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Tips to Avoid
IP-Address Tracking
Make sure that your IP address changes frequently.
- If you have a static IP address at work, one that never changes, you might want to do the majority of your
surfing from a different computer.
- Use this site to see your IP Address.
- Most people have "leased" IP addresses with their cable-modem or DSL accounts. That means your IP won't change
until you turn off your modem. So, power it down as often as you feel necessary.
- America Online's dial-up accounts go through a thing called a proxy server. What this means is that when you
are logged into AOL, you do not make direct contact with the websites you visit. You only talk to the proxy server,
which in turn contacts the website. The IP address logged into the website's server logs are not yours, but that of
the proxy server. And since AOL has many proxy servers, chances are that more than one IP address will be logged
during a session since the proxy servers are load-balanced, which means that they take turns. The bottom line is
that using an AOL account makes you harder to track.
Change Your "User Agent"
Most web servers log the browser you are using, and if you have a unique "User Agent" string, it can be used
to track you. Here is an example produced by the Opera browser:
Opera/9.50 (X11; FreeBSD 7.0-PRERELEASE i386; U; en)
Anybody using that user-agent sticks out like a sore thumb.
Use this site to see your user-agent. To learn how to change
the user agent in your browser, google-up something like this: "change user agent firefox".
Keep in mind that many websites use your user-agent to determine what content to send to you. If your user-agent
indicates that you are on a mobile device, you might see a completely different page than when you are on your
notebook. So be careful when changing it.
Your user-agent will also change automatically whenever you update your web browser, and maybe when you upgrade
your operating system. So, you might want to check it after doing those things.
Don't Allow Cookies
Most people know that cookies can be used for tracking. You can go into your browser's security settings
and turn them off completely, or have them flushed when you close down the browser.
Never Click Links
To prevent a website from logging where you linked from, never click on a link or advert. Instead, hover your mouse
over the link to see what it is, and then type it into your browser's address bar. Or just google the domain name
of the site, or product name advertised.
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