How can a website collect your password – even before you hit the sign-up button? Does a VPN help against being tracked online? And why is tracking users actually such an issue?

In the eighteenth episode of In a Nutshell, we will take a deep dive into cyber security – and all the things that make the internet a not-so-safe space when it comes to data protection. Together with this week’s guest, Güneş Acar, we will figure out how users can attempt to stay safe when it comes to their data online, and why this can be so difficult.

Güneş Acar is an assistant professor for Digital Security at the Faculty of Science and is associated with the iHub (Interdisciplinary Hub for Digitization and Society) at Radboud University. He researches security and privacy threats from, amongst other things, websites and mobile apps, and is a specialist on online tracking.

Would you like to learn more about how to stay safe online? Then follow Güneş’ recommendations and have a look at the YouTube video on how dark patterns trick you online, the investigative report Twelve Million Phones, One Data Set, Zero Privacy by the New York Times, or a Wired article on Gunes’ own research how websites collect your information before you have even signed up to them.

Edit: Jara Majerus

Cover: Antonia Leise