DETROIT – Technological advancements have been witnessed greatly in the world due to various discoveries and developed knowledge in the field of science and technology. People spend a lot of time updating individual information about themselves on social media accounts. The privacy of the installed data online is a great concern to many.

Technology has advanced by bringing VPNs, private browsers, and Tor which are important tools to help in maintaining individual privacy. But still, a challenge is experienced because some companies and governments use facial recognition, locational monitoring, and Electronic money which may interfere with people’s privacy since they track your activities.

Government agencies, companies, and some employers interfere with people’s privacy by using surveillance methods like facial recognition, location monitoring, and electronic money. Also check out SurfShark for added security and privacy. 

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is a type of database that is represented in a mathematical form with distinct information about the face of an individual. The government uses facial recognition technology to recognize the criminals or those arrested to compare their faces with other faces recorded in other crimes.

It’s very difficult for the members of the public to avoid their image comparison being used in the court of law. When your image is taken as a criminal, you cannot change your face like a password. Your image can be used to trace you easily.

Electronic Money

People wish to do their financial transactions independently without being monitored by their governments and companies. But the development of electronic money has made it impossible. The individual’s privacy gets interfered with because the financial institutions keep on monitoring the activities in various bank accounts.

The government can monitor illegal transactions and individuals who use false identities. The database is stored to allow the law enforcers to access the data anytime they want without individual concert.

Location Monitoring

The companies have been using GPS and IP addresses to monitors the locations of their employees. The company vehicle can be tracked when the employees use them when they are out of work premises.

In the same way company’s devices like computers, tablets and mobile phones can be tracked by the company when the employee uses them out of work. Countries like the US are trying to limit the activities by requiring individual companies to ask for employee concerts. 

The 3 Different Anti-Surveillance Technologies That Are Helping To Protect Your Privacy

Is there anything you can do to ensure that your privacy is secure? Advancement in technology presents a couple of ways in which you can secure your privacy. Let us discuss some solutions presented by technology to secure personal privacy.

VPN

Virtual Private Network commonly known as VPN helps you to hide your internet protocol (IP) address in the public internet connection. VPNs make your online activities almost impossible to trace. It limits internet providers and website owners from tracing the users browsing history. This protects the users from the website’s owners selling their browser history.

When an individual accesses your IP address they can easily track your internet activities and location. VPNs give you the freedom to use IP which is not your own therefore, no one can trace your location. When you are using public Wi-Fi, cyber attackers can easily track your personal information but VPN is capable of securing your devices like smartphones, computers, and tablets. VPNs also protect you from the government’s tracks since your online activities are inaccessible to them.

Tor

The onion Router also referred to as Tor is an organization based in the US developed to help online users secure their privacy. Normally when you access a certain website. The website automatically connects to the website server which has the capacity of tracing your IP address and location.

This means they can gain access to your browser history hence interfering with your privacy. The Development of the Tor browser has brought a solution to people’s confidentiality because Tor never permits the computer to connect to the website provider. The use of the Tor browser can successfully help you secure your data from a third party.

Privacy Browser

Cybercriminals are also in rush to develop new advanced methods of achieving their goals. When using the public internet you fear leaking your important information to the third party who may be advertisers, website servers, and government agencies. Advanced technology has brought into space the use of a private browser.

The privacy browser helps you to share a computer or other devices without allowing the device to save your passwords and browsing history. With a privacy browser, you can log in and out of different emails without it saving the emails in the browser. You can keep all your confidential data private because it cannot save the search.

Summing up

Government surveillance which seeks to monitor the activities of people has impacted the privacy of individuals negatively but technological advancement has come in handy to ensure the security of personal data is maintained.  

This column was written by Hannah Madison.