Even though the internet was developed and conceived of as a platform that guaranteed privacy for free speech, however anonymity is far from guaranteed now that it has stretched its huge web all over the world. Nearly 69 percent of privacy violations today are tied to identity theft and are carried out through the internet.
Tips and Tricks to Stay Anonymous Online
All of the websites we visit, the social media accounts we create, everything we publish online, the things we watch online, the places we visit, the transactions we do, and even the amount of steps we take are all saved and gathered for profit by firms.
With so much going on, it can be difficult to remain entirely anonymous in today’s world, but there are certain precautions you can take to protect your online privacy.
1. Set Your Browser’s Privacy Settings
Your browser saves a plethora of info about your web activity. The websites you browse, the services you utilize, and your account credentials. The risk of being exposed increases when you access an unencrypted website. A website that does not include HTTPS in its URL is considered unencrypted.
Some websites also track visitor traffic, but the scary aspect is that they may track a lot more than simply visitors. Companies like this can look at your IP address, browser, and screen resolution.
Read more: PTA asks users to register their VPNs by the end of June
You must first decrease the amount of information you send to your web browser to ensure anonymity while online. There are several actions you can take to do this:
- Use incognito mode to keep your browsing history private.
- After a few days, clear your browser’s cookies. This will empty your cache memory and help you leave a smaller digital footprint.
- Disable automatic password storage in your browser’s options menu.
2. Try to Use an Anonymous Browser
Users can receive the same search results without leaving a trail by using private search engines like DuckDuckGo or Ghostery. Even Firefox has made efforts to protect user privacy by automatically blocking trackers. On such browsers, the services may not be as efficient as Google, but the results are nearly same, with the added benefit of privacy.
3. Get a Reliable VPN
Almost everything you do on the internet can be traced back to one set of numbers: your IP address. To browse the internet anonymously, you must first mask your IP address. By giving a different IP address to your computer, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) hide your IP address and provide anonymity regarding your location.
When it comes to browsing the internet anonymously, VPNs are a must-have. Many VPNs are readily available online and can be purchased, but you must do extensive research on the type of VPN you wish to invest in.
4. Keep Your Email Private
Your internet identity is housed in your email address. It may be used to create all of your accounts, and it can be used to visit practically any website that requires registration.
However, some shady businesses and individuals take advantage of this small piece of information to send spam into your system. If you use your email address to register on a website that turns out to be vulnerable, your user credentials can be readily accessed through the website’s database.
5. Steer Clear of Spam
It’s fairly usual these days to receive spam emails to your email address that ruin the entire system. You go to a website, enter your email address, and boom!
The next day, you’re bombarded with unrelated adverts and spam emails that irritate you to no end. To avoid a situation like this, you can utilize a free and user-friendly anonymous email service like ProtonMail.
6. Go Dark
Tor, often known as the “onion router,” is a global network of computers. It enables you to surf the web by routing your outgoing traffic through a network of computers. Your connection follows a random route and finishes at another random location, making it untraceable.
Even if there are some precautions you can take to stay secure online, total anonymity is only possible if you don’t have an online presence. Regardless of how hard you try to avoid it, you are providing some relevant piece of information about yourself on the internet in some way.
