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IS DISAPPEARING HOW NEW TECH TOOLS CAN HELP YOU FIGHT BACK P TOP TECH TRENDS FOR 2014 p. 52 HUMAN-POWERED FLIGHT p. 72 IS DISAPPEARING HOW NEW TECH TOOLS CAN HELP YOU FIGHT BACK p. 56 (yes, really) p. 19 ISSUE INVISIBLE SKYSCRAPERS FEBRUARY THE NEW WAY TO INVENT p. 48 2014 OLYMPIC GEAR SECRETS p. 64 TECH HOME AUTO ADVENTURE SCIENCE THE DIGITAL SPIES ARE WATCHING YOU— MARKETERS, THE NSA, IDENTITY THIEVES, AALL KINDS OF SNOOPS. BBUT THE BATTLE’S NOT OVER. HERE ARE SEVEN BBIG CATEGORIES OF PPERSONAL TECH, AAND HOW YOU CAN SSECURE THEM. IIT’ST TIME TO FIGHT FOR YOUR FEBRUARY 2014 57 PRIVACY, WE SAY, is about to come roaring back. No, it’s not too late. Yes, we know that Google monetizes both our emails and our search histories. It’s true that data brokers market our personal dossiers, listing everything from our favorite blogs to our old parking tickets (identity thieves must love it). And NSA leaker Edward Snowden really did prove the paranoids right: The United States government spies on everyone. Now, we agree that security agencies have a vital responsibility to track terrorists, but that mission can’t require all citizens to live in a surveillance state. Feel you have nothing to hide? That assumes the data will always be used to defeat terrorists, not to monitor activists, let alone to stalk ex-girlfriends—yes, NSA employ- ees have done that. Here’s the other side to the privacy-is-dead argument. You can fight the privacy erosion that technology has enabled using tools that technology provides. And when you protect your data—using encryption and other tools—you incidentally bolster the argument that security is the norm. At least it should be. Privacy is not dead but simply suffering from neglect. It’s your job to revive it. BY DAVEY ALBA TECH: WEB BROWSERS TO DO: DEFEAT TRACKING SOFTWARE PHOTOGRAPH BY TERU ONISHI PROP STYLING BY SARAH GUIDO Web browsers work in two directions: You use them to learn about the world, and snoops use them to learn about you. The sheer num- ber of identifying files, or cookies, downloaded onto our computers can surprise even jaded digital natives. Many cookies are helpful—keep- ing you logged in to a service, for instance—but others exist purely to help marketers target their sales pitches. An online tool maintained by the Network Advertising Initiative can reveal who is collecting information on you; a browser we tested was being tracked by 82 firms, with u TYPOGRAPHY BY SINELAB 58 FEBRUARY 2014 / POPULARMECHANICS.COM open-source browser.) Extreme fix: Organiz- ing resistance to a totalitarian state and need real anonymity? Download the Tor Browser Bundle. Tor has become famous as a secure way for activists, names such as AppNexus, Criteo, and Datalogix. journalists, and, yes, some criminals to browse the Cookies can be cleared, but new methods Web. Tor bundles your data into encrypted pack- for tracking online use will be harder to cir- ets and directs it through a worldwide volunteer cumvent. For instance, some companies use network of more than 3000 servers, hiding your browser fingerprinting, which looks for dis- location and making your data more difficult to tinctive patterns of computer settings, such as read along the way. installed fonts and time-zone details, to home There are two downsides to Tor: First, it’s slow, in on a user’s identity. Google and Microsoft because your data is sent through at least three are also working on a new form of cookie-less relays, with each relay donating different amounts identification: unique IDs with tracking that of bandwidth to Tor users. Second, merely down- reaches beyond the desktop and into the user’s loading it can draw government scrutiny. The browsing activities on smartphones and tablets. NSA has reportedly developed a system called Google’s system potentially could be used to FoxAcid to insert eavesdropping applications into tie together data across all its products—Gmail, the machines of Tor users. However, the agency the Chrome browser, and Android phones. In admitted in a leaked Snowden document, “We will addition to tech firms, the U.S. government can never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the monitor your digital trail through your browser. time.” A virtual private network (VPN) adds a differ- Among last year’s revelations: The NSA has ent kind of protection by encrypting all outbound tapped into the fiber-optic cables that make up computer communications. Combine Tor with a VPN the Internet’s backbone, and, through the Mari- and you’ve got even tighter security. na metadata application, the agency can track an individual’s browsing history, social connec- TECH: SOCIAL NETWORKS tions, and, in some cases, physical locations. Routine fix: To practice good browser TO DO: RAMP UP hygiene, regularly clear your cookies and your PRIVACY SETTINGS browser cache. There are a number of browser add-ons that can shrink the deluge as it pours in. In 2011 an Austrian law student named Max For instance, AdBlock Edge blocks ads and third- Schrems asked Facebook to provide all the party trackers. The Disconnect add-on lets you see data it had collected on him, taking advantage and prevent otherwise invisible tracking of your of an obscure provision in a European data- browsing history. (Both add-ons work with Firefox protection law passed in 1995. Schrems PRESS PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED and Chrome; Firefox is preferable because it’s an initially received only a fraction of his data. He protested, and eventually a CD showed up at his door that held a 1222-page PDF, which included E-ZPass tags cap- employment information, relationship statuses, ture a car’s location pokes, old chat conversations, and geotagged data at toll plazas. The information photos—most of it information that Schrems can be used in civil thought he had deleted. Such data is being court cases, such as divorces. Tag readers monetized by tech companies in increasingly can also be used to invasive ways. Google’s Shared Endorsements monitor traffic flow feature, for instance, allows the company to along any road. ILLUSTRATIONS BY AMANDA LANZONE my email, partly because I insisted on learning how to encrypt my Facebook mes- sages too. I started using a password manager, then PRIVACY MAKEOVER promptly forgot the long master password I’d created. But I worked through the HOW POPMECH TECH EDITOR mishaps and felt much more secure once I was done. DAVEY ALBA TRIED FOR TOTAL But there was a rub: Pri- DIGITAL SECURITY. vacy is a lonely world. I had an encrypted phone service and text messaging—and PROUD TECHNOPHILE—that’s how I’d describe myself. no one to talk to. The first I’ve built a 3D printer from mail-order parts. I once tracked time I fired up my secure down an iPhone thief using sneaky digital tools. My smart- texting app, Silent Text, I phone, at last count, has 303 apps. But testing seemingly had exactly one contact on every digital product released has a downside: It means I my list: Bruce Schneier, the have bigger privacy vulnerabilities than most people. And cryptographer who’d recom- for all the attention I pay to technology, I’ve never worked mended it. But rather than particularly hard at protecting my data—I always used give up, I started cajoling my default privacy settings and the same, sloppy online tools friends into enabling encryp- most people choose. No longer. After interviewing dozens of tion on their own systems so computer science researchers, cryptographers, and security that we could communicate. (I probably have lots of invis- professionals and learning tract, but next time I’ll go ible new friends too. The how easily digital snoops with Android, which is open- NSA reportedly flags people can access personal data, I source. So far, so easy. who download encryption decided to change my ways. Next, I set about install- software—I imagine I’m now Every expert’s top sug- ing encryption software on the agency’s radar.) gestion: Use open-source on my laptop and phone. Is increased security software, because the NSA Honestly, I’d never even worth the trouble? I say works with tech companies heard of some of the tools yes. Realistically, it may be to weaken encryption in my sources recommended— hard to adopt some of these proprietary software. “It’s with names like Cryptocat, tools, the ones that require much harder to build in back Autistici/Inventati, and GNU your friends to sign up as doors in open-source,” Mat- Privacy Guard. Downloading well. But if there’s ever thew Green, a computer a secure instant- messaging been a time to advocate for security expert at Johns client was a cinch. So privacy technology, this is Hopkins University, told me. was adding plug-ins to my it. Downloading encryption “The eyeballs are on it.” I browser to block tracking tools sends a clear message switched to Mozilla Firefox, by ad companies. However, that you’re not okay with and I jettisoned my Googling it took me an afternoon to digital snooping. All kinds of habit in favor of a new wrestle PGP (Pretty Good organizations are spying on search engine, DuckDuckGo. Privacy) encryption into us, with minimal permission I downloaded Tor, an ano- or oversight. We don’t have nymizing browser bundle to make it easy for them. that hides your identity— it’s slow but worth using if you’re on an open Wi-Fi network. Right now I am locked in to an iPhone con- 60 FEBRUARY 2014 / POPULARMECHANICS.COM The Man With No Secrets —at All Security level: 1 DIGITAL SAFETY ZONES Profile: You’re a digital exhibi- tionist—and an identity thief’s perfect target.
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