You can minimise data leaks, but you can’t eliminate them without giving up smart devices completely. As Michael Sutton, Vice-President of security research at Zscaler, told SFGate.com, “Privacy is dead in the digital world that we live in. I tell people, unless you are comfortable putting that statement on a billboard in Times Square and having everyone see it, I would not share that information digitally.”
However, you can gain control over your data with apps such as SnoopWall, which monitors apps and alerts you if there is any information exchange.
Incidentally, iOS and Android devices let you disable location tracking in ads. You can also change your tablet’s unique adtracking ID. Found in the settings
menu, this might thwart ad networks from being able to build a consistent user profile. Be wary about using public hotspots. Canada’s secret agency Communication Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) finds itself in hot water for spying on travellers at airports. Apparently, the system was so sophisticated that the target’s movements could be tracked even beyond Canada’s borders.
As Ethan Oberman, CEO of security company SpiderOak, notes in the blog post Want Privacy? Build a New Internet on Venturebeat.com, “If we want to respect privacy on the web, we must redesign it. There is no other way.”