How to Stay Anonymous Online: Simple Techniques for Internet Privacy

Staying hidden online requires more than using an alias, someone else’s credentials and erasing a history file. Technology leaves digital footprints. The moment we log on to the ‘net, or start our phones, we’ve started the process of exposing ourselves. There’s no hiding them once they’re out there. They are there for good, and you can’t undo them.

Some of us don’t want that to happen. We want the freedom to surf the ‘net without someone tracking our every move. We don’t want to tell anyone who we are or what we do when we’re doing it. It makes sense. People do it for many reasons, and they shouldn’t have to explain themselves.

Here are my nine basic tips for staying dark on the World Wide Web:

• Turn off photo GEO-location.
• Don’t use cloud services.
• Don’t use Google Maps.
• Don’t sign into Google anything.
• Use a private browser that doesn’t require sign-ins.
• Use an incognito browser that blocks advertisements and pop-ups.
• Use a VPN.
• Buy and use a second, older phone and SIM card (calls-only).
• Switch off GPS.

I find my victims by employing these techniques (and others I’ve not listed). I stay well hidden by stopping those all-important traceable digital footprints from being left for others to find. But if you’re a garden-variety kind of stalker, what I’ve listed above will do the trick. You’ll stay dark enough that not even your mother would recognise you in cyberspace.

Ironically, these are the techniques that would protect others from us—if they chose to employ them. Fortunately, they are attracted to the romance of cyberspace eutopia. It’s a place where everyone plays all the time nicely. Apathy and fairytales matter more to them than the truth, and that’s good. It keeps them distracted so I can do my thing unsupervised. When I get the opportunity to use it to its fullest potential, it’s like taking candy from a baby.

-Angelwanderer

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‘Forman’s writing style is artful, with the protagonist Mitchell’s warped thought processes masterfully exposed. The author has a powerful and vivid command of language and his word pictures are stark and disturbingly real.’

Linda J Bettenay, author of ‘Secrets Mothers Keep’ and ‘Wishes For Starlight’