Websites meticulously track every user’s click, analyzing their actions. Being under constant surveillance is at least unpleasant, at most – unsafe. Here are five tools to help maintain anonymity online. So, let’s know how to stay anonymous on the internet by following the easiest tricks.
Anonymity vs. Privacy: Do You Want To Stay Anonymous On The Internet?
According to Wikipedia, privacy typically refers to the ability to control information about oneself. When users can decide which of their data is visible and which remains unknown, they ensure their privacy. If a person completely conceals their identity to avoid identification, we refer to it as anonymity.
5 Easy Ways to Stay Anonymous Online
There are numerous tools available to protect against the identification of your identity. We’ve selected the most popular and user-friendly options.
1. Proxy servers substitute a user’s IP address, preventing websites from determining their location. Traffic passes through a remote server, and online resources ultimately see its address instead.
2. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) also redirect user traffic through remote servers, replacing their IP address. They encrypt all information through a secure tunnel, preventing unauthorized access by anyone, including internet service providers.
3. The Tor Browser complicates tracking of a user’s IP address by routing their requests and responses through three remote servers. As a result, websites cannot identify the user’s identity, and internet service providers cannot see which sites the user visits or their activities.
4. Secure messaging apps utilize end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access and read messages. Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp are among the most popular secure messengers.
5. Octo Browser replaces a user’s unique identifier – their fingerprint – with another person’s digital fingerprint. Octo users create multiple profiles, each with a different fingerprint. As a result, they can maintain anonymity, avoid identification, and create multiple accounts on a service without fear of being banned.
Can You Stay Anonymous On The Internet Completely?
You can stay anonymous on the internet. However, for that, you need to always use a secure browser. Further, you have to be completely sure about the security of your search engine, cloud storage, and email account.
Additionally, you will need to take care of certain things. You have to have a secure connection to a trusted VPN. Other things you need to know to stay anonymous on the internet are:
- Disabling cookies
- Changing different settings
Maintaining complete online anonymity will not happen easily. You have to follow certain processes, which can be a little labor-intensive.
Is It Good To Stay Anonymous On The Internet?
Every practice has some good and bad sides. So, there are certain reasons why staying anonymous on the internet is beneficial.
Limiting The Use Of Your Personal Data
By staying anonymous on the internet, you can always protect your essential personal data. You can also be sure about the safety of its storage. Most importantly, by staying anonymous online, you can make sure who are the people accessing and using your data.
If we look at the bigger picture, protecting your personal data has become essential to stop perils like hacking and unnecessary web tracking.
To be more specific, we use cookies or facial recognition technologies to have quick access to several online platforms. However, many online services can use the same features to track your buying and spending patterns so that they can send targeted advertisements.
Staying Anonymous Helps You To Avoid Unwanted Contacts Online
Avoiding unwanted contacts is extremely important to ensure your online safety. Let me explain one scenario. Suppose your child is doing some online activities. Now, it is always solicited that the child only uses their given name or a fake name. This makes it difficult for wrongdoers, especially online sexual predators, to track the child.
Ensuring your online safety again becomes important if you are subject to family violence or any form of public harassment of late. If you protect your online identity, you will be able to avoid further problems where the stalker or the person who is harassing you can cause you harm in the digital realm.
Staying Anonymous Allows You To Use The Internet Freely
By protecting your online identity from unwanted people, you can make sure that there are no inhibitions in using the internet. You can easily come out of your closet. It is especially important for people who have so-called “different” sexual orientations or gender identities.
When you maintain anonymity, you don’t fear that people will judge you for your orientation or choices that other people do not find conventional.
Along with being uninhibited about your personal choices, you can also voice your concerns about the ongoing things in society or some political moves that you may not have liked in the recent past. In many places, people who speak against the government or maintain a different view of society are brutally attacked on online forums.
Conclusion
Targeted advertising, government surveillance, and search engine analysis are among the most common concerns for internet users. Proxy servers, VPNs, and the Tor browser can hide your location by replacing your IP address.
Secure messengers like Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp encrypt your messages during transmission. With Octo Browser, you can manage your fingerprint to maintain anonymity on the internet.
More Resources:
- Internet Of Things (Iot) Security Challenges In The Modern Age
- VoIP and Beyond: How Internet Connectivity Shapes Modern Communication
- 5 Potential Problems You Can Encounter With Your Internet
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