How you’re tracked online — and what we can do about it

Though Facebook gets a courtesy given of a new remoteness gaffe, a amicable network is distant from alone in collecting large amounts of information on we to assistance marketers sell we stuff.

Google, for one, also does endless tracking to energy a promotion engines. And many other websites and apps run ads sole by Facebook and Google and sell information with them. Beyond that, copiousness of services, including Uber and Amazon, keep minute histories on you.

Here are some of a ways to retard or minimize such tracking — yet they come with trade-offs.

Tracking IDs

Websites have prolonged used singular IDs in “cookies” — information files stored in your browser — to know it’s we when we lapse a week later. Cookies also let promotion networks run by a likes of Facebook and Google bond we as we revisit mixed websites. Phones and tablets have a device promotion ID that apps can use to lane you.

But we can reset a cookie ID by clearing cookies periodically. Most browsers also have a private mode to extent tracking by cookies, yet it’s not foolproof. Companies can still couple we if you’ve sealed in, for instance. As for a device ID, we can reset that or tell advertisers not to aim ads by a phone’s settings.

Many browsers also let we implement add-ons that retard ad trackers. Notable add-ons embody Ghostery or a Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Privacy Badger.

The trade-offs are that you’ll still get ads, usually not targeted ones. And clearing cookies creates your browser forget who we are, so you’ll have to pointer behind into any site that was saving your login. Tracker blockers can infrequently forestall websites from displaying or operative properly.

Location services

Many apps need your plcae to work. Mapping apps, for instance, can’t tell we when to spin but meaningful where we are. Video services typically have rights usually in certain countries and need to determine your location. But plcae can be used for many more. Google, for instance, keeps a sincerely minute comment of your locale by a underline called Timeline.

You can spin off plcae services in a phone’s settings, yet for apps to work property, it’s improved to spin them off for specific services that don’t unequivocally need them. As for Timeline, we can postponement or undo plcae story in Google settings.

However, some apps won’t work but your location. Others, such as continue apps, will need we enter your plcae manually. And we competence skip out on recommendations such as improved travelling routes around apps like Waze.

Signing in

Signing into an online comment gives services a sure-fire approach of tracking you. Facebook won’t work during all but an account; Google merely works improved with one. And you’ll generally need an comment with any use that charges you, nonetheless infrequently we can pointer in with your Facebook or Google ID instead.

Resist formulating an comment or signing whenever we can — such as when you’re merely browsing rather than buying. Avoid regulating Facebook or Google IDs whenever possible, as those companies could afterwards lane you. You can also use a opposite email residence for any comment to perplex efforts to bond we opposite services, nonetheless it can be a vital pain.

But some services need signing in, and formulating accounts on any use means some-more passwords to remember (though we competence cruise regulating a cue manager). Whatever we do, don’t reuse a same passwords opposite service; that creates them easy to hack.

IP address

The Internet Protocol residence lists where your phone or mechanism lives on a internet; it’s how we get messages and bucket websites. But IP addresses can also assistance companies remember who we are and couple a several inclination we use, given many homes use a singular IP residence for a whole network. Databases can also map IP addresses to earthy locations.

You can facade your IP residence by regulating a secure intermediary. VPN services, common in corporate settings, will track your trade by a apart IP address; a secure web browser called Tor automatically sends trade by mixed third parties. You still need to equivocate signing in.

Bear in mind that Tor can delayed down performance, quite with high-data tasks such as video. And with VPNs, we need to trust a VPN operator, either that’s your trainer or a private service.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/how-to-minimize-tracking-users-online-facebook-google-1.4601125?cmp=rss