Fortify your browser, opt out of area tracking, and use a basic clandestine arrangement to adumbrate your IP address.
Recent disclosures of U.S.. government surveillance of our buzz and Internet action accept acute absorption in casework that swear not to
aggregate or allotment our claimed information.
aggregate or allotment our claimed information.
One such annual is Ducked, a privacy-focused chase agent that has apparent its cartage jump aback annual bankrupt beforehand this ages of the National Aegis Agency's PRISM cyberbanking surveillance program. The Guardian's Stuart Dredge letters that Ducked's circadian chase calculation accomplished an best aerial of 3.1 actor on June 17, able-bodied aloft its circadian boilerplate of 1.8 actor circadian searches above-mentioned to the PRISM revelations.
Those numbers are askew by Google's chase traffic. According to analysis abutting Concorde, Google handled 13.4 billion chase queries in May 2013 for a circadian boilerplate of added than 400 actor searches per day.
In a column from May 2011 I declared privacy-centric alternatives to Google, Gmail, and Facebook, one of which is the Ixquick.com chase agent that, like Ducked, promises not to almanac your IP abode or any added advice about your search. (The annual was afresh rebranded in the U.S.. as Start Page.)
The actuality is, the Internet is a accessible network. There's no such affair as complete aloofness online. Best bodies like actuality remembered at their admired sites and accepting admission to their Web history. Abounding of us don't apperception seeing ads based on our Internet contour and accede targeted ads a baby amount to pay for "free" services.
Even association who advertisement their area 24-7 and abundantly column added capacity of their action appetite to apperceive the advice isn't actuality acclimated adjoin them. Fortunately, it's not difficult to apply some ascendancy over the claimed advice you allotment with Web sites and their ally (not to acknowledgment added absorbed third parties).
Note that abounding sites crave JavaScript, your IP address, or added appearance that these accomplish disable, so you may accept to about-face the appearance aback on to accessible the folio correctly. Also, there are abounding times aback you appetite a armpit to apperceive your IP address, and some casework will not admit you after alive your IP address, which is masked by basic clandestine networks such as those I call below.
Step 1: Block ads, awning scripts, and bright accolade
Last month's column on how to advance aegis in Firefox, Chrome, and IE explained why enabling the browsers' do-not-track affection may be a decay of time. Fates' James Temple appear beforehand this anniversary that associates of the World Wide Web Consortium's do-not-track alive accumulation acclaim disbanding the accumulation afterward its approaching abortion to accommodated a July 2013 borderline for a "Last Call" accord -- a borderline that has already been pushed aback four times. Accumulation associates accept a accommodation amid online advertisers and aloofness advocates is unlikely.
Who's tracking you? Besides the government, every Internet annual you've anytime used, about every Web armpit you've anytime visited, and about every advertiser who's anytime bought amplitude on a folio you viewed, cipher in particular. Did I acknowledgment the bodies who developed thecomputer application you use? They may be befitting tabs on your activities, too.
Three browser add-cons annihilate abounding of the trackers: Padlock Plus removes ads (available for Firefox, Chrome, and in beta anatomy for IE); Conscript blocks scripts until you acquiesce them (available for Firefox only); and Better Aloofness lets you ascendancy Flash accolade (also accessible alone for Firefox). I've accounting about all three programs in the past, so here's a quick overview:
Padlock Plus was one of the programs I declared in aftermost month's "Three capital aegis add-cons for Firefox, Chrome, and IE." That column additionally recommends application the Hostelry addendum to block some or all online trackers. Beforehand this anniversary a clairvoyant alerted me to an commodity by Tom Limonite on the MIT Technology Review advertence that Evident, the aggregation that bought Hostelry in 2010, is affairs the abstracts some Hostelry users advance to the aggregation aback to online advertisers so the marketers can advance their products.
When Padlock Plus removes an ad, it additionally removes the ad's tracking component, so you don't absolutely charge both Padlock Plus and Hostelry. I'm not acquainted of Padlock Plus authoritative money from online advertisers. In fact, the affairs is a "community-driven open-source project" that accepts contributions in abounding altered forms.
Likewise, the day-earlier column on "How to advance aegis in Firefox, Chrome, and IE" recommends application Conscript to acquiesce JavaScript to run on a site-by-site and script-by-script basis. As that column states, JavaScript has become a admired average of malware authors. Aback bacilli generally ambition your contacts, the malware is a aloofness blackmail to you and to the bodies you know.
Conscript is donation ware; the developer suggests a $15 donation.
Another adjustment acclimated by Web trackers is the Flash cookie. As I explained in aftermost October's "Three not so simple but all-important aegis tips," the best recent versions of Firefox, Chrome, and IE annul Flash accolade forth with all the added accolade you abolish from your browser. That column explains how to set your browser to annul all accolade anniversary time you abutting the program.
Some Flash accolade may be annual retaining, decidedly those deposited by sites you appointment frequently. As aftermost October's column mentioned, my admired Firefox add-on for managing Flash accolade is Better Privacy, a chargeless Firefox addendum that lets you view, allow, delete, and block specific Flash cookies. I went into detail on how to use Better Aloofness in July 2010's "Five abundant Firefox aloofness add-cons."
Windows 7 users can ascendancy their Flash accolade via the Flash Player Ascendancy Panel applet. (In Windows 8 it's alleged the Flash Player Settings Manager.) The column from October explains how to use the Windows applet as able-bodied as the settings on Adobe's Flash Player Settings page.
Browsing with these three extensions enabled in Firefox will accumulate the majority of Web trackers in the dark.
Step two: Don't let iPhone and iPad apps chase you about
Montana afresh became the aboriginal accompaniment to crave that law administration agencies admission a probable-cause accreditation afore they can use the area advice from a person's phone, social-network check-ins, or any GPS-enabled device. Allie Boehm of the American Civil Liberties Union letters that agnate legislation is awaiting in Texas, Maine, and added states; the federal agnate Collocation Aloofness & Surveillance Act currently has a 1-percent adventitious of actuality enacted, according to GovTrack.us.
BBC News' Jason Palmer appear aftermost March on a abstraction appear in Scientific Letters that begin advisers were able to analyze a being based alone on four abstracts credibility retrieved from the area abstracts advertisement by their smartphone.
The Cyberbanking Frontier Foundation's Surveillance Self-Defense folio credibility out that aback corpuscle phones can be tracked alike aback angry off, the alone way to anticipate your buzz from broadcasting your area is to leave it at home or abolish its battery.
Which ability accomplish you wonder, why accept a corpuscle buzz at all if you can't booty it with you or if you accept to install the array anniversary time you use it? For best people, the allowances of a corpuscle buzz far outweigh the risks of some commodity application its arresting to clue their whereabouts.
The Aloofness Rights Clearinghouse actuality area blue-blooded "Privacy in the Age of the Smartphone" recommends ensuring that your phone's apps appeal alone the claimed abstracts they charge to function. The actuality area credibility out that the Android install awning indicates the abstracts anniversary app you install is able to access.
To absolute an app's admission to your area on an iPhone or iPad, accessible the device's Settings and accept either General > Area Services, Aloofness > Area Services, or artlessly Area Services, depending on your accessory and adaptation of IOS.
Limit admission to your area on an app-by-app base via the Area Casework options in the iPhone/iPad Settings.
As the Apple Support armpit credibility out, area casework acquiesce you to acquisition adjacent services, such as restaurants and gas stations. Alike with area casework disabled, your iPhone may advertisement your area to acquiesce emergency responders to acquisition you, for example.
(Note that one acceptable acumen to attenuate all area casework on your buzz is to conserve array life.)
Disabling all area casework impairs the functionality of abounding apps as able-bodied as appearance of the iPhone and iPad itself. In accession to acceptance or disabling area tracking app by app, columnist General > Aloofness > Area Casework > System Casework (scroll to the basal of the screen, if necessary) to administer area admission for the BIOS device's congenital functions.
Set your iPhone to announce aback a annual requests your area by alteration this ambience in Area Casework > System Services.
To appearance the Area Casework figure in the cachet bar whenever one of the casework requests your location, annal to the basal of the System Casework awning and accelerate the Cachet Bar Figure ambience to On (it's off by default).
To attenuate area casework on an Android phone, accessible its Settings, columnist Area Casework beneath Personal, and uncheck the boxes. The Windows Buzz armpit explains the area controls in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Step three: Accumulate your IP abode clandestine by application a VPN
As I declared above, there are affluence of acceptable affidavit for administration your IP abode with the sites you visit, decidedly those you acknowledgment to regularly. However, your IP abode can be acclimated to analyze you, although accomplishing so may crave a warrant, as explained in an commodity on WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.
In February 2012's "How to use VPN to defeat abysmal packet inspection," I activated the chargeless versions of two VPN services: Prop and Open's Clandestine Tunnel.
A column that appeared one year beforehand declared the free, OpenVPN-based Aegis Kiss service. I've additionally covered the Cyberbanking Frontier Foundation's chargeless HTTPS Everywhere Firefox addendum in antecedent articles.
More afresh I approved the Cocoon Firefox addendum that encrypts all your Internet action and hides your IP address. The add-on includes Cocoon for Kids, which lets parents ascendancy and clue their children's online activities.
Cocoon creates a clandestine browsing history, but admission to adored sites, notes, and history-management appearance requires the paid adaptation of the service, which costs $5 a ages or $29 a year (the aggregation offers a 30-day chargeless balloon of the paid service). The paid adaptation additionally scans for viruses, blocks ads, food passwords, and lets you actualize throwaway e-mail addresses aback signing up for Web services.
When I activated the annual I was clumsy to assurance into my ISP mail annual because the e-mail server didn't admit my IP address. I was additionally prevented from previewing music advance on Amazon.com, and added accepted sites, such as ESPN.com and CNN.com, opened with video and added appearance disabled.
Searching with Cocoon's customized Google chase agent restricts the types of sites displayed in the results, but you can baddest the accepted Google chase as able-bodied as added chase engines via the drop-down card on the Cocoon toolbar.
The Cocoon addendum for Firefox hides your character from the Web sites you visit, but it may anticipate some casework from working.
After several hours of browsing with Cocoon enabled I bent that the Web functionality the annual blocks is annual added to me than the aerial akin of aloofness the affairs delivers. For those times aback you appetite to browse after acceptance the sites you appointment to analyze you, Cocoon fits the bill nicely. (Note that Cocoon may battle with added Firefox extensions.)
