Online privacy — without compromise
These days, online privacy is more important than ever. With big companies knowing our every move, I think it’s time to take a step back and think about how we can make our online experience that little bit more private. The biggest stigma about online privacy is that it’s hard and not user-friendly. These days, that’s not true at all, and this article will show you how to reach the goal of online privacy without compromise — and even with some upsides that may surprise you.
The search engine
Everybody knows Google. Most of us depend on it for our everyday lives — heck it’s even become a verb! “google this” “google that” and so on. But as some of you may or may not know, Google tracks you. A LOT. For example, it knows what TV show you are watching. I was watching a show on Amazon Prime the other day and had articles about it popping up in Google news. that’s scary. But there’s a way for this not to happen, and it’s called DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a search engine built for private browsing, without compromising search results. It gives you very accurate results (at least from my experience using it) and it’s quite fast. Enabling DuckDuckGo is very easy. Simply launch your favorite web browser, go to Settings, search for “search engine” and pick DuckDuckGo from the menu. It’s that easy.
The web browser
Just like Google’s search engine, everyone knows and loves Google Chrome. the first thing you do on a new computer is probably opening internet explorer and installing Chrome. But, like the Google search engine, Chrome does not respect your privacy. Chrome tracks you. To tackle this, you have a few options.
Firefox
Firefox is a web browser developed by Mozilla. It is one of the most well-known web browsers, and it’s the default on most Linux distributions, and for good reason. Mozilla Firefox is opensource, privacy-respecting, and it’s fast, beautiful, and easy to install and use. To install Firefox simply navigate to this page:
And click install. Again, it’s that easy. But what if you wanted something a little more familiar, that looks and feels just like chrome?
Brave
Brave is a web browser based on Chromium. Chromium is the Opensource base for Chrome too, which means that the experience is very similar between the two, but there is one big difference — brave blocks trackers, and ads by default. The brave developers claim that by doing this, brave is three times faster than Chrome, and uses 35% less battery on your phone. That’s amazing! and just like everything else on this list, it’s super easy to install. go to:
And click the “Download Brave” button. Personally, I use Brave every day and I truly do recommend it.
Messaging
Many people use apps like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger to talk to friends and family. But just like google’s applications, these apps track you. To overcome this, you can install either Telegram or Signal. These two are amazing opensource, and privacy-respecting projects. But there’s a catch. Because these are messaging apps, you will have to convince your friends and family to make the switch too. Thankfully, These apps have cool features that could convince even non-privacy-conscious people to switch, and Telegram even allows you to import your old Whatsapp chat history. I can say that I have switched 90% of my conversations to Telegram, even my not tech-minded friends love Telegram! Installing either Telegram or Signal is very easy. Just go to your app store of choice, search for Telegram/Signal, and click install. Then set it up and tell all your friends and family!
Your Operating System
As of the time of writing, Microsoft Windows controls 87% of the desktop OS market share. That’s A LOT. Windows 10 can be a good OS for a lot of people, but it has one big flaw, like other services I have talked about before. it… you guessed it, tracks you. To avoid your OS tracking you, you can use Linux. But Linux, unlike the other services I showcased thus far, has some flaws. Some of your apps may not work, and it can sometimes be a bit of a hassle to get up and running. But once you do, man oh man the possibilities. I have already written about why I love Linux, and you can check that out here:
If you wish to give Linux a spin, I recommend starting with a Linux flavor named Pop!OS. It’s simple, beginner-friendly, and very privacy respecting.
Conclusion and final thoughts
These are just a few of my favorite ways to make your online life just that bit more private. Getting started with online privacy is surprisingly easy, and rewarding to do. I love it, and I hope that by following this guide, you will too!
