Why is anonymity important?
One of the first questions you may be asking is why should you care about being anonymous online? There are many reasons for this including but not limited to privacy, protection of personal information and even protecting yourself from cybercriminals looking to make a buck off of your vulnerabilities. In 2022 we are in an age where cybercrime is extremely common and as a result of this it is paramount that you ensure your privacy, safety and anonymity while browsing the internet.
Ways you can protect yourself
One simple way to get base protection while doing general internet browsing is through employing the use of a VPN or proxy service. This however, comes with some downsides such as slower internet speeds and the user being blocked against some services such as Netflix. To combat this, I recommend employing the use of a high quality residential proxy service. I personally recommend IPRoyal which you can go to using the link on the IPRoyal text. Residential proxies are proxies which use an actual ISP (internet service provider) which results in websites such as Netflix which block VPNs being unable to see that you are actually using a proxy! As a result of this you will be unblocked on most (if not all!) websites while using the VPN. This ensures the highest degree of usability whilst also maintaining the privacy you are aiming towards.
Another easy way you can protect yourself is through using an opensource browser such as Brave or Firefox. This helps restrict the amount of tracking from services such as Google which have been known to collect mass amounts of telemetry data in the past. While on the topic of web browsers, I recommend installing extensions such as uBlock origin, HTTPS everywhere and other privacy orientated extensions which add an extra degree of privacy and security to your internet browsing needs.
The final way of protecting yourself I will be going over in this post is through the use of a telemetry blocking software or tool such as PiHole. This can be used to examine and block any unwanted traffic going to and from your computer meaning the user is in full control of what information they want to give out to big tech. As someone who uses this personally, I cannot recommend this enough as it has given me an amazing window into seeing how much personal data is leaked to large companies when you use their software. This can be fully customized to your liking and there is plenty of documentation online which can be used to assist you in setup.
Conclusion
In conclusion I recommend at the very least enlisting the help of a proxy service such as IPRoyal as it allows for an easy way to gain an extra layer of privacy with little to no costs. For the more extreme, I recommend using PiHole to add that barrier between your computer and the rest of the internet. This all however is configurable to your liking and I do recommend looking into this yourself so you can find the perfect balance between privacy, protection and usability. I hope you take my points into consideration and thank you for reading.
