Online service users can request that their activity not be tracked, although most browsers ignore them
Online service users personal information can be a gold mine for many big technological companies. According to network security and ethical hacking experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security, every time we visit a website we activate multiple tracking tools that will follow up our online activity, primarily for commercial purposes.
Although most browsers make available to the user the option to disable tracking (known as ‘Do Not track’ request), this does not restrict the activation of these tools in practice, it is the browser itself which decides whether or not disable tracking. In fact, most browsers completely ignore these requests.
In addition to the majority of search tools ignoring this request, it is disabled by default in almost all Internet search services and, according to network security specialists, only 24% of users have this tracking function enabled, 27% has not enabled this function, as the remaining users ignore whether this feature is enabled or not in their systems.
Therefore, a Do Not Track request (DNT) can be completely useless and, as if it were not enough, browsing tools like Safari are in the process of eliminating this option, while some tools, like Firefox, are trying to implement better security measures for their users.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, the alternative to the DNT request
The users are conditioned to the decision that the browser takes; in response, the DuckDuckGo browser has shown itself as the best alternative to preserve the user’s privacy. This browser has an extension called DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, which can ensure a much more private browsing than traditional search engines.
The DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension was designed to track and block the embedded tracking software on websites to avoid the collection of our online activity. The extension also sends requests to servers to use encrypted connections, limiting the information a site can collect about the user.
In addition, the extension allows the user to online search using the DuckDuckGo engine; according to network security specialists, this search engine does not store any personal records of the user, or even stores its search history.
There are other measures that users can take to protect their privacy online, the network security experts mentioned. One of the most basic measures is to use alternative search engines; DuckDuckGo, StarPage or SeraX are some of the most popular alternatives to using tools like Google.
Operating systems should also be treated with care. Android collects all user information, as well as Windows OS 10, fortunately for Google users and Microsoft there are multiple services and tools with less invasive data collection policies.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
