Episode 64 - The Two Faces of Browsers and Our Privacy Options

Janus was the Roman god of doors, gates, and transitions. He needed two faces to look in both directions - life and death, past and future. Internet browsers allow us to access and gaze across the internet, but at the same time, they are watching us, recording what we do while browsing.

True, browsers do not charge us for their services – browsing is free. But as it is said, when a product is free, we become the product – or more specifically, our data becomes the product.

In this podcast episode Jeff Bermant, the founder and CEO of the browser Cocoon, joins us to explore how browsers and privacy intersect. Cocoon was founded for the purpose of providing a more privacy-secure experience than any other browser by creating a cocoon around the browsing individual.

We discuss how users have data privacy choices – which browsers to consider, how to adjust privacy settings, and what add-ons are available for browsing. When it comes to data privacy, protecting your personal data begins with you.

If you have ideas for more interviews or stories, please email [e-mail].

What is Data Privacy Detective?

The internet in its blooming evolution makes personal data big business – for government, the private sector and denizens of the dark alike. The Data Privacy Detective explores how governments balance the interests of personal privacy with competing needs for public security, public health and other communal goods. It scans the globe for champions, villains, protectors and invaders of personal privacy and for the tools and technology used by individuals, business and government in the great competition between personal privacy and societal good order.

We’ll discuss how to guard our privacy by safeguarding the personal data we want to protect. We’ll aim to limit the access others can gain to your sensitive personal data while enjoying the convenience and power of smartphones, Facebook, Google, EBay, PayPal and thousands of devices and sites. We’ll explore how sinister forces seek to penetrate defenses to access data you don’t want them to have. We’ll discover how companies providing us services and devices collect, use and try to exploit or safeguard our personal data.

And we’ll keep up to date on how governments regulate personal data, including how they themselves create, use and disclose it in an effort to advance public goals in ways that vary dramatically from country to country. For the public good and personal privacy can be at odds. On one hand, governments try to deter terrorist incidents, theft, fraud and other criminal activity by accessing personal data, by collecting and analyzing health data to prevent and control disease and in other ways most people readily accept. On the other hand, many governments view personal privacy as a fundamental human right, with government as guardian of each citizen’s right to privacy. How authorities regulate data privacy is an ongoing balance of public and individual interests. We’ll report statutes, regulations, international agreements and court decisions that determine the balance in favor of one or more of the competing interests. And we’ll explore innovative efforts to transcend government control through blockchain and other technology.

If you have ideas for interviews or stories, please email [e-mail].