How can I protect my privacy on an ipad?

greavsie1971

pikestaff
It boils down to what you type into your 'must have' device, if you don't type in your bank details, in cannot store them, its so blindingly obvious I sometimes wonder at the IQ of some people.

A lot of us need to do online banking as we live miles away from banks so privacy is very important. Simply, do not use a tablets/ iphones / smartphones if you need to use online banking or any site you put in personal details. For a lot of people this makes the devices pretty usless as we still need to do our online banking.

A bit harsh dont you think. Questioning somebodys IQ just for asking about privacy. Not in a good mood today?

Online banking shouldn't be restricted to a fruit product. If it is, then you're doing it wrong in the first place. How bad is it to be told you need to do something with a phone.... apart from making phone calls. Or tablets..

I mean, everything I can do online, I can do over the phone. Land line phone. Physical line. Between me and their computer or person.

If it boiled down to my privacy being in question or having no question and walking to my car to drive to the bank, it's a no brainer.

If, however, you're only option is to use a tablet to do your banking... well then, you're already greased up so no point squealing when that poker comes to take it's pound.

The way things are going we'll be laying in bed and complaining that the fridge doesn't have wheels.

I use an iPad. I mainly use it for surfing the Internet. In case it gets stolen to protect my privacy and information, I have the 4 digit passcode lock set up and have it automatically lock after 5 minutes of no use. I turn off my iPad to make it lock when not in use. I treat it like a wallet. I do not leave it lying around where others can see it.

My passcode lock will erase all data if 10 incorrect attempts are made to break in.
I have 3G on it and turn off wifi when accessing anything I want to be more secure. I never access a bank or brokerage account using wifi. I read wifi signals are not secure.

As far as my regular web surfing goes, most Americans won't know unless I tell them and the NSA can find out whether I'm on an iPad or desktop or whatever. I don't care that much about that. The only annoying thing is that web sites target advertising based on web sites I've visited. You can erase data on an iPad. I did it by accident already. The NSA was no where around either to say here's your data.

I forgot to add if you have personal photos, those can still be viewed on an iPad with it locked. Some of them that is. You have an option to turn this off in your settings but apple didn't make it the default setting. For more personal pics, I downloaded a free app that lets me put a separate passcode lock on those pics. I occassionally move pics to that folder if I want to. Every few months or so, I back up to my desktop and delete things I don't want.

reply to post by rockintitz


I think the way they're designed is as soon as you get online all your information starts sync-ing with apple servers. So ALL your info that you have on the Ipad, including all the conversations it's recorded without you knowing it, and all the videos it's recorded without you knowing it, are all uploaded to Apple servers. Then that information is deseminated to try and determine a variety of things about you. How do you like dem apples?

I have the original iPad with no videos except only a few I downloaded on my desktop. Everything I post online is already viewable online.

I guess if I was some omnipotent Demi god or something in an alternate reality and Obama and the NSA knew that, I might be deemed important enough to monitor. Other than that I think I am simply adding spam information but our government seems to like recording every tidbit. Who knows, maybe I control the world in the astral plane and Obama is waiting for me to give a signal that he can shoot his load. Just in case I am, he should consult congress or inform them if he wants to avoid impeachment attempts. So sayeth I, lol.

Originally posted by winofiend

greavsie1971

pikestaff
It boils down to what you type into your 'must have' device, if you don't type in your bank details, in cannot store them, its so blindingly obvious I sometimes wonder at the IQ of some people.

A lot of us need to do online banking as we live miles away from banks so privacy is very important. Simply, do not use a tablets/ iphones / smartphones if you need to use online banking or any site you put in personal details. For a lot of people this makes the devices pretty usless as we still need to do our online banking.

A bit harsh dont you think. Questioning somebodys IQ just for asking about privacy. Not in a good mood today?

Online banking shouldn't be restricted to a fruit product. If it is, then you're doing it wrong in the first place. How bad is it to be told you need to do something with a phone.... apart from making phone calls. Or tablets..

I mean, everything I can do online, I can do over the phone. Land line phone. Physical line. Between me and their computer or person.

If it boiled down to my privacy being in question or having no question and walking to my car to drive to the bank, it's a no brainer.

If, however, you're only option is to use a tablet to do your banking... well then, you're already greased up so no point squealing when that poker comes to take it's pound.

The way things are going we'll be laying in bed and complaining that the fridge doesn't have wheels.

Totally agree, but even using the phone is now being monitored by nsa / gchq. Getting in a car to the bank is by far the best option but for me, my nearest branch is 2000 miles away. Im British living abroad, using British bank. Cannot use local banks as they charge for normal accounts here and I just am not willing to pay to give a bank my money. So online banking is my only option. I would never own or use a smartphone, tablet or any mac product and any windows 8 product. Linux is by far the best but even the isp's can record your activities so there is no real way of protecting privacy on any electronic device.

I also live remotly in the hills so no land line for me.



Not sure what the comment about fridge with wheels is about though. Im never one to complain about stuff like that. Not sure what you are saying here. I believe technology makes us lazy, trouble is, we depend on it these days as we are running out of alternatives.

Originally posted by orionthehunter
I use an iPad. I mainly use it for surfing the Internet. In case it gets stolen to protect my privacy and information, I have the 4 digit passcode lock set up and have it automatically lock after 5 minutes of no use. I turn off my iPad to make it lock when not in use. I treat it like a wallet. I do not leave it lying around where others can see it.

My passcode lock will erase all data if 10 incorrect attempts are made to break in.
I have 3G on it and turn off wifi when accessing anything I want to be more secure. I never access a bank or brokerage account using wifi. I read wifi signals are not secure.

As far as my regular web surfing goes, most Americans won't know unless I tell them and the NSA can find out whether I'm on an iPad or desktop or whatever. I don't care that much about that. The only annoying thing is that web sites target advertising based on web sites I've visited. You can erase data on an iPad. I did it by accident already. The NSA was no where around either to say here's your data.

I forgot to add if you have personal photos, those can still be viewed on an iPad with it locked. Some of them that is. You have an option to turn this off in your settings but apple didn't make it the default setting. For more personal pics, I downloaded a free app that lets me put a separate passcode lock on those pics. I occassionally move pics to that folder if I want to. Every few months or so, I back up to my desktop and delete things I don't want.

edit on 31/8/13 by orionthehunter because: (no reason given)

edit on 31/8/13 by orionthehunter because: iPad spell checker sometimes messes up spelling

Thats ok but everytime you use the ipad, apple knows what you are doing. The passcode offers no protection against this.

Maybe our government needs all those tidbits of information so that when a husband searches for backpacks on his iPad and his wife searches for pressure cookers on her iPad, the government isn't wasting money sending a crack commando team out to their house to stop the terrorists shopping for school supplies and kitchen utensils.

I heard this happened. Obviously our government doesn't put all the information together very well all the time. I guess they want to put labels on all our profiles like average Joe American or red flag certain foreign travelers when an odd Internet search pops up. We are all getting monitored when we are online. I believe AI is being used to monitor and record everything because there is no way a small group of people could see everything. Unless you are working on something that could affect millions of people, a human is probably not looking at your information unless a hacker, thief, or someone took an interest in you in my opinion.

When you bought that Iphone or Ipad... I do know with-in the contract you signed.. ( not ipad ) their is language put in there that the law basically has the right to your info!!! I have both and both sync up w/ each other. And there's all the " can we get your location ?" Allow or don't allow...-- it doesn't matter!

Here's my advice.... If you want your privacy.... Do not put it on a computer, phone, or tablet.

I've never understood people putting their private info on a public domain anyways... The government screams hack-attack or an important company is hacked.. What the hell!? If you don't want people knowing your business.... Then don't give them an opportunity to get it!

Right? lol

for email - whats the point the spooks are already pulling them down before you've read them as pretty much every isp is under their nations spooks control so consider it a watched medium so if you want them to not be able to read the contents then look at some sort of public key encryption email client

You can get anonymity on a ipad. When you buy a ipad or Android device it has it's limited uses it's sold as a dumbed down device. It does what it does. Android for instance is running on a locked down linux based OS. However, there is a way to get back the full control of the device and it's linux OS by doing what's called Jail breaking or rooting. By rooting the device you're able to install a bash console and use CLI utilities to make directories, delete files, copy files, move files, edit config files etc. With that power you can then install apps requiring root such as vpn, ssh, tethering, make backups etc allowing you do more with your device than you normally couldn't. With that said you can then use apps to web proxy, connect to a ssh server through an encrypted tunnel and encrypt data locally. If the device was ever stolen etc the OS is not protected, but the files you encrypt are.

Those apps that use a 4 digit code or password to keep the phone from being used are bogus. It's as secure as a screen door on a submarine. In the Linux world it doesn't care about Android or Windows login passwords. The only thing that truly protects the entire OS and files is full disk encryption with a hardware TPM chip module. People wonder how the cops and government are able to recover data off a Android phone. Well they root it and copy the entire tree image of the files into their own computer environment ramped up with software utilities and proceed to read and copy anything they want & even recover old deleted data. Which brings me to the next point....

Installing a app that securely deletes your files and overwrites the sectors with random garbage. Instead of them recovering a password in plain text they will see a null FFFFFFFF00000000 entry. It's good to have such a utility as if you ever sold the device and simply rolled it back to factory defaults, well guess what?? All of it can be recovered. It's probably best to not sell a second hand Android device and instead keep it or destroy it unless you have it rooted so you can securely erase it, format it and then recover the factory image back onto it.

reply to post by rockintitz


You need to turn off your location services as it can locate your device anywhere in the world. Don't use your real name on your ipad in the settings. Use an opaque tape on the camera, front and back. If in public, hop from one hotspot to the next. Always turn off your wifi when not using the internet. Limit your internet usage as much as possible.

Originally posted by 8eightup
reply to post by rockintitz

 

You need to turn off your location services as it can locate your device anywhere in the world. Don't use your real name on your ipad in the settings. Use an opaque tape on the camera, front and back. If in public, hop from one hotspot to the next. Always turn off your wifi when not using the internet. Limit your internet usage as much as possible.

Trouble is on an apple device, turning off location services only stops them for the user. They are still on in the background. Best not have a device that has GPS. For example, turn off location services, take a picture then look at the metedata, still has your co-ordinates on it. Its a con. Never use apple devices if you are concerned about privacy.

Even on my linux machine I cover the webcam and have disabled the microphone.

reply to post by rockintitz


Like the previous posts have said, use TOR browser.

In addition to this I recommend changing your settings so that cookies/history isn't stored, and instead of using Google as a search page, use Startpage

Originally posted by greavsie1971

Originally posted by 8eightup
reply to post by rockintitz

 

You need to turn off your location services as it can locate your device anywhere in the world. Don't use your real name on your ipad in the settings. Use an opaque tape on the camera, front and back. If in public, hop from one hotspot to the next. Always turn off your wifi when not using the internet. Limit your internet usage as much as possible.

Trouble is on an apple device, turning off location services only stops them for the user. They are still on in the background. Best not have a device that has GPS. For example, turn off location services, take a picture then look at the metedata, still has your co-ordinates on it. Its a con. Never use apple devices if you are concerned about privacy.

It depends on the ipad model you bought. The one with wifi + 3G has assisted GPS and the other model without 3G uses wifi to triangulate your location, which is pretty much accurate to my surprise.

On the ipad, there are 2 ways to disable location service. One, on the privacy setting and the other on the general settings under restrictions where you have to enter a password to access it. I prefer the one with the password as it will be harder to hack it if there is an attempt to enable location service.

I checked my photos taken with the ipad and I looked at the metadata, it's blank with regards to the coordinates. I also checked an app I downloaded named "locate me" with location service disabled and it doesn't work on my wifi only ipad. I'm not sure with the one with 3G, but I think if you want privacy, you have to remove the micro SIM to disable 3G as it uses the cell towers to triangulate your location together with the GPS to give very accurate coordinates.

Originally posted by greavsie1971
Even on my linux machine I cover the webcam and have disabled the microphone.

If there is a device manager on your linux distro, you can disable devices. I'm using Windows and I can easily disable devices such as the webcam, microphone, some devices which I don't use like the firewire port, IR, bluetooth, Ethernet LAN (cable), fingerprint bioscan, and micro SD memory card slots. By disabling devices you don't use, you can also extend battery life.

For the ipad, I don't think they have a device manager. So, the only recourse is to use a tape to cover the two cameras and the mic as well.

Originally posted by toxicspikes
reply to post by rockintitz

 

Like the previous posts have said, use TOR browser.

In addition to this I recommend changing your settings so that cookies/history isn't stored, and instead of using Google as a search page, use Startpage

TOR is so painfully slow. I agree, startpage is a lot secure. You can use this search engine even without TOR. Here's the link:

startpage.com...

Originally posted by Maxatoria
for email - whats the point the spooks are already pulling them down before you've read them as pretty much every isp is under their nations spooks control so consider it a watched medium so if you want them to not be able to read the contents then look at some sort of public key encryption email client

If you want email privacy, you can use an anonymous email. You can also use an offshore email account.