June 01, 2025

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DELETE YOUR INTERNET FOOTPRINT

As the saying goes: The internet is forever. Once you've put something online--a credit card number, a silly photo, a heat-of-the-moment comment on social media--it can come back to haunt youBut what are the risks, really? "There are two worst-case scenarios," says Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The most obvious one is a security issue. Everyone's email address and basic details are leaked somewhere online, and if you reuse passwords, that means a nefarious person will have an easier time getting into your accounts." The problem is enormous: According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, scams cost more than $1.03 trillion worldwide in 2023, and most of that money was lost online"The second worst-case scenario is more primal: embarrassment," says Klosowski. And sometimes the blows to our pride are far more personal than blushing over an unflattering photo. "Many of us store our most intimate thoughts in a digital notes app and draft emails we never send, or pour out our private feelings into a direct message to a friend. This is the type of thing that can get leaked online, either through a provider being negligent or through your own misunderstanding of the often-confusing privacy settings in the software and services." With these sorts of slip-ups, the stakes can be high. But you're not powerless. You can stand up for your privacy and begin to take control, starting right now. Here's how: 1 Mix Up Your Passwords If you always use the same password, no matter how carefully crafted it may be, it's probably already out thereThe 2024 breach of the U.S.-based background-check company National Public Data, which resulted in the loss of 2.9 billion records including email addresses and phone numbers, was big news, but we don't always hear about the smaller-scale breaches, which are frequent. They occur when criminals purchase leaked databases of usernames (usually email addresses) and passwords on dark web marketplaces. Then the crooks try these combinations, hoping to access people's other accounts. So use a strong, unique password for every account.

Escape into Exile

Born in the village of Takster in eastern Tibet in 1935, a little boy named Tenzin Gyatso, was identified by a team of monks as the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1937. Before long, he was on his way to the Potala palace in distant Lhasa, 100 days away on foot and horseback, in the course of which he was briefly held for ransom by a Chinese warlord. This was the first of several gruelling, dramatic and arguably miraculous journeys that would mark his life and its entanglement with the fate of his countryThe early adventure would also prove to be an ominous portent. Thirteen years later, in 1950, the 15-year-old, still a priest-king-in-training, was formally consecrated and hurriedly installed on the ruler's throne in response to the first incursions of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)--the army of the new communist government of China, which sought to reclaim Beijing's `suzrerainty' over Tibet, lost when the 13th Dalai Lama expelled Chinese forces from Lhasa in 1912. The continuing advance of the PLA would push the young ruler to flee the Tibetan capital for the first time, seeking shelter in the town of Yatung in the Chumbi valley, near the Indian borderThere was no stopping the Chinese advance and the Dalai Lama was persuaded to return to Lhasa the next year following a meeting with the PLA's General Zhang Jingwu, in which the Tibetans were promised significant autonomy and liberties. Inevitably, however, the massive presence of Chinese troops, and their increasingly heavy-handed administration, provoked resistance from a people accustomed to pastoral liberty, freedom of movement and a deeply religious way of life that was anathema to the increasingly totalitarian Maoist stateIt was amidst these rising tensions that the Dalai Lama would make another long journey, back through the Chumbi Valley, into India in 1956. This was officially a pilgrimage--to attend celebrations of the 2,500th anniversary of the birth of the Buddha. As something of a state visit, the journey had been sanctioned by the Chinese authorities, and the Dalai Lama would even meet the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in New Delhi. He also met a number of his compatriots, including his own brothers, who had themselves fled Tibet to live as refugees. And many of them advised him not to return to Lhasa. Zhou Enlai, for his part, had warned the Dalai Lama that the Chinese were prepared to meet any continuing Tibetan resistance with brutal forceFeeling he could not abandon his people at a time of such tension and threat, he returned, crossing the Nathu La pass into Tibet in 1957. He could not have known how soon he would be forced to retrace his steps and leave his homeland foreverThe following excerpt from his memoir published in March this year, recounts, in the spiritual leader's own words, the circumstances that cemenvted his decision to make this final, perilous journey into exile--By Kai Friese