Here’s how people are changing their Internet habits to avoid NSA snooping

[Jesus Malverde]

This year's revelations of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency have caused Washington Post readers to take new steps to protect their privacy online, the results of an online survey show.

"I've begun educating myself on internet security and privacy," one reader wrote. In an atmosphere of increased concern about surveillance, users have adopted privacy-enhancing technologies, ditched services they deemed to have inadequate privacy protections, and even cut back on using the Internet for sensitive communications altogether.

The survey was not based on a random sample, so it may not be representative of all visitors to washingtonpost.com, to say nothing of all Americans. But the 81 readers who provided in-depth responses provided a fascinating glimpse of how privacy-conscious users have reacted to Ed Snowden's revelations.

The privacy-enhancing tactic mentioned by the most readers was to avoid the use of mainstream cloud computing services, especially Gmail. "I deleted everything from my gmail account and switched to an account that comes with a domain I own," wrote one reader. The individual uses a desktop e-mail client and avoids "leaving my e-mail on [the] server any longer than necessary."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/07/heres-how-people-are-changing-their-internet-habits-to-avoid-nsa-snooping/

[Uncle Joe]

1. The greatest damage from the NSA destroying the 4th Amendment is in alienating the American People

from their government, creating an atmosphere of mistrust.

In this they have only fed rabid Republican claims and extremism, no good can come from this.

Thanks for the thread, Jesus Malverde.

[Jesus Malverde]

3. Strange having a government remembering things you and your relationships might have..

forgiven or forgotten years ago, documented and cataloged. The movie Brazil comes to mind more than 1984.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Here's a nice little historical video which comes to my mind.

Can you imagine what a future Joe McCarthy would do with just meta-data?

That's all it would take for him or them to totally trash our democratic republic in the name of "defending freedom" from terrorism or whatever the bogeyman is at the time.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. .

.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Funny how they pushed for everyone to use "the cloud" just prior to this.

[Jesus Malverde]

6. It was win win

I love some cloud services but obviously they have some drawbacks.

[gulliver]

7. The NSA is the least of their worries.

People are just ignorant about their true security and privacy risks. That's obvious. They are worried the NSA will read their email when they should be worried about the key sniffer their kid is unwittingly installing on their computer or what he/she is publishing on Facebook. They should be worried they used the same password on DU and Amazon.

While all of the chicken littles are wringing their hands over the NSA, the identity thieves, worm authors, disgruntled script kiddies, foreign countries, and con artists are swarming.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Their kid is not going to ruin their life or career, the same can't be said for the government.

Tell the victims of McCarthy's Witch hunt that they're were just being "chicken littles" it won't get you far.

Those risks you listed are real but that doesn't take away from the inherent danger of having a surveillance state.

[woo me with science]

9. Well said. nt

[Atman]

10. I do both the things specifically mentioned above...

I have my own domain name with e-mail, and messages are removed from the server when I check my mail, or every five minutes if my computer is on (always) and the mail clients is active (usually). I don't use any "cloud" services. I've even decided to hold back on upgrading the Adobe Creative Suite because it forces you do use the cloud, which has already been compromised.