You are being tracked on internet

Time has arrived to think seriously about our privacy on the internet. Even if we cannot turn against the tracking done by the governments and giant companies, it will stand us in good stead if we are perfectly conscious of it.

Recent revelations tell it all: http://bit.ly/15aTRpw. This may be US-specific affair but any government can do it. And, according to reports, the US snooping program had one server placed even in India too.

No internet user is secure from the prying eyes of the governments or big companies. Those who do casual browsing may not worry. But what about those who attempt to keep their secrets or business plans online?

The governments may be doing the digital combing operations for security reasons. And, many users have been aware of the tracking of their browsing patterns and other web activities by some internet giants. The companies which do the tracking say that they are doing it to place more relevant advertisements before us. The companies also say they give us premium services for free because the cost is met through ads. It is known that some companies even read our emails. 

Should we bother?

Typically there are two kinds of reactions. While some say 'I just don’t bother' others say 'I am disturbed'.

I just don't bother

Some people are aware of it but cannot convince themselves that they face any genuine personal threat in it. Interestingly, there are a lot of people who are hardly aware of the tracking and say they do not bother about it.

I am disturbed 

Those who are bothered about their online privacy say that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right, which the the Constitution grants them. 'I am not doing anything ill online but I do not like to be tracked all the time without my knowledge,' is what they say.

Any safeguards?

There is not much one can do against it if the governments and big companies decide to track the online activities.

However, here are a few tricks which may work against those companies that do not use sophisticated tracking technology.

Disable cookies on browser

Email services work only when we allow the cookies on browsers. It may be a nice practice to clear the browser cookies after using the mail.

Another option is to enable the 'Do Not Track' function available on most modern browsers and to use the 'In Private' or 'Anonymous' modes. If the browsers perform the job they professes, that may ensure some safety. 

One can also use a browser like 'Tor' available for Windows PC and Anrodid platform. 

(To have any effect for 'In Private' browsing or Tor, we should not use any browser helpers or add ons. One must also watch out for the toolbars that get installed when some programmes are installed.) 

Tor browser is a bit slow. But renders the pages well.

Tor is not available on iOS platform. One of the browsers iOS users can try out is Ghostery. It even comes with DuckDuckGo (DDG) as the default search engine.