The FDA just approved new Apple health features — AirPods as hearing aids, Apple Watches detecting sleep apnea. But what’s happening with your health info? I’ve got the details!
Hide your browsing history from your ISP so they don't sell your info
Do you ever wonder how much information your ISP gathers from your browsing habits? Worse yet, how much of it could be sold to advertisers?
These are the tough things we have to deal with in today’s always-connected world. The sad thing is that there is no legislation to protect how ISPs can use your intercepted personal data as it passes through the systems.
So what are your options if you’d like to be online and not feel your ISP is constantly tracking your every move? Using best practices for security, your data and browsing habits can help prevent others from intercepting your browsing history.
What does my ISP know about my browsing history?
It’s important to remember that ISPs record everything you browse and download to your internet-enabled devices. ISPs track and record data through your IP address, port numbers and DNS address.
ISPs analyze this data to see websites you frequent, who you converse with and any downloads you performed. While discovering what you’ve downloaded or browsed requires a little extra effort on their end, it can be done. ISPs use something called deep packet inspection (DPI) to inspect each data packet and allow it to read the contents of your browsing history.
As ISPs gain access to your browsing records, they can access geographic locations, financial data, health data, download actions, private emails, conversations, spouse and children’s info and whatever else they can discover. Due to FTC laws, it’s disturbing that it’s not illegal for ISPs to sell this information to a third party or the highest bidder.
With this specific information at their fingertips, ISPs can also show you targeted ads tailored to your browsing patterns. The same technology lets them keep a view of your location by monitoring your geolocation data.
ISPs worldwide can then sell your private data to vendors, advertisers and other third parties. Ever notice when you’ve been looking for that new tech gadget, and then ads are oddly tailored to that wherever you go?
Isn’t incognito mode still private?
While incognito mode is primarily thought of as a de facto means of privacy, this isn’t the case. The long and the short of it is while using a browser’s private or incognito mode selection will prevent that particular session from displaying in your local browser history, your ISP can still track you by utilizing your IP address.
It is still a helpful feature, but more so if you’re using someone else’s computer or want to keep specific search queries out of your browser history. But again, private or incognito browsing isn’t as private as it leads on to be.
See if your state has a COVID-19 exposure notification app
When a COVID-19 outbreak cluster occurs, contact tracing is essential to slowing the spread. Contact tracing can be used to warn people about an exposure that they wouldn’t have known about otherwise — which gives them a chance to quarantine and protect others.
15 million vets’ health data was leaked: It was part of the recently reported Change Healthcare and UnitedHealth ransomware data breach. Supposedly, patients’ “full medical histories” weren’t compromised, but with more dirt coming out about the breach almost every day, who’s to say how deep this rabbit hole goes? Watch out for medical ID theft.
Ransomware gang has your health data
Yes, the Change Healthcare hack just got worse. Here’s what you need to know. Plus, X charges a $1 fee to post, a foodie side hustle saves a guy $40K, and beware of scary SIM swapping scams.