How do I deal with having to have a new account for every service and website? Should I be using new email addresses?
A new email address for every account is a big undertaking! Iâd recommend having an email address for the accounts that are most important to you and then having one that you use to sign up for things that are less important. There are also services that will let you create âburnerâ emails that you can use to sign-up with services, and if you use an Apple device thereâs a âHide My Emailâ setting.
What tips would you offer to those looking to keep their digital privacy while crossing the US border (or otherwise entering or exiting the States)?
It really depends on what levels of risk you as an individual could face. Some people traveling across the border are likely to face higher scrutiny than othersâfor instance nationality, citizenship, and profession could all make a difference. Even what youâve said on social media or in messaging apps could potentially be used against you.
Personally, the first thing I would do is think about what is on my phone: the kind of messages I have sent (and received), what I have posted publicly, and log out (or remove) what I consider to be the most sensitive apps from my phone (such as email). A burner phone might seem like a good idea, although this isnât the right idea for everyone and it could bring more suspicion on you. Itâs better to have a travel phoneâone that you only use for travel that has nothing sensitive on it or connected to it.
My colleague Andy Greenberg and I have put together a guide that covers a lot more than this: such as pre-travel steps you can take, locking down your devices, how to think about passwords, and minimizing the data you are carrying. Itâs here. Also, senior writer Lily Hay Newman and I have produced a (long) guide specifically about phone searches at the US border.
Would you recommend against having a device like Alexa in your home? Or are there particular products or steps you can take to make a smart device more secure?
Something thatâs always listening in your homeâwhat could go wrong? Itâs definitely not great for overall surveillance culture.
Recently Amazon also reduced some of the privacy options for Alexa devices. So if youâre going to use a smart speaker, then Iâd look into what each deviceâs privacy settings are and then go from there.
How do you see people’s willingness to hand over information about their lives to AI playing into surveillance?
The amount of data that AI companies haveâand continue toâhoover up really bothers me. Thereâs no doubt that AI tools can be useful in some settings and to some people (personally, I seldom use generative AI). But I would generally say people donât have enough awareness about how much theyâre sharing with chatbots and the companies that own them. Tech companies have scraped vast swathes of the web to gather the data they claim is needed to create generative AIâoften with little regard for content creators, copyright laws, or privacy. On top of this, increasingly, firms with reams of peopleâs posts are looking to get in on the AI gold rush by selling or licensing that information.