Individual Privacy Protection
Education
Educating people of the risks and how to minimise them is the single most effective means of privacy protection. Many times, privacy violations occur because the individual wasn’t aware they were doing something that put their privacy at risk. Some very simple ploys have been successfully used in the past to gain private information – such as faked emails purporting to be from a bank and requesting a customer’s account information, and people do reply. Simple education could eliminate most of these sorts of ploys, and greatly reduce the risk of individuals accidentally installing spyware.
People also need to be educated on the steps they need to take to ensure their privacy is kept intact. Simple measures such as securing their computer against malicious entry via the Internet, not transferring private information in insecure manners, and being aware of just what information will be accessible under certain circumstances all need to be explained to people before, not after, they need to know.
Software
The software used plays an important part in Internet privacy. Users need to understand their software and know its limitations. Software can be buggy – users should install the appropriate patches and upgrades if applicable, and ensure they keep their software up to date. The latest version of a program is hopefully going to employ the latest privacy protection methods, whereas an earlier version may have known weaknesses that have been exploited. In addition, certain programs contain spyware, or occasionally downright malicious code or viruses, which should obviously be avoided.
Anonymity
Individuals wishing to retain their anonymity while surfing the web will need to use a third-party tool, which will shield their real location. Certain other simple measures can be taken to preserve basic anonymity and limit the amount of personal information collected by servers while web surfing. These vary from browser to browser, but are commonly known and easy to find out. One other issue worth mentioning is that of Internet history, which is kept locally on a computer and isn’t normally accessibly via the Internet, but which would allow anyone with access to that computer to see which sites it had visited.
Sensitive information should not be sent via plain email. Email simply is not secure. There are several methods of encrypting email, which, unfortunately, aren’t cross compatible, but should be used if sensitive information has to be transferred via email.
Intrusion
Despite the best efforts of an individual to maintain the security of their privacy, there are always things that can go wrong. People need to be aware of these, and know when their privacy has been breached and how to respond. People with malicious intent employ all sorts of devious methods to gain access to private information. Although usually more of a problem for corporations, individuals do fall foul of malicious Internet intruders all the time. Simple software security measures and education are the best ways to avoid falling foul of malicious users. Most malicious users gain access via a known exploit or bug in common software or by getting a user to install malicious code – both methods fail when the user is aware of the bug and has it patched or doesn’t install the malicious code.
Firewall
A firewall is a hardware or software layer that goes between a computer and the Internet, and filters what is allowed in and out. It is both the first line and last line of defence against Internet intrusion, and a well-managed firewall can virtually prevent malicious intrusion. All people that commonly use the Internet should have a firewall and be competent in its management.
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