Being paranoid is easy, fun and educational these days (try to figure out if I was being sarcastic there). Time is precious however, and people want quick simple solutions to hide from The Man. That being said, here are two that actually work.
1. Always delete your cookies on exit of your browser
You’ve heard over and over again that The Man (a.k.a. Google and Facebook) is tracking your every move you do on the internet via your cookies. You could simply disable cookies from being written, but that makes many sites unusable. Instead, just have the browser delete cookies on exit.
This can be accomplished in one of two ways.
Method 1. Use Private/Incognito Browsing.
Any cookies collected during the time the browser is active are deleted on exit.
Method 2. Set browser to delete cookies on exit.
Example using Firefox via Options/Privacy tab:
Yes, this is different compared to Private Browsing because your history is still kept, which you may want to keep – but the cookies are gone on exit.
2. Buy a throwaway cell phone for site registrations
Don’t want web sites having access to your primary cell phone number? Buy a throwaway phone then.
If you’re thinking, "I should buy a phone to better protect my privacy?" It’s not so much for privacy as it is to shield against spammy companies wanting to hock products at you via telemarketers.
Google and Facebook ‘strongly suggest’ "validating" who you are these days by means of cell phone texting, because after all, your good word doesn’t mean sh*t to them anymore. Aw heck, it never did, right?
In the US, the cheapest of the cheap is still Tracfone. $10 to buy the phone, $19.99 every 90 days to keep it active which roughly translates to $7 a month. Is it worth it to spend $7 a month to keep telemarketers out of your primary cell phone? You be the judge.
Alternatively, you could use Skype – although I do not know if Skype-assigned numbers work for "validation" purposes when signing up a new Google or Facebook account.
If anyone out there has a Skype number with SMS capability, sign up a throwaway Goog or FB account and let everyone know if those numbers are permissible.
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How about using a Google Voice number? It has the advantage of being free, at least for now.
That doesn’t exactly escape The Man.
I don’t think giving out or using Voice is any different than giving out or using Skype for validation purposes. I use Android, so I don’t care if the Goog knows my number. Any other type registration requiring a phone number, I use the Voice number.
3: Use one browser add-on that does 1 and 2 for you. It’s called PrivacySuite. It’s free, and it deletes all (or some, if you want) of your cookies, as well as blocking ad networks and trackers. The premium subscription has “safe phone,” which lets you set your real number as the target and gives you an alias number you can use to forward calls to yourself. http://www.abine.com/apps.php
1. Put your computer in a Farady cage.
2. Never connect your computers to a phone line, I only have one that connects
3. Never use your name on the new PC, never do anything financial on the connected PC.
4. Wipe and re-image your connected machine once a week.