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Video credit: What is a VPN, and why should you be using one? posted by Graham Cluley on YouTube

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You might be a journalist, a political dissident or a resident of an authoritarian state. You might be concerned about hackers or dodgy websites collecting your information online. Or you might just be an average person, with typical browsing habits and a preference for privacy. 

Many of us use Google’s ecosystem when browsing the internet, including Chrome, Gmail, Gemini, Google search, and Google third party sign in. While Google offers some excellent features and services, including some useful privacy protection options, you might also be uncomfortable with one company having access to extensive amounts of your personal data. 

Here’s a breakdown of some alternatives and options to preserve your privacy when browsing the web.

Search Engines

Some search engines are designed to prioritize privacy, while others might prioritize other features, like personalization. For example, Google uses cookies and identifiers to personalize your searches, and direct personalized advertisements your way.

DuckDuckGo is a less common search engine, but one that puts user privacy first, promising that none of your search, chats or browsing histories are saved: “We don’t track you. That’s our Privacy Policy in a nutshell.” When it comes to other features (maps for example), Google might be superior, but if privacy is important to you, consider giving DuckDuckGo a try to evaluate these tradeoffs for yourself.

Internet Browsers

Most internet browsers now come with an internal setting that allows some degree of anonymity when browsing the web. For Google Chrome, this feature is called “Incognito,” and can be accessed through the file menu, “New Incognito Window.” But Chrome warns:

“Pages you view in incognito tabs won’t stick around in your browser’s history, cookie store, or search history after you’ve closed all of your incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept.

However, you aren’t invisible. Going incognito doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your internet service provider, or the websites you visit.”

Apple’s internet browser, Safari, also has a private browsing mode. When activated, Safari won’t remember “the pages you visit, your search history, or your AutoFill information.” But like Chrome, that doesn’t mean you’re completely anonymous.

The same goes for Microsoft Explorer’s InPrivate browsing mode. While less information will be retained on your computer about the pages you visit, there is still a record of where you’ve been that is being logged somewhere on the internet.

If privacy is important to you, you might consider using the Firefox or DuckDuckGo browsers. Privacy and transparency are core priorities for these companies. Firefox explains: “Everyone’s activity on the Web should be private by default. Unfortunately, people are being spied on everywhere they go. We view this as a threat to everyone’s individual safety and to societal health, and are working through technology and policy to systematically identify and eliminate all mechanisms for cataloging individuals’ activity across sites.” Firefox offers a ‘Private Browsing’ mode, and minimizes cookies, information collection and trackers by default. DuckDuckGo takes privacy a step further, actively blocking ads and trackers by default, and offering various other privacy-focused features.

Virtual Private Networks

If you’re looking for an increased measure of security than what’s afforded through your internet browser’s internal settings, than a virtual private network or VPN might be for you. Like the video explains, VPNs allow your device to connect with a private network before connecting with the external internet.

This allows you to safely transfer information over an encrypted network with any of the other devices that are connected to that private network. It also allows your device to connect to the external network of the internet from the location where that private network is hosted. By doing so, you’ll benefit from any safety protocols that be in place through that private network, and your actual geographic location will be masked as you’ll appear to be at the same location as that private network.

This last point comes with several benefits. In countries that block access to certain websites, VPNs will allow you to connect to those sites through the proxy of the private network. And in countries with invasive government surveillance policies, VPNs allow you to mask some of your private online communications.

But be warned: Not all VPNs are created equal. Free VPN services have been accused of violating their users’ privacy by recording their internet activity and making it available without consent, and hijacking users’ bandwidth and selling it.

The TOR Browser

This is considered the most advanced tool in regards to anonymity on the web. It’s a free product that allows you to connect to the external internet through a maze of servers that obfuscates your identity. When it comes to computers, your IP address is like the license plate on your car, and the best way to remain anonymous is hide this information. Websites track who is accessing their pages through IP addresses, which can then be linked to your online and real identities.

The TOR browser operates very slowly because of the connection points it makes while you access the internet. The idea is that there is a point of entry, where your computer’s IP address initially enters the system, and then a dozen or so more connections where your computer begins assuming different IP addresses, and then an exit point, where your computer assumes the final IP address that it will the use to access webpages. Along the way, your initial IP address is completely lost.

There’s been speculation that using the TOR browser will draw more attention to your internet activity because it’s generally only used by people with something to hide. The browsing experience is incredibly slow and streaming any sort of content is impossible. The Dark Web can be accessed through the TOR browser, but is difficult to navigate, and contains many illegal websites that by even visiting may leave you vulnerable to criminal prosecution.

Protect Your Privacy Today

You can take the following steps to restrict the amount of information you leave behind when browsing the web:

  • Configure your existing browser’s settings to manage your cookies and browser history. The exact settings will vary from browser to browser, but you can watch our online tutorial for an example. How do you think privacy settings have changed since this video was made in 2012?
  • Install a browsing extension like Adblock Plus, Ghostery, or the Privacy Badger to directly block website cookies from storing information about you.
  • Consider alternatives to the Google ecosystem: Instead of Chrome, Gmail and Google search, consider changing your default tools to (or at least familiarizing yourself with) Firefox, Proton Mail and DuckDuckGo search.  
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The Digital Tattoo Project encourages critical discussion on topics surrounding digital citizenship and online identity. There are no correct answers and every person will view these topics from a different perspective. Be sure to complete the previous sections before answering the questions.

  • Have you taken any steps to protect your online privacy? 
  • Would you be comfortable sharing your browsing history with others?

What do you think? Tell us using the comment below.

Content maintained by The Digital Tattoo Team

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