Simple Tips for Protecting Your Online Identity

The modern citizen in most countries around the world has access to the near unlimited source of useful and applicable public information - the internet. As useful and transformative as the internet is, it comes with its fair share of problems.

Protection of personal information and one’s online identity is one of the most relevant and pressing of these issues.

In this blog, we show you a few simple tricks you can employ to keep your online identity safe in the digital age.

With various forms of digital devices, anyone can enjoy the wonders of Telecommunications and Information technologies that manage to transmit information even to remote corners of the world in a matter of seconds.

While most of these technological advancements are very recent, the speed at which the tools for information storage and communication advance go over the heads of most internet users, while dependence only keeps growing.

Today, everything has a sprinkle of digitalization: from complex computers and smartphones to everyday household gadgets, everywhere you look, you can find a trace of the computational power. When even the most primitive tools in the past have new, modern versions that possess the ability to communicate with each other, everything has to be traced back to the owner. If mobile phones were not enough, modern homes and workplaces are full of Internet of Things (IoT) devices that collect, use, and transmit information connected to your identity. 

This is an information paradise for giant tech companies building software and hardware, without which we cannot imagine our lives. Every tool that connects to your home LAN transmits packets to remote servers on the internet that can be used to track you online.

While the desire and necessity to use these tools overshadow the ongoing privacy violations, nothing is as damaging to online anonymity as browsing sessions through computers and smartphones. In this article, we will focus on the dangers of having your identity tracked online and the ways to avoid it. 

Casual internet users are not the only ones disgruntled about the lack of privacy on the web, as most of them use a residential rotating proxy to protect and anonymize company tasks. Learn more about the use of rotating proxies and their unique benefits. For now, continue reading if you want to learn about tools that will help you regain online privacy and if you’re wondering if you should get a residential rotating proxy for yourself. 

Opt for a User-Agent Switcher

Tech companies can monitor many points of your digital identity to track their appearance under changed circumstances. Randomizing as many segments of private information as possible will stop these businesses from connecting the dots and tracking your online identity so easily.

User-agents do not carry much information, but when associated with the rest of the private data, the entire collection may be used to profile you, detect your appearance and behaviour, and offer personalised suggestions and ads.

The party looking at your user-agent knows which browser version and operating system your device is running on. When changing a user-agent with a downloaded switcher or a browser extension, do not go for old options if you want to keep a stable browsing experience. 

The same can be achieved by using multiple browsers, but if you are fond of your customizations, bookmarks, and other settings, a user-agent switcher is a far more efficient option.

Hide your IP address

There are many ways to hide your public address, which acts as your access point to the internet and your network identity. VPNs are frequently advertised tools that change the direction of your entire internet connection to make sure it reaches the destination with a different IP address. VPNs are also great for avoiding surveillance on public networks because created tunnels encrypt transmitted information.

If you want more flexibility, change your IP address with proxy servers. With pre-built apps, browser extensions, or simply setting up changes in your device's settings, you can choose which segments of your internet connection will travel through and adopt an identity of a proxy server.

To avoid tracking, not just from tech companies, but also stop the disruption of hackers and cybercriminals, avoid free proxy servers at all times! While the free service is always more attractive, even with good location choices, you will use an overcrowded server that will blunt your internet speed and may expose you to blacklisted websites.

Only go for datacenter proxies from legitimate proxy server providers. You can also choose more secure residential addresses to make sure nobody knows you are using a fake IP address. 

If your browsing sessions use bots or other automated tools, try rotating proxies to keep adopting different IPs at predetermined intervals. With the market full of legitimate providers, you will have large pools of datacenter proxy addresses and with the help of dedicated customer support you will be able to enjoy the service to the fullest. While these tools will not eliminate all weaknesses for tracking, internet users that use them to hide segments of private data will enjoy a far more secure browsing experience that limits the exposure of their online identity and their personal data as well.