It's impossible not to be charmed by Sheila Hancock singing Coming Down from Aldermaston, a merrily satirical 1962 protest song that feels perfectly of its time. Back then, Hancock was starring in the riotous BBC comedy The Rag Trade and was only too happy to lend her popularity and her voice to the pacifist cause.
Now 80, Hancock has refined her protest strategy somewhat. These days she is quite a technophile and has signed up to several campaign sites. "It's not quite the same as doing the Aldermaston march or being dragged off in Grosvenor Square," she says. "The campaigner in me worries slightly that pressing a button is too easy. It's not so committed. But they have to take notice when millions of people are doing this – look at the Arab spring – and injustice can be revealed to ordinary people." She believes Edward Snowden's exposés about state snooping should be inspiring their own Aldermaston-style protests. "I'm shocked by it in terms of world importance. We have a right to our own lives. The big questions we are asking now are very disturbing, but the press is our greatest saviour at the moment."
Like many internet users, Hancock has become increasingly concerned about protecting her privacy online. "I grew up in a generation where we kept things private, where a letter was a lovely little very private thing that arrived," she says. "Suddenly we can send messages that could misfire, that anybody can see. My grandchildren have a completely different attitude to privacy, but I feel I have to assume that everybody can see what I'm doing on the web."
Spot on, says security expert Bruce Schneier, who has worked with the Guardian on the Snowden stories and seen hundreds of the leaked documents. "If the NSA wants in to your computer, it's in. Period," he says.
Yet there are things you can do to make it harder. "The NSA has turned the fabric of the internet into a vast surveillance platform, but they are not magical. They're limited by the same economic realities as the rest of us, and our best defence is to make surveillance of us as expensive as possible," he says.
Schneier uses tools such as GPG, Silent Circle, Tails, OTR, TrueCrypt, BleachBit – and others he won't name – and has introduced what he calls an "air gap": "Since I started working with the Snowden documents, I bought a new computer that has never been connected to the internet. To transfer a file, I encrypt it on the secure computer and walk over to my internet computer, carrying a USB stick. To decrypt something, I reverse the process. This isn't bulletproof, but it's pretty good."
But to most web users, unfamiliar with encryption algorithms and open-source code, these precautions will seem extreme. For more practical solutions, the Guardian asked security consultant Rik Ferguson and our own security supremo Dave Boxall for suggestions, and put Hancock, musicians Will.i.am and Scroobius Pip, author Margaret Atwood and psychotherapist Philippa Perry through a sort of privacy health check. Here's what they suggest to deter both state spies and ordinary fraudsters:
• Passwords: don't use the same one repeatedly. Create a complex one with upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and characters such as $%&!. Perhaps use the initial letter of each word in a sentence to help you remember it. Differentiate it for each application by introducing letters from the site name, for instance. Or use a management app such as LastPass or DirectPass.
• Security or password reset questions: this is one of the easiest ways to hack an account. If you are asked to provide answers to "security questions", consider whether the answers are really secure – ie that you are the only person who can knows. If you can create your own questions, do. If you are obliged to answer standard questions such as "first school" or "first pet" remember the answer doesn't have to be true, it only has to be something you can remember.
• Social media: take advantage of security features on Facebook and Twitter such as two-factor authentication and notification of log-in attempts from unknown devices. Don't share too much. For example, don't mention your "porn star name" (name of first pet plus mother's maiden name), which is exactly the kind of information needed to reset email and bank accounts.
• Email: all free email and webmail services (such as Hotmail and Gmail) are vulnerable, so to communicate privately buy a service such as Fastmail that is not based in the US. At the very least, install two-step verification on Gmail.
• Search engines: try a smaller one, such as DuckDuckGo, to avoid tracking of search history.
• Smartphones: these are particularly exposed, so be aware that no messages are truly secure. You could connect your smartphone to a cloud service that lets you "remote wipe" if need be – but control what you sync up to iCloud if you wish to remain truly private.
• Cloud services: all of the ones based in the US and the UK (including Dropbox, iCloud and Evernote) are open to surveillance, so encrypt information you don't want to share.
• The tangled web: as we become creatures of the smartphone, the tablet and the app, and as services, sites and accounts become ever more interconnected, remember that if one is breached others become unsafe. Keep track of which services you give permission to access others, and revoke this if one is compromised or you stop using it.
Even these security measures require both expertise and commitment, and Hancock fears that privacy concerns will frighten some users, particularly older people, away from the internet. "I get awfully frustrated with people of my generation who won't engage with the web," she says. "It's a miracle and I embrace it."
She gives the example of the Digismart scheme, of which she is a patron, which uses digital tools to mentor struggling school children, and has been introduced at 500 schools. "It is a joy to communicate your ideas to others, and we've seen kids who didn't have the confidence to express themselves in class end up making a speech to the whole school. It transforms their lives."
The scheme underlines how technology can be used as a creative tool, Hancock says. She believes the internet can help foster solutions to social problems through a myriad of small schemes and initiatives, but only if it remains accessible – and safe – for everyone.
Will.i.am
The musician is a well-known tech enthusiast, describing himself as an "undercover geek". He uses Twitter, Gmail, Skype, SoundCloud, Spotify and Google+ Hangout. He takes considerable security precautions, including the use of encryption software, and is concerned that young people don't realise how much they are exposing online.
"Part of being vulnerable is a result of what you put out there about yourself. I worry about youth who may not understand the risks associated with sharing too much information," he says.
Experts say: "Will is obviously pretty switched on technologically. His Twitter and Gmail accounts are likely to have two-factor authentication, and using encryption technology is a good idea when online, although smartphones are flawed in their attempts to implement this. One note of caution: the more services you use, the more your attack surface is increased. These online applications are increasingly interlinked and a security failing at any one point can lead to unforeseen consequences elsewhere."
Philippa Perry
The psychotherapist and author is big on Twitter and uses several services run by companies implicated in the Snowden revelations. She's not too concerned about her own information being targeted, saying she "can't imagine the NSA being interested" in her. Perry regularly has private online conversations with her husband, the artist Grayson Perry, when one of them is travelling. She does worry about financial security, and says developers have made accessing technology too complicated. "Grayson has some [security] keypad from his bank, but it is so complicated he's given up. He's gone back to using a cheque book and stamps."
Experts say: "Unfortunately we don't know who the security services consider interesting, and Philippa may be monitored because someone she once emailed or phoned knows someone who knows someone suspected of wrongdoing. The agency is allowed 'three hops' from its targets. With the typical user having 190 friends on Facebook, three hops is a lot of people. Protect banking with strong passwords and obscure security questions. The complexity of technology reflects the measures that have had to be introduced to counter the exploitable flaws in previously 'secure' internet protocols, so it's important to learn how to use them."
Margaret Atwood
With 440,000+ followers on Twitter, Atwood is one of literature's most digital-savvy voices. She's co-written a serial zombie story on the writing site Wattpad, designed a device to allow her to sign books remotely, and launched a Flipboard magazine on speculative technology. Despite her online enthusiasm, she has well-researched suspicions about snooping.
For her latest novel, MaddAddam, Atwood asked hackers for advice on – they suggested pen and paper. "It's the only safe way. Then you rip it up and burn it. Don't even flush it down the toilet, it's too risky." A character in her book the Year of the Flood says of digital technology: "If you can see it, it can see you."
Experts say: "Another well-informed user. Some famous people make the mistake of shunning social media or using false names, leaving the field open for imposters who can do serious damage. But celebrities should remember that information on, say, their schools and pets is often publicly available, and adjust their security questions and answers accordingly."
Scroobius Pip
The DJ and poet says he has two or three passwords that he uses across many applications – changing a few characters each time. He's not too worried about his online security and thinks some of the concerns are over-stated. "Facebook being able to 'steal my information' or 'read my messages' is of very little concern to me. I have nothing exciting for them to steal," he says, adding that he is "careful to a reasonable and intelligent level, but that's it". Pip is a heavy social media user, and advertises his email account (scroobiuspipyo@hotmail.co.uk) on Twitter. He also uses applications such as Facebook, Skype, SoundCloud, eBay, DropBox, Instagram and Vine.
Experts say: "Scroobius Pip is obviously comfortable with a large amount of his personal data and communications being in the public domain. That's actually a pretty healthy attitude as long as he does not divulge anything through those online channels that he would rather keep private. Giving out his email address is brave – making it easier for hackers. He could consider having multiple email accounts, one of which is used solely for password reset emails for online banking and other applications."
