A couple of days ago, I attended a great session on surveillance and internet privacy. While the debate rages on, one point that really hit home for me was the perspective of the ones conducting the surveillance; they look at everyone as potential criminals. And looking at it that way, I suddenly find that I’m annoyed by this approach. It must be opposed. And if legislators don’t care, then I must.
I’ve posted previously about tools that help enhance privacy online. One area that I failed to cover was search. Searching on google or other engines we reveal a lot about ourselves; whether it is about books, music, movies – personal taste, or medical conditions or concerns, etc. And this data, in the hands of a ill-intentioned person, can be embarrassing or worse.
So, I decided that more measures were needed – and I’ve gotten myself two tools:
- HTTPS Everywhere
- Secure search engines: blekko and ixquick
There’s more that can be done.
Some options are:
- Tor anonymization
- Proxy servers
- Cookie blockers
- Flash cookie blockers/deletors