Four recommendations to leave no trace on the internet | Innovation


Connecting to the internet implies almost by default that someone is collecting information about you, often with the excuse of personalizing and improving the services you use but, almost always, to sell that data and use it for commercial purposes. Since we use the Network every day and cannot escape the clutches of the companies that collect our information, at least let's learn some tricks that allow us to give them a corner. Every cybersecurity expert and every hacker have your proposals but The New York Times He has collected several easy-to-implement tips to try to leave as little trace as possible on the internet.

  • Do not log in with Facebook

When you enter a website that asks you to register to continue browsing, many times you have a button available to "Log in with Facebook" directly. The temptation is huge, because you only need to press a button to continue with your thing. If not, you would have to fill out a form with the data that you have put over and over again on the entire internet. However, experts recommend making a small effort to fill in the fields to register, but only the mandatory ones. Never give more information than necessary. The shortcut buttons give the website permissions on the personal information you have on Facebook and "allow those companies to track them on other sites," explains the developer of software Joel Potischman, as collected The New York Times.

The search engine par excellence has managed to become the king of the Internet, so that if an information does not appear on Google (in fact, if it does not appear in the results of the first page), it does not exist. That is why all users go through the search engine leaving their trail about what they want to buy, where they want to travel or the things they like. The American newspaper also collects the testimony of Bob Gellman, a privacy consultant, who says that "the most important thing people can do is stop using Google. If you use Gmail and Google to search the web, the company will know more about you than any other institution. And that doubles if you use other services like Google Maps, Waze or Google Docs. "

Although there seems to be no life beyond the walls of Google, there are many other search engines that seem to respect privacy more, such as DuckDuckGo: its results are not as useful, but announces that it does not track users or their searches. There are also other alternatives that even help the environment, such as Ecosia: a search engine that plants a tree for each search that a user performs.

If you are going to continue using Google, at least be aware that it gets into the kitchen. Every search you do, every new person you follow on Twitter, is one more line in your history, so learn to take advantage of it and use it in your favor. For example, deliberately following people with opposing views or brands that you don't necessarily agree with or don't use. Proactively search for new information, something that would not interest someone of your age and gender, browse different profiles and different content: the algorithm will collect the contradictory information and the image they have of you will blur.

The information requested by these websites is usually so personal that it is not uncommon to match the passwords you choose to protect your accounts. Name, surname, date of birth, nationality, mobile number, email, gender. They are almost enough data even to supplant someone's identity. "I assure you that you don't want to tell Facebook where you were born and your date of birth. That is 98% of the information someone needs to steal your identity!" Says Frank Abagnale, the teenage former scammer who is inspired by the movie Catch Me If You Can. "And don't use a photo of yourself like the passport, driver's license or a graduation photo that someone can use in a fake ID."

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