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The follow list contains solutions to Online Privacy Problems that individuals face everyday. The list is a work in progress.
Check out the sister article to this one that focuses providing a list of specific tools people can use to improve their privacy sorted from Easist to Hardest to deal with: [[Improving Your Internet Privacy]]
==Problem/Solution==
'''PROBLEM:'''<br />
Modern Search Engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc) collect information on you and your search habits. They keep track of what you search for, linking it to your IP, and storing it for 6-18 months.
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'''SOLUTION:'''<br />
*Use an anonymizing proxy Search Engine. All 3 below are good choices. Try all 3 and choose your favorite. You can't go wrong!*[httphttps://www.startpage.com StartPage] Startpage is a company out of the Netherlands that runs a search engine proxy. Basically, you submit your search to them, they strip off all of the extra data that identifies you and then they send the search to Google. They get the results back and pass them back to you. In this way Google sees the searches coming from Startpage but is unable to link the search to you.<br *[https:/>/duckduckgo.com/ DuckDuckGo] DuckDuckGo is similar to Startpage but the content is provided by different Search Engines. DuckDuckGo gets results from Bing and others. Like Startpage, DuckDuckGo anonymizes your search queries and blends them in with millions of others.*[https://www.ixquick.com/ IxQuick] IxQuick is the parent company of StartPage and the behavior and structure is very similar. The only difference is that while Startpage provides content from Google. IxQuick provides content from nearly everybody BUT Google.
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'''DRAWBACKS:'''
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'''HOW TO INSTALL:'''
*Startpage is automatically used as part of the [https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en Tor Browser Bundle]. This is the setup I recommend. See the section on Installing the Tor Browser Bundle below.*Firefox*#To set your startpage to Startpage*##Click the ''Menu Icon'' in the upper right corner*##Select ''Preferences''*##Click the ''General'' tab*##Type ''"https://startpage.com/"'' in the box labelled ''Home Page''*#To force the Address Bar (Top URL/Search Bar in Firefox) to use Startpage*##Open a new tab and type ''"about:config"'' into the address bar & hit enter*##Type ''"keyword"'' into the search box*##Double click ''keyword.URL'', type ''"https://startpage.com/do/search?q="'' into the text box and click ''OK''*##Ensure that ''keyword.enabled'' is set to ''"true"''. If it is not double click it and it should update*#To set Startpage to be your default Search Provider*##Follow this link to the [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/startpage-https-privacy-search/?src=search Firefox Startpage HTTPS Privacy Search Engine] Addon*##Click the green ''+ Add to Firefox'' button*##Check ''"Make this the current search engine"'' and hit ''OK''
*Google Chrome
*#''It is recommended you use Firefox instead''
*#To set your startpage to Startpage
*##Click the ''Spanner Icon'' in the upper right corner
*##*Type ''"Startpage"'' in the ''Add a new search engine'' box
*##*Type ''"startpage.com"'' in the ''Keyword'' box
*##*Type ''"<nowiki>https://startpage.com/do/search?cmd=process_search&cat=web&query=%s&language=english</nowiki>"'' in the ''URL with %s in place of query'' box
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'''PROBLEM:'''<br />
Using a method known as [https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en#whyweneedtor Traffic Analysis], 3rd parties (such as Wireless Snoopers, ISPs, etc) can, tell where you are, potentially where you are from, who you are talking to, etc. This can have potentially negative consequences if you are abroad, if are a, potential, target for foreign spies based on your job, etc.
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'''SOLUTION:'''<br />
The [https://www.torproject.org/ Tor Project]. The Tor Project basically causes your internet traffic to be bounced around amongst a series of random, anonymous, computers to effectively hide all of the location data about the information your are transmitting & receiving.
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'''DRAWBACKS:'''
The obvious solution is to stop using DNS Servers! This, of course, is unreasonable. The next best thing is to use a DNS server that isn't run by the government, a large corporation, or your ISP. The [http://www.opennicproject.org OpenNIC Project] is a community run, alternative DNS network. They organize a variety of DNS servers that either keep no longs, delete them after a short amount of time, or anonymize the data. By selecting the correct DNS server you can get the level of privacy you're comfortable with.<br />
BONUS!: The OpenNIC Project supports a set of alternative TLDs (Top Level Domains). TLDs are things like .com, .net, and .org. OpenNIC adds some others like .free, .geek, and .indy. Domain Names on these alternate TDLs are free to register but are only available to those using the OpenNIC DNS network.
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'''DRAWBACKS:'''
*A list of OpenNIC DNS servers can be found [http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2?l=100&sort=status&d=asc here]
*The 4 OpenNIC servers nearest to you can be found [http://www.opennicproject.org/nearest-servers/ here] although to find out their logging policy you will have to look [http://wiki.opennicproject.org/Tier2?l=100&sort=status&d=asc here]
<br /><br /><br />===Insecure Email Content==='''PROBLEM:'''<br />Most people's email is hosted by either their ISP or a webmail provider like Google or Yahoo. This means that all of your emails are stored on a server owned by someone else. Even if you host your own email server or download your emails from your ISP (and trust that they delete them) the person you sent the email to or received the email from likely suffers from these same issues. Additionally the transmission of emails is often insecure.<br />'''SOLUTION:'''<br />OpenPGP<br />'''DRAWBACKS:'''<br />'''HOW TO INSTALL:'''<br /><br /><br />===Insecure Web Chats==='''PROBLEM:'''<br />Chat clients such as Google Talk, Facebook Chat, AIM, & ICQ generally don't do a whole lot to secure your messages. In addition that tend to store everything you've ever said on their servers where they happily root through it for marketing information. Maybe they pass that information along to 3 letter agencies as well.<br /><br />'''SOLUTION:'''<br />*OTR<br />'''DRAWBACKS:'''*Both parties need the plugin<br />'''HOW TO INSTALL:'''<br /><br /><br />
==Sources==
#[https://prism-break.org/ Prism Break]
#[http://www.opennicproject.org/ The OpenNIC Project]
#[http://www.enigmail.net/home/index.php Enigmail Mozilla Plugin]
#[http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/ OTR Messaging Pidgin Plugin]
[[Category:Privacy]]