How to protect yourself from phone hackers

Santo Domingo, DR.
To intercept or “tap” a telephone in the Dominican Republic requires a judge’s order, so that when it is said that the device listens to everything, it does not mean that a person is being spied on, explained the director of Cybersecurity, E-commerce and digital signature of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel), César Moliné.

The official detailed the regulations governing that sector in the Dominican Republic and gave important recommendations to users since every ad, social network button, and website collects information on location, browsing habits, and other data.

“To the best of my knowledge, a cell phone is not spying on a person in the traditional sense that it is listening to their conversations, but through the use of the different services and applications that a smartphone has, it is possible to obtain a greater amount of information from users; and, consequently, it is possible to create better profiles that help to sell products and services more directly,” he pointed out.

The law and secrecy
Secondly, the expert referred to the legal considerations from Indotel that must be taken into account, such as the General Telecommunications Law of 1998, which establishes the principle of secrecy of telecommunications. “This means that telecommunications services cannot be tapped without an order from a competent judicial authority,” he added.

Moliné referred that this is reaffirmed by other legislation such as the Criminal Procedural Code and by Indotel regulations such as the General Internet Access Service Regulations (Resolution 033-20) and the Cybersecurity Regulations for the Provision of Internet Access Service (Resolution 126-21), of November last year, which provides for “a series of measures that provide for the use of encryption in the networks of companies providing telecommunications services to prevent unauthorized access to these services.”

He revealed that through the National Cybersecurity Center, work has begun preparing an update to the Personal Data Protection Law, which in his opinion, will grant greater power and control to users over how products and services use their personal information.

Indotel’s Cybersecurity director said a series of appeals to users to better protect their data and safeguard their privacy online so that they can maintain security against unwanted attempts by third parties to access their data, as well as protect the privacy of those with whom they have not given their consent to share their information.

Hacking.
Indotel’s Cybersecurity director suggests those who wish to know if their account has been hacked look up their email address on the National Cybersecurity Center’s compromised account verification service at the link https://cncs.gob.do/csirt-rd/herramientas/verificacion-de-cuenta-comprometida/

Navigation.
Moliné noted that companies and websites track what people do online. To protect against this, he explained that users could use the uBlock Origin extension (https://ublockorigin.com/) for their browsers, which blocks ads and the collected data.