty

Social Networking

Be very careful on social networking sites, they are full of people claiming to be people they are not, viruses and they do not take your privacy quite as seriously as you might. Read the website’s privacy policy and any content they have on safety: http://www.facebook.com/safety/. If possible, create groups of people and only post content to them.

Viruses

If you get a pop-up you don’t recognize saying you have a virus, hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open Task Manager and end the process (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.). You do not have a virus, clicking on the warning will give you the virus. Don’t download files from anywhere except known software/hardward manufacturers or tried and true sites that scan their downloads for malicious content like download.com or majorgeeks.com

File Sharing

There is no such thing as free lunch. Pay for the content you use. Limewire and Torrent clients are responsible for a large number of computer infections and data breaches.

Coupons/Deals

“This seems too good to be true”

If you get that feeling, go with it.

If you have other means of maintaining your privacy, please post.