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Eight ways to protect your privacy online

Eight ways to protect your privacy online

There are some ways you can take to protect your privacy in this climate of mass surveillance – and here we offer eight. Nothing, however, beats collective action and a bill of digital rights

Jon Lawrence and Sean Rintel

theguardian.com, Tuesday 3 December 2013 01.23 GMT

 

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Step one: Use a password manager. Photograph: Lasse Kristensen/Alamy

The current climate of mass surveillance has led many people to ask if there are ways to protect their privacy online. There are, and Electronic Frontiers Australia recommends the following steps to minimise your individual online security risks.

Bear in mind two points. First, much of the information available from our near-ubiquitous Internet access is easily accessible not just to intelligence agencies, but also to online service providers, their advertisers, people who might want to steal your identity, and, increasingly, anyone with reasonable technical skill.

Second, a significant amount of online security risk is social, not technical. Easily guessed passwords used across a number of services and so-called "social engineering", in which a victim is tricked into providing login and/or identity information. For both issues, make security a conscious choice.

1. Use a password manager

A password manager makes it easy to have a unique password for every site and ensures that if one service is hacked, other services will not be vulnerable. Some are free, many are low cost, and they are available for all platforms, including mobile.

2. Disable GPS and Wi-Fi on your mobile device until you need them

GPS: Your mobile provider is able to identify your approximate location using cell towers. If you have a smart device with GPS enabled, much more precise location information is available to a whole range of entities, including your platform provider and app developers.

Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi broadcasts detailed information about your device, the apps on it, your location, and Internet usage. Disabling Wi-Fi except when you are using it will prevent promiscuous broadcast of personal information. Power management apps will help you avoid having to remember by turning Wi-Fi off whenever the screen is dark, which will also maximise your battery life.

3. Read the access privileges for apps carefully, and make good choices

In the digital world if a service is free then you are the product. Many free services and apps collect detailed information about you that allows them to sell highly-target advertising. Next time you download a "free" app, check the information it is asking to access, and decide if this app really deserves those privileges.

4. Guard your date of birth and telephone number

Never display your full date of birth. It is a key piece of information that many providers use for verification. The same goes for telephone numbers, especially if you lose your telephone and are trying to re-create your contact list.

5. Make yourself more difficult to find on social media

Consider using a pseudonym on social media sites. You can also use unique email addresses for each website you join. Most online email providers allow you to do this by appending extra letters (eg "fb+") to your existing email address. This will make it difficult for strangers to search for you on social media sites and if you start receiving spam at that address, you’ll know exactly where the spammers found your address.

6. Keep your work and personal presences separate

If you have a work email account, keep it for work only. Your employer has the right to access your work email account, so you really should keep your private emails separate. This will also save you the significant trouble involved in telling all your contacts and updating all your logins if/when you change employers.

You might also consider creating multiple social media identities: work, very private, and "publicly" personal, with different names and different contact lists as much as possible.

7. Encrypt your connections

Encryption is the process of encoding information so that it is only intelligible to those given access to read it. Many online services, such as Facebook, Twitter and Gmail, now offer encrypted connections. Ensure that your browser uses an encrypted connection wherever it’s supported by installing the "HTTPS Everywhere" plug-in. Email is an inherently insecure communications medium, but there are options available for encryption, such as Pretty Good Privacy. Unfortunately, your email messages will only be encrypted if the people you are communicating with also use a compatible encryption service, so this limits its usefulness.

8. Collective action

While these measures can provide you with some individual protections, the fact remains that the most powerful action is collaborative.

Globally, we should demand that all countries focus efforts on implementing the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. These are 13 principles that set out for the first time an evaluative framework for assessing surveillance practices in the context of international human rights obligations.

In Australia, citizens should also be demanding a much more fundamental and long-term solution: a bill of digital rights. Australians deserve a set of principles that underpin decisions made about legislation that regulates online freedom, access, fair use, and privacy.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/03/eight-ways-to-protect-your-privacy-online

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Too hot to sleep? 10 ways to beat the heat

Too hot to sleep? 10 ways to beat the heat


Hot weather can make it hard to get to sleep so if you’re struggling to get your 40 winks as the mercury pushes 30, try our expert tips for a good night – whatever the weather

By Kim Hookem-Smith | Yahoo Lifestyle

The glorious summer days we’ve been enjoying come with a downside – hot, sticky night times that make it impossible to get a good night’s sleep.

And we can’t be the only ones who are getting grumpy and irritable despite the lovely sunshine, after spending the night tossing and turning. So we asked Dave Gibson, sleep expert at London bed makers Warren Evans, for his advice on keeping cool and sleeping soundly. Sleeping in hot weather can be difficult [REX]

“Most scientists agree that, in general, a cool room helps you to get to sleep easier,” Dave explains. “Some suggest that if you are sleeping in temperatures above 24°C, you’re likely to wake up during the night.

“Your body temperature naturally falls during the second stage of sleep, reaching its lowest point about four hours after the onset of sleep, which is why you might start off above the covers but feel the need for them later in the night.”

[Seven ways to sleep better tonight]


[Sleeping in separate beds helps my marriage work]

Dave’s top 10 tips to stay perfectly cool and sleep well:

1. Keep windows and shades completely closed during the day. Most people think that opening them will help circulate air - but actually it has the opposite effect. Keep them closed to help reduce the temperature in the room. Open them at night when the air temperature reduces.

2. Move the air around. If you can afford to, then invest in an air conditioning unit (which can also act as a dehumidifier). If not, get a fan to create a cross-draft. If it’s unbearably hot then add a cold wet sheet between you and the fan or even a bucket of ice in front of the fan to further reduce the temperature.

3. Go to bed cool. If you go to bed feeling hot and bothered you’re less likely to get to sleep easily and more likely to wake during the night. Wear light pyjamas and keep bedding to a minimum [REX]

Have a cool shower before bed. If you are still too hot, try an ice pack (wrapped in a damp towel) on the back of your knees or neck, which is a quick way of cooling your body.

Equally stick your feet in a bucket of cold water before bed or put on a pair of damp socks. Or try putting on a damp a thin sheet to cover you, as they do in the Middle East.

4. Keep bedding light. Get rid of the duvet and choose the lightest sheets possible (cotton and then silk). You want cover that is non-absorbent so they don’t absorb your sweat. If you are sharing a bed then use separate sheets to avoid the extra potential of disturbing each other as you are more likely to toss and turn.

If you go for no sheets at all, keep one at the end of the bed that you can pull on if you wake and are too cold. If you have a foam rubber pillow you may want to swap it out during the summer as it absorbs heat and can get very hot.

5. Get cold feet! Uncover your feet if you are using a sheet, as this will also cool you down

6. Pyjama ban. An obvious one, but rethink what you wear to bed.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/video/everything-know-sleep-050000127.html

7. Hydrate. Drink enough water in the day. If you are dehydrated, you are more likely to get a headache/body ache prior to bed. Coffee/tea don’t count as they are diuretics and you need an equal amount of extra water to flush the caffeine they contain through the kidneys. Of course, if you drink tea/coffee too late the caffeine will also keep you awake at night.

8. Limit the noise. Open windows mean that outside noise may be a problem. Earplugs are an obvious solution. Or try putting on some low volume relaxing (unfamiliar if possible) music with no lyrics. Given that fans produce white noise this may be a bonus to block outside noise.

9. Control the light. Use dark, heavy blinds to filter out the light if you are going to sleep before dusk. Also try a neye mask to make sure your regular sleep routine isn’t broken by the long hours of daylight and bright mornings.

Avoid the temptation to stay awake longer in the lighter nights, as routine tends to be the best way (in the modern world of the electric light bulb) of ensuring that you get to sleep easily. Also block off all sources of LED light sources. Switch off or turn them over. Don’t switch on the full light to go to the toilet or if you get up during the night as it wakes you up.

Earplugs may be necessary if open windows make your bedroom noisy [REX]

10. Allergy management. Pollen can be a massive problem in the spring and summer, keeping many of us awake. You can fight the problem using an air purifier and close the windows as soon as possible in the morning to stop the pollen coming in.

Also try showering before bed, including washing your hair, to remove pollen. Anecdotal suggestions are that local honey can help with allergic responses too. (For more hay fever banishing tactics try our guide to beating summer allergies.)

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/hot-to-sleep-in-summer-hot-weather-heat-102959479.html

Summer mood boosts
Just like the Olympics last year, Wimbledon brought the nation together as we cheered Scotland's Andy Murray on to victory. There's nothing like a sporting event (especially where
... more

Summer mood boosts
Just like the Olympics last year, Wimbledon brought the nation together as we cheered Scotland's Andy Murray on to victory. There's nothing like a sporting event (especially where your side wins) to give you the enthusiasm to sail through summer.

And just because Wimbledon's over for another year, it doesn't have to stop there. As well as The Ashes, The Open and the Tour de France, there's also the London 2012 Anniversary Games to put us all back in that hazy summer Olympic spirit. Grab your friends and find a venue/screen near you.
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<img width=1 height=1 alt="" src="http://csc.beap.bc.yahoo.com/yi?bv=1.0.0&bs=(136q9qi71(gid$wgvUXLx9UhImAAyjUZd7pgBZUZgckFHoFgwAAu5B,st$1374164492201065,si$3238532,sp$2146500781,pv$0,v$2.0))&t=JR_3-DR_3&al=(as$12qf1b3f1,aid$2PunIArIEuI-,bi$142710032,cr$2622189532,ct$25,at$HR,eob$gd1_match_id=-1:ypos=LREC)">

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In Scotland, the average household throws away £430 worth of food waste every year!

There are many simple things that can be done to put that money back in your pocket and the Love Food Hate Waste team are here to help with our handy hints and tips video.


Love Food Hate Waste: Hints and Tips


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93beXTGySHI


Looking for creative ways of using up leftover ingredients?

The Love Food Hate Waste team demonstrates the campaign's new online recipe finder, which finds simple, tasty recipes for ingredients already in your home.

For this, and many more tasty recipe ideas and handy hints and tips to help you reduce your food waste and save money visit the LFHW website
http://www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk



Love Food Hate Waste: Leftover Challenge


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZtwtjyvLo

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