When you visit websites, all kinds of information about you is stored. Logs are kept with which actions you perform, linked to your IP address. Often there is also a tool to see where you come from and what exactly you do on the website. Privacy on the web seems like a fairy tale, but fortunately there are still a number of options for going online anonymously.
Tip 01: Email address
The first part you will need to protect if you want to be anonymous online is your email address. With almost every service you have to enter an e-mail address, so that you can easily be followed everywhere on the web. Create a separate e-mail address for this, which is separate from your current e-mail addresses and does not resemble them. Depending on your privacy requirements, you can simply create a new mail account with Google or Outlook and leave it at that. Also read: How to get more privacy in Windows 10.
For Gmail, go to www.gmail.com and click create Account. Fill in the requested information, if you really want to remain anonymous, of course you don't use your real data. Entering a phone number is not mandatory. You can immediately get started with your new Gmail account. If you prefer to use an e-mail service that handles your personal data a bit better, you will soon end up with paid services. However, if all your personal information is fake with Google, then Google's privacy policy doesn't matter too much.
Tip 02: Mailinator
If you want to sign up for a service and have to enter an e-mail address, it might be a bit of an exaggeration to create a completely new e-mail address for that purpose. It is then better to use a disposable address. For example, a service that offers this is www.mailinator.com. With Mailinator, you get a free, public email address. And by public we really mean public: anyone who enters that email address will have direct access to the Inbox.
There is no authentication or protection. That's fine if you just need an email address to click on a confirmation link and don't want to give out your entire identity. This also means that you share your e-mail with other people and that is why it is a handy privacy tool, because it is no longer possible to trace who read the e-mail for whom it was intended. Some websites block Mailinator, but there is a solution: you can also use domains other than @mailinator.com. On the Mailinator website you will find a list of a selection of domains you can use, but there are more.
Tip 03: Fake Identity
When creating your e-mail address, it is often already necessary: you must provide a first and last name. In addition, it is regularly necessary to provide an address and sometimes a telephone number and more. If you regularly use the same fake online identity, it can still be linked to your real identity through clever techniques. It is better to generate a completely anonymous, random identity. For example, you have a service like www.fakenamegenerator.com. As soon as you visit the website, a new identity is immediately ready for you, complete with your own and working email address, an age and date of birth, a job and even a favorite color. You can adjust a number of options at the top, such as the gender, from which country the name comes from and from which country the identity is. If you click Advanced Options you can also set the age interval and adjust the probability of which gender becomes the random identity.
With Mailinator you get a free, public email address Tip 04: Pay anonymously
If you have to make a payment online, it is almost never private. Paying in cash like in the store is almost impossible online and if it is possible, it is very difficult. However, there are services that try to pursue this level of privacy. EntroPay is such a service, which gives you a virtual Visa card to pay with. This card is prepaid and is accepted at many online stores because it is Visa. It is then necessary to put money on it, something so that EntroPay has your data. However, the buyer you spend the money with will only see an anonymous card.
For example, the name on the card can come from your previously generated identity, so that you cannot be traced. If you are looking for an alternative on EntroPay, you will quickly end up with bitcoin. Unfortunately, using bitcoins is not easy and many online stores do not accept bitcoins. However, the latter can be solved with a service such as e-coin. You can then buy some bitcoin and send it to e-coin, where an anonymous payment card is then created that allows you to pay in more places. You can also link it to PayPal. You can then get both a plastic and a virtual payment card.
