Tech Tip: Start With a Fresh Session or Browser Window
By • June 22, 2020 0 640
You’d like to access the company website or a site for one of your vendors from work. When you click on your favorite browser, it opens to your homepage: msn.com, yahoo.com, aol.com, espn.com … you get the idea.
You then select the bookmark for the desired website and go. Big problem! Most websites these days have tracking cookies, microdots and other advertising and data-collection bots that sit on them. These little spies are now following you across your browser session.
Be careful with your information. Web portal sites like these are filled with ads, and their overhead is paid for with information they get from you.
Consider changing your homepage to something like https://startpage.com/. They don’t spy.
Always open a new browser tab when navigating to a new website. And close the last one to keep things tidy after the new one loads.
Finally, consider using add-ons in your browser to cut down on ads and spies. Not sure how? Ask your IT department or provider.
Alan Edwards, CISM, is chief information officer at Computerware, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia.
