Privacy is one of the fundamental right of everyone. But maintaining privacy on Internet is not an easy task. Your IP address, your digital ID, even the icons will leave your digital footprint on the Internet. Surely, most of us think that it does not matter, because you have nothing to hide. But that view needs to be changed. Here’s an example of how much data facebook collect from its user. This is not even the complete list.

Data hoarding companies know more about you than you know about yourself. They can even track the other websites you have been visiting in your browser. You search for a “guitar” on the google search and suddenly you see Amazon suggesting guitars at great discount or a Facebook marketplace ad of a Used guitar nearby etc. You think that it must be a Déjà vu but Boy are you wrong!

You can block the websites from tracking you by using Ad and Tracker Blockers upto some extent. Here's an article about Brave Browser which is open-source with built-in ad blocker and you can earn passive income in crypto while you are at it. But even with Brave, you cannot completely block all the trackers. However, it is better than nothing. What about other kinds of tracking?

First things first. What is Encryption and Decryption?

You try to obfuscate the data you are sending such that only the intended person is able to view the original message. Usually, a secret key and some fixed function (which consists of permuting, exchanging or doing arithmetic operations of data). The way this works is the sender will encrypt (perform some fixed set of operations) on the original data using a Key. Then, only the person(s) who know the key can get the original data back by reverting the operations. There are techniques that involve one (Symmetric) or two (Asymmetric) keys but we don't need to go into that. Just remember that Obfuscating the data is called Encryption. Recovering the original data back is called Decryption.

Secondly, what is a Data Packet? 

A data packet contains your data and IP header. The IP header has the source and receiver's address (IP address and Port number) along with other useful information that we do not need to delve into (like TTL, Fragmentation Offset, Checksum etc). Basically, your data is encrypted if you are using secure connection. So, only You and the intended receiver can view the data. But the IP header is not encrypted.

There is the Issue of your Internet Service Provider tracking you. This is how it happens:

• Say you try to connect to Instagram (It is assumed that your Computer knows the corresponding IP. So, DNS request isn't send to the resolver)
• You input your login username and password. Since, Instagram uses secure connection (HTTPs), your data is encrypted. No one other than you and Instagram can find out what was it that you entered in the input fields on the Internet.
• Your data packet containing your encrypted data is sent to your ISP.
• ISP checks the header of the data packets and finds out that you are trying to connect to Instagram. So, it will send your packet over the Internet towards the Instagram servers.

Basically every data packet you send will be routed over the Internet via your ISP. Your ISP will always know which site you are visiting, how long you were connected to it. This is essentially how your ISP decide which site you can visit or not. During restriction, they can essentially block your connection to any particular website by not sending your data over the Internet.

Another issue? Most of you have used Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon prime videos etc. Suppose your Internet friend recommends you a great show that they have been binging on Netflix. So, you open Netflix and search for the show only to see an Error saying something like, "This show is not avialable in your region"!!!! "What a blasphemy", you say. It actually happens when the streaming service is not able (or does not want) to buy streaming right in particular demographic region.

Then there is final issue of anonymity (psudeo-anonymity atleast). Sometimes you just do not want some particular Internet service to know that you are connecting/ viewing their content. Maybe you are travelling to a country where your favourite website is blocked or maybe you have came across a shady website that you are curious to explore but do it anonymously or maybe you really prefer if you search for some stuff that you do not want anyone else to know.

You fire up "Incognito Mode". But just turning on "Incognito Mode" is not enough. It only deletes cookies (so your opened facebook etc sessions are closed) and removes history from your browser. It does nothing else. Your ISP still knows which site you connected to. The shady website will still know your IP address.

VPN can solve The aforementioned issues. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network which does what its name suggest. It creates a secure tunnel between you and the VPN servers which will then route your traffic over the Internet.  This is how it is done:

• You turn on VPN.
• Again we assume you are trying to connect to Instagram and are submitting Login Username and Password.
• Your VPN will encrypt the data packet including the header (essentially hiding the IP address of the receiver which is Instagram server in this case).
• It will create a new Packet containing address of VPN server as the receipient along with the encrypted packet.
• This packet is then sent to ISP who will then send the packet to VPN server. Since everything else is encrypted, ISP will not be able to find out what is in the packet. They will only see VPN address and encrypted data.
• VPN servers will then decrypt the data and then see that you are trying to connect to Instagram and they will send the data over the Internet to the Instagram server.

The site you are connecting to will see the VPN servers IP address and think that is your address. Since a VPN provider will have server in various countries, you can make your connection through any of those depending on your choice. So, you will essentially be able to bypass the regional restrictions imposed by the web service. And finally watch the Netflix show that your Internet friend recommended.

However, there is an issue! You need to trust the VPN server that they will not log your data like your ISP does. To be fair, most of them do not, because that defeats the whole function of using the VPN in the first place. Most of the VPN providers have strict no log policy or maybe they will log some untraceable data or maybe some of them will log your data.  So, when deciding the VPN you are going to choose, do check their Terms and logging policy.

If you want to try a Free VPN then I do recommend checking out Proton VPN. They have some free servers that you can chose without paying a single penny. The speed will be low depending on the load on their servers. Paid plans are avialable that provides you with lots of servers and simultaneous connections from two or more devices depending on the plan you chose. There are other great paid VPN's like Mullvad VPN and Express VPN. 

Also, keep in mind that since the VPN servers have unique IP address, most websites keep table of all the VPN addresses, and will be able to find out if you are using one. That is why Google (and many other websites) sometimes show "Unusal traffic from your computer network" error and asks you to confirm that you are not a Robot if you are using a VPN. puff!!

I do recommend using Presearch as your Search Engine. Again it is open-source, free and you can passively earn crypto there too!!. Other great alternative are DuckDuckGo and Brave Search. No passive income there though. All of these search engines are free. They do not track you nor keep any logs regarding your search history or whatever.

Keep your Digital Identities and your data to yourself. Everyone deserves the Privacy on Free Internet. Peace!