The Battle Over Who Owns You Online

It's not a war in the sense of the trenches in World War I or the tank battles of World War II. It's more of an insurgency right now, but the number of those joining the revolt is growing exponentially. According to one survey, 86 percent of those with internet access have taken some sort of action to cover their steps online.

The authorities are fighting back with increasing ferocity because they see the threat to their profits in apocalyptic terms: if data, and especially Big Data is the key to the future, the challenge to their control of that data is existential.

At their most basic, loss of access to virtually everyone's information reduces the margins of those enterprises that rely on such intangible raw material, whether the institution is public or private. Changes in laws defining  regulatory authority and even the rules about ownership - which are almost surely coming in most western democracies - represent a fundamental change which menaces their organizational financial or power model and, therefore, their future.

That the organizations who discovered all that 'free' information was an amazing source of revenue would push beyond the bounds of public acceptance is hardly surprising: that is how such enterprises work. Not that they are inherently evil or innocent, but merely that they are designed to optimize variables that contribute to the outcomes their owners desire. What is surprising is that rapidity with which the societal acceptance of the deal unraveled. As recently as a year ago, privacy advocates were a voice crying in the wilderness, a tiny band warning of abuses that most of the population either didnt see or about  which they didnt care. Now, they are in the majority.

 The issue the data industry must address is not about their 'rights' of ownership, but about whether the society which they serve feels sufficiently violated that it will seriously consider retracting the industry's license to operate. JL

Elizabeth Dwoskin reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Growing numbers of people are staging everyday rebellions against rampant data mining. According to the Pew survey, 86% have taken steps to mask their digital footprints.

These days, it seems privacy is under assault from all sides. Your phone can track your location, your thermostat learns your personal habits, Facebook  FB in Your Value Your Change Short position knows the most intimate details about your life—and U.S. intelligence agencies are racing to sweep up reams of data.

More people are turning to a new wave of tools that let them cover their footsteps online or let them know who's watching them.

They're downloading programs that allow them to see how their online activity is being monitored or who can get access to their social-media information. They're turning to browsers and search engines that don't track their queries, and to services that encrypt their messages. Some may soon opt for a new wave of phones that help hide their activity from trackers.

The fears about privacy are widespread. According to the Pew Research Center, half of Americans—up from 33% in 2009—are concerned about the wealth of personal data on the Internet.

But growing numbers of people are also staging everyday rebellions against rampant data mining. According to the same Pew survey, 86% have taken steps to mask their digital footprints.

For instance, ad-blocking tools, which keep ads off your screen and prevent the ad companies from getting data about you, have become the most popular browser extension on the Web: More than a quarter of Americans have downloaded them, according to Forrester Research Inc. FORR in Your Value Your Change Short position

Consumers who use privacy tools say they are helping them find a middle ground between too much exposure and disconnecting entirely. Consider how people are using them to keep a tighter rein on social media.

Last year Darren Odden, a 43-year-old software engineer in Santa Cruz, Calif., was shocked to find that pictures of his 16-month-old son were showing up on public Google  GOOG in Your Value Your Change Short position searches.

Panicked, he considered pulling all his photographs from social-media sites. Then he downloaded AVG PrivacyFix, a free program from the antivirus software company AVG Technologies.

The program's dashboard gives users a snapshot of what information they're actually sharing when they use social networks and services, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. It pings users with a small red exclamation point if their privacy settings are weak and sends an alert when a website users have visited in the past 50 days makes relevant changes to its privacy policies.

The reason pictures of his son were leaking into Google queries, Mr. Odden learned on PrivacyFix, was that he had inadvertently made some Facebook settings public.

"Sometimes you want to share pictures of your infant with just your family and a few friends and not with the rest of the world," he says. "It shouldn't be so difficult to do that."

Now that he has control over his data, he says he posts more frequently on social networks. "It empowers me to share more—with the right people," he says. "I know that when I share something with friends or family, I'm not getting uber-personal with a business client."

Other products let people keep track of their personal data in other ways. Privowny, a free privacy toolbar for Firefox and Chrome, can show users which companies have their credit card, phone number and email, and are sharing data about you.

Abine Inc.'s $129 DeleteMe software can remove someone's public profile and contact and personal information from leading sites that gather data about people from around the Web and offer it for a variety of uses, such as background checks.

Another popular way to cover online footprints is to monitor cookies, the tiny files that marketing companies place on sites and browsers to track people's interests and habits. Some of that data gets sent to firms that maintain lists of people who fit marketing characteristics, such as those who are struggling economically or have ailments such as depression or AIDS.

More people are making sure the data doesn't get collected in the first place. According to the Forrester survey, 8% of all Internet users have downloaded programs that monitor and manage cookies.

With this software—such as Evidon's Ghostery and Mozilla's Lightbeam, both free—users generally can see which cookies are on their browser, delete them one by one and block future ones from being placed.

Lydia Snider, a 45-year-old small-business consultant, uses PrivacyFix to see all the cookie trackers that are following her as she surfs the Web. And she sometimes taps into a feature built into Google's Chrome browser: Incognito mode, where all the cookies on sites people visit are deleted so advertisers can't track you. "Whenever I'm searching for anything medical, anything I don't want big data to know about, I now go Incognito," she says.

Searching Securely

The difficulty of searching anonymously makes a lot of people uneasy—especially since the Edward Snowden allegations about the National Security Agency. In response, many are seeking out search tools that don't track their data.

Logan McCamon, a 22-year-old student at Truman State University, in Kirksville, Mo., says he's had a "general unease" about his privacy since the NSA revelations surfaced. Two months ago, he downloaded DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn't collect any information on its users and blocks all ad trackers from the search page.

"I don't know what's being collected, if it's my search history or all my data, or my phone conversations," he says. "Having less data about me out there made me more comfortable."

DuckDuckGo and other Google alternatives have seen traffic soar. Since its founding in 2011, for instance, DuckDuckGo has risen to 4.5 million visits a day. Ixquick, another anonymous search browser, had 2.5 million users a day in the spring of 2013, before the Snowden disclosures. Now it has five million a day.

Many users are also looking to protect their email. Encrypted and so-called ephemeral messaging—texts that disappear seconds after you send them—have become explosively popular among teens, and have long been used by security professionals.

But now people who aren't worried about parents or hackers are seeing value in these apps. WhisperSystems' free encrypted messaging service has had a 3,000% surge in installs since the Snowden revelations, the company says.

Nathan Pham of San Jose, Calif., whose business is to help nonprofits raise money, started using a free encrypted messaging service from Wickr six months ago.

The service scrambles users' communications so their Internet carrier—and the messaging service—can't read them. Mr. Pham uses the service to gossip with his friends and share business ideas with colleagues. "It's not about what you're hiding, but about what you want to share," he says. "I think people are starting to get a grasp on how exposed they are."

Dialing Up Defense

While most of the available privacy technologies are for desktop computers, some new offerings are designed for smartphones, because consumers are spending growing amounts of time on them—and they present such big risks. Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones are beaming people's location to any number of companies that track how they move, while smartphone apps collect reams of personal information.

In recent weeks, a new crop of phones designed to keep user data away from the prying eyes of government and corporations have come on the market. The $189 FreedomPop Privacy phone encrypts a person's text messages and emails, and blocks companies from tracking Web browsing and searches. The Wi-Fi signal is also automatically turned off.

Startup carrier FreedomPop can offer the phone at a cheap price because it uses retrofitted Samsung Galaxy SII devices. While most people are unlikely to switch over to a privacy phone entirely, the company is betting that many people will fork over $189 for a secondary phone that can be used when a person is talking, texting, searching or inputting information that is sensitive.

Another smartphone with similar privacy features, SGP Technologies' Blackphone, sells for $629. (SGP is a joint venture of software firm Silent Circle and device maker Geeksphone.)

But all of these privacy products come with trade-offs. Blocking social-network posts or contact information from showing up on a Google search might protect people's privacy, but it could also mean old friends they'd like to hear from might not be able to track them down either. Deleting cookies means people may miss out on some targeted deals or services from companies that rely on the tracking files. Using secret or encrypted messaging services means people are limiting themselves to conversations with other people who use the same services.

Still, many users say it's worth the effort. Ryan Sheppard, a 22-year-old IT consultant in West Columbia, S.C., who uses an antitracking browser called Aviator, says that sometimes the browser disables his plug-ins, which makes it difficult to load videos.

But he says he's willing to endure the headaches in the name of privacy.

"I know that companies aren't selling my information or my browsing habits," he says. "I have that peace of mind."