Concerned about Internet privacy? Here's how to avoid a digital trail

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have you ever been to Facebook either Instagram and have you seen an ad that is eerily relevant to you? If so, you may be worried about your fingerprint: What information are you giving? Who is watching it? What do apps, organizations and even governments know about you? If you are an avid user of social media and/or dealing with sensitive issues in your personal life, you may be concerned about how you could be tracked online and how your activity could be used against you. In this article, I will list some ways you can avoid leaving a digital trail — but first, it’s important to understand how a digital trail is created in the first place. This is how it happens:

Web Tracking: everything you do in the Internet is being tracked. Your search history, your location, the apps you install, the content you interact with — it all serves as a data point in services like recommendation systems and fraud detection. If you are a person experiencing mental health problems, you may seek therapy, psychiatric medications, or possible complications. You may also be googling symptoms that indicate depression either anxiety. You may (inadvertently) share information about your problems on social media or via messaging apps. All of this forms a digital trail; a company or app that follows you you can use and sell this information.
Smart monitoring and user profiling: Recent trends in machine learning have made user profiling extremely powerful. Models can now determine who might like which products and in which colors and sizes. There are algorithms that systematically calculate the probability that a user will fall victim to certain marketing tactics or be susceptible to certain problems. A company that has access to enough information about you may be able to “predict” when you’re pregnant, what tendencies you have, or even what your sexual orientation is. This can be used to tailor the advertisements you receive or even put you on certain watch lists.

So how do you avoid leaving a digital trail? Follow these valuable tips below:

Share wisely on social media

Be aware of the things you are posting on your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you ask about health issues, be careful who can see your posts. Check your friends and followers routinely and keep your privacy settings to the highest As a general rule, avoid posting about sensitive topics or information you’re not willing to share with anyone. Even if you post it to a private group and have the most restrictive privacy settings, your friends and followers may not: they could share it with their network or their accounts could be compromised.

Turn off location tracking

Many apps use your location to get better recommendations and detect fraud (for example, an unusual credit card transaction). google maps it often stores the places you have visited. Other apps (like Snapchat and Instagram) may also be passively using your location in the background. Be sure to review location permissions in your phone’s settings and turn them off periodically for all apps.

Search anonymously

When browsing the Internet, I suggest that you always browse in anonymous or incognito mode. This ensures that your searches are not recorded in the browser history. Any friend, family member or even police officer who accesses your phone will not be able to verify what search terms you entered or what pages you visited. Cookies (tracking elements placed by websites on your computer or phone) are not retained, so those websites cannot track you. This prevents a website from profiling you and track your activity through different websites. One important thing to remember is that while your activity will not be visible to other computer users, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can still see and record what you are doing.

Use VPN services

A vpn service like NordVPN or ExpressVPN keeps your activity private and allows you to disguise your IP address while using the Internet. Your ISP or the websites you visit can no longer track you based on your IP (they can still log the IP, but it won’t actually be yours!). You can change your IP address as often as you like. Since the location is determined by a reverse IP lookup, this also effectively hides your location. It will also allow you to access geo-restricted content: if your state or country decides to block information on certain topics, you can choose an IP address from another state and then gain access to that content.

Use encrypted messaging

If you’re sharing sensitive information with your friends, make sure you share it through a secure messaging app. Applications like WhatsApp are end to end encryption — which means that these messages cannot be intercepted or decoded, not even by governments. Even better, use an app like Sign, which allows messages to “disappear” after a set time. Both Signal and WhatsApp are free to download and use.

Send documents using links

Often, you may want to share medical documents or reports with someone, and once you send them as part of an email or chat, they could be used against you. If you want to send a document to someone, first upload it to a secure cloud service such as Google Drive, OneDrive or mailbox. These services allow you to generate secure links to share with specific people. Once the other person has viewed the file, you can deactivate the link. Once disabled, clicking the link leads nowhere. If you want to go one step further, use a URL shortener like BitLy or TinyURL to generate a short, nondescript link that even hides the actual website you’re linking to.

Use disposable email addresses

Many websites require you to sign in with an email address to access content. If you are on such a website, do not use your real email for verification, use a disposable email address. Websites like TempMail allow you to generate email addresses and receive emails for a short period of time. You can create as many as you like and use a different one each time. In this way, you avoid sharing your real email: if the website is ever breached, your identity will not be exposed.

While it is nearly impossible to guarantee complete anonymity on the Internet, these techniques should provide a good starting point. Be sure to follow other best practices digital hygieneAlso: choose long and random passwords, don’t share or reuse passwords, and don’t click on suspicious or unknown links.

Concerned about Internet privacy? Here’s how to avoid a digital trail