Invasion of Privacy! Big Brother and the Company Hackers
As you can see in the next figure, you're surrounded by zones of privacy: The Public Zone, The Home Zone, The Computer Zone, and The Internet Zone, separated by a Technology Zone. No matter which zone you're in, you're susceptible to technology that has the potential to invade your privacy. The corresponding technologies are listed in the tables that follow.
| The Public Zone | |
|---|---|
| Digital Surveillance | Beeper tracking, Biometric recognition, ATMs |
| Aerial Surveillance | Photo enforcement, GPS tracking (On-Star), Speedpass |
| Cellular Surveillance | Closed-circuit video, Credit trail, Carnivore, RFID chips |
The public space is a database.
| The Home Zone | ||
|---|---|---|
| Telephone | Cell phone | Fax |
| Television | Cable TV | Satellite TV |
| Utilities | ||
| WI-FI |
You're not alone when you're at home.
| The Computer Zone | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hard Drive | Floppy Drive | Removable |
| File sharing | Viruses | Piracy |
| Operating system | Software | Drivers |
| Bugs and patches | Service packs |
Who knows what actually lurks on your computer?
| The Internet Zone | ||
|---|---|---|
| ISP | Web Browser | Privacy/Security Settings |
| Cookies and Web bugs | Downloads | Shareware |
| Spyware | Worms | Spam |
| | Trojan horses | E-commerce |
| Instant messaging | File sharing | Web site privacy policies |
| Digital authentication | | Information brokers |
| Hackers | Crackers | pop-up ads |
There is no privacy on the Internet.
Zone Defense
It's no coincidence that the most popular personal firewall on the Internet is called ZoneAlarm. Whatever zone you're in, you're susceptible to technology that can invade your privacy, but in most instances there are technological or physical countermeasures to prevent it. This book is a repository of counter-measures to help you build a "defensive zone" all around you! You'll need to tweak some security settings and install some software, but you don't have to be a computer whiz to do this. My last book, which dealt with Internet auctions, HTML, and e-commerce, was far more technical. The real objective of this book is to convince you to change your mindset because if you don't, you're a sitting duck!
You'll find links to download ZoneAlarm and other useful security utilities on the Invasion of Privacy homepage at http://www.mjweber.com/iop/privacy.htm.
Trust
If you're old enough to read this book, you grew up in an era when it was safe to trust other people, institutions, and yourself. But nowadays trust is marketed like a candy bar. VeriSign sells its much-vaunted trust seal of approval for cold hard cash. Does that mean you should automatically trust every site that displays a VeriSign seal? Of course not! What's to stop an enterprising scam artist, for example, from downloading VeriSign's seals, just as I did for this book, and displaying them on his fly-by-night Web site? You've got to start using your head by connecting all the dots. Nowadays it's unwise to trust anyone , especially yourself. The first security leak you must plug is you.
We are programmed to trust other people. It's hardwired in our DNA. Think of yourself as a Manchurian candidate and of this book as your deprogramming tool. Programming ”and trust, for that matter ”is a product of habit. Protecting your privacy is as straightforward as changing some bad habits. But old habits die hard!
Rats and Habits
Take a lab rat. Place him in a maze with five tunnels and hide a piece of cheese at the end of one. What happens? The rat explores each tunnel until he finds the cheese. Now repeat the same experiment several times. What happens? The rat learns to skip the empty tunnels and heads straight for the cheese. Now alter the experiment. Move the cheese to a different tunnel. Does the rat give a rat's tail? No! He sniffs his way up each tunnel once again until he finds the cheese. To the rat it's just a big game. He plays because he loves cheese. Do you know the difference between human beings and lab rats? Lab rats have more common sense! In the game of life, the cheese gets moved (the rules get changed) all the time, but human beings paradoxically don't catch on when the cheese is gone. We blindly go down the same tunnel over and over again out of habit.
Habits are like the River of Life, longer than the great Mississippi and more powerful than the mighty Colorado. It was here long before you were and will be here long after you're gone. Each day you wake up and go through the daily ritual of preparing for your ride on the River of Life by habit! You brush your teeth, put on your clothes, sip some coffee, and then head down to the riverbank and put your rickety old canoe in the water. You have two choices: ride with the tide or paddle against it. Rowing against the River of Life is a backbreaking job! You must maintain balance, position, and direction, while paddling frantically to get where you're going. Each stroke you lose, you lose ground. And the river doesn't care what direction you're headed; it keeps flowing in the same direction it always has.
Take a cue from the lab rat. Learn to change old habits! Drop your paddle, sit back, and go with the flow. Or one day you could get trapped in the rapids without a life vest.