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25 Most Wanted Tips for Private Browsing

Updated on by in Web Browsers

You want to surf through the net but do not want to leave any traces behind regarding what you searched for? Then here are some tips which you can follow:

best-private-browsing-tips

1. Use Mozilla Firefox without saving

How to open a new Private Window?
There are basically two ways to open a new private window.

a) Open a new, blank private window
First, click the menu button and then click ‘New Private Window’.

open-new-blank-private-window

b) Open a link in a new Private Window
Simply right-click on the particular link and select ‘Open Link in New Private Window’.

open-link-new-private-window

2. Private browsing saves pages to the list of sites neither in the History menu nor in the Library window’s history list.

3. All the items you download through private browsing will not be shown in the download window afterwards.

4. Whatever you enter into the text boxes on the web pages or the Search bar will not be saved for Form auto complete.

5. If you think you can become anonymous through this feature, then you are wrong. Your Internet service provider still can track what pages you visit.

6. It doesn’t protect you from the key loggers or spyware that are already installed on your computer.

7. Most of the browsers allow you to log into only one account at a time, but what if you want to open up 2 accounts at same time, you can easily open a new private browsing window and log into your second account from there.

8. Encryption and decryption

encryption-decryption

Mailvelope is the browser extension which brings OpenPGP encryption to your webmail service. SecureGmail is also an extension which encrypts and decrypts the emails you send through Gmail. By using this extension the unencrypted text would never reach Google servers. Recipients will have to install the extension first to decrypt and read the encrypted email.

9. Get rid of Social Media

The amount of personal data that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have collected from their countless users is absolutely unbelievable. Simply visit Facebook.com/settings and then click ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’ and you will be completely surprised to see how much information is on that file. The only way out to avoid giving up all your personal information is to delete (not deactivate) your accounts completely.

10. Many websites are there which track and collect the browsing habits of their users. Ghostery is a free browser extension that will reveal these unknown trackers popularly known as web bugs. So, you can now decide with which web bugs you’re comfortable tracking you and which ones you’d like to block.

11. Hushmail is a popular email service provider. It provides you with a private email account with no ads and built-in encryption. Somehow, Hush mail is not above the law so in the past it has been forced to show user data to U.S. authorities following a court order.

12. Kolab Now is a similar service that does not reveal any user information; however, they are also obliged to give access to lawful interception requests so there still remains a possibility.

13. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a way to protect your online privacy.

virtual-private-network

A VPN mainly hides your IP address and makes all your online data go through via a secure and encrypted virtual tunnel, which will help you avoid websites from keeping a track of your online activity.

14. Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that helps people to improve their privacy on the Internet. Tor’s anonymity network allows access to the hidden web where websites can be created anonymously and individuals can communicate without revealing their identity with each other. It is very hard for websites to track your online activity and location you are surfing from.

15. A proxy server is a computer that can be a really good way to maintain your online anonymity because the proxy basically masks your IP address with its own. If the proxy is from a different country than your own, you can easily befool websites by making them think that you’re browsing from a completely different place.

16. You can delete the cookies from within your browser, but to confirm it really well, you can also use an app like CCleaner, which is absolutely free.

17. You can turn off the personalized search of Google search engine by simply clicking Search Tools > All Results > Verbatim.

18. But if you want to make sure that Google isn’t tracking your searches at all, then try using an entirely different search engine, such as DuckDuckGo, which ensures never to track your searches.

19. Spideroak is a zero-knowledge encrypted data backup, share, sync, access and storage service. You can subscribe it for $12 a month. However, if you just want to quickly share small files anonymously for free, give OnionShare a try. It surely doesn’t have as many features as Spideroak, but it also gets the job done.

20. Using private browsing in iOS 7 Safari

ios-privacy

a) Firstly, start Safari from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
b) Tap on the show pages icon in the lower right hand navigation.
c) Now tap on ‘Private’ in the lower left hand corner.
d) You may be prompted to close or keep all current tabs open. Make your choice.
e) Now tap ‘Done’ in the lower right hand corner and continue browsing.

21. Private Mode on Your Android

Google usually calls it “Incognito mode” and you’ll sometimes see it referenced as “Porn mode”, but the most common name for this little feature is “Private mode”. This mode disables tracking cookies, history logging, etc. so that you can browse without any record. The location of Private mode usually varies from browser to browser, but it’s mostly very clearly labeled.

22. Passwords in Your Android

You can do two-factor authentication everywhere offered and keep yourself safe by entering a secure code with your password. You can also opt for third-party password managers. As long as you’re not allowing the browser simply automatically provide your passwords, your accounts are much safer.

23. iPhone6’s Private Browsing

iPhone with iOS 8.0.2 while playing with SETTINGS –> GENERAL –> RESTRICTIONS, you can enable restrictions. Turning off the restrictions will cause the PRIVATE option to reappear in Safari.

24. Turn it off on iPad

Firstly tap the “Safari” icon on iPad’s home screen to go to the Safari browser. Now swipe down on any Web page to show the address bar and navigation buttons. In bottom right of your screen now tap the Panels icon. Then, tap “Private” to disable the private browsing. The iPad will then trigger you to select if you want to close or keep the existing web pages open.

25. Do not track option

In Internet Explorer, the Do Not Track option is present in the Safety menu.

a) Click the gear icon. Select ‘Safety’ option, and then choose ‘Tracking Protection’ from the menu appearing.
b) The Manage Add-ons dialog box will come into sight. Select ‘Tracking Protection’, and then click Your Personalized List.
c) Click the ‘Enable’ button.
d) The status of Your Personalized List will now become enabled. So, ‘Do Not Track’ is now on.
e) Click close to return to Internet Explorer.

Author: Lisa Coffey

I present ideas to empower companies to make evolutionary leaps in their go to market strategies and helps entrepreneurs catapult their small business into the 21st century by utilizing these business strategies on Fourquadrant. A free spirit, residing in Salt Lake City, Utah., I have been a writer since 5 years with over 500 published articles.

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