Secure yourself from state snooping, say experts

A fresh reminder for web users to secure themselves came this week, after the founder of the internet warned of the gradual degradation of online privacy at the hands of world governments.

Tim Berners-Lee, credited by many as the ‘founder’ of the internet, made comments as part of the web’s 28th birthday that the internet had in many ways lived up to the vision of being an open platform “that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries”.

But he said one of his primary concerns was the lack of privacy and increased government surveillance, especially observed in the past 12 months.

According to Berners-Lee, many users were not concerned when their private data was collected – but “we lose out on the benefits we could realise if we had direct control over this data, and chose when and with whom to share it.”

In addition, he said people were helpless when it came to “a way of feeding back to companies what data we’d rather not share”, with government surveillance going to great lengths, which “creates a chilling effect on free speech.”

Last week, the United Nations' special rapporteur on privacy, Professor Joseph Cannataci, sharply criticised new surveillance laws - particularly in France, Germany, the UK and the US - as the “most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy”.

One growing solution has been the use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, which encrypt a user's Internet traffic data through a secure tunnel before accessing the Internet.

That protects sensitive information and the user’s data, as it connects to the web through an alternative path.

VPNs appeared to gain in popularity in 2016, with one provider - NordVPN - seeing an increase in inquiries from UK, US, France, Canada, Germany and Australia.

“Modern democracies should avoid such authoritarian surveillance methods as bulk hacking of thousands of computers, keeping Internet records for years and viewing them without a warrant, or legally obliging ISPs to assist in hacking and decryption,” exclaimed Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN.

Kamden said more frequent news about massive data breaches showed that internet-enabled devices were now significantly less secure, as more users searched to find ways to strengthen their online privacy and protection.

“VPNs are a solution for people to stay private online while the governments realize that a number of recent laws are too intrusive,” he quipped.

The balancing of privacy with the need to protect global security through snooping was something Professor Cannataci remained keen to see happen - even if the odds were against it.

According to him, the solution was “fair and regulated surveillance while balancing the introduction of privacy-friendly safeguards”.

But, despite having skin in the game, NordVPN’s Marty Kamden still wanted to see this side of his business become obsolete in the coming years.

“Governments should work towards protecting people’s privacy and online security.

“Hopefully, the 29th anniversary of World Wide Web will mark the time when web is becoming safer for all its users.”