Laws like Europe's GDPR
are trying to give the user more control, but you can take matters into your
own hands, explains Tom Merritt.
Your privacy is under assault. And I'm not
just talking about Facebook. Governments, advertisers, even ISPs
want to track you for various reasons from monetization to surveillance.
While laws like
Europe's GDPR are trying to give the user more
control, you can take matters into your own hands, just to be sure.
Here are five ways
to protect your privacy.
1. Stop third-party
trackers. Browser plug-ins like Privacy Badger and
Disconnect.me stop trackers and malware, and let you decide if you want to
allow a website to track you in exchange for their free content. You decide.
Not them.
2. Get a new
browser. The Brave browser combats tracking and
malware by default, no extension needed. And the TOR browser includes the onion router
software that hides your internet connection from prying eyes.
3. Get a proxy like
SSLPrivateProxy.com. It will secure your web browser's traffic so that nobody sees
it—other than the proxy operator.
4. Get a VPN. A virtual private
network will put your entire internet connection, not just one app or browser,
behind an encrypted tunnel. That means your ISP or anyone on that open Wi-Fi
hotspot can't see your traffic. VPN service comes in all shapes and
prices, so be sure you're buying from a trustworthy vendor.
5. Get a whole new
internet. I2P, the Invisible Internet Project, creates anonymous connections
by sending your end-to-end encrypted traffic through a network of tens of
thousands of volunteer computers around the world. That means a compromised TOR
node, proxy, or VPN provider can't reveal your traffic at the endpoint. It's
free and open source, though websites have to support it for it to work.
A tool for every
level of caution. Just because you're paranoid does not mean that several
companies don't have shadow profiles of you.
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