With 7 out of 10 users taking at least one measure to anonymize their browsing, the importance of navigating the web safely has never been more apparent.
In this article, we’ll share 5 different methods you can use to connect to the internet anonymously from your different devices.
5 Methods to Hide Your Identity Online
Today, brands and advertising platforms track what you like doing, eating, and buying through an array of methods. This includes web trackers like:
- Cookies;
- Supercookies;
- Script-embedded trackers;
- And fingerprinters, among others.
The problem is that feeling you get when the stuff you research immediately gets advertised to you in product form.
In these cases, it’s easy to feel like someone, or better yet, something, is following you.
Fortunately, you can do more than stand pat while your data gets collected. As a matter of fact, you can take control of your browsing sessions and connect to the internet anonymously.
Here are five ways to connect to the internet anonymously.
1. Disable JavaScript
JavaScript is a common programing language that usually appears on websites. This coding language is a great resource because it can be used to create awesome features.
The problem is that JavaScript is also commonly used for creating cookies and other tracking purposes.
Hackers can also exploit this, which has compromised hundreds of millions of users already.
Since JavaScript is not essential to a website’s basic functionality, you can actually disable this feature on most browsers.
This will disable all JavaScript trackers, but it will also limit the page’s usability.
2. Use A VPN
You may wonder, what is a VPN? In short, a virtual private network or VPN is a tool that encrypts your device’s internet connection.
This means that the information being sent and received from your smartphone, laptop, or tablet is encoded.
There are many standards, so you need to choose a reliable VPN that features AES-256 GCM encryption.
This will ensure that the technology is impenetrable and that the cost of the service is not excessive.
Quality VPNs also allow you to change the location of your connection.
So, you can choose to mask your real location and make it look like you’re connecting from any city in the provider’s network.
3. Connect Through An Encrypted Browser
If you don’t want to encrypt your entire connection and prefer to only encode the platform you use to navigate websites, you can also connect through an encrypted browser.
There are many privacy-centric browsers, but note that only a small handful provide native-level encryption. That said, three alternatives worth investigating are:
- Tor Browser;
- Dooble Secure Browser;
- And Brave Browser (a Tor client).
Keep in mind that all of these browsers are free. So, even though its developers have the best intentions, keeping up with the latest security trends and requirements is challenging for this type of software.
4. Use A Proxy
A proxy server, simply known as a proxy, sits between your device and the internet.
When you connect to a proxy, you can make it look like you’re surfing the web from another location and device altogether.
Proxies make it extremely difficult, if not impossible to track data back to your device.
This is a great basic alternative. But it’s important to note that proxies don’t encrypt your data.
In other words, it’s still possible for cybercriminals to intercept your connection and see what information is being transferred.
5. Activate Incognito Mode
Also known as private mode or browsing, incognito mode is a browser feature that improves your anonymity levels on the web.
In simple terms, this feature prevents websites from storing cookies and other temporary files on your device. Thus, it makes it difficult to track your behavior across multiple sites.
Now, this feature wasn’t designed to provide full anonymity. It doesn’t combat advanced methods like browser fingerprinting.
Nonetheless, activating this feature is a good practice if you want to protect your identity on the web as much as possible.
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