Follow these expert tips to surf the Web without being tracked.
At this point, it’s no secret that Google is watching.
If you’ve ever looked up anything on the Internet—from the name of that
guy in that movie (you know the one) to the best sneaker sales—you’ve
probably been inundated with ads related to the topic. Thanks to cookies,
websites remember us and give us a personalized experience, but that
comes at a cost to our privacy. The creep factor alone sends many an
Internet explorer on a quest to find ways to do an anonymous search
without tracking.
“Anonymity is an important aspect of freedom of speech. Many people
want to hide their identity when they search the Internet,” says Anurag
Gurtu, chief product officer at cybersecurity company StrikeReady. Maybe
you have political, personal, or business reasons to search
anonymously. Maybe you want to make it harder for data brokers to buy and sell your personal info (and people to use it in doxxing attacks). Or maybe you’re concerned with more malicious spyware.
With hackers becoming more sophisticated than ever and online security a growing concern, you may be tempted to disappear completely from the Internet. Thankfully, there are less-extreme ways to prevent the online privacy risks that can come from tracking. In addition to being aware of the signs your computer has been hacked, follow the pros’ lead and install security apps while also clearing out apps that might be doing you more harm than good.
For more expert tips for doing an anonymous search without tracking, read on.
How am I tracked online?
Face it: It’s not a question of if the Internet is spying on you but how the Internet is spying on you.
“Extensively is the best description of how you’re tracked online,”
says Tony Anscombe, chief security evangelist for digital security
company ESET.
“If I use the Chrome browser for anything, Google knows about it,”
says D. Greg Scott, a cybersecurity expert for the software company Red
Hat. “Google knows everything I do with my Android phone. When I log in
to Google with any browser, Google also follows me there. When I
shop at Amazon—or anywhere—and they drop cookies, other websites also
pick them up.”
Some of the methods by which we are tracked online are obvious,
Anscombe says, pointing to data requested through forms, browser
cookies, and account log-ins. But while you might not think about it
quite as often, your IP address is hands down the greatest tracking
method. Sites can also use fingerprinting to learn about your computer
and browsing history. Some stores even monitor visitors’ actions, like clicks and keystrokes.
Forms
Fill out a form with your information—say, your shipping address for quicker checkout—and you’re providing data to a site.
Browser cookies
Cookies store information about how you interact with a website—your
preferred language, for example—and are another way your Internet
history is tracked. They’re often used for advertising and targeted ads,
but they also store financial data and social security numbers, which
could lead to identity theft if the wrong person gets ahold of those personal details.
And while websites ask you to reject or accept cookies, many make users jump through a ton of hoops to reject all. (Naturally, the “accept cookies” button is super easy to find.)
Account log-ins
When you’re logged into an account, the company can track where you
are and can access the information it has on file about you. “You might
be surprised just how much data companies like Google and Facebook
already have about you,” Gurtu says. “Like your age, location,
interests, and more.”
IP address
There are many ways the Internet tracks us, but one of the primary
methods is via IP address, a unique code assigned to your device. “Your
IP address can reveal a lot about you,” Gurtu says. “You can find out
what country, state, and city you’re in just by looking at it. If you
want to keep your location private, this isn’t great.”
Let’s say you log out of your Facebook account—something
Anscombe recommends doing “so they may not be able to attribute the
browsing history to you.” That doesn’t mean you’ll avoid tracking
altogether. If a website uses Facebook’s tools for advertising purposes,
he says, “they may be collecting browsing data based on your IP
address.”
Fingerprinting
Joshua Long, head of marketing at Mojeek, the first search engine
with a no-tracking privacy policy, says fingerprinting is a common
tracking method. It’s “how our machines appear to websites when browsing
the Internet, exposing a great deal of our browsing history—if not all
of it—to the websites we visit,” he says.
Sound scary? You can learn how identifiable you are on the Internet by viewing your browser fingerprint at AmIUnique.
Do Internet companies know what sites I visit?
If you’re worried about your online privacy, you’re probably
concerned about more than just Google looking over your shoulder.
Chances are, you’ve also wondered: Do Internet companies know what sites
I visit? The shorter answer: Yes.
Internet service providers (ISPs) track your activities through your
IP address, cookies, and other means. “This is why privacy is such an
important issue when it comes to the Internet,” says Magda Chelly, the
chief information security officer at Responsible Cyber. “There are ways
to avoid having your activities tracked, but it takes effort and
vigilance. You can use a VPN to browse the web anonymously, but even
then, your activity can be monitored by your ISP or the government.”
Your Internet service provider can see what websites you visit and
other information, such as how often you visit a site and how long you
stay there. It can also see your IP address, which reveals your physical
location. But there’s a limit, at least on some websites. “If you use
encrypted connections like https,” Gurtu says, “the provider cannot see
what pages on each website you visit or what videos or images you view
on those websites.”
How can I browse privately without being tracked?
You know you’re being tracked, and frankly, you’re not a fan. It’s
time to take action. We asked cybersecurity experts how to do an
anonymous search without tracking. Here are the top methods for avoiding
cookies, keeping your search history private, and getting as close to
anonymous as possible.
Use a private search engine
It does this: Lets you search without being tracked.
It doesn’t do this: Prevent tracking elsewhere on the web.
Google is great from a search perspective, but if you’re concerned
with online tracking, turn to a private search engine, which is
generally more trustworthy. If it doesn’t track and store your data, it
can’t hand over your information to government authorities.
- Mojeek: This independent search engine doesn’t track you and provides unbiased results.
- Gigablast: This search engine uses encryption to ensure privacy and doesn’t track you.
- DuckDuckGo: One of the most popular private search
engines, DuckDuckGo doesn’t store user information and doesn’t share or
sell user information to third-party companies. The search engine shows
ads, but they’re generic and related to the keyword you searched, not
based on your personal information or search history.
- StartPage: This is currently considered one of the
most private search engines. “StartPage doesn’t track, log any user
data, or share information with third parties,” says Artur Kane, chief
marketing officer with the cloud service company GoodAccess. “And it
uses Google search technology, which ensures consistently relevant
results without compromising privacy.”
- Xayn: This search engine blocks trackers, cookies, and ads, and it won’t collect your data.
- Kiddle: If kid-safe searching is as important to
you as privacy, you may want to download Kiddle on your child’s
computer. It retrieves kid-oriented, family-friendly results, doesn’t
collect any personally identifiable information, and deletes its logs
every 24 hours.
If you’re looking to do an anonymous search without tracking, it
might be best to employ a variety of search engines, depending on what
you’re searching for. “We are seeing a trend away from one standard,
generic search engine, like Google, and toward a more sophisticated
method of using several specialized search engines for different needs,”
says Michael Huth, PhD, cofounder of Xayn. “Qwant is great for
family-safe searches, Xayn is nice for ad-free news streams, and Ecosia
supports the environment.”
Depending on your needs, you may prefer using a privacy-focused browser
like Firefox or Brave. “Brave was built with privacy in mind and
intentionally threw out some of the bells and whistles to prevent the
sharing of your private information,” says Andy Rogers, senior assessor
at Schellman, a global cybersecurity assessor. “Brave is a
Chromium-based browser, which means that it is built on code from
Chrome, but they were meticulous in how they designed it, with the
user’s privacy in mind.”
Open a private browser window
It does this: Launches a new browser window that won’t save your browsing history, cookies and site data, or information entered in forms.
It doesn’t do this: Prevent websites from tracking
your IP address. Your activity might still be visible to the websites
you visit, your employer or school, and your Internet service provider.
Privacy boost: A private window plus a VPN.
Private browsing is a way to keep your online activity hidden, though
not from everyone. “It hides your browsing history in that session but
doesn’t protect you from websites tracking your activity on their sites
by IP address,” says Gurtu.
So while Google’s Incognito mode
prevents someone with access to your computer from seeing your
searches—which is helpful if you’re searching for a gift or researching
something you don’t want other people to see—it’s not as truly incognito
as many people think it is.
“There is a lot of misinformation
out there about incognito browsing and how it affects your privacy,”
says Chelly. “When you close an incognito window, any websites you
visited during that session will not appear in your browser history.
However, this doesn’t mean that your activity is completely private and
anonymous. Your Internet service provider can still see what websites
you’re visiting while in Incognito mode. In addition, any website you
visit can still track your activity through cookies or other forms of
data tracking.”
Think of private browsing as a first line of defense. (To do it, go
to File and then “New Incognito Window” or “New Private Window.”) To do a
more anonymous search without tracking, you’ll need another tool. “You
can also use a VPN to connect through a different server than the one
you usually use, masking your identity and location,” says Gurtu.
Browse in Google’s Guest mode
It does this: Avoids storing your search history.
It doesn’t do this: Stop websites from tracking your
IP address. Your data is still visible to the websites you visit, your
employer, and your Internet service provider.
Privacy boost: Guest mode plus a VPN.
If you’re trying to do an anonymous search without tracking, consider
Google’s Guest mode like a private window. “In Guest mode browsing,
your search history is not stored,” Kane says. “However, similarly to
Incognito mode, your data is still visible to the websites you visit,
Internet service providers, or employers.”
In short: Neither Incognito mode nor Guest mode will make you invisible while browsing the Web.
“If you want to browse the Internet without worrying about setting up
a new user account or needing to log out of your current account, then
Guest mode is perfect for you,” Gurtu says. “When you’re done using
Guest mode, simply close out of the window, and it will automatically
delete all browsing data.”
That’s a handy option if you’re using a public computer, borrowing a
pal’s computer, or letting someone borrow yours. To enter Guest mode,
follow these steps:
- In the Chrome browser, click the icon to the right of the address bar that looks like a circle with a silhouette in it.
- Click Guest.
- When you’re done browsing, close the window.
Speaking of Google: Want to hide some of the info that appears when you search yourself? Learn how to delete yourself from Google searches.
Ask sites not to track you
It does this: Requests that sites don’t track you.
It doesn’t do this: Force sites not to track you.
You can tell sites to stop tracking your activity by setting Do Not
Track (DNT) in your browser. On Chrome, for instance, you can go to
Settings, click on “Privacy and security,” and then “Cookies and other
site data.” From there, toggle on the option to send a Do Not Track
request.
Once enabled, this feature will ask websites not to assign you
cookies, those files that allow settings to be stored within your
browser for when you return. It sounds great, but it’s not that
straightforward. “A website needs to honor DNT for this to work, and
many do not,” Long explains. “DNT is not an effective way to prevent
online tracking, at least not on its own, due to it not being legally
enforceable and not being a comprehensive way of preventing tracking
online.”
Ashley Simmons, founder of online privacy and security site Avoid the
Hack, agrees. “It doesn’t automatically stop websites from tracking you
and merely sends a request header to the web servers to ask not to be
tracked. The website isn’t obligated to respect this.”
For Do Not Track to be effective, Long says, it needs to be merged
with a host of other methods, including extensions that block trackers,
such as uBlock Origin (his recommendation and the gold standard to
most). But not even this one-two punch can fully knock out tracking.
Simmons says Do Not Track can serve as another means to track you, so
it’s best to leave it off. And extensions pose their own issues. For
instance, if you’re the only one using a specific grouping of
extensions, you’re giving yourself a unique fingerprint to be tracked.
“Every extra extension you add makes you more unique in the process of
fingerprinting,” Long says.
Scott thinks extensions are a bad idea overall. “Just say no,” he says. “Most of these are spyware in disguise. The people who build these add-ons need to make money somehow.”
Long says that each time you add a new extension, you need to
“explore the project and see if you’re comfortable with it” and question
whether you really need it. “Using a tool with always-on privacy, such
as the Brave browser, might be a better approach for some users,” says
Huth.
Use a VPN
It does this: Encrypts your web traffic and masks your IP address.
It doesn’t do this: Stop tracking via cookies, your browser fingerprint, or account log-ins.
Privacy boost: VPN plus Tor browser.
As you browse the Web, your IP address—that special number assigned
to your device—is visible. If you’re trying to do an anonymous search
without tracking, you’re going to want to hide it. That’s where a
virtual private network, or VPN, comes in.
So, does a VPN hide your Internet activity from your provider? Yep.
It disguises your IP address, blocks your location, and hides your
browser history from the sites you visit, your Internet service
provider, hackers, and the government. The tech does this by rerouting
your web traffic through the VPN’s servers. This is a major plus if
you’re using public Wi-Fi, which can pose security risks.
That’s all useful, but VPNs don’t make you totally invisible online.
They won’t reliably stop tracking by any sites you’re actively using or
stop you from being tracked by cookies. “You can use a VPN solution, but
that just changes the vector of tracking from the ISP to the VPN
provider,” says Vikram Venkatasubramanian, founder and CEO of Nandi
Security.
Still, it’s a good step to take in combination with other privacy
tools, like the use of the Tor browser (more on that in a minute).
Considering how useful a VPN is for online privacy, it’s a good idea to
invest in one with a good security reputation, such as NordVPN and
Private Internet Access.
Use the Tor browser
It does this: Disguises your web activity by encrypting it and deletes your browsing history and cookies after each session.
It doesn’t do this: Prevent tracking when you’re not using Tor.
Privacy boost: Tor plus a VPN.
Tor stands for The Onion Router, and it’s a nonprofit founded on the
belief that “Internet users should have private access to an uncensored
Web.” The Tor browser eliminates fingerprinting by making all users look
the same through encryption and relaying your traffic through thousands
of volunteer-run servers known as Tor relays. If you’re looking to do
an anonymous search without tracking, Tor is a solid option.
By using the Tor browser, you can mask your activity, and websites
can’t trace your online activity back to your IP address, Anscombe says.
“This is because the Tor network uses a series of proxies to hide the
connection information,” he says. “However, your ISP will be able to
determine you are connected to the Tor network, so not all tracking is
removed. There is an additional step that could be taken by using a VPN
and then using a browser like Tor. This will mask the use of Tor to the
ISP, but again, they would likely be able to determine the VPN service
you are using by the IP address you are connected to.”
The best way to do an anonymous search without tracking
If you want to browse the Internet as a ghost, you won’t get by with a
single method. For best results, try combining privacy tools. Use a VPN
and a private browser. Search via a private search engine in a private
browser while using a VPN. And if staying anonymous online sounds like
work, that’s because it is.
Once you’re done prepping for your next anonymous web experience,
learn other ways to beef up your online security, like creating good passwords, being on alert for phishing and spoofing, and enabling two-factor authentication for all your accounts.
