Let's be free of Online Surveillance with Open Source Freedom

I hope most of you are aware that Government and other 'interesting' parties are always watching us. Before you start saying that 'Ughh, we are India, who cares about us' Or 'these are issues with first world rich countries like 'murica...' then you are totally mistaken. India is building a system as worse as PRISM (or already has) and it's 'probably' referred as #-Link-Snipped-#. My classmate works in DRDO and though I couldn't get much info, but it's pretty sure we have a evil surveillance system.

You can read more here: Mass Surveillance In India

Surveillance, eavesdropping and privacy breach in any form is bad. These softwares, systems, track you, follow you and stalk you. They know what exactly you are doing.

let me give you a simple example: have you ever saw a google adsense or facebook ad which is based on your last browsing history on Flipkart or Amazon? This is how it happens. when you visit these sites, they leave a small file on your machine (read about Http Cookie Tracking) and these small files help another site. So, that external site has access to your data (in some cases) and based on that they generate an ad.

This is not evil, but this is the simplest example I can give to let you guys know that you are being tracked. You can use chrome extension (or FF alternative) like #-Link-Snipped-# to see what all data a website is tracking.

Now I am gonna not gonna say stop using FB or Google. That would be entirely stupid.

Instead start using Open Source softwares. Always download Chrome/Firefox from their site. No other source! best would be to compile it yourself, but not thats easy for everyone.

If you don't mind spending, you can always use paid VPS services. They are better. Or Tor browser.

Now you will probably realise why that nerdy looking guy in your college was advocating for linux or open source in general.

However you have to beat the bigger evil. For that start with #-Link-Snipped-#

So, to summarize:
1. When a site has free signup, its not really free. You are giving your most valuable data i.e. yourself. (Facebook etc)
2. Get started with #-Link-Snipped-#
3. Use vpn if you have money or #-Link-Snipped-#.
4. Don't install random stuff from internet
5. Get an #-Link-Snipped-#.
6. Instead of Google, use DuckDuckGo — Privacy, simplified.. Most of the stuff you can easily find on it. If you don't, then use Google in incognito. (Thanks to #-Link-Snipped-# for mentioning this)

Replies

  • durga ch
    durga ch
    thats a nice post and lot of reading to catch up with.
    DuckDuckGo — Privacy, simplified. a search engine which does not track you. I have been using it sometime now and results pretty much are as efficient as google if not better.
    I recon #-Link-Snipped-# mentioned it sometime ago.
  • avii
    avii
    #-Link-Snipped-# thank you, had forgotten about it. Now added
  • avii
    avii
  • Abhishek Rawal
    Abhishek Rawal
    + You can install #-Link-Snipped-# to prevent applications leaking private sensitive data in Android.

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