Tech Tip: How to Keep Your Browsers from Tracking You

So, you’re about to browse on your computer. Maybe 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 picture. You then select the bookmark for the desired website and go. But then — BIG problem!

Most websites these days have tracking cookies, microdots and other advertising and data-collection bots sitting on them. These little spies are now following you across your browser session. But, beware — you have to be careful with your information! Commercial web portal sites like those I mentioned are filled with ads, and the sites’ overhead costs are paid for with information they collect from you.

How to keep from being tracked?

1.    Consider changing your homepage to something like https://startpage.com/. They don’t spy.

2.    When navigating to a new website, always open up a new browser tab. Then, be sure to close the last one to keep things tidy after the new one loads.

3.    Consider using add-ons in your browser to cut down on ads and spies. Not sure how? Ask us.

Alan Edwards, CISM, is chief information officer at Computerware, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia.