Lesson 2: Operating System Layer
Describes privacy threats at the Operating System layer. Data theft, data security, tracking, private browsing.
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Describes privacy threats at the Operating System layer. Data theft, data security, tracking, private browsing.
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In this training, we are not going to go deep into either the Underlying Technology or the Operating System layers. However, we do want to highlight that when it comes to privacy, not all operating systems are created equal and some operating systems are downright creepy.
For example, if you are using Windows 10 then you will want to consider the implications of this operating system’s default settings and the Windows 10 user agreement. When operating Windows 10, your device is by default tagged with a unique advertising ID, and data syncing is enabled by default including all browsing history, app settings, wi-fi names and passwords. Cortana – Microsoft’s version of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa – can and does collect any and all of your data, meaning literally any data you operate with on your computer, including, but not limited to credit card info, mic and video input and so on. Additionally, Microsoft can collect any personal data about you, and that “about you” data can be shared with any third-party, even without your consent. If you are running Windows and want to continue using the operating system but minimize your privacy leakage, you can look into a privacy tool called which can help mitigate some of the Operating System layer privacy vulnerabilities.
For Apple users, things are somewhat better, but macOS still has leakage that you may consider way less than optimal. For example, unless you disable the suggestions feature in Spotlight, your search query, as well as off-line suggestions plus 'related usage data' are all sent to Apple for “processing”. Try it out: do a quick spotlight search and see what comes up – all that data has been sent to Apple (the content of spreadsheets, audio recordings, anything you have on your machine) - to be ‘processed’. It really is astonishing how much private information we are constantly giving away, usually without our knowledge or intention!
Settings that Apple users may wish to tweak to limit the amount of ‘about you’ data leaking from your Mac include disabling location services under Security & Privacy in your Mac Settings (System Preferences > Security & Privacy >Privacy Tab). Enabling your firewall also under Security and Privacy is also recommended. You may wish to disable Siri and tweak your Spotlight preferences.
For mobiles, the two main operating systems are iOS from Apple and Android from Google. Recently disturbing information has started to emerge about just how “leaky” the Google Android OS is, with estimates that up to is being sent from users’ devices to Google. Apple iOS has its flaws by default as well, but disabling location services and Siri and restricting the data that is sent back to Apple from your device, while not comprehensive, is good enough for the purposes of achieving reasonable security.
If you’re interested in exploring open source operating system alternatives, there are also some excellent open source operating systems that are built on the Linux platform, such as Ubuntu or Tails, which offer far superior levels of control. Their data leakage is minimal compared to the default experience with proprietary operating systems.