Prepping in the Modern World
Where Traditional Preparation and Technology Meet – Why Securing Both are so Important
Are Free Services Private?
Communications
It is extremely important that every prepper have private forms of communication for things such as purchases, medical records and travel plans.
A chain (such as your preparations) is only as secure as its weakest link. It is too small of a cost for a “free” email platform to be where things fall apart.
Most companies offering free services collect our private data every minute that we use them.
The information they collect is used to create a complete personal profile of us that can be used for anything (and sold to anyone). They know where we go, videos we watch, articles we read, what we purchase, which games we play, our interests, hobbies, etc.
In the name of convenience and free services, companies have slipped things in to their policies that allowed them to spy on our every move on the web. This information is being used in ways that continue to become more invasive by the day.
Surveillance such as this has far reaching implications beyond that of just advertising. This type of overreach can affect things such as availability to healthcare and even head in to the dark regions of religious persecution (as they have in other countries already).
“What is being built, is an architecture of oppression.” Scary words but it rings true when you think about what might be going on in the background while the pandemic is rolling along.
This video is an interesting listen, no matter what your opinion is of Edward Snowden.
Don’t miss the message because of the messenger.
What Does Google Track?
Google alone tracks everything you let it, even if you don’t realize you agreed to it… They say they don’t scan your emails for advertisement targeting anymore but maybe they don’t need to with all the other tracking they do. However, they DO keep up with any receipts that you receive in your inbox to keep in an almost hidden “Purchases” area that I bet you didn’t know about (see the links below).
Make sure you are logged in to your Google account and try the following links:
(Tip: Right click to open links in a new tab.)
- What we’ve been doing online: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity
- Our purchases: https://myaccount.google.com/purchases
- Where we’ve been: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline
- Our personal interests: https://adssettings.google.com
- Hotel reservations: https://myaccount.google.com/reservations
What does this mean for preppers?
If you are going to make purchases that you don’t necessarily want people to know about, you wouldn’t want to use an email service for your receipts that’s going to keep track of your purchases. If you need to travel, you don’t want your email service keeping track of where you make reservations.
What can you do about it?
Step 1
Use a paid email service. It’s a small price to pay for privacy.
At ILJ Mail, your privacy comes first. We will never show you ads, and most importantly, we will never scan your email or harvest your personal information for marketing purposes. Click here to read more about ILJ Mail.
Step 2
Use a browser focused on better privacy like Firefox . Firefox has great built in tracker blockers and has a good plugin called “Facebook Container” that we highly recommend. Facebook is another company that has way too much information on us.
Step 3
Use a private search engine like Duck Duck Go. Duck Duck Go doesn’t make “search profiles” on you and doesn’t track you.
Step 4
Research Research Research… before using anything “free” on the internet.
Further Reading
There is a lot of information out there about how we are slowly losing our privacy. There are a few links below if you are interested in reading more.
PC Magazine (04/08/2020): What Does Big Tech Know About You? Basically Everything
NY Times Opinion Video (Dec. 2019) – You Should Be Freaking Out About Privacy
CNBC (May 2019) “Google uses Gmail to track a history of things you buy — and it’s hard to delete”
Fox and Friends (04/13/2018) – Kurt the ‘CyberGuy’ gives his take on the latest fallout over data privacy.
CNBC Video (12/06/2017 – older but still relevant) – Here’s Everything Google Knows About You
Business Insider (05/2017 – older but still relevant) – Google is under fire for watching you while you shop even when you’re not online https://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-tracking-shoppers-offline-2017-5
