Blog Reflection

This post is a reflection of all the posts I have done for this semester. This is to see all the work I have put into this, see what was good about it, and what I could’ve done better. Here is a list of the posts I have done so far, and all of the requirements they fulfil.

1. Introduction: (Experience Post)

2. Why Should you Care?: (Ethical Post)

3. Privacy Respecting Browsers: (Bonus Post)

a. Video

4. Privacy Interview: (Guest Post)

a. Video

5. Privacy For Teens: (Teaching Kids Post)

6. Hackers are not What You Think: (Pop Culture Post)

7. EV Batteries: (Linked Guest Post)

8. The beginning: (History Post)

9. Privacy Respecting Alternatives: (Virtual Exhibit)

a. PowerPoint (Written)

10. BLE Tracking (Poster Presentation)

11. Blog Reflection (Reflection Post)

I really have enjoyed writing on this blog way more than I initially thought I would. I can see myself adding to this blog even after this assignment is completed although at a make slower pace than I have been. I have learned a lot more about this topic while researching and have heard from others that they have too. Which was the whole point of my blog to begin with, so that all people may be informed about security in a simple understandable way. I am glad to see that this has been achieved. Although there are many things, I think could have been better. Many of my issues steamed from the blogging platform. Formation was a big issue for me, some things are hard to find such as links and even some posts seem to get lost, images and other basic formatting way harder than it needed to be as well. I might consider moving this blog to a new location, such as Wix, because of these issues. I made this choice in the beginning trying to make my blog more private and eliminate advertisements, but I think this was a bad call. I think these issues hurt viewer engagement as things may be hard to find and just doesn’t look as good. Another thing I struggled with was a consistent post schedule. Other Classes would take a lot of my time from this class, and then when I had some down time, I could complete posts in larger chunks. Overall, I am happy with my blog. I believe I did want I wanted to do, but there were some issues along the way. However, I can address these quite easily in the future.

Until next time,

Micah DeBoer

Privacy for Teens

As you grow up you usually get a lot more responsibility and freedom. A lot of this comes in the form of online freedom. You may be getting access to your own devices or be able to sign out and use more online services. However, with this freedom, it is a lot easier to compromise your online privacy and security. Also, with the lack of experience, it may be harder to spot potential scams or know what good online habits are. I want to provide you with a couple of rules or steps you should try to follow now, so you will be safer as you get older. Your older self will likely be thankful for it.

One of the most important things you can do is use different secure passwords for each service you use. This is something I wish I would’ve done earlier. Many times, services that are compromised will have their users' information leaked, meaning anyone can get their hands on this information. This information will likely include passwords, along with lots of other information. If you use the same password for everything, means if one site you use has an information leak all your accounts everywhere could be compromised. This may lock you out of your accounts or allow more people to get more personal information about you, like your card information or even in some cases your social security number. You might think having a different password for everything you do will be hard or impossible to remember. However, there are apps that can do that for you, like Bitwarden. This will keep track of all your login information in a safe and secure place where you can access them on all your devices. Best of all it is free.

Another thing you might see is phishing attacks. This is where malicious people will send you texts or email you about one on your accounts telling you need to login into your account, but they are just looking to get your login information. These emails look official and are hard to spot because of this. To avoid this, you should NEVER click on links that are sent to you unless you know why you have them or were expecting them. This will prevent them from getting your information in the first place. You can also use unique passwords, mentioned above, to limit the accounts they can get into if this happens. Lastly, probably the best thing you can do is use a two-factor authentication (2FA) app if you can. This will ask you for a number in addition to your password. It combines something you know, your password, with something you have, your 2FA number. This makes it so people can’t get into your account even if they have your login credentials because they can’t get your 2FA number.

These are some easy steps to get you started being online safely. I hope this guide was helpful and you learned something new. Thanks for checking this out and stay safe!

Micah DeBoer

Why Should you Care?

Many times, when people hear about internet security and privacy, they are quick to dismiss it because they claim, “I have nothing to hide” or they think “I’m a good person, so why should I care?” If this is you, I would encourage you to stop and read this post. You might think these augments are true, however, I’m here to say you do have something to hide, and even if you are a good person you should care about your online security and privacy. Many times, I feel these arguments exist because people are misinformed about what information is collected about them and how it is used. In this post want to explore these arguments and give counter augments to these and give you reasons why you should care.

By far the most common argument against caring about your online privacy is the “I have nothing to hide” argument. The problem with this augment is that everyone has something to hide whether they think it or not. Emilio Mordini states “People do not need to have "something to hide" in order to hide something.” (Mordini). You wouldn’t pass out our social security number to random people or let everyone know everything you've done. This proves you do have everyone has some things to hide. Something also doesn’t need to be a secret for it to be hidden. For example, when you shower you shut the door and use shower curtains. What you are doing in there isn’t a secret, but we take precautions to make sure that it isn’t seen. We should think this way about our online security and privacy. We should take precautions to keep secure the things we don’t want people to have, like personal sensitive information. We should also take steps to hide things people just don’t need to see or have access to. Like why do Google and Facebook need to track everywhere you go and everything you do both online and in real life? THEY DON’T! So why let them have access to that information?

The second augment I see a lot is “I’m a good person, so why should I care?” This argument is already a little like the “I’ve got nothing to hide” argument, so those same things apply here, but it also goes a bit further than that. First of all, this argument makes the assumption that the people who care about their privacy are inherently bad people. We know this isn’t true, we wouldn’t think this about someone we just meet out in public and they didn’t share everything about themselves. Second, people take information about good people and twist it to make them look like they aren’t good people. Bruce Schneier quotes, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." (Schneier). Lastly, good people should still take steps to protect themselves against evil people. People who are looking to collect and steal your information do not have your best interest in mind. We need to protect ourselves!

I hope this has made you think about your online security and privacy in a different light. As a couple of rules of thumb, think about your information online as you would your information out in public, if something doesn’t need information to function properly don’t give it to them. Finally, if something doesn’t have a clear business model, you are the product. You may be wondering what you can do to fight this issue, I will have posts coming out shortly about steps you can take. Until then stay safe! If you have questions email me at, privacy4all.ia6nj@aleeas.com.

Micah DeBoer

Recourses:

Mordini "Nothing to Hide — Biometrics, Privacy and Private Sphere." pp.257-260

Schneier, Bruce. "The Eternal Value of Privacy." Schneier on Security. May 18, 2006.