Recent Developments in Health Technology

Who spies on you when browsing? So you can protect yourself

The privateness is a totally crucial factor for Internet users. Our statistics may be compromised for many unique reasons whilst we enter an internet web page, use a program or provider on the network. Luckily we also have methods and equipment that we are able to use to protect ourselves and prevent personal records from being exposed. In this article we're going to speak approximately how they could spy on us while browsing and what to do to avoid it.

Why it is important to maintain privacy

Whenever we browse the web, we must bear in mind the importance of preserving our privacy. Personal data has great value. They can be used to include us in spam campaigns, send targeted advertising or even sell them to third parties. The web pages we visit, the services and platforms where we are registered, may have interests in obtaining information from users in order to profit financially. In this way, they use different methods and strategies (some legitimate and others not) to obtain that data.

For all this it is very important to maintain our privacy . We must not expose information, give clues about what device we use, what programs we have installed, etc. This way we can also avoid problems that put our security at risk. One of the most elegant solutions to improve our privacy when browsing the web is to use DNS servers with malware filtering, tracking cookies and much other content that threatens our privacy and security. For example, the popular Cloudflare DNS service has DNS 1.1.1.2 that will allow us to filter all malware at the DNS level, in this way, we will be somewhat more protected if we use these DNS at the network level in our router. , or on a certain PC if we configure it specifically. These trackers can be useful to offer us effects tailored to our region, tastes, and so on. But they could also compromise our privacy. They could sell that information to 0.33 parties, for example.

Who can spy on us on the Internet

As we have indicated, there are many interested in collecting our data that may be on the Internet. Let's see who are the main actors that could put our privacy at risk.

Website trackers

The crawlers web pages certainly are one of the bands that could jeopardize our privacy and spy on us techwadia. Basically what they do is collect information about the sites we visit, the time we spend on a website, where we have registered, what we have bought ...

These trackers can be useful to offer us results adapted to our location, tastes, etc. But they could also compromise our privacy. They could sell that information to third parties, for example.

Social media

Social networks are widely used by users on the Internet. They serve to be in contact with friends and family, inform us, upload images or videos ... But we must also bear in mind that it is a type of platform where our data can be exposed.

This type of service can collect information about pages that we follow, who we have added as contacts, where we are, what sites we have visited ... At the end of the day, there is a lot of data that we can put.

Programs we use

We must also mention the programs we use. The software that we install in the system could collect information from our team, name, email ... Sometimes they ask for information of this type.

But we could also install some kind of program that has additional software added for the sole purpose of spying on us. It can be a source of income for some free programs.

The networks we connect to

On the other hand, the wireless networks to which we connect, or more specifically those that manage them, could serve to spy on us. They can also collect information on users, the equipment they use, the sites where they navigate, and the services they have opened. If you are going to make use of these public WiFi wireless networks that are not yours, then our recommendation is that you use VPN services, even if they are free VPN services like the one offered by Cloudflare with its WARP VPN, although we recommend using services paid (but very cheap) such as Surfshark, NordVPN, PureVPN and other services, because they will give us access to dozens of servers to bypass any regional blockade.

What to do to avoid privacy problems when browsing

For everything we have mentioned we can take into account some tips. The aim is to prevent our personal information from being compromised. We are going to show some essential recommendations to improve your security and privacy when browsing the Internet.

Do not expose more information than necessary

One point to keep in mind is to avoid exposing more information than necessary. For example, in social networks, do not put our email address visible, do not open the profile to those who are not contacts, do not publish our location, etc.

There is a lot of data that we can expose on the net without realizing it. Also when using forums on the Internet or writing a comment on any web page. We must not make public information that may be available to anyone.

Be careful with which services we link to social networks

We have seen that social networks can be used to spy on us , however the services that we link to them can also do so. Hence the importance of being careful with other programs or pages that we can link to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

It is common that when logging into a page or platform they allow us to do it directly with Facebook. But this could be a privacy issue as they could access personal information.

Use more private browsers

Another issue that we can take into account is to use more private browsers . Some of the most popular are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, but we have many more options at our disposal. Some are more focused on security and protecting our data, such as the Tor Browser browser, however, one of the safest and most private is Firefox itself because it hardly collects browsing information and is quite "open", you could also use Chromium which is the basis of Google Chrome but without Google services.

Browser extensions

The browsers themselves also have extensions available to improve privacy. In the case of Chrome, which is the most used, it has a wide range of add-ons that can be used to protect our data when browsing. We can also find it in others like Mozilla Firefox. Having extensions to improve our privacy on the Internet is very interesting, for example, extensions such as NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere and many others will allow us to add an extra security.

Use VPN

Whenever we surf the Internet on public networks we can expose privacy and security. Networks can be insecure and we don't really know who might be behind it. What a VPN does is encrypt the connection and thus protect the information.

In short, by following these steps we can improve privacy on the network. The objective is to prevent our personal information from being exposed and serve so that third parties can profit from or include us in campaigns that also put security at risk.