World War Privacy Part 1: The world has gone to hell in a handbasket (guide)

World War Privacy Part 1 is the first of simple guides to enhancing your online and physical privacy. It is practical-based on what anyone can do to fight back.

How do you think Albo reacted when his private phone number, private address and way more personal information were released after the Qantas hack? That precious phone number he has had for decades, and only known to his closest friends and allies.

How would you react to knowing that if you did business with Medibank (9.7 million customers), Latitude Financial (14 million), Optus (9.7 million) and hundreds more companies, that your personal information is on the dark web? There is a comprehensive list of Australian breaches broken down by year here.

Pissed off is probably not strong enough.

Privacy is multifaceted

Let’s start with the extreme definition of staying off the radar.

Live in a cave, only use cash, cover your face to avoid facial recognition, don’t own a car or mobile phone, no TV (even free-to-air), no internet or social media, never get sick, and grow enough food to be self-sufficient.

Even so, there would be a birth certificate and likely employment and medical records, as well as public surveillance cameras, as no one can escape Big Brother. But you can limit what you share – anonymity.

The closest thing to this is the Amish community, which does not reject technology outright but is selective in its use, carefully weighing its potential effects on their community and family life.

Privacy is no longer the right to have information about oneself used fairly, and the right to be left alone. Privacy, post-internet, is all about being extremely careful.

Privacy is no longer a simple matter of protecting physical space (what you do in your home) and digital space (what you do online), but a complex issue encompassing data security, digital surveillance, and evolving social norms.

For example, physical privacy. Most homes are:

• Not properly physically protected or unassailable. Few security doors are invincible, bars on the windows are so unattractive, and deadlocks are a joke with a timber frame.
• Designed primarily on outmoded trust concepts (only secure the front and back door). That may keep an honest person out, but it is an enticing challenge to a criminal.
• Well surveilled by Google or other maps, including aerial and street view.
• Within recording distance of public owned CCVT cameras and microphones.

The expansion of the online world has fundamentally changed how personal information is collected, used, and exposed.

 For example, online privacy:

• Any phone, smart or not, gives relatively accurate location information based on phone tower triangulation.
• Smartphones add Bluetooth beacons (in stores), GPS, and Wi-Fi triangulation
• Have smart devices like phones, TVs, speakers, security cameras, IoT, Smart power/water/gas meters and a home Wi-Fi network to tie them all together.
• Any internet-connected device gives its IP address, allowing for reverse location lookup
• Your browser search history is captured by cookies, transparent GIFs, Internet providers and government agencies
• Every online activity generates valuable hidden metadata.
• And younger generations have been brainwashed to share their data to get something for free.

Government surveillance is widespread.

Australia is part of the Five Eyes (UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand) using technology that can intercept any digital content, including telephone, fax,  e-mail, SMS, RCS, and data traffic over satellite, cable, undersea cable, wireless, laser and more.

The basis is that keywords, concepts, themes and relationships are identified in the data stream. AI is now being used to assist in mining the masses of data.

CyberShack’s View: World War Privacy Part 1 is just the beginning

World War Privacy is about the ongoing and ever-intensifying threat to personal privacy from governments and corporations via increased surveillance, data collection, and erosion of anonymity. While researching World War Privacy Part 1, the following themes emerged.

Privacy is about people knowing who you are but not knowing what you are doing. 
Anonymity is about people knowing what you are doing but not knowing who you are.
We lost the battle for personal data privacy long ago.
We can win the battle via anonymity and not giving our data away.

World War Privacy Part 2 looks at physical privacy.
World War Privacy Part 3 looks at online privacy.
Let’s see where World War Privacy leads.

Anonymous Planet has a very long and complicated guide to privacy, which is above most people’s pay grades.

Cybershack has two articles that are very relevant and a good weekend read.

Cybercriminals hire locals to spy on you

Surveillance – here’s looking at you, kid