Ten Free Things You Can Do To Improve Your Privacy

Sometimes starting down the road to regain your privacy can seem a bit overwhelming. So we started this list of 10 thing you can start on today to make that journey a little bit easier. Because the journey of a million miles starts with a single step.

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Ad ID’s Help Develop A New Type Of Shady Data Broker

The first thing we need to determine is whether you own the vehicle or whether it’s owned by someone else. If it’s a company car your boss might be able to legally track it durning business hours. Some places require your employer to notify you if you are being tracked during business hours and the details of that tracking. We are talking in ballpark terms, because it will very depending on your location. I would recommend that if it’s a company vehicle to just tell your employer about it and let them deal with it. What should you do if you are the owner of the vehicle. You are the only person who is legally allowed to track your car most of the time. Most places require police to get a vehicle tracking search warrant. Even if it is the police’s you can take it off your car. I would then recommend leaving it in an easy accesible public space, like a park. GPS Trackers are expensive and whoever placed it is going to want it back. If you take it off and place it inside your house they might come looking for it and try and gain entry into your house. It is just more of a pain than it’s worth. It might be helpful if you take a video of you removing it from your car and any serial numbers on the device. Also it might be good to show you leaving it in a public place. So you have proof in case it becomes a problem for you legally in the future.

User Agreements and Details From Many Companies.

How can you fight back against Google’s Trackers? You can log out of Google on that browser and delete your Browser search history and cookies. That way Google won’t have that needed computer code inside that particular browser to track you. If another browser is still logged into Google with Google Cookies then that browser can be tracked.

If your Google free web browser encounters Google then Google can make a ballpark guess about who you are. Just like it always does when it doesn’t find it’s computer browser code.

Let’s say your Surfing the web with on a computer with a clean browser, but right next to your computer is your smart phone that is logged into Google. Well Google can look at the fact that both of these objects have the same IP Address and that they are close to each other. Then they would determine that you are using that computer.

I would recommend that you download Chrome as your internet Browser and then do all your Google stuff on there. Then download another Internet Browser or a few and do your Non Google stuff on there. For people who are a little more extreme you can download an operating system like tails that clears your computer back to it’s factory reset every time you turn it off or on. My point is you have options.

But when it comes to Smart Phones most of them are designed that you need to be log into them 24/7 to get the phone or app to work. So that information is always there. Also it is always sending out your location data.

Who Is Using This Data And What Are They Using It For?

Browser Isloation, first you need to have several internet browsers on your device. Do all of your Google related things inside of Chrome. Use Chrome to sign into Google. Have other browsers that do all of your non Google things and never sign into Google. This way those other browsers can not be tracked by Google.

EXIF Metadata, When you take a digital photo now a days the photo might contain extra data that you don’t want to share. An example of this is that your phone might include the GPS coordinates of the location that photo was taken at. If you are taking photos at your house you might not want that information out there for everyone to have. There are Apps and websites that remove this Metadata for you before you upload these photos to the internet. Your should also turn off the camera on your cell phones ability to access your location. There is no reason to have this turned during your normal running around.

Some older phones have a physical SIM Card that you can remove. This stops your phone from transmitting its IMSI. The IMSI is your phones unique signature that says who’s phone it is and who your carrier is. This is what allows your carrier to find you and deliver you your messages. The issue becomes the government has devices called IMSI Catchers or Stingrays. They are also owned by spy agencies or hackers. They can be mounted on Drones or simply put in people’s backpacks and have them walk around in the crowded. They scan the area around them for phones IMSIs. This can be an issue if you are at a protest or doing something else that you don’t want to be known you’re there. The Issue becomes some phones now have a built in SIM Card. If your phone has an built in Sim Card then I would recommend getting a Faraday Bag, there are many companies that make them in different sizes and price points. Turning the phone off does not always stop your IMSI from being transmitted.

#1.

If you don’t have access to a VPN, then you can use your cell phones data plan or Star Link to help restore some of your privacy. When you connect to your home router to access the internet the website you visit has to know your IP Address so it known where to send the websites information. This simple fact can hurt your privacy. Cell Phone Carriers and Star Link use the more updated Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) internally. So to fulfill people’s requests to visit a website they have to take that request and transfer it to one of the cell company’s many internet connected routers that are set up to run Internet Protocol version 4. So when the website records what IP Address the information to it will only know that it is sending the information to one of Starlinks many Many routers. That is being used by many other people. It can’t see into Starlinks network, so it don’t know what customer requested this information.

To route most internet traffic to a desired website the web uses a system called IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4). Cell phones and Starlink use a more updated version of the system call IPv6. So if you turn off your cell phones WiFi option and visit a website using just your cell phone data an interesting thing happens. Your cellphone company has to take your request and translate it from IPv6 to IPv4. To do this cell phone companies have large collections of internet routers set up. So your request can get off their IPv6 system and onto the IPv4 system of the internet. So if your destination website is trying to track you they can only track you back to your cell phone providers router. Not your home location or cellphone’s IP address. Starlink has the same process they take your IPv6 request and use some routers to translate it into a IPv4 so they can then contact the website on the internet.

How do we know this is actually what’s going on? To start with turn off your phones WiFi and Bluetooth options on your phone. Now open up an internet browser and ask it what your IP Address is.

Internet Protocol version 4 is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. IPv4 was the first version deployed for production on SATNET in 1982 and on the ARPANET in January 1983. It is still used to route most Internet traffic today, even with the ongoing deployment of Internet Protocol version 6, its successor. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address space which provides 4,294,967,296 unique addresses, but large blocks are reserved for special networking purposes.

People Search Websites
Some Data Brokers use the information they get on people to make a People Search Website. These People Search Websites are designed so you can find an old friend or relative. They are also used to verify someone’s identity or help complete a background check. Occasionally people use them to find potential customers for their products if you have a specific customer base. Unfortunately for every heartwarming story of a long-lost family member reunited with their loved one, there is also an opportunity for criminals to use this information to help them find their next victim. For example, if you are a victim of domestic violence and you are trying to start a new life away from your abusive ex-partner. They can use this service to figure out where you have relocated too. Maybe for some reason your profession has gotten on the wrong side of some activist group. You don’t want a bunch of angry strangers showing up at your house when you’re not there and picking a fight with your wife or kids. But no matter what your personal situation is, we all are entitled to the right fade into the background. Criminals could also personally target your home internet network with the information that they got off one of these sites. They could Hijack your home network and cause all types of problems for you. They could pull off a phishing or impersonation scam.

Background and Identity Checks
Another area that Data Brokers get into is verifying you are who you say you are and helping their clients to mitigate risk to their company, organization, or pocketbook. This might affect your ability to join a club, get a job or qualify for a loan. Identity Theft is a big problem, so good on them for trying to help out with this issue. The problem becomes what happens when the information in your file is not accurate or miss leading. For example, the information you give to your doctor is protected under HIPPA. But the information you type into an online medical search engine might not be. So, you are watching a TV show and a main character has some strange embracing illness. So, you get curious and type the illness into an online medical search engine. This information might get added to your file. Thereby making potential employers wonder if you have it and if you’re going to need allot of time off work or if you’re going to run up your medical bills. That would be an example of miss leading information. Sadly, you might not know about the issue or be able to clear it up before the damage is done.

Credit Reporting Bureaus
There is also Financial Data Brokers, such as the three big credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They aren’t the only companies in this industry, but they are the ones you have most likely heard of. These companies specialized is sucking up all your available financial data out there. They use this data to make a profile on you and give you a credit score number. This number can affect your ability to get a loan, secure a house or car, or even get hired in certain fields. Sometimes you might still get the loan, product, or house, but you might get less favorable conditions You might have to pay more money in interest over the life of the loan, you might have to get a cosigner or put down a large deposit. The big problem with the Financial Data Brokers something prevalent throughout this industry, it’s the quality of this third-party information that they are using to form their opinions on you. Maybe it’s truthful and maybe there is an issue with it somewhere along the line. This is why in past articles we have encouraged people to get a copy of their credit report of their birthday every year and review it. Really it doesn’t matter the day just pick one and stick to it. Every year they are required to let you look at your report and you can talk to them about any inaccuracies you find. So that is a nice option that we encourage everyone to take advantage of.

Final thoughts.

Overall, here is the issue with Data Brokers, they have large amounts of personal information about you that they are selling to anyone with enough money. They also have data breaches that can cause your information to be leaked to anyone on the Dark Web. Some companies might claim they have some security measure to help protect your file from being directly linked back to you. But given enough information it is easy for professional to figure out that file #111 is you.

So Data Brokers are bad, you don’t want your name on their lists. But so many people are selling your private information to these Brokers what is the solution? You need to find a company that will help you remove your name from their list. They are required to do it but they don’t make it easy. Because if they did their company would go out of business tomorrow. That is where

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