After some time, i am back again. I didn't write any posts in a while now. I needed a break and became more focused on other hobbies. But now i am back again with new serial. Now i have a plan to post 1-2 times a week. I made a lot of mistakes when i began to blog and one them was that i didn't have any post schedule.
Now, to start with today subject. After watching The Social dilemma i asked myself how can i improve my privacy online. I think this subject needs to be addressed more often in the world and people should get educated more about the bad things not taking care of your data. I will share with you how am i taking care of privacy and what to do.
1. Use some privacy saving browser
I guest most of people here already is using some kind of privacy-saving browsers. But for those who don't here are some of my recommendations on which browser should you use.
Brave Browser
I personally use Brave Browser. It is easy to use and you don't need a lot of knowledge to set it up. Most privacy saving tools and settings are turned on by default. Brave shields has many options like blocking tracking and scripts, blocking ads, upgrading websites to https when it's possible and one of the best fingerprinting blocking services there is.
Brave highlights:
- Blocks ads and trackers by default
- Protects against browser fingerprinting
- Built-in script blocker
- Automatically upgrades to HTTPS (HTTPS Everywhere)
Tor Browser
The other browsers that i would recommend is, of course, Tor Browser, It is the best privacy browser out there but i won't recommend it for ordinary users because it has a lot of dangers itself. It is best to use it if you know what you are doing.
The Tor browser is a hardened version of Firefox that is configured to run on the Tor network. By default, the Tor Browser is a secure browser that protects you against browser fingerprinting, but it also has some disadvantages. Because it uses the Tor network, which routes traffic over three different hops, download speeds with the Tor browser can be quite slow. The default version may also break some sites due to script blocking.
Here is the link to a article that in depth goes into pros and cons of Tor.
Firefox
I would also recommend Firefox, It offers strong privacy protection features, many customization options and excellent security.Out of the box, Firefox is not the best for privacy, but it can be customized and hardened. Most recently crisis hit the Firefox and they released a lot of staff and lost a lot of users that went to Brave and other browsers. But, it is still good and secure browser.
Firefox highlights:
- Open source code that has been audited by a third party
- Excellent privacy features and customization options
- Many browser extensions supported
- Telemetry and tracking needs to be manually disabled
- Other modifications necessary for more privacy and security
If you still want to continue with using your another browser. Here are some tips to improve security on every browser.
- Install HTTPS everywhere
- Use adblocker
- Use tracker blockers
- Use it in private window
- Disable location services
- Don't accept all cookies
2. Set private search engine as default
Google probably knows more about you than even Facebook does, thanks to the things you tell it when you type queries into its search engine. Though that’s just the tip of how it tracks you — if you use Android it will keep running tabs on everywhere you go unless you opt out of location services. But one major way to limit what Google knows about you is to switch to using an alternative search engine when you need to look something up on the Internet. My recommendations are:
Presearch
I already have a post about Presearch, you can check it here. Personally i use it and i like the project. It is relatively new and a lot of good stuff is planned for next year and in next phases of its development. I will quote the Colin Pape, the CTO of the project,: "The ultimate vision is a fully decentralized search engine where the users are actually crawling the web as they surf — and where there’s kind of a framework for all of the participants within the ecosystem to be rewarded.”
Node based search has started and more and more nodes will be activated in next period. In usage i don't find a lot of difference between Dsearch (Their node based search engine) and Google.
Presearch highlights are:
- Saves privacy
- Decentralized
- Rewards searching
- Results are getting better
Duckduckgo
The most popular privacy based search engine there is. It's getting a lot of new users everyday.
DuckDuckGo describes itself as "the search engine that doesn't track you". It promises not to use cookies to follow users and says it doesn't collect any personal information on those who use it. Even your IP address is hidden.
"We protect your search history, even from us," founder Gabriel Weinberg told WIRED.
Here is a good post on why should you use it.
Also there is Qwant, i won't write about it because i personally never used it.
3. Use end-to-end encryption mail clients
Most of us use Gmail or Outlook, that are owned by the biggest tech companies in the world. Google is our biggest enemy in terms of privacy and you should think about changing your Mail services. I use and i think the best one out there is ProtonMail.
ProtonMail's servers are locked down under 1,000 meters of solid rock, in a Swiss bunker that can survive a nuclear attack. And its digital security is about as impressive. It began development by a team of CERN Large Hadron Collider scientists in the wake of the 2013 Snowden leak, and has since become the #1 most-used secure email service with over five million users.
ProtonMail is designed with the principle of zero access and zero knowledge, which means that the email servers and staff that work with them have no way of reading or sharing your emails.
Based in Switzerland, ProtonMail data is protected by the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance (DPO), which offers some of the best privacy protection in the world. In the unlikely case ProtonMail was ordered to hand over user data, it would have to be specifically subpoenaed by the Cantonal Court of Geneva or the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. And, even if user data were seized, it would be impossible to decipher because of ProtonMail's encryption.
Unlike Gmail or Outlook, email you send with ProtonMail is encrypted before it's sent to the ProtonMail servers. That means that no hacker intercepting emails sent from ProtonMail will be able to decrypt and read your emails.
ProtonMail's encryption and web interface are also open source, which has allowed experts to audit and confirm its high levels of security.
That would be all for today's post. I hope this will help someone to increase it's privacy and to keep their data little bit more secure. I would like to know if you have some more recommendations and advice to share with us in the comments.
