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Browsing Anonymously
Fallingman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Why? What are you trying to hide?
Before we start, let me clarify. I'm not talking about hiding my browsing habits from anyone, or asking how to best access questionable material. I understand "private" or "incognito" modes - and quite frankly, I would prefer to keep my history (and perhaps even passwords/logins to common sites) stored locally.
Let me explain.
I like to think that I'm pretty realistic about the internet. I understand that when I use facebook, I'm not the customer; I'm the product. I use gmail, and lord know how much data they've accumulated on me. But recently, I've noticed that all the adds I'm presented with are getting more and more specific - and while I'm all for keeping up with the latest gaming products, for some reason I'm starting to find it a little creepy.
So I'm wondering what I can do to start to limit the information being collected as a matter of course while I browse. I dont think I'm not really interested in using a proxy, or anything that would slow my connection down - but I'm open to adjusting my settings, or switching browsers to gain access to tools etc. Presumably there's nothing that can be done to remove any info currently collected...
As I mentioned - I genuinely have no interest in stopping my browser from recording my history, and I'm all for using my local browser to "remember" my logins, rather than the websites themselves. These features I find useful and convenient.
So, my question is whether anyone has any tips, or even links to some good resources (As most simply suggest incognito, and then leap straight to a proxy).
This is mostly an interesting academic exercise - hopefully there's a few people out there that would be similarly interested in tweaking their settings and getting more control over what's harvested?
Oh, "technical" info:
On a mac.
Use Safari (happy to change - I just like the speed, but haven't looked at other browsers in a while to compare)
Before we start, let me clarify. I'm not talking about hiding my browsing habits from anyone, or asking how to best access questionable material. I understand "private" or "incognito" modes - and quite frankly, I would prefer to keep my history (and perhaps even passwords/logins to common sites) stored locally.
Let me explain.
I like to think that I'm pretty realistic about the internet. I understand that when I use facebook, I'm not the customer; I'm the product. I use gmail, and lord know how much data they've accumulated on me. But recently, I've noticed that all the adds I'm presented with are getting more and more specific - and while I'm all for keeping up with the latest gaming products, for some reason I'm starting to find it a little creepy.
So I'm wondering what I can do to start to limit the information being collected as a matter of course while I browse. I dont think I'm not really interested in using a proxy, or anything that would slow my connection down - but I'm open to adjusting my settings, or switching browsers to gain access to tools etc. Presumably there's nothing that can be done to remove any info currently collected...
As I mentioned - I genuinely have no interest in stopping my browser from recording my history, and I'm all for using my local browser to "remember" my logins, rather than the websites themselves. These features I find useful and convenient.
So, my question is whether anyone has any tips, or even links to some good resources (As most simply suggest incognito, and then leap straight to a proxy).
This is mostly an interesting academic exercise - hopefully there's a few people out there that would be similarly interested in tweaking their settings and getting more control over what's harvested?
Oh, "technical" info:
On a mac.
Use Safari (happy to change - I just like the speed, but haven't looked at other browsers in a while to compare)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
0
Posts
LastPass is great for keeping your account credentials safe, as well as decentralized - it's stored on LastPass servers, but it's all encrypted with your master password - as long as you remember that master password you're safe. Forget that, and all your LastPass data is gone. It can auto-fill login forms etc and also generate random, secure passwords for you.
Ghostery is good for cleaning cruft like tracking cookies from sites. Not sure if it's available for Safari though; I run Chrome.
You also may want to look into NoScript (or NotScripts or the like).
Huh - that's quite an interesting idea. The idea that the combination of your settings/plugins actually create a kind of "fingerprint". Not that I'm personally worried about someone proving what I did or didnt access, but it does have some pretty interesting implications.