Advertisement

How to protect your data being tracked online

How to protect your data being tracked online

Data is an interesting topic, with many sites such as Google and Facebook using it to sell the information they learn about you to advertisers who then tailor specific adverts around you.

It's a bit creepy to say the least and considering you don't see any of the money from your data, it's a bit unfair too so here are a few ways to stop your every search being tracked.

BlackPhone

The BlackPhone was recently made available in the UK and if you are looking for total anonymity, not just tracker blocking, then it should be right up your street. The BlackPhone runs on Android but it features software that will block out cross sharing of data and encrypt your calls to make sure you are protected.

There is a 4.7-inch HD IPS display, along with a 2GHz quad-core processor and an 8-megapixel camera so you'll get decent hardware too.

Ghostery

Ghostery is an add-on that works behind the scenes blocking trackers that are searching for your data. It will work for Chrome, Opera, Safari and Firefox blocking comment boxes, Google, Facebook and Twitter buttons on sites but if you do want to use them, you can click play and it will unlock them.

While Ghostery is running, you will see the various trackers from the sites you enter displayed and disabled in the corner of your window. It currently stops 1948 trackers and 2300 tracking patterns.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is an alternative search engine to Google that is totally anonymous and won't track you or your searches. Google is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to data tracking and it knows a lot about you because it's the easiest way to search the web so many default to using it.

DuckDuckGo might therefore take some time to get used to but it can be used on any browser as the default search so when you type into the address bar, it will use it to find results and keep your search secret.

SpiderOak

SpiderOak is a cloud storage service that not only encrypts your data in transit but it also encrypts it while in storage and it doesn't store any passwords on its servers either.

The service has a motto of "never knowing the plaintext content of data it is storing" which it calls Zero-Knowledge and it means not even a SpiderOak employee could access your data as everything is stored in numbers and doesn't relate to anyone in particular.

Tor Browser

Finally there is Tor Browser that can be installed from Torproject,com, after which you will be able to browse the web with complete security and anonymity. It gives you a false identity and a different IP when you are online, and you can hit a button mid-way through browsing for a fresh identity if you are worried.

Tor was originally created with the US Navy in mind but it is now used by journalists, law enforcement officers, activists and others.




© copyright Pocket-lint 2014