Is it possible to browse the internet anonymously

Use a privacy-minded web browser. One example of an anonymous browser that hides your web surfing habits is Tor Browser , which encrypts the traffic and routes it through multiple servers. Search the web with a secure search engine like DuckDuckGo or Startpage , which promise to block advertising trackers and keep your search history private. Other search engines might tell the websites you're on what you were searching to get there, or share your habits with third-party companies to target you with ads, or disclose your search history to government authorities.

Avoid public Wi-Fi networks like in hotels and restaurants. It's unclear who's monitoring the traffic from the other side of the building, or what's going on behind the scenes when it comes to that business's security and privacy protocols.

In the same vein, don't connect to a Wi-Fi network unless it's using a modern encryption method like WPA2. To stay anonymous on Wi-Fi, make sure the network is using encryption. Use your web browser's private mode to prevent it from keeping track of the web pages you visited. Just close out of it when you're done to prevent saving any passwords and history. This anonymous browsing mode is helpful if you share your computer because the alternative is to use regular mode which does store a history of the pages you've opened and searches you performed.

Be mindful of cookies , and delete them if necessary. Cookies are important for storing login information so that a website can give you access to your online account. However, other websites might be able to access them to expose who you are and what you've been doing online. Web browsing is just one facet of the online world. If you use email, a web-based texting service, a file transfer website, etc. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.

Select personalised content. All of this information gets compiled into a profile about your interests, demographic categories, predicted buying behavior, and related data. But with a few tools, tips, and tricks, you can get a considerable level of anonymity. First, hide your IP address and physical location. You can do this using Tor, a proxy server, or VPN.

Avast SecureLine VPN creates your own personal virtual private network, which fully encrypts your connection and hides all your internet traffic. A VPN can instantly encrypt any network, making it an essential tool for protecting your sensitive personal data on public Wi-Fi. Are you worried about your communications being intercepted or read? Use anonymous email to encrypt your communications from end-to-end.

You can also choose an anonymous texting service for your mobile device. Avast AntiTrack protects your online identity by identifying and exposing trackers, then feeding them fake data to mask your activity and obscure your digital fingerprint.

Get it for Android , Mac. Get it for Android , PC. Get it for PC , Android. Get it for PC , Mac. Avoid Google and Bing, which are huge players in tracking and advertising. Try DuckDuckGo or another private search engine instead. Block online tracking and mask your digital identity with the built-in anti-fingerprinting technology in Avast Secure Browser. Plus, block ads, prevent phishing attacks, and get lightning-fast browsing. Avast Secure Browser even comes with a free unlimited VPN on mobile, so you can hide your IP address and encrypt your browsing data with just a single tap.

Keep reading. The whole point of special browsers and VPNs is to keep your private information private, right?

Cybercriminals are always on the hunt for your personal data, since it can help them unlock your accounts. Avoid social media. Tighten up your Facebook privacy settings and reign in your oversharing on Instagram. Sadly, no. Think about it: At one point, you signed up for your internet service, so they have your name, contact info, and billing info. Adopting Tor and Signal for your internet browsing and message sending needs is a good place to start.

Tor is the largest, most comprehensive, and highly effective meta-data resistant piece of software designed to promote privacy and anonymity. Tor has developed a bit of a bad reputation because it is favored by criminals looking to keep their illegal activities secret, but it has also been a critical tool for journalists looking to research stories anonymously and has even partnered with Reporters Without Borders. However, using Tor comes with some complications: browsing the internet over Tor is slower than using other search engines, and some large web services block Tor users.

Tor is available for both desktop browsing Linux, Mac, and Windows and mobile browsing on both Android and iOS devices. Signal is a popular and highly effective messaging app that allows users to send and receive encrypted text messages, voice memos, audio calls, and video calls. Its user interface is similar to other popular messaging apps, making it easy to use even for less tech-savvy individuals.

Any network-level adversary can tell you are using Signal, and government agencies such as the CIA can still digitally peek over your shoulder using malware. Also, the metadata associated with Signal users is still available, so organizations such as the US government and Five Eyes are able to access Signal traffic to learn who is communicating with whom when they are communicating and how long they have been in communication.

Though the developers of Signal are aware of these shortcomings, metadata-resistant communication remains an unsolved technical problem. VPNs virtual private networks do not actually anonymize your browsing. Many of the tools you likely use every day, including Gmail, Office, and DropBox, know everything you do on their respective platforms; Google reads your emails, Office can access everything you write, and DropBox has the ability to open and examine all files you upload.

These three organizations, along with many more, are also Prism providers, which means they cooperate with mass surveillance programs and, as such, are willing to share anything you do on their platforms with the US government. While you can protect your privacy on these platforms by encrypting everything you do, you can also choose more privacy-conscious alternatives such as SpiderOak an alternative to DropBox or Protonmail as opposed to Gmail.

You should carefully vet these companies for yourself before using their products, but these zero-knowledge options are certainly worth exploring further.

Though Apple recently released an update designed to improve user privacy and security including limiting photo and location access, discouraging Wi-Fi tracking, and at a future date, limiting app tracking , both Apple and Android users should still take the time to check their app permissions. Many apps request greater permissions than they need including camera and microphone access, location data, and other information , raising security and privacy concerns.

Be sure to periodically check your app permission settings and revoke unnecessary permissions. Ads used to be targeted at wide demographics, using a one-to-many broadcasting model. However, targeted advertising now means that what ads you see while browsing the internet are specifically tailored to you to maximize your chances of clicking a link or buying a product or service.

This personalization is possible because of online tracking. To block ads at the network level, you may want to consider a DNS adblocker such as Pi-hole. DNS ad blockers are basically DNS domain name system servers that act as DNS sinkholes, blocking ad traffic by checking requests from your browser in this case, coming from advertisers who want to serve you ads against your client hosted DNS server, which contains a list of domains that usually serve ads.

If a requester is on that list, their request is denied, blocking the ads before they even reach your computer. This approach is usually done via hardware for example, Pi-hole requires a Raspberry Pi. Technically savvy readers who use Windows may want to consider checking out this handy guide on DNS-level ad Blocking from Privacy International.

In order to know when to update your grocery list, play a requested song, or call your parents, these devices need to be constantly listening for instructions. You can simultaneously connect to the internet with up to five devices on just one subscription. ExpressVPN is highly suitable for those who want to be able to surf, stream and download with complete anonymity.

ExpressVPN is very user-friendly. After getting a subscription, you can install the application and connect to a secure VPN server in just a few clicks. The app will run on the background of your device while you can browse and stream as usual. If you want to know more about this provider, please read our full review of ExpressVPN. CyberGhost is a user-friendly VPN provider that helps you browse anonymously.

They have a large number of servers all over the world, which makes it extremely easy to find a server that suits your needs. Their servers will make sure you can browse the internet without any restraints. You can even use Netflix and freely download torrents with CyberGhost. The CyberGhost app is very easy to use, and if you have trouble figuring it out, CyberGhost also has a great customer support team that can help you. This way, you can browse anonymously and safely at all times. Some free VPNs register the sites you visit and resell this data to advertisers.

But which browser is the best to use in this case? Different popular browsers have very different ways of dealing with user privacy. They also have different levels of safety. And for a more thorough analysis, you can always take a look at our in-depth article on privacy-friendly browsers. Microsoft Edge is the official successor of Internet Explorer and still gets regular safety updates, as opposed to IE.

This, and other ways in which Microsoft lacks in terms of privacy, lead us to advise you to stay away from Edge if you want to focus on protecting your privacy. The Chrome browser supports several pop-up blockers and other privacy-oriented browser extensions. Still, Chrome is the property of Google , which might have implications for your privacy.

Google profits from having as much data on its users as possible. For example, it has been questioned why Chrome users are often automatically logged in to their Google or Gmail accounts. This way, Google can trace all of your browsing activity and connect it to you as a person. This information is then synchronized across all your devices. Do you use an Android smartphone with apps like Google Maps? Then Google instantly knows even more about you.

If you value your privacy, there are some alternative browsers that might suit you better than Chrome. The browser has seen the introduction of new features that stop digital fingerprinting , making it a lot harder for other parties to follow you online. It also has Intelligent Tracking Prevention. This automatically deletes first-party tracking cookies that websites place in the Safari browser after seven days.

Because of this system, websites are able to track visitors for a much shorter length of time. Aside from that, Safari offers some useful extensions that improve your online privacy. To kick things off, Firefox has several security features, such as protection against phishing and malware.

Aside from that, Firefox users automatically receive a warning whenever a website tries to install add-ons. When it comes to privacy, Firefox is a very secure choice, also because it offers useful extensions that protect users against all sorts of tracking and privacy breaches. These add-ons are, more often than not, specifically for Firefox.

Contrary to most other browsers, Firefox is open source.