Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
It has been two weeks since the Cambridge Analytica ‘major breach of trust’ incident happened as Mark Zuckerberg famously described it. I have read a number of articles covering the story in many different angles but I believe that we are missing the point.
To me, the discussion shouldn’t be focused on whether we should delete our Facebook accounts or not. The act of protest consisting of abandoning your Facebook profile and/or moving to another social platform will do absolutely nothing to help us have safe privacy environment online.
The discussion shouldn’t also be focused on how Mark Zuckerberg should fix Facebook. He won’t. It doesn’t make business sense. His team will tweak the platform’s data policy here and there just to take away the media attention from the company. And they already did it.
What I want us to focus our discussion from now on is how we can protect our identities and personal data on the Internet and, at the same time, continue to use our favorite tools and platforms. Facebook, all big social media platforms and data companies will continue to thrive because information is the new currency. But having privacy online is possible and there are legitimate ways to achieve it.
I strongly believe positive changes in societies happen from the bottom to the top. When there is adequate education, there is also a chance for positive change. A change of behavior, of habits, of technology, of culture. That’s why I’m writing this post to share a few tools we can use today to protect our identities on the internet and giveaway less personal data. I hope that this article will be a starting point for a new discussion, like I mentioned above. Feel free to contribute to the following list by adding your suggestions in the comments below.
Disclaimer: this is not a promotional post. All listed services and products are selected by me through my own research. I have been using the suggested tools successfully for the past couple of years. There are no affiliate links.
Opt-out of online behavioral advertising
Most of the ads we see on many pages are customized based on predictions about our interests generated from us visiting different websites in our browser and on other devices we use daily. This type of ad customization is usually called ‘online behavioral’ or ‘interest-based’ advertising. It is supposed to help support free content, products and services we get online but, most often than not, these ads are considered intrusive and spammy.
The Digital Advertising Alliance – a consortium of leading national advertising and marketing trade groups – developed a free tool you can use to control the collection and use of web viewing data for interest-based advertising and other applicable uses on your browser. It is called YourAdChoices and gives you the opportunity to exercise choice with some or all participating companies to store the preferences for your browser, using opt-out cookies or other technologies.
The DAA states that you may still receive other types of online advertising from the listed companies, which may still collect information for other purposes consistent with the Digital Advertising Alliance Principles.
The European Advertising Standards Alliance built a similar free web tool called YourOnlineChoices. Small text files known as ‘cookies’ are used by the participating companies in order to check your browser’s status and perform the opt-out choice you wish to exercise.
The EASA ensures that no personal details are stored in this process. However, non-identifiable data may be collected for the purposes of improving their website’s content.
It is important to note that both tools place the opt-out cookies in your browser. Deleting the cookies may remove your opt-out preferences.
Use Disconnect
There are thousands of companies that track our online activity and capture our personal information. There has been a continuous talking at cross purposes – how our data is being used, sold, or shared, and what we may actually want to do with it.
Disconnect is founded on a basic principle – you should have the freedom to move about the Internet – and your life – without anyone else looking over your shoulder. The company believes that everyone has the right to determine their own level of privacy and how their personal information is treated.
The team behind Disconnect developed a free tool, which enables you to block tracking requests from connecting to your browser. It literally makes the Internet faster and saves you bandwidth. There is also a paid app for Mac OSX and iOS that blocks trackers and malware across your entire device.
I have been using the free add-on for Firefox for many years and my understanding of the world wide web has changed dramatically. Behind every single page you visit is deployed an invisible network of companies that watch your every move. Disconnect shows you what is happening on the background of the pages, uncovers the identities of the companies that request your data and gives you options to cut their access off. It’s a very useful and powerful privacy tool.
Delete Facebook
How many of you have actually deleted their Facebook account? Despite all the #DeleteFacebook talking, data shows that we are using it more, not less.
If you go to the General Account Settings on Facebook, you will see the option to deactivate your account. The company states that it will disable your profile and remove your name and photo from most things you have shared on the platform. However, some information may still be visible to others, such as your name in their friends list and messages you sent.
The last thing Facebook wants you to do is permanently delete your account. That’s why they hid this option. If you really want to break up with Zuck and the gang, you can do it here (you must be logged in on Facebook on your browser to access it).
Another useful and also hidden privacy option is managing invites and imported contacts on Facebook (once again you must be logged in to access this).