Today, our online privacy can be compromised in multiple ways, whether through our emails, our files stored in a cloud, our past instant messaging communications, our internet browsing and even potential intrusion due to a virus. Futura offers you a list of tools to protect you from this.
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The protection of personal data has been a subject that has occupied the forefront of the news for several years now. On the other side of the Atlantic, the current trend does not lend itself to optimism, with the United States government increasing the number of laws reinforcing the interference of authorities in the processing and collection of users’ private data. Thus, in April 2018, the Cloud Act was enacted and allows law enforcement to compel cloud service providers to disclose the data of their customers, whether they are in the United States or not.
However, for the first time, an investigation was opened against Facebook, regarding the management of the personal data of its users which would have been used by the company Cambridge Analytica in order to manipulate part of the electorate and promote the election of Donald Trump. In Europe, the European institutions seem more sensitive to this issue, which is why the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which strengthens the rights of citizens of the European Union over their personal data by threatening heavy financial sanctions on companies that fail to meet their data protection obligations.
When personal data is traded
In the midst of this philosophical debate, should personal data remain private or are they a commodity? The user lambda has, in any case, every interest in protecting itself from the malicious acts of hackers: remember the hacking of cloud systems in order to steal very intimate photos from Hollywood stars and expose them for all to see on Internet. We also know that many malware, contained in e-mails, dangerous sites or programs that automatically install themselves on a computer, are intended to collect credit card numbers or any data that can be exploited in an illicit manner.
To all this is added the collection of your personal data which is a major objective of the web giants in order to drown you under a continuous flood of targeted advertising. The bottom line is these days, unless you’re an expert in computer security, it’s hard to know exactly how much of a threat you’re exposed to. Therefore, even if you don’t do anything illegal, it seems safer to encrypt all of your communications and files. To do this, Futura presents the most useful and well-known tools available to you.
Email encryption services
Even if Gmail ensures a good protection of your privacy against external threats, it scans your e-mails to then display targeted advertisements according to your preferences. If you don’t like this idea, there are email clients that secure all emails with the encryption end-to-end, that is, no one can read the emails except the sender and the recipient. ProtonMail is a software of this type, free, easy to use and based in Switzerland, therefore subject to the strict laws of that country with regard to privacy. If you don’t want to change your e-mail client, there is software available that is only used to encrypt e-mails and attachments.
The best known are Gpg4win which has the advantage of being free and Symantec Desktop Email Encryption which is rather reserved for professional use.
We can also mention SecureGmail which is an extension for Chrome to encrypt messages Gmail.
VPNs
VPN, or virtual private network, is software that creates a secure tunnel through the internet by encrypting your data as it passes through a public network. A VPN can overcome geographic content restrictions, which means it allows you to escape censorship and not be affected by content limitations depending on the country you are in. this, the VPN hides your IP adress and your location by assigning others to you virtually. Most VPNs offer a list of countries in which you can decide to locate yourself virtually. This is, for example, the case of TunnelBear (read also “The essentials for your pc in 2019 »), The Little version of which is free and easy to use, while being limited to 500 MB / month. A multitude of other VPNs exist and the difference between them is mainly made according to the speed connection, its stability and the types of data managed (some VPNs do not work for the P2P and torrents).
Web browsers
Most of browsers, among the most popular, integrate many tools to prevent the opening of malicious websites, evade the automatic installation of dangerous software and update themselves automatically to prevent their security holes from being exploited. But few of them offer to surf anonymously and ensure total respect for your privacy.
So, if keeping your personal data safe is one of your top priorities, then Tor Browser is probably right for you. It conceals the IP address, location and content you are accessing using multiple levels of encryption. This is the reason why Tor Browser is the most popular browser among hackers.
Encryption of data stored in a cloud
The data you choose to save to a cloud is in theory encrypted, but you have limited control over how it is encrypted and who can decrypt it. If you want to have a stronger mastery, then cloud services like Mega (the site replacing MegaUpload) allow the user to manage the encryption and the decryption Datas. If you are already a user of a cloud service and do not want to change it, then software like Cryptomator is used to encrypt the data upstream, then store it on Dropbox, Google drive, OneDrive, etc.
Encryption of text messages and video and voice conversations of instant messengers
The most famous instant messaging services, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp, provide end-to-end encryption for text messages. For this, they rely on the encryption technology of the company Open Whisper Systems which has created its own application, Signal, which you can use to secure your video and voice chats as well. If you don’t mind changing your mailbox, then Telegram has been specially designed to protect your data, since it is encrypted in a very complex way and can even self-destruct!
Encryption of data stored in a hard drive
BitLocker Drive Encryption, included in Professional and Enterprise editions of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10, is a data protection specification developed by Microsoft which allows you to encrypt the content of your Hard disk so that it is protected in the event of access to your PC and an attempt to steal your data.
If you prefer to choose an alternative solution to the one offered by Microsoft, then you can turn to VeraCrypt which is free, open source and based on the TrueCrypt tool.
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