The only way to take back our freedom is to take action; Five ways to protect your online information

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

I want before you read this article to accept one very important fact; your internet usage is being monitored. Yep, there is big money in behavioural advertising and even the government is paying for the privilege of knowing what sites you are visiting.

Cookies are one of the primary web tracking technology devices data brokers use to collect information on consumers, and behavioural marketers combine information gathered from sites that have been tracking your habits through cookies for years.

With the increase in activity there has been on the internet due to the pandemic, our information is readily available to those who want to target YOU. Your name and address, lists of web pages you have visited, searches you have conducted, purchases you’ve made online, videos you have watched, notes you’ve posted to social network sites, and much, much more are collected, correlated, saved and studied.

What this does is allow marketers to paint a detailed picture of your online life, which in a lot of ways translates to your waking life. They now take this information and sell it to the highest bidder. Does reading this make you uncomfortable? It should.

The introduction of the World Wide Web has been a double-edged sword: it is ground zero for both the greatest public awakening in our recent history, and simultaneously the central instrument of the most terrifying mass manipulative tool we have ever faced. Now that we know this, our job as your community newspaper is to present you with solutions to deal with this invasion on your privacy.

I received an email from Dr.Trozzi called “The Beginner’s Guide to End Big Tech Brainwashing “ (https://drtrozzi.org/2022/01/26/a-beginner-guide-to-end-big-tech-brainwashing/), and I thought that readers might find it informative. When navigating the internet, it is important that we equip ourselves with the tools and the awareness to discern between what is true, and what is propaganda.

What can you do?

Stop funding Google with Money and Data
Search engines like Google make their money from advertising. It is a huge market. It is called “pay per click”. What is creepy is that when we use Google, our data is collected and stored in giant databases, monitored by AI, and based on our search history; advertisements follow us wherever we go online.

The best first step you can make is to just stop using Google. Switch to non-bias search engines with a respect for privacy, like DuckDuckGo; the internet then becomes a safer place.

Shake off Trackers
Not only are your search phrases recorded, they also track you across YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, Android, G-maps, and all the other services they run. A substitute like Brave Browser is similar to other browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge, but it prides itself on blocking ads and trackers, saving you broadband and time online.

If you’re using a private search engine like DuckDuckGo and a good browser like Brave or Tor, you’re already in good standing.

Hide your IP address and location. VPN (Virtual Privacy Network)
When you do anything online, your IP address is bare, naked and vulnerable. The solution: use a VPN.

When you use a VPN, you connect to a different server, which interacts with the host server on your behalf. The host has the impression that your IP is that of the VPN you are using, and your real IP address is concealed. Some suggestions given were either CyberGhost or Nord VPN.

Secure your communications
It is difficult to communicate through the internet securely. There are phone apps like Signal, Facebook owned WhatsApp, and Telegram, which promise privacy and end-to-end encryption, but you need a phone number to register, which is of course tied straight to you.

There are some instant messaging software that show great promise notably the Pier-to-Pier QTox. You can message; call and video chat, but since there is no central server, both users need to be online at the same time to communicate.

Finally …

If you found this article informative, share this with others. The only way to take back our freedoms is to take action.