There are few thing I cherish on the internet; one is owning my own data and two is anything to do with online privacy. Even though I will continue to use Facebook and Instagram for instance, I am very cautious what I put on there. I don’t mind advertising here and there, but I do mind all the tracking that’s going on. If there’s online junk (all shapes and sizes) I can avoid then I will probably find a way to block that.
For starters, I will browse mostly in Google Chrome’s Incognito modus, but that’s not all I do. Here are three things I add to that mix:
- Hosts file protection – There’s a lot of nasty and disgusting stuff I don’t particularly care to ever see myself, but most certainly don’t want my kids to see when they browse the webs. Blocking those particular sites on a hosts level would be the best way to do this and fortunately there is an initiative that has generated one huge mother of a list of sites you don’t ever need to see. All you have to do is copy and paste the contents found here into your hosts file and hit save.
- Adblock Project – Installing the Adblock Project browser plugin helps hide all the stuff the hosts file doesn’t take care of. No brainer, really.
- Ghostery – Ghostery™ sees the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons. Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity. So, basically, you get to see who tracks you.
So, there you have it. I’m sure there’s a lot more I could do, so I am all ears to what you guys suggest in the comments!
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