Hey Friends,

I have spoken previously about the importance of managing our digital footprints in order to better protect our online privacy.

Every time we use the internet to post a comment, upload a photograph, or access a website, we leave a trace of our activity (digital footprint) which can be used to build detailed profiles about our digital lives.

Reducing the number of these footprints is an obvious first step we can take to improve our privacy, however, we can also employ another strategy called Data Compartmentalisation (see my free Digital Balance philosophy ebook). Here, the aim is to reduce the linkability of our digital data points so that fewer footprints can be connected by a common identifier such as an email address or username. In doing so, it becomes much harder for anyone to build a detailed profile about us, thus improving our privacy.

Privacy by compartmentalisation is very simple.

We create virtual compartments where we concentrate carefully separated pools of data. Each compartment will revolve around a different sphere of your online identity such as shopping, banking, professional life, social media, with each compartment of data isolated from the rest. Remember, the goal is to minimise the possibility of linking one pool of data to another.

Now, if somebody knows your professional identity they wouldn’t be able to figure out what you do in your social or private spheres. Likewise, even if a company knows you like to buy a certain product they cannot target you with advertisements to your personal or professional email address (see burner accounts from last week).

So where do we start?

Well, the first step is probably to burst out of the ecosystems we have unintentionally boxed ourselves into. We don't want to entrust one provider with all of our data, so for each compartment we are going to use different software from different providers (where possible). Stop using the same gmail account to sign up for everything. Instead, have separate emails (or aliases) for each compartment. Never sign up for anything with your Facebook or gmail account, instead create unique credentials for each digital interaction and never recycle passwords. Slowly start to replace google services (mail, calendar, blogger, hang outs etc) with open source equivalents.

Hopefully I introduced the thinking behind data compartmentalisation. I have only scratched the surface here, but my aim is to write up a full article on this strategy soon.

Take care friends,

Chris

PS: If you think someone you know might benefit from joining this conversation, please forward them this email. Or has someone already forwarded this email to you? If so, Subscribe here

Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Link: Microsoft have finally caught up and now recommend switching from SMS 2FA to an authentication app.

\\ Two Link: Windows 7 and 10 users encouraged to update to protect against the latest exploit.

Favourite Quote

Reducing the number of digital footprints is an obvious first step we can take to improve our digital privacy

Previous emails

If you have missed my previous emails, catch up here