In modern times, the real currency of the internet is personal data. Almost every single website, internet service, even "smart" devices in the home, and most especially social media companies want to track and keep record of everything you do. This is all in the name of "targeted advertising", with the side effect of many companies holding personal data about you - without your knowledge or consent.
As an additional layer of concern, this data is shared and sold and can often be subpoenaed by governments.
There's quite a bit of data here, and it can get a bit technical. Google the things you don't understand, use the contact form below if you need assistance. Read it all twice... or more.
Don't forget your cell phone! All the sections below have application for both home internet, computers, tablets AND your cell phone.
"Big Data". Most people are familiar with the term "Big Pharma" as relating to the pharmecutical companies' chokeholds on modern 'healthcare'. You can think of Big Data in a similar light - companies that collect, store, share, and sell your personal data, most often without your knowledge or consent. Advertising is the overt primary goal, but the issue runs much deeper than just targeted advertising. Ultimately, the issue is less what they're doing with your personal data, but more about their right to collect and use it without your consent. It's quite insidious.
Most people are familiar with the term "IP address". Without getting too much into the weeds, you can think of DNS like this:
DNS is like the phonebook of the internet. Everything on any network, including the entire internet has an IP address. For example, 142.250.190.78 is an IP address of google.com. But realistically, no-one is going to remember numbers like that for everything they want to do online. DNS translates google.com to 142.250.190.78 for you. Try it yourself - copy that IP address and paste it in your web browser and you arrive at www.google.com.
So, the whole world has to coordinate public websites and services with IP addresses. How do your computers, cell phones, and other devices know how to translate those names and IP addresses? By using a DNS Server.
The majority of people don't even know DNS exists. Most people just use the DNS server provided by your internet provider (ISP) or cellular company. For example, most people on Comcast internet use Comcast's DNS servers of 75.75.75.75 and 76.76.76.76. These are pre-configured in your modem. If you use your own router without additional configuration, the ISP DNS server will carry over to your router. The problem here is that Comcast (and all ISPs and cell companies) log and track that data. They can see literally every website and online service you go to, even if you only visit a site one time for one second. ISP's use and sell this data for tracking and advertising purposes. They also have direct lines that governments can obtain this data.
What we want to do is not use the DNS Servers from the ISPs, cellular companies, or Google.
There are numerous alternative DNS providers that offer significantly enhanced privacy. What you'll want to do is search for your model of modem or router and find how to change the DNS server. Many ISP provided modems do not have the ability for you do do this. Going back to the Comcast example - they do not allow users to change the DNS settings. There's no valid reason for this restriction - except to harvest and track your data.
➡️In these cases, having your own router is vital for your privacy.
Whatever your modem or router is, just google things like "spectrum modem change dns" or "netgear router change dns", etc.
Changing the DNS server on your cell phone is easy for both Android and iPhone.
▶️ Once you find out how to setup your device, you'll need to pick new DNS servers to use. (almost all devices require at least two DNS servers in the settings) My quick setup go-to is Comodo Secure DNS servers - 8.26.56.26 and 8.20.247.20 The Comodo DNS servers filter out known malware sites and services with lists that are constantly updated every day.
I'm not advertising and don't get any $$$ for this site, so I'm not just trying to sell something, but personally I use https://nextdns.io For $20/yr I get ad-blocking, anti-tracker, secure DNS. This service offers VERY detailed analytics and the most granular controls you can get short of setting up your own piHole (if you really want to get down in the technical weeds). You can set your DNS retention period to whatever you want. If you set the data retention to zero, there are no logs for anybody to see. With nextdns.io your data is not being sold to third parties. The site has fantastic guides and info and a great support team.
Changing your DNS servers is the first and easiest step to securing your online privacy from big corporations and governments. Another benefit of setting secure DNS settings on your home modem or router, is that it covers everything in your home that connects to the internet. As an example, Roku devices send huge amount of tracking data to Roku and connected services. Just in the last 24 hours, my nextdns setup has blocked almost a thousand attempts at my Roku TV data harvesting. Don't forget about your smart devices!
Now, we'll move on to your personal IRL data.
Take a minute right now - google your first and last name and the state you live in. Also try searching your phone number.
Many people will be appalled at the amount of info that is publicly available. Not just data about you, but also linked to your family and sometimes even friends and acquaintances. (known associates).
Look at every search result that looks like it may be you. Visit each site and find their link to "remove my data". An example is Spokeo optout - https://www.spokeo.com/optout Once you have found yourself on spokeo, copy the URL and use it on the opt-out page to remove yourself from their search results. Almost every site like spokeo, peoplefinder, etc have a similar opt-out feature. Take at least a couple of hours every year and go thru every search result that relates to you and have each site remove your data. I do this at least once per year.
Once you're removed yourself from these sites, it's time to move on to Big Data. Most of these companies that track, sell, and use your personal data do not have direct opt-out mechanisms. Most of these companies, you've never even heard of and cannot easily find. Unfortunately, you'll need to use a paid service for this. I've used incogni and been impressed with the results, but there are many services to choose from. Check out this article from PC Magazine: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-personal-data-removal-services using any of these services is worth your time for maximum online privacy.
Next, as with the main kids section of this site - secure your social media profiles. Set your profiles to not public. Set them to "friends only", where applicable. Whatever social media sites you use, go to your account settings and find the Privacy settings. Choose your settings for the privacy level you want. Check out this article from Experian: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-to-manage-your-privacy-settings-on-social-media/
Side note: The best Facebook privacy is to just not use it at all.
Another online privacy aspect that is often overlooked is your web browser itself.
Chrome is the worst. Even when you set maximum privacy settings, Google is known to harvest your data anyway.
Use any browser but Chrome. Even Microsoft Edge, while still not full privacy compliant, is better. However, you should consider using other browsers, such as Brave, Opera, Vivaldi. DuckDuckGo has their own privacy focused browser, as does Ghostery. At bare minimum, use Firefox, with DuckDuckGo set as your search engine.
Side note: You will see many sites recommend AVG or Avast browsers. Don't trust them. Both companies started off as good, honest, quality companies, but they have since joined the ranks of Big Data.
Some of the browsers listed above, such as Ghostery, come with built in options for maximum privacy and security. Brave browser has built in ad-blocking. Depending on what browser you use, you'll want to make sure you have extensions installed to compensate for what the browser lacks. The go-to extension is uBlock Origin. There are many clones and fakes of uBlock Origin, so only use the links from their web page: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock?tab=readme-ov-file#installation
A more aggressive option for browser extensions is Ghostery. uBlock Origina is good, but will soon not be compatible with Chrome and many Chromium based browsers. Ghostery is working to comply with the new anti-consumer standards Google is forcing on everyone. Ghostery is a bit more aggressive than other privacy extensions and as a result has a bit of a learning curve and requires more interaction. Get full info at their site: https://www.ghostery.com/
And speaking of browser extensions - don't install random extensions you find! There are thousands upon thousands of browser extensions for Chrome and chromium based browsers and for Firefox. The majority of these browser extensions are spyware or full out malware. Research any extension you find before installing it. If you find you have browser extensions you're not familiar with, remove them immediately. Every web browser has easy to get to extension settings.
Oh, and speaking of settings - check your browser settings. Many browsers have decent built in settings than can increase your privacy above their default settings. Microsoft Edge has umpteen options for setting your privacy preferences. Chrome, not so much. (and, as mentioned earlier, Chrome is known to ignore your settings anyway)
The maximum privacy browser is the Tor Browser. We'll not even get into how the Tor network works, google that if you want. Suffice it to say everything you do on the internet using Tor browser appears to the rest of the internet to come from random places all over the world. The downside of this is Tor is very slow. It's not really practical for every day use because of the slowness, but it's still the maximum privacy. I have a Tor browser setup with ghostery, noscript, and ublock origin extensions installed. The only more secure web browsing than that is to not be on the internet at all. It's cumbersome and slow, but it's ultimate privacy.
In the previous section, I said 'google yourself' and 'google' this or that. I mean that as more of a verb. It's more secure and more private to use alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo. For maximum privacy, Google, Bing, and Yahoo should be avoided.
By now, most people have at least heard of VPN. Virtual Private Network connects your computer to the VPN service, and all your internet traffice is routed through the VPN. As a result, websites you visit will never see your actual IP address or location. The VPN service I use has options for locations across the globe. I can appear to websites as being anywhere from Tokyo, to London, to Chicago.
If you're on Youtube at all (and who isn't these days), you've almost certainly seen VPN advertisements. Do not just assume any and every VPN service is actually secure or offers the privacy you may want. For the most part, most VPN services you see advertised are not as private and secure as they present themselves to be.
Here's what to look for in a VPN service:
No log policy. You want to see it explicitly defined in the VPN terms of service or privacy policy that they do not keep logs.
Not US or UK based. Any VPN service based in those countries is completely subject to government warrants and subpoenas. Additionally, many of the most popular VPN services also share and sell your info with Big Data.
No data sharing. Look in the privacy policy and/or terms of service and make sure it contains an explicit statement of not sharing or selling your data.
VPN service is a MUST for people who travel frequently. Hotel, airport, even restaurant wi-fi all track and share your data. Additionally, many open (free) wifi networks are highly susceptible to hackers. In major worldwide cities, there are hackers that just sit at airports and try to compromise unsuspecting people all day: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/29/its-time-to-take-warnings-about-using-airport-public-wi-fi-seriously.html
For home internet usage, VPN is like the outer wall of your privacy defense. We've covered DNS servers, browsers, and browser extensions. Those all are necessary privacy and security steps, and using VPN service is the strongest outer layer of armor. The downside is that VPN significantly lowers your internet speed. Some VPN services are faster than others, but you will almost never get your maximum ISP speed when connected to VPN.
There is a lot more involved with online privacy, but these are the basics. Implementing the above sections will make you and your online acivity significantly more private and more secure. I know this is a lot of info for the average consumer, but I believe privacy and security is worth at least this much effort.
Please feel free to use the contact form on the main page if you need help with any of these items.