Baltimore cyber company disguises digital fingerprints

Much like in real life, when you go on the internet you leave fingerprints, digital ones, that show what you like, what you believe and what websites you’ve visited recently.

Third parties, including social media sites and other corporations looking to market goods and services, use that data to learn more about their customers. When in the wrong hands, the information also can be used by hackers as a road map to steal identities and commit fraud.

While data mining laws are slowly emerging, Chandler Givens, a privacy attorney who worked for a firm that prosecuted cases against big-data companies, found that regulations are not keeping up with technology.

“The gear is ground very slowly,” Givens said.

Givens began talking with his friend Ryan Flach, at the time a software engineer with Northrop Grumman, about using technology to control data mining.

About a year ago, Givens and Flach started developing a software called TrackOFF, which changes the user’s digital fingerprints every few minutes, making them more difficult to track. The software has been on the market for 10 months and is available for Windows XP and Vista devices at $3 per month for a one-year subscription.

The software’s target audience is baby boomers and seniors, people who are generally less comfortable with sharing personal information online.

“They’re uncomfortable with the notion that anyone can watch what they’re doing,” said Givens.

And, that, in a nutshell, reflects not only the appeal of TrackOFF but the larger trend in which businesses and individuals seek ways to guard their digital identities.

Whether it’s the growth in encryption programs, which let users protect the privacy of their emails, or the standoff between tech giant Apple and the federal government over law enforcement access to cellphone data, the issue of privacy in the new digital age has become paramount for many.

Givens and Flach met as undergraduate students at the Virginia Tech. They decided to base their business in Baltimore to get access to the region’s pool of engineering talent and defense contractors and because of its proximity to the National Security Agency.

So far, TrackOFF has been “bootstrapping” and hasn’t taken any outside money to fund the company. The founders put in their own money and have been using software subscriptions to propel revenue.

Originally based in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood, TrackOFF recently moved to new offices in Mount Vernon. The company has eight employees.

Givens would not say how many total subscriptions the software has, but he said it exceeds 1,000 a month. Most customers are in the United States with some in Canada, western Europe and Australia.

Rick Forno, assistant director of the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity, called these kinds of a safeguards “a logical evolution of personal online security.”

“There are other products out there and more come all the time,” said Forno.

There are ways to put in the protections TrackOFF offers in its software, such as setting website cookies selectively and using secure browsers. TrackOFF serves as an amalgam of existing ways people can protect their privacy online, said Forno.

“There is a market for this kind of stuff,” he said, adding that it’s not surprising that the product is targeted to an older users.

“Younger folks, they’re more comfortable sharing material on the internet,” said Forno, who identified himself as a member of Generation X.  “I think the benefits of the sharing is sort of the attraction, but people don’t think about ‘what am I giving up along the way?’”