The last few months and years has been riddled with issues relating to issues with surveillance by the US government and other governments alike. It doesn’t stop with the government alone – we have heard cases of several apps send information without the user knowing and big companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook collecting users information to target ads.
Asides these issues there are concerns about hackers accessing your information as you could lose your passwords and bank information which makes the victim very vulnerable. Even though the list is endless there are still some measures that can be put in place to protect your privacy and maintain a good level of anonymity online.
How To Protect Your Privacy and Anonymity Online
These below measures can be used to protect privacy and maintain anonymity online i.e it would reduce issues with spying on, less vulnerable to hack attacks and reduce the risk of one’s information being shipped for targeting ads.
1. ToR
Tor (The Onion Router) is an anonymity software which provides next to none security; it makes uses of Onion Routing which route user’s web activity in different numbers of computers with encrypted layers and thereby makes it impossible to trace back any user internet activity.
Tor is available on Mobile (Android) and also on PC (Windows, Linux – Unix, OSX). There is also mention of an upcoming smartphone with Tor pre-loaded on it – Boss Phone but it’s unlikely we see the smartphone as it is not processing well on funding platform, Indiegogo.
2. VPN
VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network; it serves as an intermediary between user device and the internet. It channels public networks through a private network which makes it more possible to make secure transactions online, purpose of protecting identity and location online amongst other uses.
VPN is usable on computer, mobile and tablet.
3. Virtual Machines
A Virtual Machine is an application environment installed on an operating system which imitates or does the same work as the hardware. User can access your files and data over a virtual machine the same way you access it on your computer. Using virtual machine gives you the assurance of security on your device as long as the internet is turned off.
4. Proxy Server
Proxy Servers are also another way to stay anonymous online or keep data safe. Instead of using your IP address directing, proxy servers use their own server IP when you visit a website.
Proxy server should be the among the last, if not the last option to consider for staying exclusive online as most proxy servers are not as secure as they mention. To confirm if the IP has really changed, visit Ip2location.com.
5. IP Blocker
Some programs makes blocking IP addresses from other computers from accessing your computer. This feature is not to secure per-say as you will be restricted to limited part of the internet but your activities on the internet cannot be traced.
6. Block Cookies
A lot of people see the notice ‘this site use cookies’ on websites or the setting ‘Enable cookies’ on several programs and applications but they haven’t sat down to know what it means.
Third-Party cookies are mainly used by advertising websites to track websites which users visit and which they advertise. Most web browsers allows the option to block cookies and website that use cookies alert you once you land on there.
7. Password Manager
Password manager helps you keep record of all websites and their respective passwords (if any). The fear of using same password has been eliminated as such user can generate complicated password for the sake of security against theft of information and other security risk.
Source: Telegraph
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