Keep your Internet surfing secret

September 22, 2:36 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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Google
Incognito

Sarah Palin's email troubles show that our online tracks aren't as easily covered as we might hope. Of course, most of us don't even try to cover our tracks, and so leave quite a trail in our wake.

Moving invisibly through cyberspace is probably more trouble than it's worth to most of us, but that doesn't mean we can't lower our profile -- and increase our security against snoops, hackers and nosey agents of the state -- with minimal effort.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains a guide of 12 very basic tips for minimizing online vulnerability. These range from

1) Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.

to

3) Keep a "clean" e-mail address.

to

12) Use encryption!

To EFF's guide, add the Center for Democracy and Technology's Top Ten Ways to Protect Privacy Online. CDT adds advice such as:

9. Use anonymizers while browsing

and

10. Opt-out of third party information sharing

And finally, Forbes magazine has published a very interesting review of the privacy features built into and available for Web browsers. These include Google Chrome's "Incognito" mode, Safari's "Private Browsing," Internet Explorer 8's "InPrivate Blocking" and the various privacy-minded add-ons available for Firefox (I'm running both CookieSafe and Distrust with Firefox 3, and I'm waiting for SafeCache and SafeHistory to be updated).

Note that concerns have been raised about a Google Chrome feature that generates a tracking ID that could potentially compromise privacy.

The browser capabilities are particularly helpful, since they can generally be switched on and left as a default, and don't require surfers to unlearn bad habits or take pro-active steps to erase their tracks.

Of course, you still have to take that first step of enabling a privacy mode or installing an add-on, but there's only so much other folks can do for you.