It’s true that for most people, separating internet from their daily lives seems almost impossible to do. It’s a giant ocean for many information and people are depending more and more, reaching out online every time they want some knowledge, be it for entertainment purposes, socializing or something else. But when surfing online probably 90% of the people would choose to have their privacy without displaying personal information. Most consumers are leaving large footprints in virtual world. So the question is, can you really be anonymous on web? Lot of Facebook users are posting everyday activity on their profile page, and I don’t know if you were aware, but every click you made while using Facebook is registered in their database. They have every single picture you ever posted and it’s no secret they can see your chat or chats from other people and monitor them in real time. This way a lot of organized crimes that were negotiated on Facebook chats were broken because the police got a report and could react on time before it even happened.
Truth is, there are several companies that are tracking you while surfing online. The information that they acquire could well be sold to advertisers and vendors who can use data in number of ways including crime. It’s not just privacy when going online, it’s also when you are using GPS on mobile phone or even tracking yourself while running. That way hackers can know exactly where you are. Imagine you post your current location on Facebook, someone can use this opportunity and rob your entire house while you are on vacation. It’s possible to live off the grid but hardly achievable because most of the things we use today are connected digitally in some way.
There are number of smart ways you could protect your privacy online, not fully but to some extend. If you really want to surf websites and remain anonymous you will use Tor web browser. It protects users from traffic analysis and network surveillances. It is also free and helps you in preventing someone to watch your internet history, webpages you are visiting and stops them from knowing your physical location. People are also using this for accessing deep web, which is place where even illegal things are being shared or posted along with sensitive information.
The other method of staying protected is using VPN ( virtual private network ). Once you log in your VPN, your net connection is secured from eyes and data is encrypted and that’s the most important thing about it. If you are travelling much, you should use this method definitely because, imagine you’re signing in to your Facebook while being in caffe bar. That network you are connected is public and not secure so it puts you in a risk.
So while 100 % privacy is not achievable, if you are careful and make a good research you can achieve enough privacy and make it harder to be breakable. You honestly can’t protect yourself from every threat but understanding what you want to protect and keep private, can benefit you in decision how you are going to live online.
