Category: Privacy & Security

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
– Edward Snowden, 2015

How Google & Android Track Your Location – And How to Opt-Out 

How Google & Android Track Your Location – And How to Opt-Out 

There’s a lot of details on how Google and specifically Android tracks your location, that most people aren’t aware of. And if you ask me, that’s cluelessness by design. For most people, turning on “location” on their devices, seeing that little 📍-icon popping up, means that the device is now “connected to the GPS”. In reality however, that usually means that the device is scanning Wi-Fi, mobile networks and even Bluetooth in some cases to improve the results – in battery saving mode Android isn’t actually using GPS at all to locate the device!

So why’s this a big deal? Because every Wi-Fi sharing device is automatically mapped by Google, and they’re using your devices as a tool of doing so. In a nutshell:

  1. Google knows the location of your device (i.e. you), even if you’re using a VPN and your IP would be pointing elsewhere.
  2. Your device is basically enslaved to Google, providing location data regarding its surroundings, and thus improving Google’s services with the cost of your device’s battery life, performance, and your privacy.
  3. Every Wi-Fi hotspot, router and such is unwillingly acting as a location beacon for Google.

Luckily there are few ways to opt-out of these things. In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to do just that.

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Reddit Privacy Settings Guide (updated 2021)

Reddit Privacy Settings Guide (updated 2021)

Compared to other social networks, Reddit is a bit more barebones in terms of features and therefore also in terms of privacy settings. Here’s a handy list of the things you can do to harden your Reddit account.

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Brief Recap of This Year’s MCSI Results – With an Infographic!

Brief Recap of This Year’s MCSI Results – With an Infographic!

Yesterday was the international Safer Internet Day, and also the day that second annual Microsoft Computing Safety Index’s results were published. Research was done globally on a massive scale; over 10,000 PC, smartphone and tablet users in 20 countries and regions were surveyed. The results? Outright troubling.

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Cyber Safe Holidays!

Cyber Safe Holidays!

Holidays have been even more exciting than usual here in Finland, but not in a good way. Apparently cyber criminals aren’t aware of the concept of Christmas peace, and multiple cyber attacks have taken place against some major Finnish websites and servers. During 20.-21.12., several Finnish Joomla-servers had been DDoS-attacked and infected with Brobot-malware. Then between 25.-27.12., at least the websites of Helsingin Sanomat, Iltasanomat, Iltalehti, MTV3, Nelonen and Yle were also under DDoS-attacks. For Finns, I highly recommend following CERT-FI in Twitter – they’re The National Computer Security Incident Response Team of Finland, and give all the official information about cyber attacks, and useful security tips too.

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