Helpful tips when going online

The National Letters

WHEN you give a phone to your child, you are not exposing the world to your child, you are exposing your child to the world.
This is the age of technology and data is the new currency.
What you search online, what websites you frequent, what social media platforms you’ve created an account in and what you do there, these are all useful data, if you know what to do with it.
Tech giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, Google (including their cloud and email services) are all compromised.
Photos you post, your private messages, your emails, can all be accessed by whoever the tech giants bow to.
Remember the name Edward Snowden? He was an analyst for the NSA (USA’s intelligence agency) who exposed what the US government was doing; spying on the whole world via Facebook, Google, Instagram, and all those American social media platforms.
He sought asylum in Russia after the United States government tried to have him arrested for treason (watch the movie titled Snowden).
The US government then had the audacity to warn the world about Tiktok and how the Chinese government may be using it to spy on people.
The hypocrisy is just mindboggling.
The internet is the NSA’s playground. That is an established fact.
This is why Facebook is restricted by the governments of certain parts of the world unfriendly to USA such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc.
You might be thinking, “I’ve got nothing to hide” but it’s the principle of privacy that I’m concerned about.
It might not be so serious for us ordinary citizens but it is for our leaders.
This is how they find dirt on people and blackmail them into doing their bidding.
The following are some ways to reduce your online footprint:

  • DOWNLOAD and use Brave browser;
  •  USE DuckDuckGo.com instead of Google.com as your default search engine;
  • USE Telegram instead of WhatsApp;
  •  DO not include too much personal information on your social media profile. You don’t even have to put your real name or D.O.B or the school you go to. Who needs to know all that? and,
  •  DO not post too many personal things on social media; never post anything you wouldn’t say in real life.

The Internet is not a safe place. Google is not your friend. Facebook is not your community.
For those who still insist on using Google, I don’t blame you.
It’s still the best search engine available.
But be mindful of what you search and always sign out of your Google account when you are done using Gmail.
There are certain trigger words and phrases that will have you flagged on the NSA database as a potential threat and will possibly be banned from ever entering USA and whatever country they share their intelligence with.

Phil Kaizerman
PoM