Staying Anonymous While Surfing The Internet Online

Do you sometimes feel like you’re being watched online? Online privacy is a growing concern for many internet users. This is partly due to data leaks that regularly make headlines. But even beyond hacker attacks, you often unintentionally reveal a lot of private information. We’ll show you how to keep your digital fingerprint as small as possible.

Data protection while surfing: What you reveal on the Internet

During every internet session, Internet service providers (ISPs), website operators, and other third parties learn a lot about our preferences, our location, and even the devices we use. Even if you’re comfortable sharing such information, you should be aware of the dangers.

After all, it’s not just companies that collect data for marketing purposes – criminals use the free data flood to carry out cyberattacks, for example. If important information like banking details fall into the wrong hands, it can be costly for you.

In the next sections, we will reveal what traces you leave behind on the Internet and what you can do about it.

IP address: The unique Internet ID

As soon as you connect to the internet and visit a website, you reveal your public IP address. This sequence of numbers and letters—which in the IPv6 Internet Protocol, for example, looks like this: 2b2:38119:9dc0:6884:a764:822e:e472:85df —uniquely identifies each device on the World Wide Web, just like a license plate in traffic.

Unlike websites, devices typically have a dynamic IP address. This means it changes every time the router reconnects. However, this doesn’t happen as often as it used to, as few users disconnect from the internet at the end of a session.

Websites like iplocation.net allow you to view your IP address, making it easy for third parties to find.

When you visit a website, your computer or smartphone sends a request to a DNS server, which converts a URL like www.example.com into the corresponding IP address. Your IP address is also visible to the DNS server. If you send an email, the recipient also sees it. This doesn’t mean that your identity is revealed, but the dynamic IP address reveals your region and which provider you use.

Your internet provider, in turn, knows which websites you visit. Under so-called data retention, it may store your IP address and your sessions for up to ten weeks. This allows authorities to identify the perpetrator in the event of a crime. The extent to which this practice is legal remains controversial. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that it violates data protection laws. A decision by the Federal Constitutional Court is still pending.

Deleting cookies and browsing incognito is not enough

Cookies are small text files that your browser saves when you visit a website and retrieves on subsequent visits. They are used, for example, to save your settings and login information so that you don’t have to log in again to a social network or see personalized advertising banners.

For example, you can delete all cookies in the Chrome browser under Settings > Privacy and Security. However, this doesn’t mean the website operator will no longer recognize you. Among other things, your IP address and your digital fingerprint (more on this below) reveal who you are.

Another popular option is browsing in incognito mode. If you select this option in your browser, it won’t save the pages you visit in your browsing history. This means that other users of your device won’t be able to see what you’re doing online.

As said earlier, incognito mode is not enough, but you can always stay anonymous online while surfing the internet. Here comes Octa browser, which can help users to stay anonymous without being a tech-savvy.

However, your IP address remains visible to the DNS server, the website operator, and your provider. The administrator can also track your activities within a local network. Therefore, even in incognito mode, it’s not advisable to visit “forbidden” websites from the office, for example.

Data protection and Google: How much does the search engine know about me?

It is estimated that over five billion searches are carried out on Google every day worldwide. In EU, the market share is. The search engine’s 82 percent on PCs and 87 percent on mobile devices. Google saves all searches by default – and thus learns a lot about us.

For several years now, the US giant has been striving for a certain degree of transparency. My Google Activity provides an overview of saved internet searches, including image searches and Google Maps. You can also see your YouTube history, your Android smartphone’s app history, and your location history. You can also control which data the search engine stores. For example, you can turn off location to prevent Google from tracking your movements.

Data protection in social networks: What do Facebook, Instagram and stores?

In addition to Google, social networks like Facebook and Instagram have also received considerable criticism in recent years for their lax approach to data protection. In 2018, for example, the public learned that Facebook had sold millions of private user data to the British data analytics company Cambridge Analytica. Many data protection advocates also criticized the fact that deleted images could still be found via the search function.

In addition, hackers frequently use social networks to conduct phishing attacks using social engineering. They browse the profiles of their potential victims and collect personal information. They use this information to gain their trust by posing as old vacation acquaintances or former work colleagues, for example. This ultimately leads to sensitive data and causes financial and reputational damage.

Complete anonymity is not possible on Facebook, but with the right settings, personal data can be better protected.

If you want to protect your privacy on Facebook and other social networks, you should set your profile so that only selected users can see your personal information. For example, select the “Posts private” option on your Instagram profile. Twitter, TikTok, and other social media platforms have similar options. You should also never display sensitive information such as your address, location, and email address.

You’ll also be a bit more anonymous if you make your profile invisible to search engines. On Facebook, you can do this under Settings > Privacy > How people can find and contact you . If you uncheck the box next to “Allow search engines outside of Facebook to see my profile ,” your profile will no longer appear in Google searches.