Because so many of us spend our days online, concerns about privacy and online security are only growing. Following scandals like Cambridge Analytica, we are also more aware of the different ways that data can be stolen, sold, and exploited. While this hasn’t stopped us from using the internet, it does inspire many of us to look for practical ways to protect ourselves.
The good news is that there’s a myriad of ways to keep your information private on the internet or be completely anonymous if you wish to, some of which are as follows:
Using Privacy Centric Platforms
One of the reasons why we feel so exposed on the internet is that we have so many accounts for so many things. The average person has dozens of accounts, including email addresses, subscription services, social media accounts, and so on. Keeping track of all of these, much less keeping track of all the data we share with these different accounts, is borderline impossible. This is why one of your first steps should be to sign up with privacy-centric platforms.
These are platforms that don’t require you to set up an account before you can access services. One example could be checking out as a guest when you buy items from certain stores as opposed to setting up an account.
You can also leverage blockchain-powered platforms, which tend to be more privacy-centric. For instance, gambling sites usually require you to set up an account and provide your government ID, address, and so on. But as Matt Bastock writes, there’s a crop of blockchain-powered sites that don’t require users to sign up. Instead, you are only asked to connect your crypto wallet, and you can begin depositing and withdrawing funds with no account needed. Prioritizing these sorts of services instantly reduces your digital footprint and can help you keep safe online.
Use Anonymous Email Services
Virtually everyone who uses the internet has an email address, and while these have made our lives easier, they are also a vulnerability. Anyone gaining access to your email address can access virtually every account of every service you use, as well as sensitive information. One way to get around this is to use an anonymous email service. This sort of service, unlike traditional email addresses, is fully encrypted end-to-end and preserves privacy. Some anonymous email services will let you create temporary email addresses for your transactions so none of your sensitive data is stored in a single place. They also allow you to send self-destructing emails that essentially disappear after a period of time. What all these anonymous email services have in common is that they don’t store your data, which means that you are much more protected. If you’re someone who won’t need your information permanently stored on an email account, you might want to consider one of these.
Virtual Private Networks
At this point, we’ve all seen the ads for virtual private networks (VPNs), as they’ve become very popular online. A virtual private network is essentially a service that masks your IP address and online activities. When you use a VPN, not even your internet service provider can track your activities online, and this saves you from potentially having your information misused. VPNs come with other benefits, such as allowing you to mask your IP address as being in another country. With this, you can access content not available in your own country and remain stealthier on the internet. A VPN comes in especially handy if you access public Wi-Fi or another such network. Using a VPN means that your information is not vulnerable to the owners of the public Wi-Fi, which has been known to happen.
Use Encrypted Messaging Services
Another way to keep yourself private on the internet is to opt for encrypted messaging services like Telegram. These encrypted services allow users to send messages to each other while none of it is retained internally by the service. One of the concerns of internet users is that their messaging service is retaining their information and may misuse it in the future. But an end-to-end messaging service means that only you and the person you are sending messages to will ever access them. Your messages are even more private if you set them to disappear after a period of time, and if you are someone who regularly uses messaging services, you should consider one of these.
Ad Blockers
Most of us know the struggles of receiving unwanted ads while we are using the internet, but did you know that these ads rely on our online activity being tracked? Advertisers often track our online activity to bombard us with the most effective ads, and this is often done when we accept cookies on various websites and so on. A good way to get around this would be to use an ad blocker. As the name suggests, ad blockers stop ads from being shown as we use the internet, and this has the added benefit of protecting your privacy. You can navigate the internet with much more stealth because your activity will not be tracked to facilitate ads.
Privacy Browsers
Because privacy is such a big concern among internet users, an entire crop of browsers has popped up that exist to protect privacy. Browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Brave are known to protect user privacy by default and not track their activity for advertisers. Anyone serious about protecting their privacy online should definitely look into one of these and make it their default browser.
Zero-Knowledge Proof
One of the benefits of blockchain technology is the emergence of zero-knowledge proofs. These refer to a mechanism that allows service providers to confirm certain information about a consumer without the consumer actually disclosing the information. For example, a lender can use zero-knowledge proof to confirm that a customer is eligible for a loan without actually accessing their credit score. Zero-knowledge proofs are being used much more frequently, and should be applied by any entities looking to preserve their privacy.
Conclusion
Being completely anonymous on the Internet is very difficult but not impossible. Achieving anonymity and privacy online will require you to leverage all the possible tools at your disposal, and this includes everything from email addresses to the browser you use. As we pointed out in this article, using specific tools like VPNs and blockchain-based services means that you can get all your needs met while divulging as little of your personal information as possible. With all these in place, you can get as close to anonymity online as ever.
