21 tips, tricks and shortcuts to help you stay anonymous online

Avoiding being tracked online is nearly impossible, but here are a few ways to reduce the risk.

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Consider installing Mailvelope.

Mozilla Screenshot of Firefox private window. Mozilla This is perhaps one of the most basic privacy options that just about anyone can take advantage of. The top four most popular browsers - Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari - have a private browsing mode, which can be found in their respective settings menus. With private browsing activated, your browser will not store cookies or internet history on your computer. This has very limited uses and is perhaps really only effective at hiding your browsing history from your significant other, siblings or parents. Private browsing does not securely hide your identity or browsing activities beyond your local machine as your IP address can still be tracked.

Dado Ruvic/Reuters A man is silhouetted against a video screen with a Twitter and a Facebook logo as he poses with a Dell laptop in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013. The amount of personal data that social networking sites like Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter have harvested from their billions of users is shocking. Head to facebook.com/settings and click Download a copy of your Facebook data and you might be surprised to see just how much information is on file. Everything from who you have poked, what events you have or have not attended and when and where you have logged into your account is logged and saved. Similar levels of data harvesting occurs on all major social media sites. This is the price you pay for using a free service. The only sure-fire way to avoid giving up this information is to delete your accounts entirely. A word of warning, deactivating your account is not the same as deleting it. Deactivating your account is sort of like putting it into hibernation - all your information is stored and can be re-activated if you have second thoughts. Always delete rather than deactivate an account if you wish to completely wipe it.

A large amount of websites track and collect the browsing habits of the users that visit them. These trackers are invisible and most people arent aware that theyre being tracked. Ghostery is a free browser extension - available on all major web browsers - that will reveal these trackers, also known as web bugs. You can then decide which web bugs youre comfortable with tracking you and which ones youd like to block. In total, Ghostery keeps track of over 1,900 companies. Each company has a profile in the Ghostery Knowledge Library, allowing you to better understand who and why someone is keeping tabs on you and what action you would like to take.

Getty Images Hushmail is currently very popular, it provides a private email account with no ads. Most of the well known and popular email services - Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook - are not particularly privacy-friendly. For full Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encrypted emails, consider signing up to a more secure provider. Hushmail is currently very popular, it provides a private email account with no ads, built-in encryption and unlimited email aliases. A limited free service is offered, with more features available for a monthly subscription fee. However, Hushmail is not above the law and in the past it has been forced to reveal user data to U.S. authorities following a court order. The company also logs user IP addresses. MyKolab is a similar service that has not revealed any user information in the past, however, they are also obliged to provide access to lawful interception requests so this still remains a possibility.

Arda Guldogan/Getty Images Keeping your real email address away from spammers is crucial to protecting your identity online. Disposable Email Addresses (DEAs) are anonymous and temporary. They allow users to quickly create new email addresses as-and-when theyre needed, which can then be disposed of after use. This is particularly useful for avoiding spam when filling in forms on websites that require an email address to proceed. Keeping your real email address away from spammers is crucial to protecting your identity online and DEAs are a great solution. Popular providers of this service include Guerrilla Mail and Mailinator, although there are hundreds out there to choose from. Most DEAs are not particularly secure, so it is not advised to use these services to send sensitive information - rather, use them as a way to avoid giving away your own information in situations where you are obliged to do so.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are one of the most effective ways to protect your privacy online. A VPN essentially hides your IP address - your unique online identifier - and runs all your online data via a secure and encrypted virtual tunnel, which can keep websites from tracking your online activity or even knowing which country youre browsing from. These days, there are many VPNs to choose from. Hotspot Shield, TorGuard, CyberGhost and HideMyAss are some of the more popular ones that are currently available. Most of them require a small monthly subscription fee and they dont all provide the same list of features, so its worth shopping around for a VPN that suits you.

Tor Tors anonymity network allows access to the deep or hidden web. Originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind as a way to protect government communications, Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. Tors anonymity network allows access to the deep or hidden web, where websites can be created anonymously and individuals can communicate privately with each other. When using the Tor browser - which can be downloaded for free from torproject.org - it is very difficult for websites or individuals to track your online activity and location. However, while Tor is quite effective at protecting your online anonymity, it can be slow, complicated and restricting. Its also worth noting that while the network can and has been used for good, it has also been used for illicit purposes, such as selling drugs and distributing images of child abuse.

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21 tips, tricks and shortcuts to help you stay anonymous online