We have scoured the internet and discovered some great tools to help you maintain your Privacy and keep you secure from tracking and online profiling.
With the advent of Social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter we have become much more open to the idea of sharing personal details on the internet. But while the thought of casually sharing some pics of our weekend bar-b-que with friends is a great way of keeping in touch with our various social circles - we do need to be smart and take some precautions while surfing the information super highway. Some things just don&’t need to be shared.
Most of the tools outlined below are Free or reasonably priced with a focus on macOS and Safari users. Although all information provided is relevant for all Desktop operating systems. The situation for mobile browsers requires a different approach and is beyond the scope of this article.
What Do I Need?
A Good Cookie Manager
Cookie by SweetP Productions
Your first line of defense should be a good Cookie manager. Every site you visit on the internet potentially saves cookies to your computer, leaving a trail of where you&’ve been and what you&’ve looked at. This may sound innocent, but advertising companies use this information to profile you and sell to the highest bidder. This can be seen by some as beneficial, as now you see ads targeted more to your personal tastes - but there is also the potential for hackers to steal personal information.
Cookie is an advanced cookie manager which gives you complete control over which cookies you keep and which are deleted.
An Adblocker
Adblocking with Adguard extension
Whilst not technically required to mitigate any security threats, a good adblocker will make your browsing experience much more pleasant and can have the added bonus effect of speeding up page loads.
Adguard Adblocker by Adguard is a fantastic adblocker with many customizable features
A Script Blocker
Ghostery by Cliqz International GmbH i.Gr.
Script blocking should be a priority for anyone interested in maintaining a degree of privacy on the internet. What a script blocker does is disable the running of blacklisted javascripts, which can be used for tracking and profiling you.
Ghostery by Cliqz International GmbH i.Gr. is a popular choice for script blocking and is easily configured.
Learn More About Script Blocking
DNS Encryption
DNSCrypt to avoid DNS leaking
DNS encryption can provide protection from “Man-in-the-middle” attacks via DNS leaking. DNS leaking is a major privacy concern potentially allowing third parties to monitor and intercept all internet requests you make.
DNSCrypt-OSXClient makes using DNSCrypt a breeze.
Learn More About Dns Encryption
Mac Address Spoofing
WiFiSpoof by SweetP Productions
MAC address spoofing provides an extra layer of security from hackers when browsing public WiFi networks. It is not really of much benefit when browsing your own home network, unless of course you leave your network open for anyone to connect.
WiFiSpoof is a great macOS app for managing your MAC address.
Learn More About Mac Address Spoofing
Be Smart, Stay Safe and avoid online Tracking
By utilizing all the tools outlined here, not only will your internet sessions be more secure, but they have the added benefit of speeding up your browsing! For even extra security, you can also look into utilizing a VPN while browsing.
Good luck! and Stay safe out there.