London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2025

How to Prevent the Internet from Tracking You

How to Prevent the Internet from Tracking You

The internet is tracking your every click, every purchase and every "like." Here's how to go dark and prevent the internet from tracking you.

You are in a fishbowl, fully exposed to all the watchful eyes on the internet.

Big Tech has every click, every purchase, every “like” - going back at least a decade - cataloged and replicated across sprawling data centers the size of suburban shopping malls. Your digital history isn’t just for posterity, it’s for sale. And it’s valuable, fueling artificially intelligent systems used by groups such as political consulting firms to predict interests and behavior. It’s a highly lucrative bottom line: Google and Facebook, two companies that sell AI ad-targeting technology to the highest bidder, are valued at over a trillion dollars combined.

Most people don’t even realize they need to protect themselves, and even fewer know how. But it’s time to admit that the precautions you should have taken years ago are now just a start. Exactly how deep you want to go is up to you.


Step One: Protect Yourself

Large tech companies aren’t the only ones out for your data. Organized cybercriminals and rogue hackers trade known vulnerabilities to break into phones and computers for financial gain. On dark-web markets, “fullz” - a full set of personal information, including Social Security number, birth date, address - can sell for a few hundred dollars if the credit score is right.

The good news is that subpar digital security is one of the easiest things to fix. First step: examine every URL. Do you trust the site? Will it infect your computer with a drive-by download? Are you staring at an imposter page designed to steal usernames and passwords? Only install software from sites you absolutely trust, and run downloads through VirusTotal, a free service (owned by a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc.) that checks for malware by running files through dozens of antivirus services.

To protect your growing number of logins, use two-factor authentication with every site that supports it, from Amazon to Snapchat to your online bank, and faithfully apply software updates to patch vulnerabilities. Enable full disk encryption – standard on Windows 10 and OS X Yosemite or later – which converts exfiltrated information into mumbo jumbo, making it worthless to prying eyes.

As a final precaution, revisit your passwords. All of them. Repeated names and phrases are a single point of failure; once cybercriminals break into one internet account, they have access to everything – email, social media, banks. Use a password manager like LastPass to generate and store strong, unique passwords. Also consider buying a physical two-factor authenticator, such as Security Key ($20) or YubiKey 5 NFC ($45) from Yubico.


Step Two: Avoid Detection

If you’re wary that Facebook manipulates users with AI to boost engagement, as critics charge, there’s a simple fix: delete your Facebook account. If you can’t quite take that leap, at least reduce your footprint on social media. Unfriend everyone you don’t know. Install Social Fixer to turn off Facebook’s AI-ranked posts and ads; the plug-in lets users choose from ready-made filters that strip newsfeeds of unwanted subjects (like politics) or keywords (“Putin”). If you want to do something similar on Twitter, try Larry Filter.

Even creepier: it’s time to worry about facial recognition. Today’s software can identify objects and people - not just who those people are but what they’re doing and how they feel doing it. Amazon Web Services provides image recognition technology to companies and developers on a pay-per-use model, and use of the tech is widely unregulated. One previous client: the White House.

You can opt out of facial recognition on Facebook, with one catch: the software has to remember you in order not to recognize you. Instagram is no better: photos posted there are stored in Facebook’s data centers, where the company pulls identities and context from the photos and stories. Next time you consider a selfie, ask yourself how much that like is really worth.


Step Three: Close the Blinds

Ditch Chrome for Firefox. Google’s business model depends on collecting and monetizing your data. Firefox is operated by Mozilla, a nonprofit corporation that promotes privacy.

Toggling Firefox’s Do Not Track setting tells websites not to track you, meaning ad networks won’t be able to spam you with ads for products you browsed on other sites. The catch: there’s no legislation or regulation requiring companies to honor this setting, and a website can ignore it with little or no consequence. The fix: a browser extension called Privacy Badger prevents uncooperative websites from using third-party tracking, while another called uBlock Origin uses customizable lists to block ad servers. Install both.

Also, it’s hard to hide from Google when you’re googling. Switch to an anonymous search engine like StartPage, Qwant or DuckDuckGo. The results are generated independently from your identity or geography since these sites don’t store personal information.


Step Four: Cover Your Tracks

It’s time to disassociate from Verizon, Comcast or whatever internet service provider (ISP) gets you onto the web. Most people do this with a virtual private network (VPN), such as NordVPN, which encrypts web traffic and assigns users a virtual IP address. This means no one can pin your internet use to a physical location.

To stay truly anonymous, you’ll want to purchase the VPN service through Tor, a group of volunteer-operated servers that let you surf the web anonymously, using a fake email account. Use a prepaid Visa card and a burner phone — preferably one bought with cash at a garage sale with cash.

You’ll also need your own Wi-Fi router, not the cheap one that your ISP rents to you monthly with your internet service plan. Get a Linksys WRT3200ACM ($179) or ASUS AC5300 ($245) — both are fast and customizable. No matter what you choose, pay for it with cash and bolster its defenses by installing DD-WRT, an open-source, Linux-based firmware that gives you additional security options.


Step Five: Become a Nomad


If you’ve completed steps one through four properly and practice good operational security, only a supremely sophisticated entity, like a nation-state’s security agency, will be able to penetrate your defenses. But there is a deeper level of impermeability.

To become a true nomad, untethered from any fixed position on the internet, you need to boot your computer from a USB stick carrying TAILS, or The Amnesic Incognito Live System. This replaces default operating systems, like Microsoft Windows or macOS, ensuring your browsing activity is both anonymous and immune from forensic discovery. Buy a USB stick with at least eight gigabytes of storage from a reliable manufacturer like SanDisk or Kingston Technology.

Still, a thorough scan of your network activity could identify a Tor browsing session — a way in. The only unassailable defense: make public internet connections in public cafés and libraries, and never return to the same location twice.

Then and only then will you truly be a ghost in the machine.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
×