Many of you will have recently heard about The Guardian's revelations about the activities of the security services in the United States following the comments made by a whistleblower.
I am very worried by these developments, especially given that some innocent people here in the UK have had problems with misinterpretation of data about them. I am worried about my privacy now that i have heard these revelations. I wasn't really aware of the extent of the abuse of our privacy and I am really worried about it and I am about to take some significant steps to improve my security.
Firstly, the most important step that I am taking, is that I am assuming that most (if not all) United States-based service providers are not safe, even for EU citizens, and have decided to migrate over two services - my email and calendaring service, and my cloud storage - to European-based providers whose servers are within the EU and thus are covered by the EU directive governing privacy. Neither of these services are free, and will have to be paid for, but it's a price worth paying to ensure privacy.
Secondly, I am now using an encrypted VPN which provides anonymity and security, so that even my ISP cannot track which sites I am visiting.
I am not sure what to do about Facebook though, as it's a principal way of staying in touch with friends. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?
I am very worried by these developments, especially given that some innocent people here in the UK have had problems with misinterpretation of data about them. I am worried about my privacy now that i have heard these revelations. I wasn't really aware of the extent of the abuse of our privacy and I am really worried about it and I am about to take some significant steps to improve my security.
Firstly, the most important step that I am taking, is that I am assuming that most (if not all) United States-based service providers are not safe, even for EU citizens, and have decided to migrate over two services - my email and calendaring service, and my cloud storage - to European-based providers whose servers are within the EU and thus are covered by the EU directive governing privacy. Neither of these services are free, and will have to be paid for, but it's a price worth paying to ensure privacy.
Secondly, I am now using an encrypted VPN which provides anonymity and security, so that even my ISP cannot track which sites I am visiting.
I am not sure what to do about Facebook though, as it's a principal way of staying in touch with friends. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?