Keep your Internet Privacy!

How to Secure Your Internet Privacy 

Do you think your online interests and personal life should be YOURS? Can't afford a Swiss Bank Account but might like a Swiss Email Account? Read on my friend because the answers are below! 

Internet privacy is not simple but there are a few steps that anyone can take to increase privacy as you browse and communicate. None of these suggestions are foolproof. Savvy hackers, government security and corporate espionage use tricks that are unknown to the public and very difficult to defend against.

Here we will offer a few suggestions to dramatically improve your security against the universal snooping of your Internet Service Provider or ISP. You can do this yourself but if you want some help, contact me at freedom4all@protonmail.ch

Virtual Private Network

When you browse on the internet from your computer, tablet or smartphone, the information you see on the web page is transmitted across the network of your Internet Service Provider. Think Verizon, ATT, Spectrum, Comcast or Charter Communications. They can look at that information and see what you are looking at.  They know it’s you because you have an Internet Protocol Address assigned to you by the ISP. It’s like sending mail. The Post Office is like your ISP who knows who you’re sending it to and who it’s from. Your ISP can take the liberty to open your mail while they’re sending it back in forth.

The best way to prevent that is to use something called a Virtual Private Network or VPN. A VPN takes the information your device transmits and encrypts the stream so you ISP can’t read it. Your info is encrypted on your device and sent through your ISP too the servers of your VPN provider. It requires a huge amount of computing power to decrypt the info without the key so your ISP will not do that. It makes your info almost impossible to see. Imagine if you sent all your mail in a security envelope to a friend who then forwarded it to its final destination.

   

Of course, the weak link is your device and the VPN server. If your device is infected with Malware it can often get the info before it gets encrypted. If your VPN provider logs info you can still be monitored by them. This is why it’s important to run solid anti Malware software and use a VPN provider who does not log any data.

I recommend Private Internet Access. PIA is standout in a number of important ways.

1. Bandwidth is the amount of data you can send at any given moment. PIA has been reliable and provided ample bandwidth for HD streaming and downloading large files.  
2. PIA does not log traffic so they cannot provide your information to anyone.
3. A year’s access to the service for a $50 gift card means that PIA doesn’t know who you are.
4. A subscription to PIA allows you to use the VPN service on all your devices, PC, MAC, IOS & Android. Yes, this means you can encrypt your internet traffic on your Smartphone and KODI TV!
5. PIA has servers all over the US and world. You can look like you’re in NYC, SF, Japan or Brazil while you’re actually in your living room.
6. PIA’s servers use shared IP addresses so your internet traffic is all mixed up with lots of other traffic using the same IP address.
7. PIA is very active in the fight to protect privacy. If you do some research on internet privacy, you will find lots of useful information they put out. They are working hard to expose the government and corporate partnership to spy on you.

Dynamic Name Servers

Unfortunately, encrypting your internet traffic isn’t enough. When you type www.google.com into your browser, your network settings use something called a Dynamic Name Server to take you to the IP address that Google uses. Think of it like a phone book for the internet. Most devices are set to default to use the DNS of your ISP. This means that the ISP can see every site you visit because you’re using their phone book!  Typically, when using a VPN your settings are directed to use the VPN phone book. But your computer, smartphone and router all have their own settings which can redirect your search to the ISP DNS.

Changing the DNS settings requires a bit of computer savvy. The first step after installing the VPN is to run a DNS Leak Test to see what you’re currently using for a phone book.

If you find that you’re using your ISP DNS, there is some very cool free software you can run to determine which DNS will give you the fastest results from your location. Once that’s determined, the best step is to change the default settings on your router to use a DNS that is fast and NOT you’re ISP. Yes, that will mean someone will know which sites you’re looking at, but it will be a much more difficult prospect if that entity is NOT your ISP.

With a VPN and proper DNS settings you have made it much harder for your ISP to spy on you.  Now what about Google and Facebook?  It’s pretty tough to get around using these unique behemoths. You should know that every thing you tell them about you goes into your file. You’re paying for the “free” service by serving up the details of your life. If you don’t like that deal, there’s a few steps you can take.

Search, Pretty simple, use duckduckgo.  They don’t log your searches so you don’t get tracked.

Email. Encrypted? off-shore?  Proton Mail is both. I can’t afford a Swiss Bank Account but I do have a Swiss Email Account. With a solid app for Iphone and Android, Proton Mail offers a reliable secure solution to email.