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Content type: Long Read
17th December 2020
As we see Covid-19 vaccination programmes beginning around the world, for the first time since the start of the pandemic there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel as the fruition of truly unrivalled global scientific efforts has given us hope of saving lives, reopening our societies, and going back to “normal”.
This great moment of hope must not be seen opportunistically as yet another data grab. The deployment of vaccines, and in particular any “immunity passport” or certificate…
Content type: Examples
10th December 2020
French data protection regulator CNIL fined Google and Amazon €100 million and €35 million respectively for breaches of the French Data Protection Act. The CNIL found that the French websites of Google and Amazon had not sought the prior consent of visitors before advertising cookies were saved on computers, and failed to provide clear information to users as to how they intended to make use of online trackers and how to refuse any use of cookies.
In relation to Google, the CNIL made an…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating systems first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Opt out of targeted ads
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy. To opt out of targeted ads on Windows, open the Start menu, go to Settings > Privacy > General, and disable all options (Fig. 1).
Content type: Advocacy
9th December 2020
Privacy International has written to the Southern Co-operative supermarket chain to express serious concerns and ask for assurances following a report that it "completed a successful trial using Facewatch [facial recognition] in a select number of stores".
Facewatch describes itself as a “cloud-based facial recognition security system [which] safeguards businesses against crime.” Premises using the system are alerted when Subjects of Interest (SOI) enter their premises through the use of…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Disclaimer: With macOS Big Sur, Apple enriched the support for browser add-ons, which are now available at the App Store. Although the ecosystem for privacy tools is still sparse, we might update this guide in the future.
To access the settings menu, open the Safari app and on the menubar click on Safari > Preferences... (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Overview
Pi-hole is a general purpose network-wide ad-blocker that protects your network from ads and trackers without requiring any setup on individual devices. It is able to block ads on any network device (e.g. smart appliances), and, unlike browser add-ons, Pi-hole blocks ads on any type of software.
The general setup works as follows (Fig. 1). You install Pi-hole on your server (in this case, we're using a Raspberry Pi) and assign it a static IP address. On your router, you set the DNS…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating system first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Warning: If you are using iOS 14+, targeted advertisements are opt-in by default.
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy.
If you want to opt-out of cross-app tracking, the first step is to go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking. Here, make sure to turn Allow Apps to Request to Track OFF (Fig. 1). This is your hands-off-my-data choice.
Tapping this tells the system not to share your Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) in…
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
Blokada is an ad-blocker acting as a VPN to block unwanted traffic based on hostnames (urls). This prevents ads and malicious data from being loaded by any application running on your device.
Installation
To install Blokada, visit its Apple App Store page, click on Get (Fig. 1), and confirm by clicking Install when prompted (Fig. 2).
Content type: Guide step
9th December 2020
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock which is a different project) is an independent and open-source ad blocker relying on a curated list of servers. It prevents your browser from connecting to these servers to serve you ads.
Note: There are many ad blockers on the market and you can test alternatives. By using an independent, open-source and free ad blocker, you are more likely to avoid products with conflicts of interest, spywares or blockers with "acceptable ads" programs…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Setup
On the Internet, requests to access websites are routed to IP addresses. Since IP addresses are hard to remember, we usually address hosts by their host-name (e.g. privacyinternational.org). As such, and because IP addresses can change frequently, when your computer wants to access a server by its host-name, it asks a DNS server what the IP address for that host-name is, so that it can route the request. Typically, your operating system first checks your system's hosts file for an address…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
The Advertising ID is a unique identifier offered by the MacOS Operating System that advertisers might use to uniquely identify you. It facilitates the creation of a profile by advertisers or data brokers that can later be used for advertisement targeting or other purposes.
Opt out of targeted advertising
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose with regards to your digital privacy. To opt out of targeted ads on macOS, open the System Preferences app, go to the…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
uBlock Origin (not to be confused with uBlock which is a different project) is an independent and open-source ad blocker relying on a curated list of servers. It prevents your browser from connecting to these servers to serve you ads.
Note: There are many ad blockers on the market and you can test alternatives. By using an independent, open-source and free ad blocker, you are more likely to avoid products with conflicts of interest, spywares or blockers with "acceptable ads" programs…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
To access the settings, click on the three-dot menu on the upper right and then press Settings > Privacy, search, and services (Fig. 1), or type edge://settings/privacy in the URL bar and press Enter.
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Changing settings in Firefox menu
To change basic privacy settings in Firefox, access the preferences menu by clicking on Edit > Preferences on the menu-bar, or by entering about:preferences in the URL bar, and then click on Privacy & Security (Fig. 1)
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated add-on, you can clean your cookies regularily to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficienty of online trackers.
This guide explain how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are geographically distributed networks of proxy servers that seek to provide features such as better availability and performances for websites. While the goal is commendable, it also means that these CDN providers receive metadata related to the websites you visit (where they are set up). With this is mind, you might want to sacrifice the added convenience and avoid large CDN providers (such as Google and Cloudfare) to prevent them from obtaining any data…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Installation
Like any other add-on, install Firefox Multi-Account Containers by visiting the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons page and clicking Add to Firefox (Fig. 1) and then clicking on Add when prompted (Fig. 2).
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated addon, you can clean your cookies regularily to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficienty of online trackers.
This guide explains how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Warning: Chrome is a Google product and as such embeds many mechanisms that might share data with Google. One such mechanism automatically links your browser to your Google account when you sign in on any Google service (e.g. Gmail). Consider using Firefox or a Chrome-based alternative (e.g. Vivaldi, Opera, Brave...) to avoid this. Alternatively you can disable some of these behaviours in the settings by following this guide.
Changing settings in Chrome menu
To access the settings, click on…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Privacy Badger is a browser add-on to block ads and trackers preventing companies from tracking your online activities. It keeps an up-to-date list of known trackers that it finds through automated tests (not conducted from your computer but by dedicated servers), and regularly pushes the updated list to your browser. This means that as soon as new ad servers are detected (say a new tracking company launch its product or an existing company deploys a new domain) they are blocked for Privacy…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
When you access a website, your browser sends a string called the User Agent containing your browser's name, operating system, and other technical metadata of your device. Unfortunately, this metadata is often abused by trackers to build a fingerprint of your system and uniquely identify you throughout the web. To limit the efficiency of fingerprinting you can install a random agent switcher which periodically changes your browser's user agent, making it harder to uniquely identify you.…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are geographically distributed network of proxy servers that seek to provide features such as better availability and performances for websites. While the goal is commendable, it also means that these CDN providers receive metadata related to the websites you visit (where they are setup). With this is mind, you might want to sacrifice the added convenience and avoid large CDN providers (such as Google and Cloudfare) to prevent them from obtaining any data…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Browser cookies allow websites to preserve session data such as your login credentials or items in your shopping basket so that you don't lose information when you close the page. Unfortunately, they are often abused to track your online activity across the web. Using a dedicated add-on, you can clean your cookies regularly to ensure that no unwanted cookie is kept in your browser, limiting the efficiency of online trackers.
This guide explains how to install Cookie AutoDelete, a web-browser…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
When you access a website, your browser sends a string called the User Agent containing your browser's name, operating system, and other technical metadata of your device. Unfortunately, this metadata is often abused by trackers to build a fingerprint of your system and uniquely identify you throughout the web. To limit the efficiency of fingerprinting you can install a random agent switcher which periodically changes your browser's user agent, making it harder to uniquely identify you.…
Content type: Guide step
8th December 2020
Blokada is an ad-blocker acting as a VPN to block unwanted traffic based on hostnames (urls). This prevents ads and malicious data from being loaded by any application running on your device.
Installation
To install Blokada, visit its Play Store page and click on Install (Fig. 1).
Content type: Guide step
7th December 2020
The Advertising ID is a unique identifier offered by the Android Operating System that advertisers might use to uniquely identify you. It facilitates the creating of a profile by advertisers or data brokers that can later be used for advertisement targeting or other purposes.
Opt out of targeted advertising
We have written before about the risks that targeted advertisements pose in regards to your digital privacy.
To opt out of targeted ads, open the Settings app and go to Privacy > Ads and…