Many assume that protecting personal data is only for illegal activities. The truth is, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing something legal or illegal, protecting your identity is important and it’s something everyone should be doing.
It can be increasingly difficult to protect your identity while online. After all, everything is being recorded through cookies and even tracked to your IP address. There are companies like Google and Facebook that openly admit they track their users. They do this to deliver personalized advertisements to you. Essentially, they are monetizing your lack of privacy. What can you do to stop this? Luckily, there is plenty.
1. Auto Delete Cookies
One of the main things you should be doing is auto-deleting all cookies. You want all of the cookies that are collected from your browsing history to get auto-deleted every time you end the session. There are plenty of different ways you can do this. Some browsers have a setting that will do it for you. Others will allow you to only enable cookies that need to be enabled for the site to work.
Internet Service Providers will change your IP address at times. This can help to avoid your IP from getting tracked. However, cookies are more important to deal with. Cookies will track you from site to site. If you’ve ever seen an advertisement in your email for the product you were looking at recently, it’s likely due to the cookies or other trackers that are allowing companies to re-target you.
2. Proxies
This is another good way to protect yourself. This is essentially the second level of protection. These are free services that you can use to prevent yourself from being tracked such as RARBG. They are typically random servers that you can funnel your traffic through. They will show you the webpage through their server. Typically, they show their advertisements to monetize the free service.
This is a good option for those that are looking to subvert any local networking rules like accessing Facebook at school. One of the biggest downsides to proxies have to do with their slow speeds. If you want to find a proxy, you can head to a larger site like Proxy.org.
3. TOR
This is a piece of software that is gaining mainstream recognition for the wrong reasons. However, it’s very good at what it’s meant to do. It is software that will help to hide your true IP address. Anyone can sign up as a node and people can browse through your server. The nodes effectively act as proxies from which users can access websites. While the network is free, it also tends to be slower than paid options.
4. Virtual Private Networks
This is one of the best options available if you truly care about boosting your privacy. This is the best solution to keep yourself protected. With a VPN, you get a professionally hosted server from a company. A lot of VPN providers have different servers in varying qualities based in different countries. This way, you can choose from a server that offers you what you need whether it be bypassing Geo Restrictions or faster speeds.
While some of the services you will find out there will log your online activities, a lot of them won’t. You simply need to find one that specifically states they don’t log their users. Also, find one that is located in a country where they aren’t legally required to do so.
To find the very best VPNs available, you can head to BestVPN.com.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to protecting your privacy online, you get what you pay for. If you are looking to protect your browsing habits and history, you’ll want to pay for a quality service. If you want to do it for free, you’re likely going to need to put in some technical work on your own.
