According to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, The age of privacy is over.
There’s’ people like me can’t buy the above argument. Of course, we like sharing information to everyone, but not everything, especially not all the time. Unfortunately, that is quite not possible for us to stay undetected on the internet. We’re leaving clear footprints all over the web and all the time, sometimes knowingly and most of the time unknowingly. If you’re a person who bothered about your privacy sometimes then you need a browsing setup that will hide all your personal information and will make to browse anonymously over the internet.
People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.
– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder.
This simple setup secures your browser, then your connection to the internet and finally your inputs.
1. Secure Browser setup
Incognito window is not a solution. In Google Chrome, it is called ‘Incognito’ and whereas in Firefox it is ‘Private Browsing’. I don’t recommend this. This private browsing still can bring all your personal details saved in your browser. This is not a foolproof method to hide your identity. Instead, I prefer a two-browser method. One if for normal usage and other one is entirely for secure usage. In my case, I use Chrome for all general purpose and Firefox for secure browsing. I won’t give any of my personal details while browsing through Firefox. Apart from this, there is plenty of advantage having two browsers. I don’t have to clear cache, history, and cookies. I can use all type of plugins and apps. I will post my privacy settings of Firefox in next article.
2. Securing Connection
You need an encrypted connection to hide your data in the transition from your phone to any website. Not only data/information, you also need to hide your whereabouts. i.e. your IP address, location etc. You can use a proxy to hide your IP and encrypted connection to hide data. VPN can offer you both. There’s plenty of VPN services you can find for best price at stacksocial. I personally using VPN-Secure. I bought the VPNSecure lifetime subscription for a cheap price in an offer. VPNSecure comes with a good Android app, from which you can secure all your phone’s connection to the internet in a single click. (there’s a free version available with some limited bandwidth).
Note: There are some free VPN services. I don’t recommend them. But there are few good VPN like TunnelBear offers free VPN up to 500mb bandwidth.
3. Securing your inputs
To the point, secure your keyboard inputs. Your keyboard still can collect some information. There’s no known case of keyboard breach in Android till date. But the keyboard itself collects data like words you type for better next word prediction and for other purposes. I use SwiftKey Keyboard’s Incognito option to stop collecting the words I type during the browsing. SwiftKey won’t records any form of data while you’re in your private browsing. Especially for predicting next word.
I can promise a great level of privacy while you browse if you follow these. Yet, this is not ‘that be all’ type of setup. This is a simple setup that everyone can create and use on their Android phone.