The desire to remain completely anonymous online may be seen as something typical of criminals or people involved in malicious activities, but given the fragility of our personal information online, exposed to breaches and collected by hundreds of companies, it is a matter of legitimate interest to want to Stay as unnoticed as possible online.
Although on other occasions we have discussed some tools such as VPNs or the Tor browser, and also talked about alternative email services and others compared to the big technical services that we can use, this time we will discuss some of the more extreme solutions that a user can adopt to leave as little as possible. It has traces on the Internet, no matter where it is accessed. All this, bearing in mind that leaving no trace at all is practically impossible.
Before all this, you can ask Google to delete your information from this FormIf you want to continue using the same Gmail address or Apple account, you must enter Separated For third-party applications and services linked to “Sign in” from Google, Facebook, or apple idto log out of it.
Use a disposable phone
The ideal option would be to purchase a mobile phone that is neither Android nor iPhone. But the truth is that it is very difficult to live a normal life in these times, and not only to maintain communication with our friends, but also to be able to maintain a job, it is necessary to use applications on the smartphone, such as WhatsApp. Or telegram. Although you can choose to use your smartphone as a secondary phone, it would be better to take advantage of the hardware you already have without having to spend more money.
In this sense, you can use tools such as the Burner application: available for Android And internal control Department, allows you to create disposable phone numbers, so that you can delete them from time to time as if it were an old disposable camera. Keep in mind that it’s not free: its monthly fee is $4.99.
On the other hand, if money is not an issue, you can choose to purchase a mobile device from independent or emerging manufacturers, such as UP Phone, designed with privacy in mind, which we talk about in this article.
Change your operating system
Just as we look for ways to escape the Google or Apple ecosystem on mobile, we can also leave Windows or macOS so that these companies do not collect data about us. It is generally understood that Linux would be the best choice today for ensuring privacy and having greater control over our online experience, although this may require gaining more advanced knowledge.
Free operating system Tails, for example, is one of the best in terms of user privacy. It is ideal, for example, for journalists, politicians or other people who deal with sensitive information.
Do some checks
Once you have chosen the operating system or interface that guarantees your privacy by default, whether on your mobile phone or on your computer, there are some tips and tools that can help you when using a web browser. Although using the incognito mode of your browser won’t prevent you from leaving fingerprints, it is useful to prevent the program from constantly asking you to save the passwords or other data you use (you can use a password manager instead).
The most important thing is that you have it JavaScript is disabled-Ability to use extensions such as NoScript (This is only for Tor) and ScriptSafe To activate and deactivate it depending on the website you access (since it will often be necessary to use it to be able to interact with them). Remember too Clear cache On a regular basis. You can also use extensions like Privacy Badger To prevent websites from introducing trackers into your browser. The important point is to avoid cookies as much as possible.
Finally, to hide your IP address, the most convenient tool would be VPN. You can verify that your address has been anonymized by logging in this site And see if he is able to get your data. You can also use the different sections of the site Browser leaks To check information on your computer that may be shared through your browser. You can check whether your site, operator or Internet provider is registered, as well as content or proxy filters. Another tool to check the security of your browser is EFFWhich will tell you if you have a good level of protection against trackers.
Of course, the most private browser you can use is Tor, both in web and mobile versions. As for email, the ideal is to create new mail through a secure email provider (not Outlook or Gmail), but if you want to keep using the old one, you can check that it hasn’t been filtered out. this site. Likewise, we can check if our phone has been leaked using this platform.
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