In the past, communication was really difficult. It takes days or months to convey a message to others. People found it inconvenient and began building tools that helped them communicate better. Technology has paved the way for people to connect in real-time.
Present day communication is deeply connected to our digital lives. Most of our conversations have been digitized. We text, send emails, and instantly connect over a voice or video call with our friends, family, and colleagues. Our digital lives render us always connected, not just to the people who matter the most but also to the platforms and devices that we use every day.
What’s an Online Identity?
Conversations are evolving, and so are our identities. Our digital identities have taken over our lives. We spend more time online on messaging and micro-blogging platforms than we do speaking to the person next to us. While this has its pros and cons, that’s a topic for another day.
On the messaging platforms that we use today, we share not just text, but also images, GIFs, videos, files, locations, contacts, and more. Oftentimes, this carries sensitive information.
For example, you’re throwing a party for your birthday at the nice little Asian restaurant downtown, and you’re inviting a small group of people close to you. To you, the user who goes about their natural everyday life, this is a special moment. However, for companies that benefit from your data, this is an opportunity to get your date of birth, location, interests, and contacts. Yes, your best moments are stored in a database owned by corporations.
Messengers and other centralized platforms seek to benefit from your data. More often than not, they share your data with third parties and ad-companies that target you with ads and other bothersome internet litter. What gets lost amidst all this chaos is your time, effort, energy, and most of all, privacy. That’s why some people still send letters (Did you know that people still write letters to the Queen of England?) or use a private messenger.
Web2 platforms are designed to collect your personal information. To create an account on these platforms, you may be asked to provide,
- Your Name
- Email address
- Username
- Phone Number
- Date of Birth
- IP Address
- Location
- Contacts
And the list goes on. Some platforms offer premium services for a fee that require you to provide your financial information, such as your bank account, credit card, and debit card numbers.
Our social media identities are overarching into our personal lives. You submit your phone number, email ID, and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in return for an online identity. This identity is what represents your digital life. So, here’s the question: how can you prevent these platforms from siphoning off your identity?
How to Protect Your Identity Online?
- Risks with Centralized Platforms
Centralized applications collect an infinite amount of data from you. Right from where you spent your last summer getaway to what you’ve planned to buy for your anniversary. Centralized applications are a mesh of information, your information, that’s being passed around from one vendor to another.
You’d make a simple Google search for the best sneakers for a cross-country trek and get on Facebook or other platforms only to see ads about sneakers everywhere thrust to your face.
So, does that mean you can’t make a Google search while logged into your email or prevent Facebook from accessing this information? Most likely not.
You can actually mitigate what ads Google or other platforms show you by looking at the ad settings and turning off personalized ads. But this doesn’t guarantee that you won’t be shown ads.
For example, here’s how you can control ads from Google:
https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated
And this is how Google categorizes my ad preferences.
They’ve got two things wrong about me though. But that’s beside the point. You can choose to opt-out of these ad preferences, in which case, you’ll be shown less relevant ads. Great, right? Well, not really.
You need a platform that absolutely doesn’t collect your personal information.
2. Use Decentralized Platforms
Decentralized private messengers don’t collect or store your PII. If they do, then they’re either not decentralized or private.
Since they do not collect or store your personal data, they cannot share it with third parties. So, how do you create an account in the first place without providing your phone number or email address?
Messengers like BChat built over a blockchain use advanced cryptography to generate an on-chain ID that represents your digital identity.
This ID cannot be accessed by anyone else unless you choose to share it with them. This is your BChat ID. It is the public key of your account’s private-public key pair. BChat IDs are a string of random hexadecimal characters that look like this:
bde18fd32ffb0fe1772d40fa46222d4b28d4e290ac0b02f4171158ba3c1b756d63
You can connect with people by sharing your BChat ID with them. Thus, DApps like BChat don’t require your personal information.
3. Store your private keys in a safe place
Does this mean that Web3 DApps cannot be hacked into or compromised, like Web2 applications?
Yes, there are 2 reasons.
- If the security of the underlying chain is poor. A DApp shares the security of the chain that it is built upon. BChat is built over the Beldex decentralized network with a secure crypto economic model that is highly resistant to sybil attacks. Your messages are always secure and can never be read by anyone other than the recipient.
- If you share your private keys (recovery key). Your private keys are like the password to your account. You must never share it with anyone. Never store a digital copy of your private key. Write it down on paper and keep it somewhere safe.
4. Learn to spot scams
Scammers are rampant in social networks such as Discord and Telegram. Learn to spot them. Most scammers ask for your recovery keys to take control of your account. Don’t click on links or download files from unverified sources.
BChat prevents scammers from contacting you by masking your BChat ID in public groups.
5. Never leave your device unattended
This is more of a human error, but nevertheless has to be said. Do not leave your device unlocked or open to access by others. You may use BChat on your handheld or desktop device. BChat lets you enable a security pin as an additional security measure.
Eliminating Trust
Your personal identity should always be confidential. Centralized applications, due to their nature, are susceptible to attacks on privacy. The recent geopolitical turmoil around the world is evident of this. Big Tech companies such as Apple, Google, Telegram, have been asked by the Russian government to share information about the users on their platform or take down information they deem inappropriate. Most companies need to abide by these rules to continue operation or move out. The outcome: either your privacy is compromised or you’re unable to access their services. In any case, you need to trust these platforms to work in your favor. And trust is a double edged sword.
That’s why we’ve eliminated the trust factor on BChat. BChat is a trustless, permissionless application that offers default privacy to its users.
~Launching soon
