• Forum has been upgraded, all links, images, etc are as they were. Please see Official Announcements for more information

Browser tools

pbleak

Active member
Before I move on to the tricky stuff (encryption, PGP, email, chat and hosting) there is one area where we can all easily secure ourselves and that is browsing habits. In the following I assume everyone has followed the advice not to use Chrome (due to Google connections) and is using, at least, Firefox and is happy to customise.

Prism-break have a solid list here, but I want to offer the essentials and curate the rest. For me the absolute essentials are: Adblock Edge: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/ Adblock keeps the advertisers at bay by literally blocking their noise. If they cannot present themselves to you then they cannot begin their usual processes of tracking you.

However, since many advertisers know Adblock exists they aim to follow your browsing habits. To this end the best solution for unbinding the thread they follow is: https://disconnect.me/disconnect Disconnect disrupts the pattern-analysis websites engage in undermining the secondary process that they might use when attempting to advertise to you (by proxy).

Another useful tool is: https://prism-break.org/en/projects/self-destructing-cookies/ OK, this one does not need much explanation. It kills tracking cookies. They do have an annoying pop-up, but go to add-ons and kill the notifications to move this into the background.

Finally one ought to use: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere This one is rather simple. You *should* when it is possible use https. It is not always possible, but https-everywhere tries to force it in as many circumstances as is feasible. It's a simple tool and there is no reason not to have it as an add-on.

PB lists a few other tools that I consider over-the-top. One is Request Policy that more or less renders a broad chunk of the internet unusable. If you are using it you are already an ultra-paranoid privacy head and can safely continue your adventures. I think it is more trouble than it is worth (I presume most people un-install it quite quickly). Noscript is another hardcore measure which turns off Javascript. This is essential in Tor, but not quite helpful for most people. If you really, really care about privacy then turn off Javascript and this tool can force that. But it will, again, mean giving up on a lot of what the net has to offer beyond what I consider reasonable privacy concerns. Cryptocat is simply an instant messaging system that one can opt for and needs no major discussion here (I will discuss it in the messaging section).

Once you have settled on what to add check out just how trackable you are here: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

If you seem to be faring not as well as you'd hope you may need to alter some basic Firefox settings (for instance, go to Privacy settings in Firefox and tell sites you do not want to be tracked and ensure that Data Choices are privacy-oriented). It's also worth looking into minor points such as turning off Flash cookies (right-click the next youtube video you watch for an example of how silent that tricking is).
 
Back
Top