“People do not understand what their “traces” on the Internet mean, which they leave, and where the information they provide about themselves can go,” - as part of the event following the completion of a survey within the framework of the educational program “School Digital IQ”, conducted by by Samsung, in an interview with the DB portal, the head of the Latvian Center said safe internet Maja Katkowska.
“It is important that a person seeks help in a situation where he does not know how to cope with a problem that has arisen as a result of his actions on the Internet, but it should be understood that if, for example, he sent someone a photo of himself naked, and then wants to destroy it on the Internet, then it’s unlikely that you can help with anything here - it could “go” to many sources. It’s impossible to get rid of this one hundred percent, and someday it may come to light,” says Katkowska.
She advised Internet users to regularly check what exactly they can find about themselves on the Internet. In her opinion, employers should also have conversations with their employees about what information they publish about themselves on social networks - since this affects the company’s image, and there are things that cannot be published. “Perhaps you should do a big cleanup on your social media profiles before spring arrives!” - she calls.
It is necessary to explain to young people that they still need to think about what exactly they post on social networks, since this can interfere later in their lives and in their future work. “There are all kinds of cases. For example, a 14-year-old boy came to us, who at the age of 11 published on YouTube video, for which his classmates now laugh at him, and he no longer remembers the password. He cannot delete it. Parents should watch what exactly their child is doing on the Internet. They should know important passwords, etc., especially for young children - 7-9 years old - in order to help remove content that is unpleasant for the child,” says Katkowska.
Half of Latvian youth post the most interesting things on social networks important information about themselves: birthday, names of family members and school, every third person notes their location and almost every second person at least once sent a defamatory photo of him or her to a friend in private correspondence, it turned out in a survey conducted by Samsung Skola nākotnei. Concluding the Skolēna Digitālais IQ educational program, experts encourage you to think and evaluate what digital footprint we leave in virtual environment and what risks we expose ourselves to because of this.
“Almost half of the young people in the study admit that they have been bullied or insulted on social media, for example by a nasty comment or photo. The same number of young people regretted publishing any of their photos or posts on the Internet. This means that young people are already facing risks associated with their digital footprint, not to mention such potential threats as, for example, influence on career growth or Internet attacks and blackmail,” says the head of the pedagogy department of the Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Art Professor Zanda Rubene of the University of Latvia, emphasizing: “It is important to realize that each of us has a digital trace; it would be very difficult, and there is no need to try to avoid its appearance. However, everyone could do with learning how to create it thoughtfully and positively.”
The digital footprint is there even if we don't realize it.
The digital footprint consists of various parts: our activities on social networks, correspondence through email and instant messaging services, banking and shopping, sharing our photos and videos with others, playing games, listening to music, watching movies, using various applications , including navigation and transport, even seemingly anonymous commenting on articles - and other actions.
It is important to remember that the digital footprint of each of us is created both actively and passively and unnoticed by ourselves. An active trace appears when a person consciously publishes information about himself, and a passive trace is the information that various sites and gadgets accumulate about a person’s actions on the Internet, for example, home pages visited, device IP address, physical location at the time of connection, views or goods purchased in an online store, etc.
Maja Katkovska, head of the Latvian Center for Safe Internet, emphasizes: “It’s good if we think about the fact that all our actions on the Internet are quite public. However, our experience shows that people often post information and photos on their social media profiles and then wonder: “How does he know so much about me?!”
Can we take control of the situation?
“To prevent online activity from feeling like a bull in a china shop, which can interfere with later life or make you feel bad, it is important to follow a few basic principles. The first of them is to know what can be found about you on the Internet and what image this can create among others about you. The second is to actively shape your digital footprint so that you yourself are happy with it. Check passwords and privacy settings in gadgets, applications and social networks, and also think about what you publish and share. The third is to monitor all this regularly, because this is an ongoing process,” says Egle Tamelite, head of the Samsung Skola nākotnei initiative in the Baltics. – These and other issues are discussed in the educational program, which since September last year has been available to everyone at www.skolanakotnei.lv. We are very pleased that during this time more than 4,000 young people from 83 schools in Latvia have registered on the page.”
In an experiment, young people study the digital footprint of Latvian celebrities
At the end of the Skolēna digitālais IQ project implemented by Samsung Skola nākotnei, an unprecedented experiment took place today: young people from the 3rd Riga State Gymnasium, under the guidance of new media expert Kriss Kupruks, examined and assessed the size of the digital footprint of five people. The experiment involved the producer of the Pieci.lv program Pilnīgs vakars Karmen Stepanova, musicians Justs Sirmais and Aminata Savadogo, as well as schoolgirls, representatives of the Riga Schoolchildren's Council Samantha Samarska and Anita Ramka. It turned out that Samantha (69%) and Aminata (67%) have the largest digital footprint, Yusts’ digital footprint is slightly more modest (54%), and the least left behind is Anita (46%) and Carmen (41%), who admitted that consciously form their virtual identity.
Aminata shares her impressions: “The results of the experiment surprised me: I found out that I have profiles on social networks in which I have never registered. Someone else created them for me. For example, on the website Ask.fm, someone not only uses my identity and photos, but also answers fan questions on my behalf. This is not only unpleasant, but, unfortunately, it can negatively affect not only my life, but also the lives of my loved ones. Going forward, I will be much more careful about what information can be found about me on the Internet, and say goodbye to profiles and posts that are no longer relevant to me.”
Assessing his digital footprint, musician Justs says: “I always try to be thoughtful about what I post online, especially now that social media is a big part of my day-to-day work. I reflect on what kind of example I set for my followers. I try to remain honest both to myself and to the people who follow me. I can't think of a time when I posted something that was incorrect, but it has often happened that information has been misinterpreted. For example, Wikipedia says that I started studying jazz at the age of 6. Of course, this is around the same time that I started playing music, but I only became interested in jazz in my teens. Most likely, the biggest mistakes are associated with the first interviews, in which I didn’t really know what to say, and sometimes I would say something stupid or go into too much detail.”
The Skolēna digitālais IQ program is still available on the Internet
The Skolēna digitālais IQ program implemented by Samsung Skola nākotnei has ended, but all educational materials and in the future will be available on www.skolanakotnei.lv, where they can be used and mastered by everyone - both schoolchildren and adults. The Skolēna digitālais IQ program includes 5 courses, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. Course “Create!” helps young people become authors of quality content. Course “Communicate!” calls for thinking about the security of communication, digital identity and the digital trace left in the depths of the Internet. Course "Work!" introduces skills that may be useful in future working life. Course "Participate!" broadens understanding of the tools of participation and democracy available in the digital environment. Course “Think!” encourages the use of technology to facilitate educational process and everyday life, and improve your critical thinking skills.
The content of the program was created by Samsung Electronics Baltics in collaboration with the Iespējama misija (“Possible Mission”) movement, digital solutions agency Cube, media education expert Liene Valdmane, photographer and graphic designer Linda Rutule, producer of the program Pilnīgs vakars on radio Pieci.lv Karmen Stepanova, creative association Piparmētra, head and coach of the DHC studio Kaspars Ozoliņš and European champion in public speaking Davis Golds.
Technology doesn't change human nature, but it does allow us to learn things we didn't know about ourselves. It largely depends on us how to use this new knowledge.
You can't hide
Let's look at the situation from the user's point of view. Why don't soldiers also install a popular app to monitor their physical activity? The only question is how the company will continue to manage this data. And since no one usually reads user agreements, clients agree to all subsequent manipulations in this large database.
What do we generally understand about our inclusion in digital databases? It seems that the data of one user will simply be lost in the general array. In fact, as the heat map showed, it is possible to notice the actions of one person (for example, if he “draws” a greeting card on the ice of a lake).
And the data of an individual can be deconstructed from the general array. We are increasingly learning how digital data is used in court as evidence, evidence, investigative materials - in cases of fraud or murder. The testimony of the accused is checked using data from a pacemaker or a fitness tracker. Are we ready to take responsibility for the technological projection of ourselves? Now “everything you say can be used against you” sounds different: “everything you do will be recorded” - we check the box to agree to the terms of use of the applications, and then we blame technology for everything, not our own hindsight and carelessness.
Learn a lesson
There is still a feeling that technology has little impact on everyday life. We use them as entertainment, we play them. And in each such game we leave digital traces - something from which, if desired, we can form our image. Or rating. Back in 2016, this was the plot of the fantasy series Black Mirror, where each person was assigned ratings based on ratings of everyday interactions. A year later, it's for Chinese citizens. China's social credit system was designed to "build a harmonious socialist society." Within its framework, a personal file is formed for a person, which characterizes him as a citizen (paying taxes), a member of society (compliance with traffic rules, family relationships, education) and an Internet user (communications on social networks, online purchases). The consequences of these ratings - again, based on human interactions - will be very real: from the inaccessibility of loans to a ban on leaving the country. And again technology will be blamed.
Researchers emphasize: technologies do not exist in a vacuum; their development is always a social and cultural process. Behind technology there are always real human actions, and the more users participate in this process, the more unintended consequences will arise. Technologies do not so much create something new as they reflect what already exists in society, which is not always obvious. Therefore, we cannot accurately predict their social effect in advance, but we get the opportunity to better understand ourselves.
Almost every user leaves his traces on the Internet. To a lesser extent, this applies to users who read news, and to a much greater extent to those who search for information through search engines, use online services and actively spend time on social networks.
From such “digital fingerprints” you can find out a lot of personal information, for example, about your location, social status, interests and preferences, social circle, daily routine and tendency to bad habits. This information is a valuable find for scammers and robbers, recruitment agencies and large employers, intelligence agencies and law enforcement. There are often cases when photographs and thoughtless comments on the Internet cost a person his job and career.
User information can be divided into three main categories:
- implicitly collected data (numerous services that allow you to track Internet activity);
- explicitly collected data (knowingly providing an address Email and other data when subscribing to online services);
- publicly available information that can be collected by collecting data on the Internet, for example, telephone number, address, photographs, social network profile.
Unfortunately, there is no way to completely remove information from the network, however, you can still get rid of the most obvious traces. There are several basic steps to do this.
Step #1: Delete unused online accounts.
Many of the services that a user subscribes to end up disappearing. The data can then be sold to someone else as valuable information, the value of which is determined based on the number of users in the database and the information known about them. Therefore, you should promptly delete unused accounts.
Step #2: Keep track of aliases associated with your email.
Using an email address, you can set user nicknames that are used on different sites, blogs, forums, and this, in turn, can lead to your real name. Therefore, when registering, you should not indicate your primary email address and should use different aliases. In addition, it is necessary to promptly delete information if there is no need to use a particular Internet resource.
Step #3: Monitor personal information on social networks.
Social networks are an integral part of the lives of many modern users, but personal data from social networks can often be used against us. If you enter the user's last name and first name in a search engine, indicating a social network, the search engine will provide a direct link to the profile. By going through all social networks and taking advantage of the fact that the profile privacy settings are weakened somewhere, you can collect a lot of information about a person.
Such information can be used to evaluate a person by a potential employer or by an attacker who can create a detailed portrait of the victim and use social engineering techniques (for example, sending a spam letter on behalf of the tour operator indicated by the user under the photo at the airport during vacation). You should not include your date and place of birth, home address or other personal information as this could be used to find out additional personal information. There are often cases when there is enough information about a person on the Internet to, for example, apply for a loan without his knowledge.
Step #4: Use Browser Privacy.
Many users do not know that information is stored on the computer about which sites they visited and what data was provided to these sites (names, addresses, telephone numbers and much more). IN modern browsers There is an "incognito" mode.
This mode disables caching of the content of visited sites and the saving of cookies. In other words, after the window in which the website was viewed in incognito mode is closed, no one will receive information about which site was visited. It is important to understand that this mode is not intended to protect against data interception or provision of anonymous access websites, but to ensure that online tracking data is not stored on your computer.
Step #5: Use Anonymous Search.
In June 2013, the media first published materials about the surveillance of Internet users by American intelligence agencies. After this, many users began to think about how to ensure anonymity on the Internet. One of the tools was the search engine DuckDuckGo and Disconnect. The search engine does not recognize the IP address, does not save cookies and the user's query history, thus providing anonymous search in global network.
Step #6: Read policies and agreements carefully.
The privacy policy of an Internet resource often describes how the resource will process the information provided and what responsibility it bears for its disclosure. An important point when installing any software is the approval of the user agreement, which describes the capabilities of the software, including in relation to the information processed. Unofficial extensions, such as desktop widgets for Android, are freely distributed in Google Play and are not malware, but they can collect information and transmit it to third parties.
Methods for obtaining personal data are constantly being improved, but to ensure that your personal information is always under your control, it is worth remembering the following recommendations:
- less information - more security: limiting information in social network profiles and periodically monitoring sites to determine the need to post information about you there should become a habit;
- the use of many Internet services requires you to provide information about yourself; if possible, you should not provide truthful information, and to register on sites you should create a special email address;
- You should not post your real date of birth, email address, address or phone number on your personal profile;
- it is necessary to change account passwords at least every three months, and for each account a new strong password must be created; if a web service was attacked by hackers and lost its database of logins and passwords, it is quite possible that attackers will already try to use the resulting combinations to log into other sites;
- You should carefully read the terms of user agreements when installing software, as well as the privacy policies when registering on sites;
- You must always use only official applications and download them from the manufacturer’s website; for example, recently the WhatsApp program for computers, which was actually malware, began to spread on the global network;
- some Internet companies are ready to refuse to collect information about the user if he informs them about it; Most browsers have this option for this purpose. special setting: for example, in Firefox browser you need to go to the settings and in the “Privacy” section select “ tell sites I don't want to be tracked"; similar options are available in newer versions Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari;
- Care must be taken when providing personal information and completing “virtual questionnaires” - there is no guarantee that the data collection or survey was official, and the information will not end up in any user database.
You may also be interested in:
P.S.
One of our readers with the nickname DmA supplemented our article and added a lot of useful information.
I'm just posting it here in a more readable form.
Thank you for taking the time to write all this!
1) Do not register on social networks or email services (and other sites) that require you to indicate your cell phone number. Russians are sold phone SIM cards using their passport (the FSB probably insisted on this), so it’s the same as indicating your passport information when logging into a social network. This means that everything you say there can easily be used against you!
As far as I know, only Usmanov-Russian networks require you to indicate your passport (Odnoklassniki and
VKontakte).Russians are not required to have cellular telephone and even more so indicate it on some sites! But Usman’s social networks don’t care about this - they refuse registration to users who do not have their own cell phone or who do not want to indicate it!
2) The disconnect.me project also has plugins for different browsers, which cut off connections from the pages that the user visits leading to advertising sites or sites that track the user’s movements on the Internet. I've met sites that have 40-50 connections per page to such sites! The same plugin speeds up page loading (unnecessary items are not loaded and this saves traffic, sometimes up to 17 percent). And page loading also speeds up (up to 27% by commercial). The plugin allows you to see which advertising sites it has blocked and how much faster the loading of this page has been.
I now install 4 plugins in Firefox:
2. I have my referrer control set to “target host”, it tells me which page I visited earlier (from which I went to this site). I don’t think sites need to know what page I came to them from!
3. Another plugin from the author of adblock (Wladimir Palant) is “ Google search link fix” – when a user enters the words he needs in a search engine and clicks on the link he needs in the results, then search engines “like” to spy on which link the user clicked and first report the address of the selected link to the search engine, and then make an automatic redirect to that link the page that the user clicked.
Usually this redirect happens quickly and most users do not even notice this transition. And if on search system The Google search link fix plugin removes these redirects and the search engine does not know where I went.” If the user also uses the email service on this search server, then in addition to the link, it is reported which user with which email address clicked it.
It was discovered by chance - a user who had a mailbox on Yandex and entered it used Yandex search and clicked on the link he needed and a long address line was generated (32 lines in a notepad) on Yandex telling who went to what address. The organization had a transparent proxy (squid) and he didn’t like such a long address and rejected it and gave an error.
After digging around, I discovered that other browsers where the user has not logged into his Yandex mailbox can follow this link just fine. THEN I logged out of the browser mailbox and the link worked. If the user left his mailbox, then the address line was only 19 lines and squid skipped this length.
4.Disconnect.me
5. Another plugin that I will most likely constantly use is dnssec validator, which should guarantee that my dns requests have not been replaced by anyone. But so far few sites use dnssec technology, even Sberbank does not use it...
The general principle is not to allow commercial companies to accumulate information about your online activities.
For example, your provider is the first commercial company that gives you a free DNS server, which records all the sites you visit and sees all your traffic. The provider’s own caching dns allows you not to use the dns server; in Windows, for example, you can install unbound and then as dns servers register 127.0.0.1 and your computer will use the search itself for the names you need and even cache your repeated requests.
For example, I am now using Unbound... In this case, the provider can also see what you are requesting, but it will be more difficult for him to do it! The second way to prevent people from snooping into your DNS requests is to use , in which case requests to the DNS server of a certain public (or not so public) organization will be encrypted. Your provider can also watch the traffic itself (since the opposite is not prohibited in the contract!).
Here the option to combat traffic monitoring by your provider is to use https, etc. It is also better not to use social networks that do not encrypt traffic during transmission, otherwise your provider will see all your messages in clear text...
Even if you have blocked all connections to advertising companies and social networks (although this is most often the same thing), do not use your cell phone (that is, passport data) when registering on sites, and use a fake name instead of your real name, then you can also be identified (although would be that it was the same person who came to them again or from the same computer) through the so-called digital fingerprints of the browser, which usually transmits a lot of information through the same UserAgent line (OS version, browser version, installed plugins) or the same permanent IP address from which you access the Internet.
It may change for you, but rarely or not at all. Even if it changes frequently for you (for example, you use a 3G modem and move around a city or country), then the IP may change, but the provider is most often the same! Taking into account your browser fingerprint, you become a unique client about whom you can accumulate some information for subsequent analysis.
In addition to the digital fingerprint of your browser, the site may store certain files (cookies) on your computer that also uniquely identify you. These cookies sometimes last for years... Sometimes there are thousands or even millions of these cookies on your computer! I usually set my browser settings to clear cookies after closing the browser. If you have not disabled javascript, flash or java in your browser, then in addition to the useragent line, you can still collect a lot of information about you, starting from the size of your screen and even the size of the browser window!
The IceCat browser can combat the digital fingerprint of your computer. Unfortunately, it works normally only under Linux (in the line the useragent sends that it is Windows 7:)). There is also a version for Windows, but for some reason it works for few people. Although for Windows you can use the Project Browser. If you go out with mobile device, then the line may contain your device model and manufacturer of this device. For example Apple Iphone 5s or HP probook 17.
So if you make little effort in the fight to preserve your personal data and confidentiality, then information on you will be collected as a unique client (and they will wait for you to make a mistake in order to link the data accumulated on you) or you will immediately reveal who you are to everyone and everything and then don’t be surprised that years after the birth of your child you will see diapers in advertisements on your computer :)
“With every online action we leave a digital footprint. There is a direct connection between it and biological DNA” - with this thesis On January 24, top manager of Kaspersky Lab Evgeny Chereshnev took the stage of one of the most prestigious world forums designed to disseminate ideas that are significant for the development of humanity - TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design).
“Biological DNA contains factual information about risks, such as certain diseases, or whether a person has blue eyes - no matter what he does. Digital DNA is, in a sense, [another] biological layer, since it contains factual information about a person’s behavior, his personality, and using this information, one can predict with high certainty a person’s behavior in certain situations,” explains Chereshnev in a conversation with JOURNALIST.
Are you ready to give up Google search? Me not. This means we need to come to terms with the fact that we pay in kind.
Whose trace?
There are three points of view on who owns our “digital fingerprints”:
1. The traces belong to the “surface” on which they were left, that is, to the companies that provide various Internet services.
2. The right to “digital fingerprints” of users has the country whose citizenship the user has.
3. The one who leaves traces and has the right to them.
2. State
The author of the second approach is considered to be Natalya Kasperskaya, a major Russian IT entrepreneur and pro-government public figure (member working group under the Presidential Administration, responsible for the direction “Internet and Society”).
In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, she stated: “A person in Russia now has the feeling, when he leaves some information on the Internet, that he controls it. Actually it's not like that<…>And I advocate introducing restrictions on big data so that the state can carry out its functions and guarantee security. Just imagine: such a cloud of data gathers around a person, a Internet user.<…>And someone is trading this cloud behind your back.”*
The weakness of this approach (and its strength) is its deliberate paternalism towards the citizens of the country: “We have fifty million people [active users] - yes, they cannot cope on their own.” It's like mandatory medical examination. It is believed that people themselves are not able to take responsibility for their health. The problem is that mandatory medical examination turns into profanation and creates conditions for many abuses. Paternalism in the area of personal data is even more dangerous.
Natalya is concerned that agents of hostile influence will be able to control the behavior of senior officials in Russia, including through blackmail. But what scares me more is the image of a petty boss who has gained access to, say, the search history of some unlucky student.
Most Internet users in Russia are catastrophically ignorant. By and large, they don’t care who uses their data and for what purpose, unless it’s about access to bank account
I do not idealize my fellow citizens. Most Internet users in Russia are catastrophically ignorant. By and large, they don’t care who uses their data and for what purpose, unless it’s about access to a bank account. And for many, government protection would be a good alternative to personal liability.
But personally, I prefer the idea of developing educational programs on digital literacy. It is literacy, not security. Because the former cultivate knowledge, and the latter cultivate fear. Unfortunately, in real educational practice one often encounters the latter. And the quoted interview with Ms. Kasperskaya gives an understanding of the roots of this approach.
As a result, attempts at media education in schools often turn into a session of horror stories. The effect is the opposite: like in the pioneer camp, when the elders told stories about a coffin on wheels or red curtains. Adrenaline, high! And mysterious words like “cybersquatting”, “cyberbullying”, “phishing”, etc. acquire a romantic aura, instead of being relegated to the level of banal hooliganism. From the “gopniks in the area” such “ educational projects“Together with mass culture, they turn cybercrime figures into Robinhoods, pirates of the 21st century.
And if so, then what is the reason why the apparently ineffective prohibitive approach is the basis public policy in the field of high-tech communications (yes, yes, I also just remembered about the ban in Russia social network LinkedIn)?
It is easier to manage a class society. It is no coincidence that the obsession of those in power is to build a vertical power structure. Estate society is based precisely on the distribution of various social groups in a system of vertical dependence on each other. The basis for division into classes in the “knowledge society” can be access to information: the means of obtaining, processing and distributing it**. But it can be made simpler: someone produces information, and who controls it. What is not the basis of division?
3. The man himself
Finally, the third point of view expressed by Evgeny Chereshnev. "I've done enough experiments on myself to have every right to the following professional opinion: personal data is an integral part of the human body and its biological indicators. I propose from now on that user data should be considered a layer of biological DNA. Digital DNA, if you will. And treat it accordingly: this information, unique to each of us, recorded in us (in fact, this is so) must physically and legally belong to the person who produces it,” he wrote on his Facebook page on November 30, 2016.
He goes on to explain in detail why no government or service provider should have a statutory right to full and permanent access to a person’s “digital DNA” without their express and informed consent: “Because with access to digital DNA, anyone can be identified.” of a person on the Internet without logins and passwords, you can control his desires, his movements, his ability to reproduce, his craving for knowledge, art, his bad habits and addictions. And it's not a joke".
Chereshnev's position is based on the fact that if a company has invented something truly revolutionary - say, gravity - this does not make it the rightful owner of the gravitational field of every person.
Another significant point that Evgeniy draws attention to is the vulnerability of any centralized data storage: “Everything can be hacked. There is no guarantee that the state or the so-called Rostelecom or AT&T will be able to keep the data safe. Therefore, the only true path is decentralization and the creation of a tool that practically ensures ownership of private data - which is what I am doing.”
Who is right?
It is interesting that the initial positions of Evgeniy and Natalya are quite close: they are outraged by the ultimatum demands of service providers to provide personal data in exchange for access to one or another network service. But they draw different conclusions. The position of Zhenya, who still believes in people, and most importantly, does not seek to “prosthetize” the personal responsibility of citizens, evokes great sympathy in me.
Although, in fairness, I must note that the scenario proposed by Natalya Kasperskaya testifies to her sober understanding of the needs and preferences of the majority of Russian residents. However, Chereshnev’s ideas are aimed at “tomorrow,” while Kasperskaya’s proposals are based on today’s state of affairs.
