Today, more and more of us spend much of our lives online. The internet has opened our access to quality education, entertainment, and connection via social media, apps, smart devices, and more. Because we’re so deeply connected, though, protecting online privacy has become a critical concern. Especially with the constant barrage of pop-ups asking us to accept cookies or provide permissions to who knows what. 

Keeping your personal life, well, personal, can feel like trying to plug a dozen holes at once or a constantly moving goal post. Who’s in control of all of your data?! And what can you limit?

Fortunately, we have more control than many of us think. And, protecting your online privacy can start with a few simple tweaks, many of which take mere minutes. They’re well worth the effort to make it harder (a lot harder) for scammers, snoops, and even corporations to track and then potentially misuse or abuse that information. 

New tools can make it even easier to lock down your accounts, browse more safely, and help you decide what you want to share online—and what you want to keep protected. 

Let’s get started with why privacy matters in the first place.

Protecting Online Privacy: Why It Matters

Let’s face it, most of us are just average people going about our normal lives. We don’t have huge secrets, and we may not think our search history is interesting enough to track anyway. On the other hand, there’s no shortage of doomsday warnings out there, painting the internet as a place where scammers and cyber criminals lurk behind every web address. 

The truth is, it is somewhere between these two extremes. Most online activity is harmless. And our data (think name, email address, location, and even shopping habits) can provide a more personalized and enjoyable online experience. Indeed, that’s why companies collect it. They can learn more about their customers, tailor recommendations, and ultimately, use that information to target ads with products we are actually interested in, rather than bombarding us with everything and hoping something sticks. 

Sadly, though, if that same information falls into the wrong hands—even a company that’s not exactly on the up and up, much less a scammer—it can be misused and even abused. 

That said, protecting online privacy isn’t about living in fear. It’s about creating a healthy balance of awareness and customization. So we can enjoy the benefits of being online while reducing the risks of having our info shared, sold, or stolen by unsavory actors.

Understanding Data Tracking

Whenever we hop online to browse, shop, or scroll, little bits of information about us and our activity are collected. For instance, cookies are used to store that data when we visit websites (often to “improve the experience”). Tracking pixels are invisible images that report when we visit certain pages or open specific emails. Finally, browser fingerprinting collects unique details about our devices and settings. 

Data tracking happens in the background, and much of the time, it’s harmless. It’s how companies learn habits, interests, and what resonates. It’s also how sites remember what’s been added to an online shopping cart.

Unfortunately, other tracking can feel intrusive. Like when you did an online search to compare creams for a skin condition, and now you’re getting a bunch of ads for that condition. It can also sometimes open a hidden door for savvy hackers.

Secure Browsers and Search Engines

Your browser is like the front door to the internet. And just like your front door is protected with a quality lock, it’s a good idea to make sure this online door is protected as well. That starts with which browser you choose. Indeed, this choice alone can make a big difference in how much (or how little) of your activity is tracked. 

For instance, Firefox, Brave, and DuckDuckGo are more privacy-focused browsers, which are designed to block many trackers even before your first search. Plus, it’s easy to adjust your privacy settings, so you have greater control of what’s stored. 

But what if you’re super comfortable with Chrome, Edge, or Safari and don’t necessarily want to make a switch to a new browser? These popular browsers also allow you to tighten your privacy by, for instance, turning off third-party cookies, enabling “Do Not Track,” limiting ad personalization, or regularly clearing out browser data. 

While one internet company is synonymous with online search, you do have other options—some that are much more focused on privacy. For example, DuckDuckGo and Startpage don’t log your personal search history or build a profile about you, which means fewer ads follow you around after that single search for skin cream. 

You can also install privacy add-ons like Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, and Malwarebytes, which offer free extensions to block hidden trackers for more robust protection.

Getting in the habit of regularly clearing your cookies, or setting them to auto-delete when you close your browser, is another way to decrease the digital crumbs you leave behind, making it more difficult for companies or bad actors to piece together your full online picture. 

Before clearing your cookies, though, note that this will log you out of most sites. And it could reset certain preferences. Saved passwords stored in your browser’s password manager should remain. But you may need to re-grant permissions (e.g., location or camera access) for some websites.

If you want to balance convenience and privacy, consider selectively clearing cookies. For instance, delete tracking cookies from unknown sites, but keep ones for websites you trust.

Lock Down Your Device 

If you’re like most of us, your phone, tablet, and computer store everything from personal photos to banking details to personal chats with your best friend to searches for your latest guilty pleasure. The type of information that you don’t necessarily want to leave lying around. To keep this information protected: 

• Keep everything updated. It’s tempting to ignore those pesky update pop-ups (or relaunch to update)—or at least put it off until it’s more convenient. However, those updates often patch security holes hackers have already learned to exploit. Taking a minute for a quick update can close gaps before anyone can slip in. 
• Lock your screen. A locked device—whether it’s a hard-to-guess PIN, password, or biometric lock (i.e., fingerprint or facescan)—adds another simple yet highly effective layer of defense. 
• Check encryption. Many devices come with built-in encryption. Ensure it’s enabled, so it scrambles your data to make it unreadable without your passcode.
• Leverage provider tools. For example, AT&T ActiveArmor can block suspicious calls, flag questionable websites, and warn you before you click on unsafe links. 

Taking advantage of these tools makes it easier to protect your private information, even if your device were to get lost, stolen, or targeted by an online attack. 

Manage Permissions Like a Pro

More and more services—from websites to apps—ask you for access. You need to give permissions to share your location, camera, microphone, contact lists, and more. Of course, if you’re using a map app, and it requests your location to give you directions, that only makes sense. But other apps are often just fishing for more data than they really need. 

Don’t just automatically say accept when you download a new app. In fact, get into the mindset of denying by default unless there’s a clear reason to allow it. You can always change your mind (and your settings) later. 

It’s likely that you already have apps on your phone or tablet. Take a few minutes now to review your permissions. Open the settings on your phone or tablet and see which apps can access your location, camera, and microphone. If that information isn’t needed for the app to function, take a couple of minutes to turn it off. 

Likewise, you control website permissions. Using your browser, you can manage what websites can and cannot do, like sending notifications, tracking your location, or using your camera. Make sure these are set to Ask or Block unless you’re on a site you trust. 

Auditing your permissions can stop a surprising amount of tracking before it even starts.

Staying in Control without Feeling Overwhelmed

There are additional advanced options. But you don’t have to overhaul your entire digital life to protect your online privacy. Start with the simple steps above to reduce tracking and build a strong foundation. Pick a habit or two to start, get comfortable, and then you can add more. Each action will reduce the amount of personal data that’s floating around—and give you greater control over who can see it. 

With the right settings, a few new habits, and built-in tools, you can enjoy the benefits of being online without feeling like Big Brother is always watching. Ultimately, this leads to greater freedom and peace of mind whenever you’re online.