(1) Always use private browsing.
(2) Use "HTTPS Everywhere" (https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere)
(3) Use VPNs but only no log VPNs
(http://www.vpntips.com/hidemyass-alternatives/) or setup your own VPN
(4) If still feel paranoid, you can rent a encrypted, cloud based VPS and use
it to browse the Internet.
(5) Always say "NO" when asked to use your current location.
(6) Use duckduckgo
(7) Install Ghostery and ABP
(8) Don't use Tor
(9) Only use cloud storage services that use client side encryption
(10) NEVER upload any face pictures
1. Always use private browsing? I guess you can do this although it's
important to note that "private browsing" features in most browsers simply do
not store history. Since the history is stored on your own PC it's not as
bad, especially if you have an encrypted file system.
2. Yes, do do that.
3. I actually use Private Internet Access for VPN. I paid for it with
bitcoins as I do not have a credit card, plus it can potentially be more
anonymous if don't correctly. While I don't think PIA would do this, it's
still important to note that just because they say they "don't log", there is
no way to verify this, so take it for what it's worth. If you are downloading
torrents that aren't necessarily "approved" ;) to be downloaded, they also
offer SOCKS5 proxy.
4. Cloud is a nebulous term as it can mean just about anything. If you're
talking about VPS providers call them VPS providers. In regards to VPS
providers, it's important to note that the software on it is the image that
the provider uses, and the kernel is typically shared, like with OpenVZ
servers. What this means is you are not in control of the server, so even if
you can install a web browser or similar on it, the software you're running
is not in your control but in the control of the VPS provider. The solution
to this problem is to go dedicated and install the OS yourself that is free
software, but Dedicated servers are very expensive in a lot of cases.
However, I have found an alternative that seems to get the job done, sort of,
and this is useful for a lot of people, not just people who want to install a
web browser on a server, but many other server applications like mail
servers.
Get a Raspberry Pi. Before the Raspberry Pi was not complete free software,
but this has changed. Recently, Boardcom released the firmware for the
Raspberry Pi so it can now run 100% free software if you compile the kernel
and firmware yourself. You have to remove the non-free, contrib and packages
from rpi if you use Raspbian, but you can essentially get a Debian system
with complete free software. I did this, then I send my Raspberry Pi to a
data center. PCExtreme will host them for around $50 a year and I now run my
mail server on it. It's not on a VPS, so the data is in my control. You could
also do this to setup your own private VPN that you might want to share with
some people, or install remote desktop and even browse on it directly haha.
5. This is good, but there are other ways websites track you, like through
Cookies and they can get a generic location with your IP, hence using a VPN
is a good idea. Also, see option 7.
6. I use StartPage.
7. Do not install Ghostry. Use Tor. It is free software, unlike Ghostry. I
haven't used Tor in a while, but I think it has ABP in the Tor Browser? If
not it can easily be installed I guess.
8. Do not use Ghostry. DO USE TOR. Why did you even state this, why do you
not like Tor. They only time Tor is not as good is if you browse to a site
that does not use HTTPS.
9. Again, there is a nebulous cloud term again. See
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#CloudComputing
Personally, I do not store data on online storage services, I have an FTP
server here at home that I can connect to.
10. Better yet, don't upload pictures unless you know what you're doing haha.
And Do not use Facebook. Even if you do not upload pictures to Facebook, your
friends can, and they can tag you, ruining your privacy in that regard. Also,
some "mobile phones" have GPS Exif data in it so be careful there if you have
a mobile phone. Pictures you do upload, remove Exif data from it, including
serial numbers for example that some cameras include.
There's nothing wrong with uploading information publicly that you intend to
share publicly, like vacation pictures only if you actually intend to share
them publicly, of course. Think before you upload, don't upload anything that
would infringe on privacy too bad. Plus, The big issue is when data gets
shared that you didn't control when you don't know about it, like Exif data
people don't know about, or when people tag you on Facebook. As such, be wary
of that stuff, don't use Facebook, and you'll be good to go :)
