Diana the Valkyrie's Guide to the Internet

A hard man is good to beat

Understanding the Internet - privacy

People want a certain amount of privacy. Not total privacy, otherwise you'd become a hermit, and never tell anyone your name. But a certain amount, and different people want different amounts. Only you can decide how much you want, but this article is to help you get it.

A question I get asked a lot, is what information about you can a web site get from you surfing it? Not very much. I run a web site, and I know exactly what information I get. I get:

• The name of the server you're dialled into, such as mindspring.com
• Often, I get the address of the modem that you dialled into. That would look like this: user-37kb74e.dialup.mindspring.com. That tells me that you dialled into Mindspring (a big ISP), and modem number 37kb74e answered your call.
• Your browser tells me where you were just before you came to my page. Web sites use that to see who is sending them traffic. It might mean that there's a web site with a link to me that I didn't know about, and I'll check it out, and maybe do a link back to them.
• Your browser tells me which browser it is, and which version. For example, Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.0; AOL 4.0; Windows 3.1). That can be useful if I have to sort out some technical problem. It means I know you're using Microsoft Internet explorer version 3.0, on Windows 3.1, and you got it with AOL, which probably means you use AOL. There's particular problems associated with AOL (such as the "compression" they can use on pictures, which makes them blurrier), and with WebTV (they can't use Java or play big MPGs) and there's particular problems with some browsers.
• Which of my files you're accessing. That's handy, because it tells me what is popular.

That's all I get. The big thing I don't get, is your email address, and neither does anyone else, unless you give it. And, of course, I don't get your name, or any other information about you.

Maybe I should explain about cookies. I don't use them, even in the shopping mall (I use a different system called "baskets", because I still need to follow people as they shop, so I can keep track of what they've chosen to buy), but what they are, is a way to track people using a web site. What the site does, is it gives you a string of letters and numbers, and your browser will give that string back to the web site each time it visits. Here's an example.

Suppose you visit www.fairyland.com. Fairyland sends a cookie to your browser, "BSOWUDSYB2938". Now, each time you access a page, your browser gives the cookie to the web server. So, maybe you spend a lot of time in Santa's Grotto. The web server can build up a list of the places you've been, and work out that Santa's Grotto is your favourite place. Next time you go to www.fairyland.com, you find it's taken you straight to Santa's Grotto.

So, cookies aren't some mysterious evil thing. They're just a little bit of text that helps the web site to track you. But I know some people don't like them. Personally, I don't think that a cookie is an invasion of privacy. If I visit fairyland a lot, then they don't actually know who it is that is visiting them, just that it's someone they've given the string "BSOWUDSYB2938" to. And I don't care if they know that "BSOWUDSYB2938" is fond of Santa's Grotto.

Of course, once you fill in a form giving details about yourself, all bets are off. Then they know whatever you choose to tell them. That's entirely up to you. You should look out for check boxes that you have to check in order not to be sent exciting new offers by that web site, and possibly by others.

A very significant chunk of privacy can be gained by having more than one email account. You can sign up for free web-based email accounts with Hotmail, Yahoo, Lycos, Juno, Rocketmail and hundreds of others. You access this email via your browser; you give your username and password, and then you can read and send emails. This is especiallygood in a situation where more than one person is sharing one internet account. It means that your kids can't read your email. Of course, your kids are well brought up, and wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.

This is also a good way to deal with junk email. If you need to give an email address in a situation where you suspect you might be spammed, then create a web-based email address, and give that. If you find it gets 1000 junk mails over the next week, you can just dispose of it, it didn't cost you anything.

If you want to secure something on your computer from prying eyes, the only way is encryption. For most purposes, you don't need strong encryption, because what you're hiding isn't going to attract the attention of MI5, but if you ever do need strong encryption, then PGP is the way to go. Another possibility is to buy a Zip drive or similar, you can get them for under $100. Then store the secret stuff on Zip disks, and as long as no-one loads your disks, your secret stuff is safe.

The other situation when you're giving information away, is when you send someone an email. The main thing you give away, is the email address that you mailed from. In any normal situation, that's good, because it means that the person you emailed can answer you. But can anyone find out anything about you from your email address?

Yes and no. One way to find out more about someone, is to check what messages they've posted, either on my Message Boards (using my searcher) or on Usenet, using Deja News. You can give Deja an email address, and then you can read all the public postings that were made from that address. So, if three years ago, you revealed that you have big ears by saying so in a posting to a newsgroup, that information will be publicly available to the end of time (or till the internet closes), and can be searched out by someone who knows your email address. In real life, you have to be a bit careful what you say in public. On the Internet, things you said several years ago can be rehashed.

The only things that can be found out from your email address, are the things you've revealed yourself. By the way, I'm always a bit wary of believing everything someone says, they might only have medium sized ears, and be boasting. Or they might have quite small ears, and be joking. I'm even more wary of what one person says about another. If someone says that Jane Doe has big ears, I wouldn't take that as gospel. But one thing is revealed by your email address, and that's the ISP you're signed up with (AOL, Compuserve, or BigCompany.COM). So if you email from your work address, then people will know that you work at BigCompany.com. If you use a Hotmail-type web email address, then they don't know anything except that you use Hotmail.

Now here's a fun thing you can do. Go to Altavista and type your name, in quotes, into the search box, like this "Sally Bowles". That will find all the references to your name. Most of them won't be you, of course, but someone who shares your name.