How to stay ANOMYMOUS online
Good day reader, today am gonna be talking about or should I say giving you detailed info on how you can stay ANONYMOUS online.
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Some might say that the Internet was built on anonymity, paving the way for a place where free speech reigns supreme.
But after years of learning about who's snooping into everything we do online, privacy on the Web is a more popular topic than ever. But it's not just about government spying; it's also about how much big companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have collected in order to serve up targeted ads.
Though the social-networking age has led to The Day We Fight Back (against mass surveillance), which came two years after a major online "blackout" helped to stop the SOPA and PIPA legislation, and served to honor the memory of activist Aaron Swartz.
Not much has changed since then; things may be even worse for our online privacy and anonymity. Even the guy who wrote the book on Steve Jobs thinks that anonymity online should come to an end (and it's hard to argue that trolls should get to continue what they do when 70 percent of people aged 18 to 24 have been harassed while online).
But there are always going to be good reasons for people to go online without being tracked. It may be the only way for a real whistle-blower to get by now, considering how some have been treated (nice job, Wells Fargo).
Is it even possible to take control of your own personal privacy online? Some 28 percent of Americans are "not confident at all" that the federal government can keep their personal information safe from the prying eyes of unauthorized users, and 24 percent lack any confidence that social media sites can either, Pew revealed this week.
Ultimately, the only way to stay truly anonymous online is to not go online at all. Since that's not really an option for most of us, here's a rundown of what you can do to minimize the spying, the targeted advertising, and ID theft as you explore the world online.
Check Your System
Phone Call Confidentiality
If you want to be anonymous, forget the smartphone. The big-name OS makers are control freaks (Apple) and ad servers (Google). If you want to be anonymous on a phone, your choice is a prepaid phone, a.k.a., a burner.
Even with a burner, call records exist, and you could be triangulated via a GPS. The upside of a burner is not having your real name associated with the device. And as you see in the movies, you can always throw the phone into a passing truck and lead whoever might be tracking you on a merry goose chase.
But when you've got an expensive smartphone, getting more hardware is a pain. Thankfully, there are apps aplenty to get you temporary, anonymous numbers you can use with Android or iOS. For more details, check out Burner Accounts 101: How to Get Extra Numbers for Your Smartphone.
Build the Firewall
Is your desktop or laptop computer connected directly to a broadband modem? That's a very bad idea. Hackers are constant bombarding IP addresses to see if they can get onto a system.
You should always have a router on your home network that can mitigate that with its built-in firewall. A router uses Network Address Translation, or NAT, to assign an IP address to every device on your home network, which are then only visible on that network. Direct attacks can sometimes be stopped dead right there. Plus, you need the router for sharing the Internet connection and Wi-Fi.
Some ISPs' modems come with a built-in router, so that should keep you covered. For more, see our roundup of Best Wireless Routers, any of which will help protect your home.
You can also use firewall software installed on your PC. Windows 7, 8, and 10 all come with a pretty decent solution called, you guessed it, Windows Firewall. You can also find firewalls as part of suites like Symantec Norton Security Premium (2017). But as PCMag's security expert Neil J. Rubenking explains, you don't really need a firewall if you use the one that ships with Windows.
If you want real anonymity based on your OS, stop using Windows or on the desktop, and go to a Linux distro that specializes in all forms of keethen, some digital photos may linger.
On LinkedIn, go to the Settings icon of your face in the upper right and select Privacy & Settings. In the center, under the Profile tab, you'll see Privacy Controls.
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What about Twitter? There's don't list your website or real email in your profile. Make sure your password is different from that of any other site. That's good advice across the board, but we know people don't follow it. You should with Twitter, which has had some security breaches in the past. You also have the option, under Settings > Security and Privacy, to protect your tweets, meaning only those followers you approve get access to them. Protected tweets aren't searchable, aren't retweetable, and you can't share permanent links to them with non-approved followers.
That said, you're fooling yourself if you think using social networking (or making any post online) is 100 percent safe—all it takes is an "approved follower" to take a screengrab of something you say and share it with the world for it to get out.
If you're worried about getting tracked as you surf, it also behooves you to sign out of the above services, as well as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Apple when you're done using them. Otherwise, the ad servers and cookies and so forth that are run by them or their affiliates will pretty much know where and when you go online at all times. Not signing out is a pain—and exactly what they're counting on.
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