Internet privacy for Teenagers

A generation nurtured by information technologies has no problem navigating the intricacies of the web and avoiding its dangers. With little technical proficiency, most teenagers today use VPNs and Proxies to improve their privacy online. However, even with these tools, most tech companies have no problem infringing the privacy of internet users. While they rarely do it for malicious purposes, data extraction and algorithmic manipulation are the cornerstones of many modern business models.

However, online tracking is a rare concern for individuals reaching adolescence. A lot of teenagers get their right to privacy stripped away by overprotective parents. Because today it is not unusual for kids to have tech-savvy guardians, encountering the internet in its purest form becomes a difficult task due to restrictions imposed at home.

While teenagers usually know about the limitations imposed by their parents. The worst kind of discomfort occurs when guardians track children without their knowledge. While we do not encourage teenagers to contradict their parents and disobey established rules, an individual needs to comprehend tracking possibilities to preserve privacy and recognize similar encounters in the future.

Hacking and tracking are so easy, any company can do it nowadays, but not many expect the same technical proficiency from their parents. In this article, we will present the ways your tech-savvy parents can track your computer or any other smart device. While residential proxies are great tools to protect your IP address from malicious third parties, a residential proxy might not be the solution to hide your data requests from parents. Click here if you want to discover the applicability of residential proxies for your security needs from a reliable provider. For now, let’s focus on tools your parents can use to track you and infringe your privacy.

Apps that track your mobile phone

One of the most common choices for overprotective surveillance is mobile phone apps that allow parents to monitor the location of teenagers. Because these services have high demand, there is plenty of software that displays a recent GPS location on a virtual map when the app is installed on a mobile phone.

While some teenagers see no problem and even understand the benefits that come with tracking, some parents may downplay the functionality of installed apps. When you think that parents only see your GPS location, in reality, they can also see your text messages, calls, pretty much everything that is stored on your mobile phone. We believe that an obvious lack of trust in teenagers instills fear and paranoia that can translate into adulthood. There is a fine line between protection and control, and an individual needs to know when they are not trusted.

To counteract these attempts at surveillance, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the most popular tracking apps available online. If you recognize any of them on your mobile device, it might be a good time to have a chat with your parents to establish healthy boundaries.

Widely available keyloggers

While surveillance apps are a common choice for mobile phone users, keyloggers help parents track teenagers on their personal computers. These parental control apps allow your guardians to track computer usage time, used applications, websites, and messages to friends.

At the highest levels of surveillance, keyloggers can even record keystrokes and copy content into the clipboard. Adjustable timers capture the computer screen, but this feature can also be triggered by keystrokes that fit the assigned keyword.

Recognizing the functionality of keyloggers is necessary for teenagers that want to protect internet privacy from their parents. Cheap parental control tools can slow down your computer and even create a delay between registered keystrokes. Advanced keyloggers are a bit trickier to detect because they are well optimized to show as few signs of existence as possible. Businesses use them to monitor and provide assistance for employees performing assigned tasks and maintain order at the workplace. There are even keyloggers on the market that can reinstall themselves after deletion. Understand the persistence of these tools and do not underestimate the overprotective nature of your guardian.

Detecting parental control tools is a great practice for tech-savvy teenagers interested in a computer science career. If you have overprotective guardians, there is a chance that they might be tracking you right now. Interest in internet privacy and the pursuit of technical proficiency should be encouraged. We encourage parents that have the capability to track their teenagers to use this power to establish fair boundaries and educate them on the lack of security and anonymity online. Forceful surveillance is never a good solution – teenagers easily absorb information and can adapt to any situation if the need arises. To get the best of both worlds, we encourage adolescent children to communicate with their parents and only look for ways to ensure privacy when no alternative can be found.

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