Nowadays, online privacy is extremely hard to come by. Corporations, governments, and scammers alike go out of their way to gather up massive amounts of your personal data. The situation feels bleak, but you have more control than you may realize. In this book, Joe Kissell helps you to develop a sensible, customized online privacy strategy. No matter what devices or operating systems you use, you’ll find practical advice that ordinary people need to handle common privacy needs.
The massively revised fifth edition of Take Control of Your Online Privacy is packed with information that helps you get a handle on current topics in online privacy, including data breaches, hardware bugs, quantum computing, two-factor authentication, how ads can track you, and much more.
Bundle special! Save 33% when you buy this along with Take Control of Your Passwords for just $20.
You’ll receive savvy advice about topics such as these:
Why worry? Find out who wants your private data, why they want it, and what that means to you.
Determine your personal risk level, learn which privacy factors are most important to you, what you can and can’t control, and what extra steps you can take if you’re at a high risk of being personally targeted.
Hear some good news (five steps you could take that would massively increase your online privacy)…and some bad news (why some of those steps may be difficult or infeasible).
“Joe Kissell nails it. Take Control of Your Online Privacy is a comprehensive and practical guide to protecting your privacy in the digital age. Joe helps you make and implement the right privacy choices for your life.”
—Rich Mogull, CEO of Securosis
Remove personal information from Google and data brokers, though the process comes with limitations and gotchas.
Discover Apple-Specific Privacy Features for users of Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
Manage your internet connection: Secure your Wi-Fi network and keep your data from leaking out. Find advice on why and when to use a VPN or a network-connected privacy appliance, plus why you should be skeptical of VPN reviews.
Browse and search the web: Avoid bogus websites, control your cookies and history, block ads, browse and search anonymously, and find out who is tracking you.
Send and receive email: Find out how your email could be intercepted, learn techniques for encrypting email when necessary, get tips for sending email anonymously, and know when email is not the best way to communicate.
Watch your social media: Understand the risks of sharing personal information online (especially on Facebook!), tweak your settings, and consider common-sense precautions.
Talk and chat online: Consider to what extent any phone call, text message, or online chat is private, and find tips for enhancing privacy when using these channels.
Protect your smart devices: Address privacy issues with “Internet of Things” devices like smart TVs, smart speakers, and home automation gear.
Think mobile: Ponder topics like supercookies, location reporting, photo storage, spear phishing, and more as you decide how to handle privacy for a mobile phone or tablet.
Help your children: As a parent, you may want to take extra steps to protect your children’s privacy. Find a few key tips to keep in mind.
Take Control publisher Joe Kissell has written more than 60 books about technology, including many popular Take Control books. He formerly wrote for publications such as Macworld, Wirecutter, and TidBITS. He lives in Saskatoon with his wife and their two sons.
What’s New in the Fifth Edition
The fifth edition is the biggest revision to this book since its original publication in 2013 (and that’s saying something). It would almost be easier to list what hasn’t changed than what has! Given the huge shifts in both the threats to online privacy and the tools to protect your privacy, I rethought much of my advice, rearranged the outline, added over 30 pages of new material, and deleted things that no longer seemed relevant.
Here are some of the biggest changes:
- Revised “Understand the Evolving Online Privacy Landscape” extensively, including the addition of new topics “Hardware Bugs Pose Challenges” and “Is It Too Late to Protect Your Privacy?”
- Combined what had been two chapters into “Learn About the Risks,” with a bigger focus on advertisers (“Advertisers—and Beyond”) plus new topics “Your Risk Profile” and “What You Can’t Control”
- Added a series of sidebars (see “Additional Resources for High-Risk People”) with extra advice for people with unusually high risk for being individually targeted
- In the chapter “Develop a Privacy Strategy,” added new topics: “What I Wish I Could Tell You,” which explains some measures you could take to massively improve your privacy, but at a significant cost; “Remove Your Info from Google,” which does what it says; and “Keep Yourself Informed,” which urges you to keep up with privacy-related changes in the world
- Added an entirely new chapter, “Discover Apple-Specific Privacy Features,” which details some of the extra privacy tools available to users of Macs, iPhones, and iPads
- Renamed the social media chapter “Confront the Social Media Threat” and thoroughly updated it, with a significantly expanded topic “Learn About the Facebook Problem”
- In the “Keep Your Internet Connection Private” chapter, largely rewrote “Use a VPN” and “Consider a VPN Router or Privacy Appliance”
- Expanded the “Browse the Web Privately” chapter with more information in the “Browsers You Should Avoid” and “Browsers You Should Consider” topics; advice on what to do if you have to use Chrome; a new topic, “Say No to Selling Your Personal Info”; additional information on private browsing modes; and revised advice on how to block ads and search privately
- In the “Improve Email Privacy” chapter, added the topic “Use Burner Addresses”
- Greatly revised “Manage Your Mobile Privacy,” including new topics “Spear Phishing and Impersonation” and “Spyware”
- Beefed up “Keep the Internet of Things Private” with more information on smart TVs, streaming devices, and smart speakers
- Deleted the chapter “Share Files Privately” as it was out of scope for the book’s current direction
Posted by Joe Kissell on June 5, 2024
Joe Kissell joined host Chuck Joiner on MacVoices to talk about Take Control of Your Online Privacy, Fifth Edition.
In part one, Joe talks about the role advertisers play in the battle for privacy online, among many other topics.
In part two, Joe discusses topics such as smart devices, VPNs, and search engines.
Posted by Michael E. Cohen on April 22, 2017
On MacVoices, Joe visits with Chuck Joiner to discuss the current state of online privacy. Drink the Kool-Aid with Joe (literally), as he lets you know what you can (and can’t) do about the proliferating risks that populate today’s privacy landscape. Bears, border agents, and bad actors in the VPN game highlight this important, and sometimes alarming, discussion.
Posted by Michael E. Cohen on August 30, 2013
In an interview with Chuck Joiner of MacVoices, Joe Kissell goes over some of the basic dos and don’ts that he offers in his latest book, Take Control of Your Online Privacy. Included are useful tips about email, Google, off-shore providers, Wi-Fi, and social media. Take a look or a listen (we’ll know whether you did or not).
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