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Protect Your Privacy: A How To Guide

This guide is used to introduce library to tools that can be used to better protect their digital privacy.

Search Engines

What does Google know about me? 

Google keeps track of your activity when using their products. This includes your search history, your YouTube viewing history, and your Google Maps history. For more details about your account, log into Google and visit the link below to see how much Google knows about you:
https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity

  • Search histories
    This includes your search history for the wide spectrum of Google products.
     
  • Web tracking
    Google collects how you go from one site to another.
     
  • Targeted advertising
    Many websites use Google Analytics, a tracking tool that informs website owners how sites are accessed and used. This is then used to create custom ads that you find in Google search pages. For example, if you search for a specific product or group of products, Google uses this information to display ads to related products. This is a brief explanation how Google uses web cookies to track users and create ads.

Google monetizes user’s data beyond search results. It is safe to assume that Google products (Documents, Chrome Browser, Pixel, Chromebook) collects user data.

 

Google Alternatives

What are alternatives to Google?

  • Duckduckgo is a search engine that upholds users' privacy. Unlike other search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo, it does not monetize users' search histories.

    It can also be downloaded as an mobile app, and allows users to quickly remove open sites and remove their data.
  • StartPage is a Netherlands based search engine that focuses on privacy.
  • Qwant is a search engine company based in France that does not rely on trackers.

Browsers and Browser Extensions

  • Tor
    Tor is a browser that uses relays around the globe to hide users' identities.

  • Privacy Badger
    Privacy badger is a browser extension that blocks web tracking links. Users can select which trackers should be turned "on" or "off."

  • Ghostery
    Ghostery is another browser extension that blocks JavaScript tracking and HTML5 canvas fingerprint tracking. Canvas fingerprint tracking uses embedded code to observe user behavior.

  • Adblock
    Adblock is a browser extension that hides advertisements embedded in web pages, which can also be used to track users.