Applied Privacy: The Value of False Trails & Contrary Information
Here we will look at two fundamental techniques which can contribute to stronger privacy. But first, let us briefly define privacy, as I use the term here.
What is privacy?
In Privacy: What is it? Do we need it? Why are People Afraid of it? I defined it thus:
To me total privacy would be that I control all information about myself and my life. That is to say, I disclose what I want, to whom I want, when I want - and there should be no other way to obtain information about me.
Do you need privacy? I would say yes, but ultimately that is a personal choice and it depends completely on your personality and your general view of life.
However, few people understand the importance of privacy before they have lost it, and, in many cases, it is too late then.
“One of the great penalties those of us who live our lives in full view of the public must pay is the loss of that most cherished birthright of man's, privacy.”
(Mary Pickford)
In Private & Public – Is it Justified With a Free Press When Privacy is Outlawed?, I claim:
The best for everyone involved, however, would be if all private information could (and were allowed to) be kept as private as the concerned parties wish. Even, should they so desire, to the extent of some people becoming informational black holes. (Absorbing everything, emitting nothing.)
It is not easy though, perhaps it is impossible, to become an informational black hole, closing all outflow of information. Then, if one desires privacy, other methods must be used instead.
All the time, however, you must expect attempted intrusion, that people unduly try to learn things about you. Many of the accomplishments of modern times are traps here. When you use them you leave trails that are easy to follow for the one having some knowledge of how to do so.
One often mentioned example is your use of Internet, and how your IP address identifies you and what you are doing on the net. With a proxy or VPN you get an intermediary, a middleman between yourself and what you do. By choosing proxy or VPN you can appear to work from any country you wish. You can sit in Paris with a French IP number, use a proxy in Russia or Brazil, and every website you visit will believe you visit from Russia or Brazil. You can even get this to the header of emails you send from ordinary web based addresses. Then it looks as if you sent them from there.
For ordinary mail, snailmail, or postal mail, we have the maildrop, similarly acting as a middleman, while you can present an address for mail which does not reveal where you are.
Both these examples are very simple and can be penetrated by a determined snooper, but they serve as examples of planting false trails for the purpose of maintaining privacy.
Then one can apply another technique: not hiding trails, but expose many and contrary ones, so they become useless by that. My example requires cooperation of three individuals who can really trust one another.
Say that we have Peter, Paul, and John. Peter is going to Brazil, Paul to South Africa, and John to China. Assuming they have mobile phone subscriptions in their own names, they exchange telephones, and they exchange ATM cards.
Now Peter bought a ticket in his name to Brazil, his mobile phone is in South Africa with Paul, and withdrawals with his ATM card is made by John in China. In the same way, these three indicators of location point at three different continents for Paul and John. A snooper will be confused; all the trails will lose authority as evidence, should that be a matter of importance.
This is general: a lot of contrary information is almost as efficient as no information at all. No one will ever know what is reliable or not.
Finally, don't forget how important for privacy it is to avoid connectivity. In Understand How Connectivity Negatively Affects Your Privacy, I previously described what it is and how handle it, so I will not discuss that more here.
Related articles:
Why Should You Always Write under a Pseudonym?
Private & Public – Is it Justified With a Free Press When Privacy is Outlawed?
Identity Theft: Its Cause & How to Root it Out
Understand How Connectivity Negatively Affects Your Privacy
Privacy: What is it? Do we need it? Why are People Afraid of it?
Copyright © 2018, 2022 Meleonymica. All Rights Reserved.
(Image by Jan Valečka /Unsplash, CC0/Public Domain.)
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