Do you browse and search safely and privately?
08 February 2022With a browser you can view web pages. Well-known browsers are Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. A web browser often stores personal data when you visit a website.
It can be convenient when your (login) details are automatically filled in by your web browser. But this stored data can also end up in the wrong hands!
Your data is given away to advertisers
Have you ever noticed that you get online ads about topics you are not interested in, but someone at home searched for on their computer or phone?
Or you get ads about winter sports vacations because you searched for them last week.
This is because most browsers store your data. They remember your location, register the device you use, remember the websites you visited and save data you entered in web forms.
Your data is used by cybercriminals
The browser provides access to the internet. We use this tool to surf, but how do you know if it is safe and a hacker cannot gain access to that same data through the browser?
Browsers help third-party tools by storing personal data in cookies, such as username, password and tracking data. If your data ends up in the wrong hands, a criminal could use your identity to order products and services or make bank transactions.
Different types of browsers
There are various types of browsers that all handle privacy data differently. You probably know Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, but have you heard of these browsers?
Pay attention to your own safety
At the very least, make sure you do not use easy-to-guess passwords, never use the same password for different websites and clear your cookies regularly.
Search engines are not free for nothing
Not only browsers, but also search engines use the information they obtain from you when you use them. Using a search engine is usually free and the business model behind a search engine is the sale of data, data about you!
Search engines are intelligent
Because search engines are intelligent, they can deduce from your search behavior where you live, where you go to the gym, how your health is, whether you have many friends and where you work. In this way a user profile of you is created that is very interesting for companies to advertise to you specifically.
Different types of search engines, see which suits you
There are various types of search engines that handle privacy differently. Which one you should use depends on your own preferences. Most internet users use Google or Bing. But do you know these search engines?
