How To Stay Anonymous Online?

Now In A Days Privacy  Is The Most Important Matter So In This Article I Am Sharing Some Tips To  Stay Anonymous Online.



1. SECURE WEBMAIL WITH EXTENSIONS :

If you’re using a popular webmail service, such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail, and you don’t or can’t make the switch to a more secure service, then consider installing Mailvelope. Mailvelope is a browser extension for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox that brings OpenPGP encryption to your webmail service. Similar extensions exist, such as SecureGmail, which encrypts and decrypts emails you send through Gmail. Using this extension means the unencrypted text should never reach Google servers. Recipients will need to install the extension in order to decrypt and read the encrypted email.
2. DON’T USE SOCIAL MEDIA:

The amount of personal data that social networking sites like Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter have harvested from their billions of users is shocking. Head to your Facebook Setting and click ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’ and you might be surprised to see just how much information is on file. Everything from who you have poked, what events you have or have not attended and when and where you have logged into your account is logged and saved. Similar levels of data harvesting occurs on all major social media sites. This is the price you pay for using a ‘free’ service. The only sure-fire way to avoid giving up this information is to delete your accounts entirely. A word of warning, ‘deactivating’ your account is not the same as deleting it. Deactivating your account is sort of like putting it into hibernation - all your information is stored and can be re-activated if you have second thoughts. Always delete rather than deactivate an account if you wish to completely wipe it.
3. TEMPORARY EMAIL:

Disposable Email Addresses (DEAs) are anonymous and temporary. They allow users to quickly create new email addresses as-and-when they’re needed, which can then be disposed of after use. This is particularly useful for avoiding spam when filling in forms on websites that require an email address to proceed. Keeping your real email address away from spammers is crucial to protecting your identity online and DEAs are a great solution. Popular providers of this service include Guerrilla Mail and Mailinator, although there are hundreds out there to choose from. Most DEAs are not particularly secure, so it is not advised to use these services to send sensitive information - rather, use them as a way to avoid giving away your own information in situations where you are obliged to do so.
4. VPN:

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are one of the most effective ways to protect your privacy online. A VPN essentially hides your IP address - your unique online identifier - and runs all your online data via a secure and encrypted virtual tunnel, which can keep websites from tracking your online activity or even knowing which country you’re browsing from. These days, there are many VPNs to choose from. Hotspot Shield, TorGuard, CyberGhost and HideMyAss are some of the more popular ones that are currently available. Most of them require a small monthly subscription fee and they don’t all provide the same list of features, so it’s worth shopping around for a VPN that suits you.
5. TOR:

Originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind as a way to protect government communications, Tor is a network of “virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet.” Tor’s anonymity network allows access to the ‘deep’ or ‘hidden’ web, where websites can be created anonymously and individuals can communicate privately with each other. When using the Tor browser - which can be downloaded for free from torproject.org - it is very difficult for websites or individuals to track your online activity and location. However, while Tor is quite effective at protecting your online anonymity, it can be slow, complicated and restricting. It’s also worth noting that while the network can and has been used for good, it has also been used for illicit purposes, such as selling drugs and distributing images of child abuse.
6. DESTROY COOKIES:

Cookies are little bits of code that are automatically downloaded from a website and stored on your system. Cookies allow websites to quickly and easily remember if you’ve been there before - if you have, the website may then alter certain variables based on the information that has been stored in the cookie in order to give you a more personalised and potentially useful experience. However, some cookies can be very intrusive, logging information such as how long you’ve been visiting a particular website, how many clicks you’ve made and what content you seem to prefer reading. It doesn’t hurt, then, to occasionally wipe your system of any and all cookies. Admittedly this won’t do a huge amount to protect your anonymity, but it will make it harder for websites to learn and understand your viewing habits. You can delete cookies from within your browser, but to make sure you nuke the lot, you can use an app like CCleaner, which is free and powerful.
7. USE ALTERNATIVE SEARCH ENGINES:

Like most people, you probably use Google to search for things online. Google is an undeniably accurate, fast and efficient search engine, however, this is largely helped by its personalised search system. This is a feature that uses your past search history, rather than just relying on the terms you’ve typed into the search bar, to present you with results that are more relevant to your personal tastes. To do this, Google keeps track of your search habits in a number of ways, including browser cookies. You can turn off this personalised search by clicking Search Tools > All Results > Verbatim. But if you really want to make sure Google isn’t tracking your searches, consider using a different search engine entirely, such as DuckDuckGo, which promises never to track your searches and “emphasizes protecting searchers’ privacy and avoiding filter bubble of personalized search results.”
8. SECURITY FOCUSED OPERATING SYSTEMS:

There are security focused email service providers, security focused smartphones and security focused web browsers, but have you considered using a security focused operating system? Whonix is exactly that - an open source OS that focuses on anonymity, privacy and security. Based on the Tor network, Whonix is about as anonymous as an OS can get before it all becomes too inconvenient for normal use. Whonix runs in two parts, “one solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway… The other… is on a completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible.” You can download it for free from whonix.org.
9. VIRTUAL MACHINES:

Using a virtual machine is a great way to work on sensitive files (or to open dubious ones) without the fear of online snooping or potentially infecting your main system. A virtual machine is essentially a second ‘virtual’ computer that you host within your main operating system as an application. So let’s say you want to download a JPG from an email attachment, but you’re worried that it’s infected with a keylogger or some other form of virus that could jeopardize your anonymity. Firstly, if you suspect this to be the case, you shouldn’t download it at all. But one method to more safely examine the file if you absolutely must is to use virtualization software, such as VirtualBox, to install a virtual machine onto your system. It’s best to use a secure OS for this, so something Linux based isn’t a bad idea. You can then download the file on the virtual machine before turning the internet on your virtual machine off and opening the JPG. Once you’re done with the file, you can delete it along with your virtual system, leaving no traces behind and no potential security issues.
10. AVOID JAVASCRIPT:

JavaScript is used all over the web and can provide detailed information about your system to any website that uses it. This is almost always used completely harmlessly and is often used to improve your browsing experience or funnel more personalised and relevant adverts your way. However, some of this personal or system information can and has been leaked in the past. Disabling JavaScript completely is not really a viable solution as a large amount of websites require you to accept JavaScript in order for them to display correctly. However, you can install an extension into your browser that will allow you to blacklist or whitelist JavaScript activity, giving you more control over how and where your information is being used. NoScript and ScriptSafe are both popular choices and very easy to use.

Source:TechTalks

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