Secret Searching
If you do not wish to leave any trace of your searches on your digital device there are various options.
Browsers — Arguably the most security-conscious browsers are Comodo’s IceDragon for those who like Mozilla’s Firefox and Comodo Dragon for those more familiar with the Google Chrome browser. Mac users should opt for Firefox.
You can switch between regular and private browsing by opening the settings. This will prevent your computer from logging your activities but it will not make you invisible. While Mozilla Firefox has a large number of free add-ons to help you beef up security, IceDragon has the edge.
Spend a few seconds tweaking with the Settings.
Select Options/Privacy. Tick the option Do not tell sites anything about my tracking preferences.
Under Advanced/Network tick Tell me when a website asks to store data for offline use.
Install the following free add-ons to improve security:
Force HTTPS — Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is used for secure end-to-end communication. HTTPS Finder for Firefox automatically detects and enforces HTTPS connections when available, providing a reasonable guarantee that you are communicating with the intended website and not an imposter, plus ensuring that communications between the user and site cannot be read or forged by a third party. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has its own free version HTTPS Everywhere for Firefox, IceDragon and Chrome browsers.
Kill Trackers — Blur (formerly Do Not Track Me) blocks web beacons and trackers that monitor browsing habits. Once installed, a tiny icon in the top right corner issues an alert whenever a site has a bead on you. Twitter and Facebook, for example, will try to insert trackers that follow you all over the Internet, allowing them to build a detail profile of your movements and interests. If people ever wonder how the social networks make money, this is how. There is also Disconnect Me which additionally offers a secure search facility.
Control Cookies — BetterPrivacy allows you to remove or manage cookies and gives various ways to handle Flash-cookies set by Google, YouTube, eBay and others. Privacy+ does much the same thing. Flash plugins run independently of your browser and bypass any proxy configurations. If you were trying to mask your identity, these will reveal your IP address which in turn will point to your physical address.
Java Switch — QuickJava allows you to quickly enable and disable Java, JavaScript and other intrusive plugins which track your location, travels and preferences. Other options include NoScript and Ghostery.
Cache Control — the Empty Cache Button adds a button to Firefox allowing you to quickly empty your browser cache should anyone start looking over your shoulder and optionally reload your page with just one click.
Avoid Detours — to stop websites opening other pages on your browser and taking you off to potentially harmful sites, try Redirect Remover which prevents redirects from links and images. Another good option is RequestPolicy.
Block Baddies — use either the free or paid-for versions of AVG or Avast which both warn of and block viruses and spyware entering your machine from malicious websites or the paid-for version of MalwareBytes (see Keeping out the Spies).
Secure Download — DownThemAll uses the browser’s safety settings and so requires no configuration and features an advanced accelerator that speeds things up considerably. You can pause and resume downloads. It also allows you to download all the links or images on a webpage and customize the search criteria. It offers the ability to download a file from different servers at the same time for additional security. Privoxy is a web proxy service that fetches items (webpages, images, movies, etc) and passes them on to you when complete.
Safe Search Engines — obviously, Google keeps detailed records of your search queries so select an engine that won’t store your records. Options include the Secret Search Labs engine, DuckDuckGo and iXQuick.
Cloaking — you can’t beat cloaking your identity as one of the safest of all strategies. This way no one need know who or where you are. The simplest solution for quick, anonymous browsing is to use a facility such as AllNetTools, Guardster or Anonymouse. These free services allow you to type in any Web address and then travel around without leaving a trace of your activities or giving away your location. These are particularly useful for sensitive search engines queries and for visiting locally banned websites.
You can set up a proxy – which gives the impression that you are in another place – by fiddling with the Settings and changing the IP address to one provided by Proxy4Free or Rosinstruments but this can slow your machine down. A simpler solution is Stealthy, an add-on which seeks out the fastest proxies available and automatically routes you through them.
A more secure alternative is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), effectively a ‘secret tunnel’ where all your online activities are screened from the service provider and eavesdroppers. Free versions include FreeVPN and ProXPN. Mullvad offers a highly-regarded secure VPN service at comparatively low prices. They also accept payment in BitCoin for added anonymity.
It is always a good idea to cover the forward-facing camera on any device because you can never be certain if somebody is watching or not.
All this is good for general activity on the Surface Web but it is not 100% secure.
It is safe to assume that if law enforcement or criminals want to monitor anybody’s Internet access – read their emails and social media postings, harvest their contacts, find out what they are searching for and downloading, and listen in to their calls – then they can. This means that absolutely everything is open to inspection.
In which case, you now you need to go seriously Deep Web…
The Tor Hidden Network
Generally used for accessing Dark Net services on the Deep Web, and for secure communications and much more besides, the Tor Firefox Web browser also allows users to access the regular Surface Web without giving away their location or identity.
First you need the specially configured Web browser to divert your traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers. This conceals your location and your activities, effectively hiding you among all the other users. You can download it here.
Tor works by encrypting and re-encrypting data multiple times as it passes through successive relays. This way the data cannot be unscrambled in transit.
Tor does have its flaws and should not be considered completely safe. Although your IP address is concealed, a digital fingerprint can linger allowing someone accessing your local network – a Wi-Fi provider or an ISP working with criminals or law enforcement – to glean some idea of your activities.
An option here is to first configure a VPN service to route all your traffic through a ‘secret tunnel’ and then activate the Tor-Firefox browser. This will also prevent an eavesdropper seeing that the Tor network has been accessed.
The waters can be further muddied by requesting more than one site at a time or by downloading more than one item simultaneously, and by regularly re-setting the Use a new identity facility on the Tor control panel.
Certain plug-ins will not work on the Tor browser such as Flash, RealPlayer and QuickTime as they can be manipulated into revealing an IP address. Close down other browsers while you access Tor and disconnect or cover your webcam lens.
Begin by downloading the free Tor-Firefox bundle. This is safe and easy to install. Simply follow the on-screen instructions and a gateway to the Deep Web can be configured in minutes with no special skills.
Be absolutely certain that you are downloading from the torproject.org website.
Also be sure to keep the Tor browser up-to-date. A warning sign will appear on the start page if you need to update. Once loaded, the browser will display a very basic-looking webpage (the Deep Web resembles the Surface Web circa 1996) and the words:
Congratulations. This browser is configured to use Tor.
You are now free to browse the Internet anonymously.
You are now anonymous and free to explore Tor or branch off to the Surface Web with minimal risk of being monitored.
To tighten security further, install HTTPS Everywhere, Blur and the secure downloader Down Them All.
If you are in a country where ISPs or the government block the Tor network, open Settings on the Tor control panel, select Network, and then tick the box My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network. You are now given the option to Add a Bridge or Find Bridge Now. If no bridges (non-public relays) are found, go to the Tor bridge relay page on the Surface Web and select them manually by cutting and pasting until you find one that works for you. Add as many bridges as possible as this increases your chances of connecting and improves security.