Internet

To maintain resilience agains unwanted advertising, use a disposable, temporary e-mail address should the need ever arise to use one, and set the browser to the maximum privacy settings from cookies. Antivirus protection should already be in place before connecting, to protect against malware, trojans, viruses and other pollutants. To stay away from adult content sites, switch the parental controls onto the most restrictive setting. That's it.

Adblock is a must have.

http://adblockplus.org/en/

It stopped those annoying dancing silhouettes. The ones that grab your attention from the side of the web page. I've heard there are other ad-ons like it but I'm quite satisfied with adblock and have not looked around.

Avoid staying signed in to Google or yahoo or MSN or whatnot. While signed in, they will track your searches and such, as well as any queries regarding maps, shopping (even shopping for industrial parts), or other use of their in house apps. Without being signed in, they're limited to tracking you via your ip address. As your ip address is rarely constant for long periods of time that is less intrusive.

Lastly, duckduckgo.com advertises the fact that they don't track you.

That was my recommendation. It even removes Fb ads :o)

PWS's idea of disposable emails is also useful. I use Google or live.co.uk (msn) ones. Remember to have one that you use to verify the others!

Hi ronseto,

I'll second the duckduckgo.com! Another big breach in privacy is your browsers history. The people trying to sell you something consider it public information.

I'll agree that on a personal level advertising is nominally irritating, but do keep in mind it may be the only thing paying for some website you like.

I have no websites, and do not advertise either; but websites are not free to operate.

The simplest thing is to get another email address, such as Hotmail or Earthink, and use a phony name, company, phone number, etc. Lots of engineers do that so they can register on sites to see catalogs and avoid all the followup emails and phone calls from sales people.

When salespeople call the number you give them and wind up at the zoo or a bar down the street, they will leave you alone. You can log onto HotMail or Earthlink every now and then and just delete all the sales emails en masse.

Also, avoid searching GlobalSpec for product information. You'll be contacted by a salesperson every time you click on an item.

You might look into scroogle: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

Another alternative would be to use something like Anonymizer but it's a bit of an inconvenience.

I take no particular countermeasures when using search engines and do not get bombarded by commercials.

I don't know what you mean by googled for my preferences

Occasional unsolicited offers are emailed to me but dealt with easily and painlessly.

The advertisements that accompany most websites can be ignored. Its not like you are compelled to read them before getting the good oil.

Give us an example of the type of unsolicited traffic flowing in your direction that particularly bothers you. Chances are that one of us has had the same or a similar experience and can offer a suggestion.

I second the reply and the question. I don't understand the problem. I use Google and Google Chrome all the time with no problem.

startpage.com provides the ability to use google while maintaining privacy. You submit your search request to startpage and it is passed on to google. This prohibits google from building a profile for you.

https//:startpage.com is the most secure way to go. I've used it as my homepage browser at home since I heard about it. It's a free proxy service so it does not record your IP address but still gives you the search results you seek from google. You won't have a browsing history or cookies so make sure you bookmark/link anything you may want to locate later.

Hi ronseto,

I go "incognito" (Ctrl+Shift+n) on google before I browse. I guess google does not track you while in that mode.

Thanks, Lo Volt, for the tip about adblockplus. I'm going to check that out.

While not dealing with ads, Ask.com at least will "erase" your browsing history on their servers within, I think, 24 hours or so. You just have to turn AskEraser on. And you can have the cookie be protected in Firefox, so you don't have to re-enable it every time you get on the Internet. I've been using Ask for quite some time, as I began to think Google is too invasive. Of course, the Internet, almost by definition, has gotten invasive. You can achieve the same with Google, but, by default, the settings are quite invasive. The best tool and good first line of defense is a virtual space, like Sandboxie. I rarely browse any other way anymore.