daily use. Facebook, Google or unknown companies like double click
(acquired by Google) and many others. Facebook is known for leaking
profiles through third party applications even if you are marked private.
Over a period of time, your face (via pictures) is with
Facebook/Google,your searches tied to the profile, your ideological bent
of mind, political leanings, your tax returns, your sources of
entertainment etc. and in fact every aspect of your life is online.
These companies can build remarkable profiles for free. That explains
their net worth of these individuals because in this holy grail of
internet, it's impossible to define the users with accuracy.
It's impossible to get in the details for how you can avoid tracking on
the net. The methodology is very convoluted and technical. I am not
related to the computers field but I was concerned that with changes in
the privacy policies (that no one cares to read), searches being
filtered, websites tracking me with their unknown codes and bugs and ip
address broadcasting my location, I was concerned. I have not done
anything illegal but tomorrow the same issues would come to haunt you.
Got any incriminating picture? Or comments on your previous employer? Or
you have fouled up with anyone? It's remarkable that we don't take ANY
precautions while being on the internet.
The browser of choice is Firefox. It's open source. Opera ia fine
browser but it's a closed source and they are known to profile the users
as well. I remember some controversy where it was relaying the users
profile to their servers. While Opera is a fine company, still when it
matters the most, stick on to basics.
There are 5 ways that companies use to track you:
1) Through web bugs. Use Ghostery to block them.
2) Cookies: Either use private browsing mode to block all cookies (you
can refuse to accept them), or reject them after the web pages have
loaded up.
3) LSO's or "supercookies" residing in Flash Objects. Use Better Privacy.
4) ip address. Use a VPN service provider which offers openvpn
configuration.
5) Through Java Script. Use Noscript to block the offending java
scripts. Well, there are enough tutorials on the net to guide you how to
use them.
And finally through browser fingerprinting. There is no way to avoid
this completely, but I use useragentswitcher addon from Firefox, block
java script that prevents detection of my browser or the operating system.
In Ubuntu/Linux, use Bleachbit program (open source) to clean off the
cache and persistent storage (HTML 5 and DOM objects).
I strongly recommend to use openSuse, Linux Mint Debian or Debian,
Chakra Linux or PC-BSD as operating systems of your choice. They are
easy to install and learn. Ubuntu is moving towards an "eco-system",
backed by a corporation and I don't like corporations.
AVOID Windows and Macintosh Systems. They may offer ease of use but are
one of the lousiest systems on this planet. Majority of the users don't
like tinkering with their systems but be prepared for the midnight knock
from Big Brother some day; just because you expressed an opinion.
Beware. Beware. Beware. That's the catch word.
Highly recommended to use duckduckgo/ixquick/yauba as your search
engine. These guys don't profile the visitors. If possible always use
https:// by default; the extension is available from addons (https
everywhere).
I hope that this helps.
6 comments:
It won't help because most readers would be illiterate in this field. It would of great help though if there is any way you can actively help them (us)do it.
I would love have all that in my computer, but how?
can fedora os be used, please reply
check out this list: yes, fedora is another linux distribution.
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/10-best-linux-distros-for-2011-704584?artc_pg=2
@vijay, aumkar is telling you what to do. it's up to you to figure out HOW to do it. he says he's not a computer type, so if he's figured it out, you should be able to do so too.
@aumkar: Thank you for the tip. I discussed these with one of my colleagues and he raised a valid point. how reliable are the firefox add-ons that you are suggesting, like ghostery, better privacy etc... are you sure that they dont collect any information? Also Google did renew their search deal with Mozilla foundation, about $300 million per year for 3 years. What is Google getting in return? Is there anything else that does not meet the eye? My friend's suggestion is to use "private browsing" mode all the time and use something like KeePass (http://keepass.info/) to save all the passwords on the local machine (thats what he is doing)
I know I can do the research myself to find answers to these questions, but I'm just throwing them out to hear any alternate points of view.
According to me it's Hotspot Shield ( www.vpn-mac-security.com ) that offers complete privacy and security for my Mac. Actually it encrypts our web surfing session to protect our Mac machine against online identity theft, web spies, hackers and malware threats.
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