7 ways to improve your privacy in 2022

Maintaining your online and offline privacy can seem like a Herculean, or even Sisyphean, task. Never-before-heard-of companies with vaguely menacing names regularly brag about infringing upon it, and each day seems to bring with it new privacy scandals. But here's the thing: There are small and relatively painless steps you can take, right now, to protect your privacy. As you brace for, then settle into, 2022, take a few moments to spruce up your life with these privacy-focused New Year's resolutions — no gym membership required.

1. Encrypt your computer

Your computer is the keeper of your secrets. Tax documents, bank accounts, and medical records are just a few of the personal files people keep on their laptops and desktops. And, if those computers are ever lost or stolen, those files can easily end up in the wrong hands. Thankfully, there's an easy way to protect yourself: encrypting your computer. "It's a really fantastic bit of basic security hygiene, like washing your hands or wearing a mask, that anyone can do that really gets you a lot of benefits," Cooper Quintin, a security researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explained in August.

2. Adjust your smart TV settings

Watching TV is typically thought of as a passive activity, but that conception fails to take into account all the questionable goings on happening behind the screen. With smart TVs now the default being sold, viewing is no longer a one-way activity. "Beyond the risk that your TV manufacturer and app developers may be listening and watching you, that television can also be a gateway for hackers to come into your home," warned the FBI in 2019. "In a worst-case scenario, they can turn on your bedroom TV's camera and microphone and silently cyberstalk you." You can mitigate at least some of the risks posed by smart TVs, however, and all it takes is tweaking some settings.

3. Blur your house on Google Street View and Bing Maps

Google Street View is both incredibly useful, and incredibly invasive. The tool, which grants anyone with internet access a street-level view of houses and apartments around the world, seems custom built for online stalkers. It is also, however, relatively easy to partially opt out by requesting that Google — or Microsoft with its corresponding Bing Maps — blur its image of your home. Anyone hoping to get a digital peep through your windows will be left sorely out of luck.

4. Check your smartphone for stalkerware

Your phone is your phone, except when it's not. Stalkerware is a broad term for a family of apps, secretly installed on victims' smartphones, that report all kinds of private data back to abusers. "Stalkerware can track your location, record your phone calls and text messages, steal the passwords to the social media accounts you log into through your phone, reveal your contacts, your photos, your emails, and even your end-to-end encrypted communications," explained the Electronic Frontier Foundation's director of cybersecurity, Eva Galperin, in 2019. While you may not suspect someone has secretly installed stalkerware on your smartphone, it's a good habit to regularly check for it.

5. Tell your cell provider to stop sharing your data

Cell providers know a lot about you, and in exploitative hands that knowledge translates to cold, hard cash. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon all share some form of customer data with third parties — often for advertising. While the specifics vary based on the carrier, the overall theme remains the same: What should be private information, like, in the case of T-Mobile, customers' "web and device usage data," isn't so private. Take the time to tell your provider to stop sharing your data with third parties. You pay them, after all, and it's literally the least they can do to protect your privacy.

6. Check your computer for keyloggers

Using a computer can feel like a solitary act. It often consists of sitting alone in a room, typing endlessly into the seeming digital void. But a type of hidden software, dubbed a keylogger, running in the background on your personal or work computer puts those solitary actions on display. Keyloggers, as the name suggests, record and save every keystroke a person makes. In other words, every email you write, password you enter, or web search you make is stored and later presented to whomever installed the keylogger. Like stalkerware, keyloggers are often a form of abuse.

Summary of Privacy Risks and Actions

  • Computer Security: Encrypt your devices to prevent files from ending up in the wrong hands if lost or stolen.
  • Smart TV Privacy: Tweak settings to stop manufacturers and hackers from potentially watching or listening to you.
  • Mapping Services: Request that Google or Microsoft blur your home to protect against online stalkers.
  • Smartphone Protection: Regularly check for stalkerware that can steal passwords and track location.
  • Carrier Data: Opt out of third-party data sharing to protect your web and device usage data.
  • Keystroke Logging: Monitor for hidden software that records every password and email you type.