After reading this article you will have an understanding of Internet privacy. We don’t want you to just understand but also to have enough knowledge to be able to act to keep yourself and your information safe. It’s easy to learn how to protect yourself online and won’t take much effort and time out of your day. This is just a quick way for you to learn to navigate the internet anonymously and you can choose which steps you want to take depending on who you want to protect yourself against.
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How to Keep Yourself Anonymous
It’s frustrating to know that most sites online are linked to data collection companies. These companies work in partnership with both social networks and search engines to create a profile for each internet user. They gather this information in a myriad of ways. One of the most common ways that they do this is by using third party cookies. A quick way that you can protect yourself from information gathering is to disable third party cookies on your computer.
However, this quick fix isn’t without problems and can cause some sites to quit working completely on your computer. This actually does little in the way of protecting your information and privacy online. There’s a much better way to protect yourself, and that’s to block collectors on each page. You also need to set up your browser to allow and run secure browsing. Read on for the steps that you will need to take to accomplish this and keep your information as safe and private as possible.
#1. Use Firefox Browser
Go online and install Firefox to use as your web browser. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer doesn’t have the necessary plugins to be able to protect you, and Chrome is notorious for sending your information straight to Google when you use it. Google is one of the largest ad networks and loves getting your information. Even Chromium is known to send users’ data to companies.
#2. DuckDuckGo for Search
DuckDuckGo needs to be your default search engine, so set that on your browser. This is a privacy oriented site that won’t store your user data or any search history from your computer. Go to Tools-> Options-> Search after installing the plugin to do this.
#3. Cookie Protection
Install Ghostery on your computer. This is a plugin that will keep trackers from putting the code on your browser or installing cookies to track your information online.
#4. Consider Blocking Javascript
Install NoScript to block javascript from running. You will have to think about how you want to use this. Some people like to disable scripts globally and then allow certain ones to run when you visit a website. This way you can pick and choose what works on your computer and what doesn’t, although most websites will have trouble opening until you allow them to.
#5. Adblocking
Install uBlock to keep ad services from sending ads to your computer. This is imperative to do if you don’t set scripts globally to off in step 4.
#6. Always prefer HTTPS services and Apps
Use HTTPS everywhere, forcing encrypted connections whenever possible.
#7. Privacy Mode leaves less Trace
Open the internet in Private Browsing Mode by Tools-> Options-> Privacy. Also, select “never remember history”.
#8. Disable Geocoding
Disable geocoding, which will stop websites from saving your location information. This is tricky to do but there are guides online that can walk you through it.
If you perform take these steps toward internet safety and encourage others that you know to do them as well then the Internet will slowly become a safer and better place.
Remember to avoid government monitoring systems by using a private, no logging VPN service.
Also consider sending money to projects like Whonix, Tor, and Tails, which work for your internet anonymity. If you aren’t willing to pay for your privacy you have to wonder if it even matters to you at all!
