We’ve been hearing a lot about online privacy recently. For good reason too. Every single time you go on to the internet, you’re tracked by multitudinous companies. All of them want to find out your browsing habits, primarily to sell on to other companies. Who will then advertise to you. Constantly.
It’s even getting to the point now that Channel 4, a tv channel in the UK, are trialling adverts that call you by your name. Think about that for a second. They know your browsing habits. And now they also have your personal details.
So what do you do to stop them tracking you in such a way?
You could go the whole hog and install the Tor Browser. But that is cumbersome and slow. You could also start using DuckDuckGo instead of Google, as they don’t track you. But old habits die hard and we all know you’ll be back to Google in no time.
So that leaves browser plugins.
What most people do is use a combination of an ad blocker, such as uBlock Origin (don’t use Adblock Plus, they allow advertisers to slip through by paying them a fee) and a plugin such as Ghostery to stop the tracking.
Which will work fine for most people. But there is also a new alternative to the market. One which does the job of both. So it also reduces the footprint of programs needed and reduces the risk of breaking anything in your browser.
Privacy Badger combines an Adblocker with a Tracking Blocker to do the job of multiple plugins on its own. It works for Chrome, Opera and Firefox. Head on over to their websites and give it a try if you care about your online privacy.