Each week, I’ll share a new way for you to stay connected with your friends and family. This Friday, I’m sharing some information about secure browsing. In a world of social distancing, streaming services, social hangouts, and intimate entertainment services have all spiked in usage. In a time in which the Senate is giving the FBI more snooping power, and fraud and scams increasing due to the pandemic, I thought this would be a good time to talk about navigating and using your favorite services safely, securely, and privately.

We’ve already had our chat on choosing the safest Chat app options for one-on-one and group communications. Sometimes, you want to view your content on a larger screen, and most of the time we’ll just pick up a computer and start browsing.

A couple of weeks ago, the US Senate has authorized the FBI to retrieve your browsing history and data from your computer without a warrant. (All in the name of fighting Counter Terrorism) Even if you’re doing nothing wrong, you may not want people to know all of your business. So this week, let’s chat about secure browsing.

One Cookie for You, One, Two Cookies for Me

Cookies are small bits of information that a website can use to identify who you are, determine if you’re logged in, where you’ve been, and what apps you’re using. Cookies are usually long strings of numbers and letters, an identifier (ID), that the website knows what to do with. Even my website uses cookies, and here’s what they look like. Cookies can have an expiration date and you’ll see this in action when you need to relogin on some sites. Cookies are also what allows you to just “walk-in” to a site without logging in each time. A lot of sites use cookies like Facebook’s Super Secret Tracking Cookie to push ads to you from other sites to get you to buy more crap. (It’s too bad these ad algos haven’t gotten smarter)

Thanks to GPDR and other laws, websites have to be more upfront about their use of cookies and to ask you to opt-in to them being used to track your movements on the site. Speaking of which…I need to do something.

Incognito Mode Browsing

Incognito mode browsing is the first step you can use to limit a cookie’s a reach. Incognito browsing doesn’t store cookies while you’re in the same session, and it doesn’t cache data when you’re visiting sites. Incognito mode also DOES NOT (or shouldn’t) preserve your browsing history. Which also includes URL completion from old websites. You can test this and verify this by making sure that sites you ONLY visit in Incognito mode aren’t autocompleted in your public browsing mode. If so, upgrade or use a different browser. I default to Incognito browsing when I’m visiting specific sites.

Incognito mode can be called other things on different browsers. It is called ‘Private Browsing Mode’ on Apple Safari.

If you’re bookmarking the sites you’re visiting in Incognito mode, you’ve missed the whole point of using Incognito mode.

Also, local storage and cookies are usually settings you have to set for the browser, make sure these are turned on.

IP Address Tracking

Incognito mode sounds great and all, but it does nothing for keeping your IP address private while you’re visiting websites, and it does nothing to make any local network information.

If you really, really want to keep your communications, location, and IP address secure and masked you’ll need to use a VPN. A VPN is a virtual private network. In essence, when you use a VPN, you are connecting to a separate network that is separated from the Internet. You are then given a private IP address on this network (similar to the local address you get on your local WiFi), and then you are connected to the Internet using another IP address that is connected to your local service.

This means that your local device’s location and IP address is unknown to remote servers. Additionally, if your VPN is setup properly, your communications are encrypted from your local device to the VPN, so even if someone was near the wire they wouldn’t understand what was contained in your communications.

Again, if you’re bookmarking sites, maintaining your browsing history, and accepting cookies you’re missing the whole point here. There are many VPN services on the Internet. Most of them are for pay, and you should really use one that is for pay instead of using some fools VPN in their basement. The VPN I’m most familiar with is ExpressVPN and their rates are very reasonable.

Many people use VPNs that are hosted in other countries so they can bootleg local TV such as Doctor Who.

Please check out this Wikiedia article for ideas on evaluating VPNs.

Super Super Secure Communications

There is a section of the Internet that has the darkest secrets, known as the Dark Web. The dark web is everything that isn’t indexed by Google, and is only accessible by anonymizing browser. The dark web is a huge amount of computers, and some estimate it may be 5% of the Internet or greater.

In order to access the dark web, you’ll need a browser that makes your communications more than private, but anonymous, and masks your traffic. You can access the dark web using The Onion Router, TOR, or other browsers that allow packet masking.

Browsing the dark web isn’t for the faint of heart, and the place isn’t as dark as it used to be after the FBI tracked down the owner of the Silk Road. TOR works by breaking up your communications into smaller bits, feeding those bits into a bunch of different proxy servers to route traffic, and then reassembling the bits into communications between the endpoints. As you can imagine the process is slow. Whereas big companies manage the routers and fiber for the greater Internet, volunteers manage this network of anonymizing dark web traffic.

Who invented TOR, the same people who invented the Internet. We can thank the US Naval Research Lab for making this for the expressed use of secure communications. LOL!

Staying Safe

So in the end, if you want to keep your browsing history safe, use Incognito or Private browsing mode on your browser, and DO NOT store cookies, use bookmarking, and maintain history.

If you want to keep your browsing private and secure, purchase a VPN service AND use Incognito browsing mode.

If you want to keep your browsing anonymous, use Tor.

Duck Duck GO

A special mention is needing for Duck Duck Go.

Duck Duck Go is a browser and add-on that provides private search. DuckDuckGo also provides an app extension for many web browsers that provides private search inside your existing browser. The service doesn’t maintain user settings and credentials, and doesn’t use ad tracking techniques. One of their tag lines is: We Don’t Store Your Personal Information. Ever.

I’ve only used DuckDuckGO while browsing the dark web. When I’m using the open Internet I’m usually searching for work or content I’m not too concerned with being searched. I’ll give this a shot the next time I’m searching for things of a more personal nature.