The Ability to Be Anonymous is a Superpower We Need to Keep. Is it Still Even Possible?

“The internet has taken something that was once inside us and put it outside of us, has made it searchable, mashable, stealable, and tinkerable.”

-Douglas Coupland, from Shopping in Jail

Our phones follow us everywhere, keeping a meticulous record of where we go, what we do, and what we buy. Smart watches store the same, down to our blood pressure, heart rate, and the number of steps we take per day. Grocery stores and superstores give us “rewards” in exchange for keeping track of everything we buy, and algorithms predict our every move and flash ads, videos, custom search results and more at us, so we will rest happily in the high-tech hamster wheel that they’ve created.

Facial Recognition tech is commonplace at this point, and millions of us are happy to make all of this crafty data-grabbing even easier by “securing” our smartphones and tablets with scans of our faces and our thumbprints.

We hear the word “data”, and so many of us think it’s some abstract concept, a computer thing, no big deal. But our data is us—it is everything we are and everything we do that is measurable by computerized technology. It has been minimized into a little four-letter word (but a four letter word, nonetheless), as if we don’t need to worry about it. Like the term “cookies”. So many internet users just click “accept” on sites that are letting them know about the cookie policy, because its such a cutesy word. Cookies? Everyone loves cookies! We probably would pay more attention to  cookies if they were given a more appropriate name, like “Data-Stealers” “Spy Nuggets”, or “Shit Beasts from Hell”. Anything but cookies. Here is the definition of a tracking cookie and what it is used for:

“Tracking cookies ("trackers") are small files placed there by "third-party" advertisers to monitor the user's Web surfing habits and are generally considered an invasion of privacy.”

—PC Mag

Tracking cookies are frequently used for web analytics, social media widgets (such as Like and Share buttons, comment sections, etc.), recording your behavior online, and advertisements. The data gathered by a tracking cookie about you is then sent back to a server owned by the individual or business that placed it, even if you never click on an advertisement or social media sharing button. The cookie is sent back to the original server as soon as the page loads. The source of the tracking cookie can create a cookie if one doesn't already exist. So, long story short, cookies (especially tracking cookies) are Shit Beasts From Hell. 

So, how—when we are living in an age of  hard-to-evade surveillance and data-hoarding, can we possibly live any of our lives anonymously?  At this point in history, it is still possible to be mostly anonymous, but it is usually a bit more time-consuming than a click or the button. Imagine living in 1991. If you are over 40, you can just think back to that time. You went to the grocery store, and there was no “rewards program”. You just clipped coupons and shopped. If you needed a hammer, you went to the local hardware store. Friends came over to hang out. If you did something embarrassing, probably only one or two people knew about it. You used a map to get around a new town, and sometimes stopped to ask for directions. Eventually, you knew your way around.  Basically, think of doing everything you do on the internet in person.

In order to live your life without being under a magnifying glass, it requires you to live a slower, more intentional life. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to keep up with work or that you will lose touch with the people you love or the things you love to do. Living a slower lifestyle where you don’t have to constantly be followed around by tech is actually way less stressful and can help you really connect with what and who you love most.

Escaping completely is almost impossible unless you’re a tech-free off-the-grid homesteading badass who deleted all of your data, everywhere and never goes to town. Let’s face it, cctv systems are almost everywhere there’s a store or other business, and soon, they will all be equipped with facial recognition software(a practice heavily adopted in China). You could theoretically change all of your grocery store discount card accounts to a fake phone number, name, and email to start. I spent over three weeks (in my spare time) trying to delete myself from the Internet, and it is way harder than you think. The first thing I did was just Google my name (I hate Google, but in this case, it worked best). Luckily, I have a pretty unique name, so it was fairly easy to wade through the search results. However, if you have a super common name, I’d search for:

• Your name in quotes with your current city after the quotes (i.e., “John Smith” London), then repeat will every city you have lived in.

• Your name in quotes with your current employer between its own quotes (i.e., “John Smith” “Manly’s Bakery”), then repeat will every employer you have worked for.

When you find instances of your data online, do what you have to do to delete it (which is sometimes as easy as hitting “delete my account” and sometimes as hard as calling your old employer to ask them to take your info off their site). The next thing is to look up people searches (whitepages.com, Intelius, Spokeo, etc.) and search for yourself there. Those types of directories usually have a clear way to delete your data/listing on their site. Next, the biggest and my time-consuming thing—go to your password manager and print out the entire list of sites with save passwords. I had something like 700, and you may have way more. Passwords mean you have an account. So you will need to delete your data and your account for each one. Obviously, you need to break this up over a few weeks or months, unless you have nothing else to do! When you have the option to download your data, do it.

You can find out more on deleting your data and increasing privacy in this article as well.

Being totally anonymous in today’s digital world is getting harder and harder, and it may not be 100% possible. It probably involves anonymous prepaid debit cards, a VPN, all of the online data chasing and deletion mentioned above, not using smartphones, wearing a face mask when you go out, and more. So yeah it was way easier back in the day, but you can still minimize your online presence and data out there. It just takes time, patience, and some work.

"Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds."

—John Perry Barlow