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Category: Digital Security

Information Removal: A Strategic Approach

Information Removal: A Strategic Approach

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INTRODUCTION: When a person starts out on the quest to remove as much personal information about themselves that they find online, the effort usually begins with a “shotgun approach”. You begin searching Google to identify links to websites that display your information. Hopefully you’ll also search Bing and other search engines in the same manner, and use targeted search techniques and operators to pinpoint your information quickly. I have previously discussed many useful techniques for pinpointing your searches and saving…

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Database Breach

Database Breach

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The Impact of a Database Breach – L.E. Edition Part 1 As a law enforcement officer, any piece of your personal information, when in malicious hands, can be considered a serious threat. Once a hacker obtains a single piece of personally identifiable information (PII), they will apply various techniques that will allow them to obtain more. For example, lets say that your email has been hacked. This is completely harmless because it is “just your email address” right? Wrong. In…

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MySudo – Update!

MySudo – Update!

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The blog has been neglected recently, I know. Thanks for all your emails and enthusiasm about staying informed on all things privacy! The past few months have kept me busy, teaching for private organizations, working with clients, and even writing a book. Every day is a new opportunity to learn more and to share more about these important topics and from morning to night I am staying on top of it all in addition to my day job. In this…

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Self-Stalking

Self-Stalking

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Those of us who are dedicated to removing our personal information from the Internet know that this effort is a constant battle. Experts in this field estimate that there are hundreds of relevant people search engines alone, and when you include the smaller sites that seem to pop up each week, the numbers could be in the thousands. Public records like property tax information, marriage licenses, and vehicle information are collected by the largest data brokers on each of us….

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MAT: Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit

MAT: Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit

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How to remove file metadata for your privacy on Linux. In a previous article, I discussed how metadata embedded in images can jeopardize your privacy and reveal personal information about you. Care should be taken when sharing and posting photos, and the same can be said about the documents you share with others. A typical data file often has associated “metadata” which is descriptive information about the file such as the creator’s name, tools used to generate the file, file…

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“Verify” your contacts

“Verify” your contacts

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The majority of people I communicate with are using either Signal or Wire as their preferred method of communication.  Both offer extremely secure, end-to-end encrypted communications and I have reviewed those services in previous posts about my communications strategy.  Many of you have adopted a similar strategy for yourselves and I applaud your efforts to make all your communications more private and secure. Recently, I decided to “verify” all of my contacts that use either Signal or Wire.  Both services…

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Privacy Milestones 2017

Privacy Milestones 2017

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Last year at this time (2016), I wrote about my Privacy Resolutions for the upcoming year and some goals that I hoped to accomplish in the pursuit of better personal OPSEC.  I encouraged others to reflect and identify new areas to focus on that could improve their stance on privacy over the next 12 months. Some of the areas I chose to focus on this past year included re-reading and studying “the basics”, many of which are outlined in The…

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PODCAST 058 – New To Privacy? Start Here

PODCAST 058 – New To Privacy? Start Here

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Privacy is a huge topic and knowing where to start can be overwhelming. This week Justin Carroll and I sit down to discuss how to overcome analysis paralysis and develop a plan to reclaim your right to privacy. Subscribe at: RSS iTunes Google Stitcher SHOW NOTES   INTRO Follow-up on our Wi-Fi episode Article about Wi-Fi probing System76 Linux Laptops MAIN TOPIC Understanding the threats to your privacy The concept of compartmentalization Defining your privacy priorities and privacy non-negotiables Managing…

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Eliminating The Phone Bill

Eliminating The Phone Bill

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I have an announcement to make.  I am no longer going to pay a cell phone bill.  The savings will be significant and I am excited about that. Last month was the last time I visited my carrier’s retail store to make a payment on my pre-paid account, and I don’t anticipate returning ever again. Readers here know that I use my phone in a very non-traditional manner.  I have written about that strategy at length in two different articles…

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Standard Notes: Review

Standard Notes: Review

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A big part of my digital workflow has always included using some sort of note taking application.  I like to keep track of thoughts, links, and projects I am working on by making notes and referring back to them from time to time.  A variety of information is kept in the form of notes on my computer and phone, ranging from mundane to potentially critical pieces of information that could be exploited if it fell into the wrong hands.  I…

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