Common Sense Privacy: Browsers

Browsers track your web surfing activities and report them to large corporations. You already know that, probably shuddered, thought there was nothing you could do. In this post, I would like to offer a suggestion that isn't really hard to do. Separate your browser by your usage, the old security principle of separation of duties.

The default browser

This is the one that will come up when you click on a link. Mine is set to Safari. From what I have read, Apple makes their money selling products, not information about their customers; for me, this is a good place to start.

Online shopping

Amazon and Etsy purchases: Between reboots, I stay logged in to Amazon and Etsy using the Opera browser. It is not extra effort, I leave the browser on my tool bar and use it as needed. I did an analysis a while back and found it reports to Opera about my surfing.  Fine, tell them I use Amazon and Etsy. I recommend you do something similar, Amazon is already tracking you, it might be wise to keep that in a sandbox.

Online banking and investing

Financial transactions: I use Firefox for online banking and stock trading. You will have to test it out, I find it does not work with a number of sites. The good news is that I am sure that Mozilla is not selling my information.
NOTE: Bank of America does not support Firefox, but so far, everything has worked

Google and Facebook

Without doubt, the two largest "snoop on your data and activities" sites on the Internet are Google and Facebook. Therefore I try to dedicate a browser to each of these.

Blogging: I am a Google blogger, I use Chrome for blogging and also Google news.

Facebook: I stay logged into Facebook. My new year's resolution is to post at least weekly. However they record everything you do. My solution is to use a browser I would never use for general purpose browsing only for Facebook, that is Maxthon.

Very private browsing

What's missing? TOR, consider using it from time to time. Not all sites will accept it. Also, if you look carefully at the screen shot, I have a paid browser called Silo by Authentic8, it runs everything in  the cloud which has a number of advantages, though I will admit, just needing an extra keystroke or two is a turnoff.

Search engines

Everything so far is easy, doesn't cause me any undue hardship. Switching my search engine on Safari my default browser to Bing took a bit of getting used to, but I have made the switch. Bing is a good search engine, and it is probably not wise to funnel everything through Google.
NOTE: I am currently a MAC user, I gave my WIN 10 PC away, so using Bing on my default browser really does help me "spread it around".

The bottom line

This is my set of browsers, Maxthon, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Tor, Opera, and Silo. And I know what you are thinking. As I say below, it is NO MORE WORK than running everything through one browser. If you are in Word and need a browser, you have to click on something.

These simple steps will reduce your exposure to the corporations keeping tabs on you. They are no more work than using one browser for everything, you have to click on a browser icon to browse regardless. It does require being mindful until it becomes second nature.