What Should We Do to Protect Our Privacy?

January 28 (Bahman 8) is Privacy Day in many parts of the world, including Europe, America, Canada, and India. Therefore, every year on this day, various discussions and talks about privacy take place, and you can read different tweets on this topic by looking at the hashtag #DataProtectionDay. With the increasing use of mobile phones and various applications by Iranians, the importance of privacy has become more pronounced. For this reason, on the occasion of Privacy Day, here are some important and practical tips to improve your privacy: 1- Use a VPN or proxy like Psiphon in public places: Given that the use of VPNs and proxies in Iran is common due to extensive internet filtering, internet users in Iran often use proxies. However, it should be emphasized that whenever you connect to the internet in public places like cafes, hotels, restaurants, etc., you must activate your VPN or proxy. By activating your VPN and proxy, you effectively eliminate the eavesdropping and monitoring of your laptop or mobile traffic, thus preventing your online activities from being monitored by your internet service provider or the owner of the cafe, hotel, etc. Additionally, be careful never to use Iranian search engines like Yooz, as not only are all your searches stored on their servers, but you also receive censored results. 2- Use Signal for sensitive conversations: Although Telegram is the most popular messaging app in Iran, it should not be forgotten that eavesdropping is possible on Telegram by the company itself. Therefore, if you want to have sensitive conversations (note that everyone has their own definition of sensitive), it is better to use the Signal app instead of Telegram or similar applications. The important feature of the Signal app is that all conversations through this app are end-to-end encrypted. This means that no organization or individual, even the service provider - that is, Signal - can eavesdrop on or access the messages. It is also worth mentioning that WhatsApp, like Signal, uses end-to-end encryption, but this claim has not been verified by independent organizations, so it is better to use Signal instead of WhatsApp. 3- Use DuckDuckGo with the TOR browser for secure searches: If you want your searches to be invisible to governments, organizations, and internet service providers, instead of using Google and browsers like Chrome or Firefox, use the DuckDuckGo search engine and the secure TOR browser. By using these two tools, you effectively eliminate access for organizations and individuals to your searches and also your IP address - which in the virtual world is like your home address in the real world. 4- Use extensions like Privacy Badge and HTTPS Everywhere: Nowadays, various websites and services try to monitor internet users through different methods and tricks to display various ads to them. To counter such monitoring and to ensure that you are connected to a website securely, that is, via HTTPS, it is highly recommended to install both the Privacy Badge and HTTPS Everywhere extensions. The Privacy Badge extension effectively eliminates tracking by various websites, and HTTPS Everywhere opens any website that supports SSL/TLS - which secures the connection between your device and the website - as HTTPS and not HTTP. Finally, do not forget that protecting your privacy is one of the important tasks that every internet user must undertake and should never be underestimated. Have a good Privacy Day!