Can your browsing history be traced

A frequently asked question is: Can my boss see what I do online? The answer is yes. Therefore it might be best not to play any Facebook games during work hours. You can adjust the privacy settings of Windows 10 and iOS in order to keep yourself as safe as possible while using their systems. To get somewhat of an idea of the data your operating system saves, have a look at the parental control programs that are built into the system.

With parental control, you can keep an eye on the online activities of your kids. This information is all sent to you through your operation system, which means the system itself has access to all this data.

Just like your ISP, your operating system is also required by EU law to give you a full report on any collected data. Windows gives this possibility as well. The websites you visit often collect information about you. They use your data in order to improve their services or make specific functions available to you. This is why you need a login name and password on different social media websites. By collecting data and placing cookies, websites can easily track your online behavior.

Actually, cookies are mostly very useful: they make sure you have a faster and easier internet experience. They remember your login and enable websites to adjust their ads to fit you better. The information cookies collect is also being sent to the websites themselves.

They even have to explicitly ask their EU visitors for permission. Websites use cookies to collect information. Just like websites, search engines also collect a lot of information on their users. Each search you do and every link you click says something about who you are.

This data is often collected and saved. The most popular search engine in the world, good old Google, has a unique position when it comes to data collection. Many of those ads are personalized using the data Google has collected. So, in essence, Google actually makes its money by selling your user data to other parties. Because of the many services Google owns, the company has gigantic databases of information on its users. With all the data flowing from these platforms, Google can form a scarily accurate profile of you.

Whether it concerns information about your future plans or the way you look, Google knows. DuckDuckGo uses the Tor-network, which allows for strong levels of encryption to ensure anonymity.

Apps on your computer, laptop, tablet and smartphone also receive part of your online data. Every app has access to information you send and receive within that app. The sort and amount of information collected differs per app. For example, GPS apps and most dating apps will need your location in order to function properly, while other apps need an email address to allow you to create an account. Usually, each app has its own privacy agreement, which states what they use your data for.

This is always the case in the Apple Store, because Apple made having a privacy agreement a requirement for all apps that want to be included in the store. As mentioned before, ISPs are often required by law to save your data for a certain period of time. Local governments or police can ask your ISP for this data as part of an investigation.

This is one of the ways in which governments could gain access to your online data. This information can be used to fight cyber crime. In some countries, illegal uploaders are identified this way.

If you're using a computer that's on a logged school or work network, you'll still leave tracks. As such, if you use private browsing to sneak in some online gaming time, the logs will catch you and get you into trouble. You'll need a way to encrypt or redirect your outgoing traffic to fool the logs. If you're using private browsing to stop a website from knowing who you are or where you're logging in from, you may want to reconsider!

Your traffic doesn't have any additional encryption when you use private browsing. This means that the websites you visit can log where you're connecting from. Some websites will deny you access if you're from a blacklisted country. You'll see these blocks on websites such a region-sensitive TV program sites, where only residents of that country can watch videos.

Using private browsing will still reveal your geographical location and won't skirt past the block. If you do want to trick websites into thinking you're from somewhere else, you're going to need a VPN.

This means that any websites you visit will think you're connecting from the country the server is in, rather than where you are. All you have to do is connect to a server that's in the country you want to appear from, and you're set. These are really valuable when you're trying to connect to region-locked websites: just connect to a server located in the country the service is based in and you're free to browse.

So far, private browsing doesn't seem all that secret. Unfortunately, we've only covered your traffic as it leaves the building you're in, and when it arrives at the destination. We've yet to dig into the hidden half of the iceberg, which is everything between these two points. Some prying eyes aren't malicious. Your ISP, for example, will log your activity to ensure you're not doing anything illegal.

Private browsing doesn't mask your browsing habits from them, so blockades will still catch you. More sinister agents include users initiating a man-in-the-middle attack.

Advertisers belonging to an ad network place cookies on a site to get data about when someone visits it. These advertisers extract your interests and preferences through this data and share it with members of that ad network, so as to better advertise their product. To stop such activities, you could change it from browser privacy settings and from there turn on Do Not Track option.

This is because many sites do not cater such requests. However, downloading browser plugins for the anti-tracking purpose could block all sites from tracking. Plugins, such as Privacy Badger, Ghostery, or Disconnect, stop all intrusive ads by blocking cookies and prevent advertisers to build your profile based on your internet activities. Your browsing activity could also be tracked through your IP address. All the above options are really helpful at keeping you away from marketers by blocking tracking cookies.

This protects your location and browsing information from being exposed as your real identity is not on display. A private browser with plugins, proxies, and setting changes could give you an excellent and anonymous browsing experience. Private browsers protect you from being tracked and bring all the above-mentioned features. You could enable proxy by turning it on from the toolbar in a private browser.

Epic Privacy Browser, for instance, is based on Chrome but with specialized settings that could stop trackers following your activities. You will still see ads but without being tracked, and your homepage will show the information about how many trackers have tried to observe your activity.

This obscurity gives you a measure of privacy from other people who share your computer, because they will not be able to see which sites you visited during an incognito session.

Your employees can also use it to try to mask their viewing of questionable content on work computers. Private browsing protects your privacy in most ordinary Web browsing situations, such as when you use your stand-alone computer at home and want to hide your online Christmas gift purchases from your family. Most average computer users cannot track your private browsing activity.

Your private browsing session runs as an isolated session, so you can be logged into several accounts at once, such as your email and social networking accounts.