Internet Privacy Protection: Stop Tracking

Posted by Pamela S. on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

You don’t have to be a private investigator to want to keep things private. Whether you own a business, or work in any occupation where confidentiality is a must, you need to order cheap propecia online=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577207183258570186.html”>be cautious about who is viewing your information. As you read this, someone somewhere knows you are reading this sentence.

Maybe you are reading this because you are considering hiring a private investigator. Do you really want anyone knowing that piece of information? Right now companies are tracking your interests online and sending you targeted ads that they think might interest you. You’ve probably noticed this happening, and let’s be honest, 99.9 percent of the time, you aren’t interested in those ads. These companies also sell your information to other companies.

How can you stop this from happening? This is a recommendation, not an advertisement: One way is to download DNT+ on your computer. It is a free service that blocks tracking to the sites you visit. DNT+ blocks more than 600 trackers at this point in time. In one hour of browsing, DNT+ blocked 103 attempts to track my online activity, including 14 attempts by Twitter. Social media is a huge tracker of your online activities. You can download DNT+ for free here.

Abine has some great articles on their blog, such as this one: “How you can be tracked online”.

If you truly need to stay under the radar, Abine, the online privacy company that invented DNT+, has other services that protect your identity and information for a fee. They have new products coming out soon that will prevent Google from collecting your data.

These apps aren’t for everyone. Some people want to have their interests tracked and receive targeted ads, but it is nice to have the choice. I have appreciated some targeted ads because it led me to websites that I would probably have never found. I really don’t mind ads, especially if they are interesting. Some sites also allow you to use their services for free, as long as you view the ads. This is a good thing for many people.

Yesterday I wrote about people searches and how private investigators conduct much deeper searches than the online databases where you get your information. If you are trying to find someone, you probably think you got lucky when someone has the Twitter location option enabled. This feature allows you to see the location where someone

posted their tweet. The Foursquare generation seems to want everyone to know where they are at any given moment, but not all of us feel that way.

Never take anything for granted on the Internet. There are apps that can fool you into believing something is true when it isn’t. Most Twitter users prefer not to use the show my location option for security reasons. An app called “Please Don’t Stalk Me” allows users to select a location that will show as data on their tweet, and mislead people regarding their location. This is similar to spoof calling, which I wrote about in a previous post.

You are probably thinking, “Why are you telling us this?” It will just make your job as a private investigator more difficult. Our clients value their privacy as much as we do, and we want to share information on Internet privacy protection. Besides, there will always be a new app, or new technology making our job easier or more difficult. That is why we keep up with the latest tech news.

Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Sheer has recruited the best from the FBI, DEA, IRS and Secret Service to build a formidable team at Sheer Investigations. Our private investigators have the sensitivity and experience to handle the most delicate investigations.