Dystopian-like subjects seem to draw the attention of a greater number of people in recent few years. The reason lays in a vast amount of reports showing government’s institutions involvement in all kinds of frauds, spying and illegal surveillance of citizens. With the appearance of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden, the feeling of distrust rises to a critical level. Many people are comparing agencies like NSA with hackers, for their methods as well as motivation. The question is: ‘Is this really happening?’
Most of the news circulating around the internet are proven to be true. Although, accused organizations didn’t confirm involvement, the evidences speak for themselves. Cases like Optic Nerve, Flame, and Stuxnet have shaken the public to the core. Recently, new material pointed out the involvement of major IT companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook. They have been tracking their user’s online behavior without consent. Meaning, the Big Brother is a larger entity than the government. For this reason, people are getting paranoid, and protecting their privacy.
What Kind of Spying is Possible?
It would be needless to say everything is possible. But, the area covered by the government’s agencies is dangerous as is. The Optic Nerve project included visual spying. Using Yahoo’s chat service, British NSA equivalent, gathered millions of individual’s mugshots. Flame gathered all kinds of data visual, audio and textual documents, all stored on a remote server. In other words, the devices surrounding you are all a potential threat to your privacy.
Videos and photos reveal your identity. While the audio data may contain your credit card numbers, secrets, and details of your whereabouts. With few blown cases, it is confirmed that webcams and microphones may be used from a remote place by the officials.
Why is it Dangerous?
Knowing you are being constantly watched or eavesdropped is worrying enough. But, knowing what kind of manipulation this material can be used for, adds more trouble. In addition to the government constant watch, there is a good chance that data obtained gets compromised. The database containing all of the information, is like an El Dorado for criminals. Imagine what can a group of hackers do with images and private information of millions?
Another possible usage of recorded audio is for commercial purposes. There are reports of the rise of the certain type of advertisements on people’s devices after a live conversation on the certain subject. Consider as if all of these haven’t included any of modern communication means, but traditional ones. The “victims” were in shock seeing ads so closely related to what they’ve spoken of.
Hiding Techniques
There are people, some of you may know, who are using different manual methods in their protection system. Tape over the camera and microphone are something everyone is familiar with. The problem with tapping, is not that efficient. The sound will only be muffled. Monitoring through the microphone is usually automatically transcribed in a text form, so tape definitely can’t help you. Some even try to protect themselves by physically unplugging their microphones, which is not the best solution either. Since, at some point, you’ll want to use the mic. Opening your laptop every time you wish to turn on your microphone is not practical at all.
The best way to protect your privacy, is by using software designed for this type of intrusion. ShieldApps’ new software called Identity Theft Preventer has addressed this issue. One of the software’s primary features is webcam and mic blocking-control. Once you install it, the software will inform you every time one of these devices attempts to turn on without your permission. Thanks to its development, the software’s protection is impenetrable from both online and offline external attempts. An administrative permission that only you can give will pop each time a device goes live. This way you can be completely sure you’re the one in control.
Facing all the challenges that come with the modern technologies may seem a bit tricky, but utilizing the right software assisting products can ease your way through confronting those challenges and risks.