Offline Privacy Lessons and Solutions

Solidifying your offline privacy is critical to a maintaining a well rounded personal privacy program

Welcome to another issue of Secrets of Privacy where we discuss personal privacy related topics and provide practical tips to 10X+ your personal privacy and make you a harder target.

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Safeguarding our online privacy receives the most attention these days in our digital-centric world. But the importance of protecting our privacy in the physical, non-digital realm should not be forgotten. In this post, we’ll explore the significance of offline privacy through a series of real-world examples that highlight the importance of taking proactive steps. We’ll also provide simple, straightforward solutions towards the end (feel free to skip straight there if you prefer). 

Device Cameras

Few things can be more embarrassing than unintentionally having your camera on during a call. We also know that governments and hackers can remotely access cameras without your permission. This means software solutions to camera privacy are not reliable. Instead, use physical sliding camera covers on all of your personal devices – computers, tablets and even mobile phones. It’s an incredibly cheap but effective way to bolster your privacy and save yourself some potential embarrassment. You can grab a pack on Amazon for very low cost.

One word of caution about in home security cameras. If the camera is connected to the internet, the camera can be accessed remotely the same as a laptop camera. When installing in-home security cameras, strongly consider ones with physical covers. For example, Simplisafe cameras have physical shutters that make noise when opened. And the default setting on Simplisafe cameras is to have the lens covered.

Dumpster Diving

While hard to remember, there was a time when "dumpster diving" was a top privacy and security risk. For our younger readers, dumpster diving is the practice of rummaging through trash to look for valuable information. From discarded bank statements to old devices with residual data, trash can hold a treasure trove of information for Bad Actors willing to sift through it. Transitioning to a digital-first economy downgraded the risk of dumpster diving, but it's still best practice to properly destroy unused paper documents, hardware and media.

That's why to this day, an at home document shredder is a must have for any privacy conscious person. For larger jobs, your local municipality may have free paper shredding days but unless they shred the documents in front of you, there’s always a risk of theft after you depart.

In-Person Eavesdropping and Shoulder Surfing

Have you ever had a confidential conversation in a public place only to realize that your words weren't as private as you thought? Or noticed somebody peeping at your laptop or phone screen?

In-person eavesdropping and shoulder surfing is a real concern, and oversharing in public spaces can lead to privacy breaches, personal disputes, and even professional consequences. It’s not far fetched to say the right information picked up through eavesdropping or shoulder surfing by the wrong person can be the catalyst for a successful social engineering scheme.

Be mindful of your surroundings when in public and take proactive steps to reduce your risk. For live discussions, that means don’t discuss sensitive matters in public. When working in public, that means taking basic precautions like having privacy screens on your devices or positioning yourself so it’s hard or impossible for anyone to look over your shoulder.

Mail Theft

Mail theft still happens and is a great starting point for a criminal to begin an identity theft scheme or other form of fraud. Fortunately quick fixes are abound. You can look into putting a lock on your mailbox. You can also get a secure mailbox away from your home, which is something we strongly advise as a basic way to enhance online privacy (we use Postscanmail). But at a minimum, you should check your mailbox daily to reduce the amount of mail that can be stolen if you’re targeted. 

At Home Theft

Theft at home can result in the loss of valuable documents, electronics, and possessions. With the rise of remote work, you’re also putting your employer and/or business at risk. Devices such as phones and laptops, or media such as hard drives and USB keys often contain sensitive information, from photographs to documents to health records.

There are a number of actions you can take to reduce your privacy risk from the theft of these items, including:

• Invest in high-quality locks and home security systems to deter thieves.

• Securely store your sensitive documents, devices and media. This means locking up rarely used documents like social security cards and birth certificates. But also storing external hard drives, crypto keys, crypto hardware wallets and USB keys in a safe (preferably fireproof for added protection).

• Don’t hoard unused devices and media. Wipe clean or physically destroy unused items on a relatively regular basis. You can do this yourself or hire a professional.

• Consolidate devices and media. Fewer devices and media are easier to manage and track.

Posting Travel Updates

Resist the urge to mention your travels until after you return. Posting travel plans before or during your trip is asking for trouble and not worth the risk of the information falling into the wrong hands. If there are trust issues with home service providers like cleaning services, find creative ways to communicate why you need to cancel or reschedule. You want to avoid mentioning that you’ll be away from home. Even if you have a security system, it’s best to remove the temptation entirely by keeping your travel plans to yourself.

Purchasing Sensitive Items

Online purchases or offline purchases with credit cards create a paper trail of your purchases. For most purchases, like going to the grocery story or buying furniture, that’s not a concern. But for certain types of purchases, you don’t necessarily want a paper trail. The most common examples being firearms, precious metals like silver and gold as well as other valuables.

For any sensitive or private transactions, cash is still king. Despite what you hear in the media, crypto is not really privacy friendly (more on this in a future post).

Government Records

In most jurisdictions, anyone can find the name of a homeowner with a quick search in an online government database. This information can be a launching pad for identity theft or financial scams. For example, one scheme is to identify houses with no mortgages and then target the owner because you know they at least have equity in their home. If you have the name of the owner, you can easily find more information about the person through people search sites or LinkedIn to bolster your scheme.

There are legal ways to put the ownership of your house in an entity like an LLC or trust that makes it harder to identify you as the owner. This friction is likely enough to persuade a scammer to move on to a softer target. Consider speaking with an attorney about the best way to structure that, usually in conjunction with an overall estate plan.

Summary

Here’s a summary of specific items and actions to bolster your offline privacy. If you implement all or even most of these things, you’ll be ahead of 90% of the public, which helps make you a harder, less appealing target.

• Camera Covers. Add simple, cheap camera cover sliders to all of your devices, including your mobile phone.

• Privacy Screens. Add privacy screens to all of your devices to minimize the risk of shoulder surfing when in public.

• Secure your mailbox, check your mail daily and/or use a third party service like PostScanMail.

• Get a paper shredder or use a reputable shredding service. 

• Monitor credit reports. We recommend taking advantage of the free credit report offered by each of the big three credit bureaus. By law, you can get one free report per bureau per year. While it’s more work, best practice is to stagger the reports throughout the year to catch irregularities sooner. Use a task tracker like Todoist to set automatic reminders so you are less likely to forget.

• Buy a good safe to store sensitive documents and hardware.

• Properly dispose of unused media and hardware.

• Use cash for sensitive purchases like firearms, ammunition or precious metals.

• Don’t post future or real time travel updates.

• Use an LLC or Trust on the deed for your properties (talk to a lawyer first, of course).

• Blur Your House on Map Apps. There’s disagreement in the privacy community as to the value of this action. One theory is it could even make you a bigger target by drawing attention, the thinking being that the only reason to blur your house in Google maps is you have something to hide (see the Streisand Effect). We can see both sides but lean towards blurring. You can make the request directly to the mapping companies, or Privacy Bee offers the service as part of a subscription.

Conclusion

Real-world privacy is important to an overall personal privacy program, and the real-world examples highlighted above serve as valuable lessons. By being mindful of our surroundings, protecting sensitive information, and investing in a few tools and services, we can significantly reduce the risks to our sensitive information. And if we missed any tools, practices or services you find useful for protecting your offline privacy, please drop them in the comments!

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