Maintaining Internet privacy should be a priority for everyone in 2015. If we all work towards the same goal of privacy, we can make the Internet a safer and more comfortable place. Trackers and monitoring tools will soon disappear if we are all untraceable online. This will put a lot of marketers and hackers out of business, making the Internet a better place.
Use iOS Safari Cache Cleaning and Private Browsing
Apple is very proud of their security, but the browsing habits of iOS users can still be tracked. Privacy settings on iOS browsers are not set by default. You may be using the best VPN out there on the market, but your browser could still be giving websites and snoops a clue to where you are located. Many websites and online services use cookies and other tools that can find you even when you use privacy tools.
Before you clear your browser cache, make sure that you have taken note of all the browser pages that you have saved because the records will all disappear. To clear your browser cache, go to the Settings menu on your device. Locate “Safari” and select it to show the options for the browser. Make sure that Private Browsing is enabled , then tap “Clear History”. When this is done, tap “Clear Cookies and Data”
To start browsing privately, you need to open your Safari browser and look for the “+” in the upper right hand corner. Open that, then open a new private browsing session. It is best to close all the previous browser windows for best privacy because these can also be used to identify you. When the private window has opened, go to the bottom and tap “Private”. If that is not working for you, go back to the “+” sign. From there, go to the search box and wait for the keyboard to show up. Then look for the “Private” link and select it. If this doesn’t work also, check your Restrictions. This setting can be found in your General Settings. You need to allow all websites under the Content menu, then it should work.
Now you can browse the Web without anyone tracking your location. This also keeps your browser cache clear so you don’t get tracked by websites, cookies and other tracking scripts.
Private Browsing and Clearing Cache on Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla is one of the Internet companies that has been very active in the fight for Internet rights, including user privacy. Mozilla Firefox has several options for private browsing. Some are built in and others can be set manually for added protection. This is of course recommended for better safety.
First go to the tools menu in the browser. Find “Start Private Browsing” or use the shortcut “Ctrl+Shft+P”. The browser will now know not to cache any information from your browsing session like cookies and temporary Internet files. The browser will also not retrieve any data that was cached in the past. Next, you will need to check if you have any saved websites or pages on your browser that you want to keep. Write those down because we are now going to “Clear Recent History”. This will wipe your browser clean of all the sites you have visited in the past, which probably stored some types of tracking tools to locate and monitor your web activities. You can also use the shortcut “Ctrl+Shft+Del”. Click “Details” and select Cache, Cookies, Site Preferences and Offline Website Data.
Next, we go to the less obvious settings for private browsing. Go to the Options menu under Tools in the browser. A window will pop out on the right and you will see “Privacy” there. On this tab, you want to check the settings on several options:
Tell websites I do not want to be tracked – check this box
Remember my browsing and download history, and Remember search and form history – websites can’t see this data, but it is best to leave this unchecked anyway
Clear history when Firefox closes – check this box so that all the temporary files and cookies that were placed during your browsing session are will deleted when you close the browser. Make sure the browser is closed, though, and not running in the background.
There are also a few more options you can try:
Always use private browsing mode – this is the safest, but you can also manually open private browsing mode when you need it.
Accept cookies from sites, and Accept third-party cookies – this should be unchecked for best privacy, but be warned that there are a lot of website that won’t work without cookies. You can always use private browsing mode and clear your cache and cookies after using these websites to delete any saved tracking data.
You can also try using some great browser addons and extensions to increase privacy. Some tried and tested ones are BetterPrivacy, Ghostery and NoScript.
Google Chrome Incognito Mode, Clearing Browser Cache and Disabling Location Services
Google Chrome Incognito Mode is easy to use. Just look for the spanner icon (the one with three lines) in the top right corner of your Chrome window. Click that and select “New incognito window” or press “Ctrl+Shft+N”. By using this mode, you can avoid storing browsing history, cookies, and other tools that can locate and monitor your browsing.
After browsing, you can also make double sure that you have left no trace by going back to the Settings menu, located through the same spanner icon. Under Settings, go to the very bottom and click on the “Show advances settings” button. You should see “Privacy” right away. Open “Clear browsing data” and set the “Obliterate the following items from:” button to read “from the beginning of time”. Check every box there for best results and hit “Clear browsing data”.
Google location services may seem useful to some Internet users. But this service can cause problems when it allows websites to discriminate against you based on your location or allows others to spy on you and gather your data. Disabling this can be done from the same Privacy section in the Settings menu. It is called “Content Settings”, right next to “Clear browsing data”. Go down to “Location” and select the option for “Do not allow any site to track my physical location.”
