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Top 10 ways to avoid being tracked online

People use their computers and tablets. Who's tracking you online?

1. Read the agreements for all mobile phone apps before you download them.  Some of them are scary!  They will track your location using your GPS and some (like Facebook) will download ALL OF THE CONTACTS IN YOUR PHONE. Can’t remember who you’ve handed your data to?  MyPermissions can help.  

2. Read the Terms of Service Agreements for sites you give your information to. Especially sites you give your financial information to. You maybe thinking:"I've been on page 5 of Freedom for 8 months, HOW am I going to find the time to read online agreements?"  ToS;DR can help. 

3. Use a search engine that doesn’t track you, like DuckDuckGo or Startpage for searches you want to keep private.  Google’s Incognito setting, Microsoft’s Do Not Track setting and other browser privacy settings are not always effective, because they typically leave the decision of whether to track you up to the website you visit.  There are no regulations requiring websites honor a “Do Not Track” request.

4. Use a browser add-on like Ghostery, Privacyfix or Do Not Track Plus to see who is tracking you on any given website.  You can use these tools to avoid being tracked altogether or to limit who can access your data.

5. Use a tool to encrypt your connection, like CyberGhost VPN or Tor (which routes your search through servers all over the globe, the way criminals in the movies route their calls to avoid having them traced).  Be sure to use one of these tools if you are accessing the Internet through a public WiFi connection at a coffee shop, for instance.  


 


6. Adjust your Facebook privacy settings so that only your friends can see your information.  You know that 6 Degress of Kevin Bacon game? That should give you an idea of how many friends your friends have and how many thousands of people can see your information (not to mention the impressive scope of Bacon's work)

7. Have different email addresses for different things, i.e. an email for work, a personal email, and an email you give to online stores.  This makes it harder for companies to flesh out a profile of you. You can also use an email cloaking device like Gliph

8. Use different passwords for different sites. A lot of sites store your password and know your email login name. You may be thinking that there is no way you will be able to remember any password more complicated than "Password," but take heart! LastPass can help you with that.     

9. Regularly clear out the cookies and caches in your computer. Many companies will track you for months if you don’t clean these out.  Cookies aren’t the only way companies track you, but it will help.  This site can be used to clean up your cache. 

10. Use a service that removes your data from data brokers, like DeleteMe, Safe Shepherd and Catalog Choice.  They usually charge a monthly fee and they won’t remove your online profile entirely, but it will help.


Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo.com, contributed to this post.

About the author

Stacey Vanek Smith is a senior reporter for Marketplace, where she covers banking, consumer finance, housing and advertising.

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Brolleyjoinny's picture
Brolleyjoinny - Mar 28, 2013

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MusicCityEngineer's picture
MusicCityEngineer - Feb 20, 2013

Excellent article, Stacy, very good content. This is an important issue for people to be aware of and becoming more so all the time. I appreciate the coverage on Marketplace of internet privacy and security issues. Thanks.

shbelay's picture
shbelay - Jan 29, 2013

@darcyandsimon

The program is CCleaner @ http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

darcyandsimon's picture
darcyandsimon - Jan 21, 2013

Alas, you identify no. 9, and the link is broken. please tell us the name of the site!

darcyandsimon's picture
darcyandsimon - Jan 21, 2013

oops, i forgot to preview my post. you DIDN'T identify no. 9, so i can't either! nice tips, though. i will have to try some more of them out.

AlanTam's picture
AlanTam - Dec 5, 2012

That's very shocking, I have never focused on any of the points mentioned above but thank God I am safe. But will surely do them from now onwards.

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NannaBach's picture
NannaBach - Dec 4, 2012

Well for Facebook I would not recommend using your own name. Use a pseudonym and tell your friends in there. Then your insurance company, your employer or coming employer, a "friend" from first grade etc cannot find you. And FB cannot sell your real identity to third parties - if you also use a good VPN

notHere's picture
notHere - Dec 3, 2012

There is also 10minutemail.com for creating temporary email address, in order to create user accounts on sites like this one.

MarkNospam's picture
MarkNospam - Nov 30, 2012

Another great technique is to add a "blacklist" of sites to your computer. With a "hosts" file you can tell your computer to not visit certain sites. An organization currently maintains a list of sites that track you and/or host malicious content. The list can be had here http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm, and requires a little technical savvy (downloading a file and placing it in a directory).

svaneksmith's picture
svaneksmith - Nov 30, 2012

That's a great tip!  Thank you for sharing.

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