These days it often feels like online privacy is an unattainable illusion. While it is true that it’s impossible to be entirely anonymous while online there are many things you can do to greatly increase your privacy. I’m not recommending that you use all of the methods I discuss in this article, and it's by no means meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible options. This article is supposed to present you with some general strategies to protect your online privacy. Please pick and choose the methods that work best for you.
Basic StrategiesUse an Alternative Search EngineUse a Virtual Private Network (VPN)Privacy Through Your BrowserUse PeerblockThe truth about the internet is that often you can’t be sure who people really are or who's actually running the site you’re on. A general rule of thumb is that if you don’t trust the site don’t give them any personally identifiable information. This includes your real name, email address, credit card number, etc…
Also, in terms of keeping your email address out of the hands of spammers, please read my article about How to Avoid Spam. In addition it's also of paramount importance to keep your computer clear of malware. For this please read my article about How to Stay Safe While Online.
Also, there's a very useful site which will allow you to opt out of most advertising cookies so that they can't track you. This service can be found at Network Advertising Initiative (NAI). Just go there and opt out of all the companies you want. This doesn't include all, but it does have a lot of different companies.
You should also go to your Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager Storage Settings and click on the 'Global Storage Settings Panel', which is on the left. Uncheck the box to 'Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer'. This will greatly increase your privacy, by blocking many flash cookies, but will not negatively affecting your browsing performance.
Google’s search engine records your searches and aggressively tracks you. So do many of the other top search engines, at least to an extent. For this reason I would suggest that you use an alternative search engine. The best anonymous search engine I've found is called starting page. This engine allows you to search using Google's search engine, but it blocks Google's ability to track you. It has also been certified not to record your IP address or use tracking cookies. More information can be found on this page. Another great option is Scroogle. This allows you to anonymously search using Google’s search engine, but it doesn't have all the options of starting page. Also, I like the interface of starting page better. More information about Scroogle can be found on this page.
A VPN securely tunnels all of the connections from your computer directly to the site that you’re communicating with. Thus your connection is secure and nobody can spy on what you’re doing. Also, the site you’re communicating with doesn’t see your real IP address. It only sees the one that the VPN assigned you, which generally cannot be traced back to you. A review of some of the best VPN’s is given on this page.
Currently my favorite is HotSpot Shield. This does place an ad at the top of every page you visit. However, if you use adblocking software then you won't even see the ad. Also, this program does not store your IP address or any other permanent identifieres. However, it does put a cookie on your computer, which you can block by using the methods below. Also, they do record some non-identifiable information for advertising purposes. More information can be found on this page. Also, if you chose to opt out of the cookies, as explained in part 1, then you are already fine. Sadly, I’ve recently discovered that HotSpot Shield does not work with uTorrent. For more information on this program please read about it in the review referenced above.
My advice here is limited to Comodo Dragon and Firefox. I do realize that there are many other browsers out there, but I have had to narrow it to these two. Both of these browsers have an option to start in a mode in which most privacy traces will be cleared as soon as the browser is closed. This is not nearly enough to adequately protect your privacy, but it is a good start. In Comodo Dragon this is called ‘Incognito Mode’ and in Firefox it’s called ‘Private Browsing’. Below I have also compiled useful addons/extensions that work for both browsers. Also, please note that those listed for Comodo Dragon should also work for most other Chromium browsers. Please scroll down to whichever browser you are using for advice on which addons/extensions to use. On a side note, if you are using Google Chrome I strongly suggest that you find another browser. It has serious privacy issues.
In Comodo Dragon go to Options => ‘Under the Hood’. Select the box that says 'Do not allow websites to know where you came from (suppress HTTP Referrer header)'. Now open the ‘Content Settings’ and select the box to ‘Block third-party cookies from being set’. This will prevent sites from loading cookies that are not from the site that you are currently on. Thus almost all tracking cookies will be blocked with very minimal affect on your browsing. The only time you may have problems, and need to temporarily disable this, is sometimes when a legitimate site redirects you to another page. That said, in most cases it will work fine.
More advanced users may wish to just block cookies globally. Then, when it becomes necessary, they can manually add sites to the whitelist. However, this can be somewhat annoying since many sites will not work correctly without cookies enabled. You can configure Comodo Dragon to do this by going to Options => ‘Under the Hood’ => ‘Content Settings’. Then change the setting for cookies to ‘Block sites from setting any data’.
Also, if you go to Options => "Under the Hood" you should make sure the option to "Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data" is selected. This way when you manually clear the browsing data you will clear all cookies and also the LSO's. For more information on why these are such a privacy risk please read this article.
Extensions to Use (note that these likely also work with other Chromium browsers)
USE HTTPS: This forces many sites that have the option to encrypt your connection to actually encrypt it. Therefore your connection with these sites will be much more secure.
Disconnect: This will help to stop third-parties, and search engines, from tracking the webpages you go to. It will also help to partially anonymize some of the searches you make.
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome (Beta): Although still technically in Beta I have seen no problems with this extension. It allows you to subscribe to many different filter lists, which help block unwanted content. This can include privacy threats such as tracking, web bugs, and marketing-analysis strings. In addition to any other lists you may be subscribing to I’d advise subscribing to EasyPrivacy.
Recommended for more advanced users
ScriptNo: This extension will block nearly all scripts and other possible privacy threats. It’s very powerful in that regard. The only change I’d recommend making to the default configuration is to select ‘Antisocial Mode’ in the options. The problem with using this extension is that many sites use scripts and plugins for legitimate purposes. Thus these sites will often not work correctly unless you manually add the scripts on that site to your whitelist. Using ScriptNo does take some getting used to but I find that it's definitely worth it.
Recommended for more advanced users
Vanilla: This is a very good cookie manager. However, if you decided to block all cookies globally, as mentioned above, then this extension is not needed. One major downside to this extension is that it can’t block cookies automatically. However, in the options you can select to ‘Auto delete unwanted cookies after 30 minutes”. You can also configure it to clear unwanted cookies on startup. I would strongly suggest enabling both features. You also have the option to add sites to the whitelist so that those cookies will never be deleted.
For blocking tracking cookies I would advise that you enable the option to block third-party cookies. This can be found under options => options => Privacy. Then choose to ‘Use custom settings for history’. Now deselect the option to ‘Accept third-party cookies’. This will prevent sites from loading cookies that are not from the site that you are currently on. Thus almost all tracking cookies will be blocked. The only time you may have problems and need to temporarily disable this is sometimes when a legitimate site redirects you to another page. That said, in most cases it will work fine. You should also select the option to 'Tell web sites I do not want to be tracked'.
Addons to Use
HTTPS Everywhere: This forces many sites that have the option to encrypt your connection to actually encrypt it. Therefore your connection with these sites will be much more secure.
Disconnect: This will help to stop third-parties, and search engines, from tracking the webpages you go to. It will also help to partially anonymize some of the searches you make.
Adblock Plus: This allows you to subscribe to many different filter lists, which help block unwanted content. This can include privacy threats such as tracking, web bugs, and marketing-analysis strings. In addition to any other lists you may be subscribing to I’d advise subscribing to EasyPrivacy.
BetterPrivacy: This will automatically delete all local shared objects (LSO's) from your computer each time Firefox closes. For more information on why these are such a privacy risk please read this article. However, be aware that using this addon with the default configuration will reset the changes you made to the flash settings in part 1.
RequestPolicy: This will block cross-site requests by default. Thus you will be protected from Cross-site request forgery, which otherwise could send information about your browsing habits to unknown parties. When installing this I would advise that you leave the settings at default. Also, except when it prompts you to add the initial sites to your whitelist, I would not whitelist any sites unless you are experiencing difficulties.
Recommended for more advanced users
NoScript: This addon will block nearly all scripts and other possible privacy threats. It’s very powerful in that regard. You can also configure it to block web bugs to help protect your privacy. For this go to "Options > Advanced > Untrusted" and forbid web bugs. The problem with using this extension is that many sites use scripts and plugins for legitimate purposes. These sites will not work correctly unless you manually add the scripts on that site to your whitelist. Using NoScript does take some getting used to, but I find that it's definitely worth it.
Recommended for more advanced users
Cookie Controller: This addon extends your privacy protection by blocking all cookies by default. It allows you to quickly and easily allow or block cookies globally and then manually add exceptions for individual sites. Like NoScript this takes some getting used to since many sites will not work correctly without cookies enabled. However, if protecting your privacy is important then this is a must have.
Recommended for more advanced users
Peerblock can be downloaded from this site. It monitors all IP connections and blocks all connections that are in its lists of unwanted sites. It comes with default block lists and allows you to easily download more lists. It even comes with a list of anti-P2P sites that you can select so that your computer will not communicate with them. All of these lists will be automatically updated. You can also create custom ones, either for blocking or allowing sites. You can read more about Peerblock in these FAQ's. As long as you don’t use too many lists your connection speed shouldn’t decrease when it's enabled. Peerblock can greatly increase your level of privacy but this comes at a price. Using this program will cause many of the sites you regularly visit to not work correctly. Thus you will need to either temporarily disable Peerblock, when privacy concerns are not as critical, or create a whitelist of allowed sites.
Personally, I do create a whitelist. I have a custom list of sites I want to be allowed. The way I would recommend creating this is by going to the sites you visit regularly and see if they are blocked. If they are, and you trust them, you can select the option to allow the site for 15 minutes. I always start with the one at the bottom of the list, assuming you had just cleared the log before going to the site. Then reload the page. If the site now loads fine then you can select the option to allow it permanently. This way the site will always work, even when Peerblock is active.
I do realize that there are many different ways to increase your privacy. What I have tried to do here is to shorten that list into what I believe are some of the most simple and potent ways to increase your online privacy. This article is by no means supposed to be comprehensive and I don't want to clutter it up with all the various alternatives. There are already many other articles that do exactly that. However, if there is anything I have missed, which is not already accounted for by something else above, please leave a comment about it.In addition, if you believe this article deserves anything less than 5 stars please leave a comment below explaining how you think it can be improved, or where you find fault. In fact, I would appreciate any feedback, positive or negative, so that I can improve the article. Your opinions and advice will be much appreciated.
If you found this article useful then perhaps you'd like to check out some of my others.How to Stay Safe While OnlineHow to Know If Your Computer Is InfectedHow to Avoid SpamHow to Report SpamHow to Tell if a File is MaliciousHow to Install Comodo FirewallThis software category is maintained by volunteer editor Chiron. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or suggestions they might have by clicking here.
