A brief overview

This essay a collection of notes and tips on how to be more private when using the internet that I have collected over time. Do take note that trying to be more private online does come at the cost of convenience. It is similar to pledging yourself to eat healthier or exercise more (though this might be easier to do). Some lifestyle adjustment is needed.

Benefits

There are benefits to being more private online mainly: - Peace of mind and privacy (duh!) - Privacy and Security goes hand in hand - Delete ads! - Save battery life

Basics steps

• Disconnect / use less Internet (duh!)
  
  Leave your phones and computers behind! If you don’t use them, then there isn’t any digital footprint for them to collect. Do take note that they might still collect your smartphone GPS location so leave them at your house. This is obviously hard or borderline impossible to do that’s where the next steps come in.
  
  
• Browse safely. (duh!)
  
  Avoid suspicious links and websites. Even old websites that start with HTTP and not HTTPS. They are a security and privacy risk.
  
  
  
• Goodbye, Chrome browser!
  
  Google chrome browser is infamous for collecting user data. Switch to a more privacy-oriented browser such as Firefox or Brave. Before switching, delete your history on chrome. Click here to find out more.
  
  
• Install privacy-oriented add ons on your browser
  
  Add ons are additional features that you can download for your browser. Personally, I use the following for my Firefox browser. they are all free

1. uBlock origin: Wide-spectrum blocker (blocks more stuff than ads.)
2. Privacy Badger: Blocks “invisible” trackers
3. Decentraleyes: Websites use online tools for them to work. Instead of loading these tools online, commons ones are instead downloaded locally and used to protect privacy and bandwidth.
4. HTTPS everywhere: Ensure websites you visit are HTTPS enabled, where you connection is safe and secure

• Disable background apps in Windows 10 and permissions By default, a lot of programs are running in the background for windows 10. Go to your Settings–> Background Apps then turn off let apps run in the background. You can also go to Settings –> Privacy and “adjust” a bit of your privacy there. This saves battery life and improves performance!
  
  

Folllowing through

If you have done the steps above, it is safe to say you are more “private” compared to 70% of the internet users (% of users who use chrome), which is discounting the effects of the add ons. But… the journey continues! The best resource for privacy and anonimity for the general user is techlore and their video series on going from zero to incognito. Do check them out!