You are tired of being followed around the web
What is actually tracking you between sites, why the obvious fixes do less than they look like they do, and which changes are worth making.
- Who this is for
- Nobody is after you. You are just done with adverts that know what you looked at last week, and you want to understand what is actually happening rather than install five extensions and hope.
- What it protects against
- Commercial tracking: the advertising and data-broker business that follows an ordinary person between sites and builds a profile out of it.
- What it does not protect against
- None of this hides you from a government, an employer who manages your device, or anyone with access to the network you are on — and private browsing in particular does much less than most people believe. If somebody specific is trying to find you, start with "Someone you know is looking you up" instead; this one is about advertisers, not adversaries.
- The Half of Tracking That Lives on Your MachineThe mechanism, before the remedies.4 min
- How a Browser Recognises You Without CookiesWhy clearing cookies is not the end of it, and why some "privacy" advice makes you more identifiable rather than less.4 min
- What Incognito Actually HidesWhat it does, which is much less than the name suggests.4 min
- What a VPN Actually DoesIncluded because it is the thing everybody reaches for next, and it is worth knowing what you would be buying.5 min
Do this first
Pick one browser to be your everyday one and change its default search engine and cookie settings today. One browser configured deliberately beats four with extensions bolted on.
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