Protecting personal data

Thinking, that you are above reproach, is not enough to stop your personal data from being used against you by authorities, employers, marketing campaigns, hackers and sick people with or without your permission or authorization.

Personal data can be used for theft of identity, criminal activities, revenge and other critical abuse, that can give you severe trouble with authorities, debt and other traumatic events. You can as innocent even get arrested and emprisoned.

Make sure, that the personal data, you give, is proportional to your goal. An example of this is when you as a private person is buying a service or a product from a private company – and the private company asks for your social security number. This is not proportional to the goal and should be denied.

Make sure, that your service memberships, subscriptions and accounts use different  usernames, passwords and mail addresses. An example of this is when you use the same password for all services, such as computer, mail and social networks – and a hacker obtains the password from the least secure service. This might give the hacker access to surprising amounts of personal data about you and your relations.

Make sure, that you have a policy for using social networks. The policy should include your rules for privacy settings, personal data, content, applications, quizzes, relations and sharing. An example of this is when you make unverified relations or accept applications and share personal data, that can be abused.

Make sure, that you have a policy for content of conversions, chats and communication. You can assume, that most conversations are logged, monitored and recorded. This includes public areas, rooms of interest, fixed phones, mobile phones, messaging, mail and social networks.

Make sure, that you use secure encryption when transmitting or storing private data. Use digital signing and encryption of mail. An example of this is when you submit credit card details to an insecure non-encrypted payment service. Another example is when you store private data on an insecure non-encrypted computer, which is then lost during transportation, subject to theft or hacking.

Make sure, that you use and surf the internet anonymously. Replace the domain name service (DNS) servers of your internet service provider (ISP) with open DNS servers. Replace the mail service of your ISP with your own mail service. Replace the proxy server of your ISP or the direct connection to the internet with a connection through a network of virtual tunnels, such as Tor.

Make sure, that electronic devices, that leaves digital tracks, are turned off or is offline when not in use. This include mobile phones, computers, watches, sports equipment, security wear and other devices, that use trackable systems, such as GSM, GPRS, GPS and other networks.

Make sure, that you can get advice from a system administrator and a criminal defence lawyer.

Learn more at European Association for The Defence of Human Rights, European Digital Rights and IT Political Association of Denmark (IT Politisk Forening).

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