I just read about a father who was teaching his little daughter to make up things about herself when asked for information on line. While he didn't want to encourage lying, he didn't want her to reveal too much about herself. It's not a bad idea.
We are all building an on line identity every time we place an order, fill out a survey, do a google search or send an email. Even though we are wise enough to not answer the most invasive questions, like what is your annual income (!), the great computer in the sky knows. Dare we give fictitious answers when asked irrelevant questions in our doctor's office? Will a glib, somewhat smart aleck, answer follow us to our grave?
Google, Bing and Yahoo all track our activity, not for nefarious reasons, but to create personsl data banks to use for commercial reasons. Facebook encourages sharing personal details of our daily lives, including the activities and whereabouts of our children. Ebay knows what we buy and what we sell and what we window shop for.
Is it possible to live a modern life and maintain some level of privacy? Yes, but it isn't easy and definitely requires more knowledge and dedication than I have. A starting place to anonymize your on line self is Tor, according to Wired magazine.
"Though it’s hardly the sole means of achieving online anonymity, the software known as Tor has become the most vouchsafed and developer-friendly method for using the Internet incognito. The free and open source program triple-encrypts your traffic and bounces it through computers around the globe, making tracing it vastly more difficult. Most Tor users know the program as a way to anonymously browse the Web. But it’s much more. In fact, Tor’s software runs in the background of your operating system and creates a proxy connection that links with the Tor network. A growing
number of apps and even operating systems provide the option to route data over that connection, allowing you to obscure your identity for practically any kind of online service."
I haven't tried it and don't know anything about it so this is not a recommendation, just a discussion. I don't even know what operating systems it is compatible with. I certainly have as little as anyone to hide. But the day my real name and identity appeared on my blog ( through my fault changing my google account ) I was absolutely panicked until I could reestsblish my Willet persona again. Of course it only protects me from persons as inexperienced as myself.
We are all building an on line identity every time we place an order, fill out a survey, do a google search or send an email. Even though we are wise enough to not answer the most invasive questions, like what is your annual income (!), the great computer in the sky knows. Dare we give fictitious answers when asked irrelevant questions in our doctor's office? Will a glib, somewhat smart aleck, answer follow us to our grave?
Google, Bing and Yahoo all track our activity, not for nefarious reasons, but to create personsl data banks to use for commercial reasons. Facebook encourages sharing personal details of our daily lives, including the activities and whereabouts of our children. Ebay knows what we buy and what we sell and what we window shop for.
Is it possible to live a modern life and maintain some level of privacy? Yes, but it isn't easy and definitely requires more knowledge and dedication than I have. A starting place to anonymize your on line self is Tor, according to Wired magazine.
"Though it’s hardly the sole means of achieving online anonymity, the software known as Tor has become the most vouchsafed and developer-friendly method for using the Internet incognito. The free and open source program triple-encrypts your traffic and bounces it through computers around the globe, making tracing it vastly more difficult. Most Tor users know the program as a way to anonymously browse the Web. But it’s much more. In fact, Tor’s software runs in the background of your operating system and creates a proxy connection that links with the Tor network. A growing
number of apps and even operating systems provide the option to route data over that connection, allowing you to obscure your identity for practically any kind of online service."
I haven't tried it and don't know anything about it so this is not a recommendation, just a discussion. I don't even know what operating systems it is compatible with. I certainly have as little as anyone to hide. But the day my real name and identity appeared on my blog ( through my fault changing my google account ) I was absolutely panicked until I could reestsblish my Willet persona again. Of course it only protects me from persons as inexperienced as myself.
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