Tools for Privacy Protection When Browsing the Web
This message highlights a couple web search and browsing tools that are getting popularity recently. These tools are focused on protecting internet users' privacy while searching and browsing online.
Search-Privacy Issues
Privacy concerns about information-sharing about our web searches have gotten to be a major issue for a lot of internet users.
Most of us using familiar commercial search services have noticed a disturbing tendency for subjects that we search one day to pop up in ads and spams on our computer screen the next day.
Google now accounts easily for two thirds or more of PC-based search market share, and over 80 percent of mobile share.
Given that dominance, Google's information sharing practices are the most widely mentioned in news stories about privacy worries. Other big-name search sites and engines (e.g. Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, Yandex) are not without their privacy issues either.
This past year I've received an increasing number of questions and reports from people about being contacted even by phone about subjects they had typed into their web browser search boxes just a day before. This can be especially disturbing when we do searches on medical or financial subjects that companies use to target seniors.
Privacy worries have led more and more internet users to seek out alternative search tools. One of the better current surveys of alternate search sites that I've found is posted on University of San Francisco's Law School site at http://legalresearch.usfca.edu/SearchEngineAlternatives . One of the search listings on the USFCA page that jumped out at me right away is DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo - A Tool for More Private Searches
I've noticed this site gaining popularity around here by word-of-mouth. DuckDuckGo users seem to be very loyal and enthusiastic about their experience with it. So naturally I've been checking it out and I must conclude it's worth trying.
DuckDuckGo may be a good alternative for doing searches especially if privacy is becoming a serious concern for you. Located at duckduckgo.com , DuckDuckGo is an Internet search engine that emphasizes search privacy protection.
Unlike the big-name search sites, DuckDuckGo shows the same search results to all users rather than profiling its users to deliver custom results.
DuckDuckGo draws from multiple search data bases. Based on test searches I've done, the quality of DuckDuckGo's search results in terms of relevance seems at least as good as the big-name engines, perhaps better. Although the number of results may be fewer, and some of the search-refinement tools may be a bit more limited, there seems to be less "commercial junk" in results listings.
You can use DuckDuckGo with any browser software, but one additional option worth considering is to install Tor Browser on your machine.
Tor - An Anonymous Web Browser
Tor is both a network and a browser. The Tor network is a series of volunteer-operated nodes and relays that route web traffic in a way designed to ensure anonymity. Actually, Tor Browser is a "fork" of Mozilla's Firefox browser, modified to ensure privacy and to work with the Tor network.
This may be more important now than in the past because regulation of internet providers has been relaxed with regard to tracking of our internet use.
Since your internet company is handling the web address requests you send out, then that company also has a record of all the search URL requests sent out from your machine. Tor can mask these.
Currently the Tor Browser defaults to using DuckDuckGo for web searches. In the past it used a tool called Disconnect but has replaced it for reasons too detailed to cover here.
Getting Tor installed generally is a smooth process but I have noticed signs of internet provider interference with Tor and other privacy-centered tools and networks. Also, it's easy to get sidetracked and rerouted to decoy sites and tools if you're not careful about where you get the download file. Your best bet is to go directly to torproject.org, or to get installation help.
TorBrowser once installed will not appear on your Apps lists. It's a "portable" app. Basically the installation simply unzips it to a folder on your drive and places a shortcut link for it on your desktop. Uninstalling simply involves removing the folder from your computer - something you would never do nowadays with most programs.
By the way, although I focus in this message on computer hosted apps, there is a Tor app available for private browsing on your mobile phone or device also.
What About Windows Privacy?
I don't necessarily recommend replacing your existing browser or dumping Google altogether. Many of us enjoy the plus sides of getting customized results.
However, adding DuckDuckGo and/or Tor to your computer gives you the option of doing selected searches more privately, and you can use either tool at your convenience without removing what you already have installed.
Users giving especially high priority to privacy might even consider setting up an alternate User account on Windows to do their Tor browsing. But it's not necessary.
Another option worth considering is to modify your Windows account privacy settings, especially for Windows 10.
These settings generally are set with Microsoft's own default values when you do your initial Windows user setup on a new or upgraded computer. They can be modified at any time according to your own personal privacy preferences.
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