Web Browsing
Most websites on the internet will use some form of tracking, often to gain insight into their users' behavior and preferences. This data can be incredibly detailed and is extremely valuable to corporations, governments, and intellectual property thieves. Data breaches and leaks are common, and deanonymizing users' web activity is often a trivial task. This section outlines the steps you can take to be better protected from threats, minimize online tracking, and improve privacy.
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| Done? | Advice | Level | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Essential | Using an ad-blocker can help improve your privacy by blocking the trackers that ads implement. uBlock Origin is recommended open-source browser addon. When third-party ads are displayed on a webpage, they have the ability to track you, gathering personal information about you and your habits, which then would be sold or used to show you more targeted ads. Some ads are also malicious or fake. Blocking ads makes pages load faster, uses less data, and provides a better experience. | ||
Essential | It may sound obvious, but when you sign into any online accounts or download software: double check if it's really an original website. If you use a search engine, often the top results are paid ads. Storing commonly visited sites in your bookmarks is a good way to ensure the URL is easy to find. When visiting new websites, look for common signs that it could be unsafe: browser warnings, multiple redirects, on-site spam and pop-ups. You can also check a website using a tool such as Virus Total or IsLegitSite if you are unsure. | ||
Essential | Your browser has access to everything that you do online, so avoid Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari as (with default configuration) all three of them collect usage data, call home, and allow for invasive tracking. Firefox and Brave are more secure, privacy-respecting browsers. Both are fast, open source, user-friendly, and available on all major operating systems. But even Firefox requires quite a few changes to achieve optimal security. | ||
Essential | It is recommended to update your browser's default search to a privacy-respecting search engine. Using such a non-tracking search engine will reduce the risk that your search terms are used against you. Consider DuckDuckGo, Qwant, or Brave Search. Google implements some incredibly invasive tracking policies and has a history of displaying biased search results. Therefore, Google, along with Bing, Baidu, Yahoo, and many others, are incompatible with anyone looking to protect their privacy. | ||
Essential | Extensions (addons) can see, log, or modify anything you do in the browser, and some innocent-looking browser apps have malicious intentions. Websites can see which extensions you have installed and may use this to enhance your fingerprint, to more accurately identify/track you. Both Firefox and Chrome web stores allow you to check what permissions/access rights an extension requires before you install it. Check the reviews, GitHub repository, who's the author of the extension. Only install extensions you really need, and remove those which you installed just in case. | ||
Essential | Do not allow your browser to store usernames and passwords. These can be easily accessed or exported. Example tool. Instead use a password manager. | ||
Essential | If you enter information on a non-HTTPS website, this data is transported unencrypted and can therefore be read and modified by anyone along the route. Do not enter any data on a non-HTTPS website, but also do not let the green padlock give you a false sense of security. Just because a website has an SSL certificate does not mean that it is legitimate or trustworthy. Pay attention to the domain name: sometimes the difference between website.org and website.com can cost a fortune. | ||
Essential | Traditional DNS makes requests in plain text, allowing for eavesdropping and web-filtering by your provider, which by default provides you with their DNS service. DNS-over-HTTPS performs DNS resolution via the HTTPS protocol, meaning data between you and your DNS resolver is encrypted. A popular option is CloudFlare's 1.1.1.1, which has instructions for all supported browsers. | ||
Essential | When you're in a private/incognito window, it will prevent browser history, cookies, and some data from being saved, but you are still easily tracked unless you close all other browser windows and then connect to a VPN. Even then, it is not fool-proof, so keep in mind these functions are not really making your actions anonymous. | ||
Essential | Browser fingerprinting is an incredibly accurate method of tracking, allowing a website to identify you based on your device information—even after you clear all cookies and session data. You can view your fingerprint at amiunique.org to see what parameters are evaluated. There is no perfect solution against fingerprinting, but using the Tor Browser and disabling JavaScript in your settings will reduce the data your browser leaks; although this will break many websites. | ||
Essential | Blocking trackers will help prevent websites, advertisers, analytics, and more from tracking you on all websites you visit. Privacy Badger, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, and uBlock Origin are all very effective, open-source tracker blockers available for all major browsers. | ||
Essential | While some redirects are harmless, others, such as unvalidated redirects, are used in phishing attacks, making a malicious link seem legitimate. If you are unsure about a redirect URL, you can check where it forwards to with a tool like RedirectDetective. This applies to cases where you see a long URL with parameters you don't understand, which can look like | ||
Essential | Browser push notifications are a common method for criminals to spam you and make you click their links, as it is easy to spoof the source. Be aware of this; if a website asks you for permission to "Show notifications", you should block it in 99% of cases. How the prompt looks like?. For instructions on disabling browser notifications, see this article. | ||
Optional | Using different profiles for work, general browsing, social media, and banking will reduce the number of associations that data brokers can link back to you. Firefox Multi-Account Containers is a unique feature designed exactly for this purpose. Alternatively, you could use different browsers for different tasks, which is not as convenient but has the same security improvement. | ||
Optional | Drive-by downloads is a common method of getting harmful files onto a users device. This can be mitigated by disabling auto file downloads, and being cautious of websites which prompt you to download files unexpectedly. Any downloaded file can be checked for obvious infection at Virus Total, which will find known virus signatures. Or it could be opened on a separate virtual machine outside of your computer at Any.run, allowing you to safely examine any malware. | ||
Optional | Mobile websites can tap into some of your device sensors without asking. If you grant these permissions to your browser once, then all websites are able to use these capabilities, without permission or notification. Such sensors allow to detect device movement and orientation, track position and ambient lightning changes. | ||
Optional | Location Services let sites ask for your physical location. This should be disabled in settings as it will give the exact location to meters. On every legitimate website, there would be a way to input the address instead of using the physical location. Note that there are still other methods of determining your approximate location. | ||
Optional | Check browser settings to ensure that no websites are granted access to webcam or microphone. It may also be beneficial to use physical protection such as a webcam cover and microphone blocker. | ||
Advanced | Websites often append additional parameters to URLs that you share, to link you with the recipient. Example: | ||
Advanced | The Tor Browser provides a browser that encrypts and routes your traffic through multiple nodes, keeping users safe from regular technics of interception and tracking. The main drawbacks are speed and user experience. Tor Browser could connect to anonymously hosted websites which end in |
