Somebody is Watching You
A recent NYTimes article titled, How to Muddy Your Tracks, speaks to the challenges we face in protecting our metadata in an increasingly digital world. In a piece we posted last year, Your digitalDNA™: Be Forewarned and be Forearmed, we coined the phrase, digitalDNA™ which refers to the mountains of metadata that we create as we continue to log on to facebook and twitter, do google searches and move “freely” around the internet.
People are becoming more aware that moving around “freely” doesn’t insulate them from sophisticated computer programs gathering information on their internet habits. The data culled from this traffic analysis can create a virtual encyclopedia of all of your steps which can be logged and later used for various reasons some of which may prove to be nefarious.
Some take the attitude that their is not much they can do, at this point, but their are adjustments one can make to their patterns in order to inject, what is often referred to in the tech world as anomalies, into ones digitalDNA™
We all adjust our habits, in the real world, so to not create a pattern that can leave us susceptible to a predator or make us the victim of a crime. We should also take steps to to protect our digitalDNA™ in the virtual world.
Their are many ways to “muddy your tracks” or poison your digitalDNA™ . Not all of the solutions are perfect but if you analyze your digital security needs you’ll be able to come up with the right combination of tools to better protect you from unwanted traffic analysis. We recommend taking a look at the Tor Project , as a good starting point and a way to begin confusing unwanted prying eyes.
Your digitalDNA™: Be Forewarned and be Forearmed
Beware, digitalDNA™ is much more permanent than your biological DNA
by Chi Modu
I originally wanted to title this piece, Protect Your digitalDNA™, but I soon realized that this is even more difficult than protecting your personal DNA. When law enforcement wants to acquire a sample of your DNA to prove your guilt or innocence in a case, they still need to get a judge to issue a subpoena in order to force your cooperation in the event that you don’t provide it willingly. If you stay clear of the cotton swab or avoid leaving a coffee cup that you drank from or a sprig of your hair behind, it is quite difficult to acquire your DNA without your consent or without you being forced to submit a sample.
Physical DNA samples are easily contaminated and don’t always hold up in many court cases. A new form of DNA that many submit willingly, albeit unknowingly, is their digitalDNA™.
Your digitalDNA™ is a unique digital profile, of you, that is created over time from the gathering and analysis of the patterns and habits of your interaction with the technology universe. This universe consists of various devices including computers, smart phones and a combination of mobile and home web browsing tools. To not get into too technical of a discussion, I’ll keep this as simple as tracking where you go, where you’ve been and how you get there in the digital arena…
