How to Protect Your Online Privacy and Search the Web Freely

2011 was a year filled with tracking scandals. From the news that Facebook tracks its users and everything that they do, to Carrier IQ being found embedded in millions of smartphones. This tracking trend has made people rightfully mad, and many have been trying to find ways to stay below the tracking radars while browsing the web.

What can we do to stop being tracked?

Fortunately there are some great programs that can help hide you while you are on the web, but why would you want to stop being tracked on the web?

There are literally thousands of reasons that you would not want to be tracked while online. Have you ever wondered how each and every website you visit some how knows what you have been shopping for? Have you ever wondered how websites know your exact location? Tracking software is embedded into almost every single website that you visit.

What does the tracking software do?

Tracking software does exactly what you think it does, and much more. Tracking software has been collecting and selling web browser’s search data for years, so that advertisers can target each individual with ads that would be relevant to each user. The spy software adds cookies to your computer (without asking I might add), and then other websites access those cookies to see where you have been. It is a true vicious cycle.

Online data collection and the selling of that data brings in a whopping $25.3 billion dollars each year to tracking software companies, and that number is expected to grow by a stunning 36% to $34.5 billion by the end of 2012. It is safe to say that tracking on the web will not be going away, so what can consumers do to protect their privacy?

Anti-tracking software

There are some fantastic (and free) programs you can download to your PC or Mac right now that will block the tracking software that is embedded into websites.

Ghostery is perhaps the best free piece of software that any personal computer owner could ever download. Ghostery is a free piece of software that does more than simply send out requests to not be tracked (like some anti-tracking software). Ghostery automatically blocks any attempt, by any website that tries to track your online movements including Google’s DoubleClick and Microsoft’s Media Network tracking mechanisms.

Do Not Track Plus is another great piece of free software that is continually updated by a team of over 300,000 voluntary users who report fresh attempts of tracking. By using either piece of software you will be shutting the door on would-be marketers who would stick advertisements all over your web browsing experience. In fact a simple trip to cnn.com with either piece of software installed would show you that your simple trip to read the current headlines would get you tracked by 9 separate tracking companies.

If you do not want to be tracked anymore, simply download either Ghostery or Do Not Track Plus and you can be in complete control of your online privacy again. No more annoying pop-ups, no more targeted ads, and no more of your web searching data will be sold to the highest bidder. Download some peace of mind and make 2012 the year when we regain our privacy.

Sources

www.zenithoptimedia.com, USAtoday.com


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