Home » Leave No Trace: Ways to Stay Anonymous/Untraceable Online

Leave No Trace: Ways to Stay Anonymous/Untraceable Online

Keeping your personal details safe while surfing the web is of utmost importance in this digital age where information seems to be within reach of everyone. As it is, there are lots of factors why you should secure your browsing: Websites tracking your activity to bring you specific ads or worse, people trying to gather information about you so they could steal your identity.

anonymous-untraceable

So if you don’t like the idea of companies giving advertisements specifically for you or if you’re avoiding having your details falling on the wrong hands, here are a few ways for you to stay anonymous online.

Use secured browsers

Described as a censorship circumvention tool, Tor Browser is one of the well-known secured browsers that come with a wide compatibility for different platforms (Windows, OS X, and Linux). It aims to deliver safe browsing by bouncing data across different encrypted nodes online which hides your true identity as well as location.

tor-browser

Another good example of a secured browser is Epic which basically disposes of cookies and any form of trackers after every browsing session. All the sites you visited and entries you searched are also hidden using proxy so intruders wouldn’t be able to trace your IP address.

Geographies_of_Tor

Do take note that since these tools perform additional steps to conceal your personal data, it could slow down your browsing experience and affect download or streaming speeds.

Use web proxy services

web-proxy

A web proxy can be used for different reasons and is handy when you want to browse privately and don’t want to leave cyber footprints behind. You may have encountered not being able to watch a specific video on YouTube as it’s not available in your country and this is one instance a web proxy could be used for.

Your IP address is pretty much like your online fingerprint and by using web proxy services like Whoer.net, you can hide it to conceal your true identity from those searching for it.

hideme.be

HideMe.be is also an easy to use tool that lets you hide your internet history using an encoded URL provided by the service. So if you need to visit a site that you otherwise wouldn’t want to register on the browsing history, better use a web proxy. Some could also block dangerous browser scripts that can cause harm to your computer and other devices so it’s a handy weapon to add in your arsenal of online security.

Additionally, there is a risk of hackers spying and monitoring your activity when you connect to a public Wi-Fi. They may also be able to intercept your passwords from browsing cookies so it really pays to be extra careful.

Use VPNs

vpn

VPNs or virtual private network is an external secured network that lets you send and receive data as if your computer is directly connected to it. In turn, you could use it to secure wireless transactions, for example, and protect your personal identity in addition to hiding your real location.

SaferVPN or Hola! VPN are also tools wherein in addition to the aforementioned applications, you can also personally select what country you would like to be “browsing from” and make unavailable sites become available via bypassing network restrictions.

Those are just some examples of tools and services to safely tread the streets of the internet. There are dozens of others that are free and are easy to use so it’s up to you which to use. Just be careful and be sure that the services you use are legit and would indeed protect you from the malicious people of the interweb.

For those who are already using a trusted tool for security, which do you use? Sound off in the comments field below to help others out.

Anonymousbrowsinginternetprivate

Kevin Bruce Francisco

Kevin Bruce Francisco is the Senior Editor and Video Producer for YugaTech. He's a Digital Filmmaking graduate who's always either daydreaming of traveling or actually going places on his bike. Follow him on Twitter for more tech updates @kevincofrancis.

http://www.yugatech.com

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3 Comments

R says:

8 years ago

ExpressVPN!
- Reply
Aviva says:

8 years ago

Please, not Hola. They’re infamous for selling their users’ bandwidth. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2928340/ultra-popular-hola-vpn-extension-sold-your-bandwidth-for-use-in-a-botnet-attack.html
- Reply
ZOELSKI says:

8 years ago

how about Google Public DNS and other DNS? Are they useful to protect people privacy?
- Reply