When using the internet there is always one thing that you should be worried about and that is your privacy. Without taking any preventive measures, you wouldn’t be able to preserve your privacy. When you use the internet openly then anyone would be able to track you and your online activity easily especially your ISP, government, and the websites that you visit.
Anonymity is becoming a necessity nowadays because anyone can easily stalk what you do over the internet, therefore, you should browse privately and keep yourself as anonymous as possible to hide your internet activity from the websites that you visit and also from your ISP.
If you are not conscious about your privacy then this might not be for you but if you are concerned about privacy then here are some things that you can do to browse the internet anonymously.
Use a VPN
The first thing that you can do to make yourself anonymously on the internet is to use a VPN because it encrypts your connection and protects your data from hackers, your government, and ISP. No can identify you on the internet and your privacy remains conserved
Use Private Browsing
If you want to hide your online activity from your friends/family only then you should try the private browsing mode/incognito mode. Private Browsing does not keep a record of your internet web history and whatever you do in that private browsing session, its record won’t be kept.
Use the right browser
Each browser has its own policy of dealing with user-privacy. Choosing the right browser is important as you do all of your internet activity using a web browser. If your web browser has risky privacy levels then other measures would be in vain, therefore, choose a browser that is known for protecting and preserving user-privacy.
There are different browsers meant for privacy such as Safari, Firefox, etc. Don’t opt for Microsoft Edge browser as the privacy levels are risky and it is vulnerable to threats and as for Google Chrome, you aren’t sure what Google does with your data. If you want to take it to another level then you can use the TOR Browser which provides next level anonymous browsing for free.
Block trackers
There are browser-extension available that can further increase your online privacy and anonymity. Apart from installing essential extensions such as AdBlocker, VPN browser extension, you should also install extensions that detect and block third-party tracking cookies.
Although such extensions aren’t very popular, yet they are quite useful when it comes to maintaining your anonymity. Such extensions include Privacy Badger and Ghostery which come into action and block any third-party tracking cookies to track your online activity.
Use Proxy Servers
You can also use a proxy server to remain anonymous on the internet. There are different anonymous proxy servers available that can block anyone from seeing your IP address or tracking your online activity. All the pages that you request for the first pass through the remote proxy server and this prevents anyone from tracking or identify you on the internet.
Avoid using public Wi-Fi Networks
A thing that you should avoid to protect your data is to never use a public wi-fi network. You will find public Wi-Fi networks everywhere in hotels, restaurants, airports, etc but you should avoid using them because you never know who is sitting behind and monitoring what is happening on the network. Also, it is hard to tell if the wi-fi network has reliable security and privacy protocols, therefore, avoid using public Wi-Fi networks.
Use DuckDuckGo
If you are very concerned about data then you should avoid using Google or Bing and instead use DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that doesn’t sell your data to 3rd party or tracks your browsing history. On other search engines, you will receive targeted ads but that’s not the case with DuckDuckGo. It doesn’t track your online activity, unlike other search engines.