In The Fight for Privacy, law professor and MacArthur fellow Danielle Keats Citron examines the threats to our intimate privacy in the digital age. She defines intimate privacy as the right to keep our bodies, health, gender, and relationships free from unwanted exposure and exploitation. She shows how this right is violated by various actors, from corporations to individuals, and how this harms our dignity, identity, and love. She also proposes ways to protect and respect intimate privacy, as a civil right and a social good, for ourselves and the next generation.
Privacy Hive has written several blog posts about Firefox, a popular web browser that offers many features and options to customize your browsing experience. Individuals with a high personal risk profile, such as those who handle sensitive information or are in the public eye, may need to take additional precautions to protect their digital privacy. One of these options is the Firefox configuration manager, which allows you to view and modify advanced settings that are not available in the regular settings menu. This blog post will explain how to access the configuration manager and what privacy-related settings you can change to enhance your online privacy.
How to Access the Configuration Manager
To access the configuration manager, type “about:config” in the address bar and press Enter. You will then see a warning page that says, “This might void your warranty.” This is because changing some of the settings may affect the stability and security of Firefox. Therefore, you should only proceed if you know what you are doing and be careful not to change anything you are unsure about. To continue, click “Accept the Risk and Continue”. You will then see a list of preferences, each with a status, type, and value. You can use the search box at the top to filter the list by preference name.
What Privacy-Related Settings to Change
Many preferences affect your privacy in different ways. Some relate to how Firefox handles cookies, tracking, fingerprinting, geolocation, WebRTC, and other features that may expose your personal information or online behavior to third parties. Here are some of the more important preferences that you can change to enhance your privacy:
browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled. If this setting is “true,” Google can scan and store the sites you visit for the presence of malware. Set this value to false.
privacy.firstparty.isolate – This preference isolates all browser identifier sources (e.g., cookies) to the first-party domain to prevent tracking across different domains. To enable this feature, set the value to true.
Privacy.trackingprotection.enabled – This blocks website tracking. Set the value to true.
privacy.resistFingerprinting – This preference makes Firefox more resistant to browser fingerprinting, a technique that uses various characteristics of your browser and device to identify you uniquely. To enable this feature, set the value to true.
dom.battery.enabled—This technique tracks your battery usage. To block this information, set it to false.
network.cookie.cookieBehavior – This preference controls how Firefox handles cookies, which are small pieces of data that websites store on your browser to remember your preferences, login details, or other information. Third parties can also use cookies for tracking purposes. To block third-party cookies, set the value to 1. To block all cookies, set the value to 2.
network.cookie.lifetimePolicy – This preference controls how long cookies are stored on your browser. To delete cookies at the end of the session, set the value to 2. To delete cookies after a certain number of days, set the value to 3 and specify the number of days in the network.cookie.lifetime.days.preference.
network.http.referer.trimmingPolicy – This preference controls how much information is sent in the Referer header, which tells the website you are visiting where you came from. This can reveal your browsing history or other sensitive information. To send only the scheme, host, and port in the Referer header, set the value to 2.
network.http.referer.XOriginPolicy—This preference controls when to send the Referer header across origins, which are different websites or subdomains. Set the value to 2 to send the header only when the full hostnames match.
network.http.referer.XOriginTrimmingPolicy – This preference controls how much information is sent in the Referer header across origins. To send only the scheme, host, and port in the Referer header of cross-origin requests, set the value to 2.
geo.enabled – This preference controls whether Firefox allows websites to access your geolocation, which can reveal your physical location. To disable geolocation, set the value to false.
media.navigator.enabled – This preference controls whether Firefox allows websites to access your microphone and camera, which can reveal your identity or surroundings. To disable media access, set the value to false.
media.peerconnection.enabled—This preference controls whether Firefox supports WebRTC, which allows real-time communication between browsers, such as video calls or file sharing. However, WebRTC can leak your IP address, even when using a VPN. To disable WebRTC, set the value to false.
Conclusion
By changing these settings, you can improve your privacy and reduce the risk of being tracked, identified, or exposed by websites or third parties. However, these settings are not a complete solution. You should also use other tools and methods mentioned in other Privacy Hive blog posts to protect your online privacy, such as a VPN and browser extensions blocking ads and trackers. You should also review your settings regularly and update your browser to the latest version. If you have other suggested configuration changes, please let us know. Stay safe, and happy browsing!
In today’s digital landscape, search engines are pivotal in our lives. Whether researching a topic, shopping for products, or seeking answers to burning questions, search engines are our gateway to the vast online universe. However, not all search engines are created equal. Privacy-focused search engines have emerged as a crucial alternative for users who value online privacy. Let’s explore why they matter and the pros and cons of three popular options: DuckDuckGo, Startpage, and Searx.
Why Privacy-Focused Search Engines Matter
1. Safeguarding Your Data
Most mainstream search engines act as data collection tools for advertising companies. They track your every move, collecting information like your IP address, search queries, and browsing history. Your private details—medical conditions, political beliefs, financial information—are all fair game. These data points create detailed digital profiles, and you unwittingly become the product. Privacy-focused search engines, on the other hand, prioritize your anonymity. They do not collect, share, or sell personal data, ensuring your searches remain private and confidential.
2. Escaping Censorship
Online censorship is rising, affecting our ability to access information freely. Some search engines filter, manipulate, or block search results. Unfortunately, even many private search engines fall prey to this problem. When Google and Bing use censorship, alternative search engines that deliver the same results follow suit. It’s a vicious cycle. However, some privacy-focused search engines strive to maintain neutrality and avoid censorship.
Searx stands out as a community-driven, open-source metasearch engine. It aggregates results from various search engines while respecting user privacy. Here are its key aspects:
Pros:
Customizable: You can host your own Searx instance or use existing ones.
Privacy-Centric: No tracking, no ads, and no profiling.
Diverse Sources: Pulls results from multiple search engines.
Cons:
Technical Complexity: Setting up your instance requires technical know-how.
Variable Quality: Search results may vary based on your chosen instance.
Conclusion
Privacy-focused search engines empower users to reclaim control over their online presence. Whether you opt for DuckDuckGo, Startpage, or explore community-driven alternatives like Searx, remember that your privacy matters. Choose wisely, and let your searches remain your business, not someone else’s.
Smart TVs are becoming more popular and affordable, but they also have some hidden risks to your privacy and security. When you connect your TV to the internet, you access streaming services and applications, allowing the TV manufacturer and other third parties to collect data on your watching behavior. This data can include what shows you watch, how long you watch them, what ads you see, and even what you say or do in front of the TV.
Some of this data collection is done to provide personalized recommendations and features, but some are also used for advertising. Your TV data can be shared or sold to other companies, who can utilize it to create profiles of you and your household. These profiles can reveal your interests, preferences, habits, and location. They can also be used to target you with more ads, both on your TV and on other devices.
This can have severe implications for your privacy and security. You may not want strangers to know what you watch, when you watch it, or where you live. You may not like to see ads based on your personal information. You may not want to be tracked across different platforms and devices. And you may not want hackers to access your TV and spy on or harm you.
So, how can you protect yourself from smart TV snooping? This blog post will explain how smart TVs collect data, their use, and how to limit or stop it. We will also give you tips on choosing a smart TV that respects your privacy and security. Read on to learn more.
Some examples of smart TV data collection are:
Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) – is software that tracks the games, shows, movies, and ads you watch on your TV and sends this data to third parties for advertising and marketing purposes. It can also link your TV data with your online activity on other devices using the same internet connection.
Voice Activation – is a feature that allows you to control your TV with voice commands, but it also means your TV has a microphone that can listen to your conversations and other sounds in your room. These recordings may be sent to third parties for analysis and processing.
Cookies and Trackers – are technologies used by applications and browsers on your smart TV to collect information about your online behavior, such as what websites you visit, what products you buy, and what preferences you have. This data is used to create profiles on you and target you with more ads.
To turn off ACR on your smart TV, you need to find the privacy settings on your TV’s menu and turn off the option that allows data collection from TV inputs. The exact steps may vary depending on the brand and model of your smart TV, but here are some general guidelines for some common smart TV platforms:
LG: Go to Settings, then Privacy, and turn off LivePlus.
Samsung: Go to Settings, then Support, then Terms and Policies, and turn off Viewing Information.
Sony: Go to Settings, then System Preferences, then Privacy, and turn off Samba TV.
Vizio: Go to Settings, then System, then Reset and Admin, and turn off Viewing Data.
Google TV: Go to Settings, Accounts, Sign In, then Google, and turn off Ads Personalization.
Roku TV: Go to Settings, Privacy, the Smart TV Experience, and turn off Use Information from TV Inputs.
Amazon Fire TV: Go to Settings, then Preferences, then Privacy Settings, and turn off Device Usage Data and Collect App Usage Data.
Privacy Hive suggests occasionally resetting your advertiser ID, a unique identifier companies use to track your online activity and target you with ads. You can find this option in the same privacy settings menu as ACR. Resetting your advertiser ID periodically can reduce the data collected and linked to you. So, before you settle in for your next binge-watching session, remember: the only drama you want is on the screen, not in your data privacy!
