Category: privacy

uBlock Origin Change of Permissions

So you started up your (always awful) Monday with this Chrome warning and you’re panicking because your trusted extension uBlock which is supposed to protect you from evil (ads) is turning into the Devil himself.

ublock

Read and CHANGE my data? Change my privacy settings? Hell no!

Well, it turns out that it kind of always has been this way and it’s needed for the reasons cited in this link here: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/About-the-required-permissions

But if you need the recap (TL;DR):

uBlock, and other ad-blockers need to read your data so

  • They can cancel requests to the network (like the ads, right?)
  • To block popups
  • To disable the “quick loading of web pages”.. wait what? yes, so no connections are opened to unwanted sites. So, this is for your own good.

In conclusion: It’s safe, it’s normal and just click re-enable 🙂

Good day!

Telling Firefox to Never Remember History or Clearing it on Exit

1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and click over Options.

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2. Click on Privacy on the left panel. Select Firefox will: to Never Remember History or if you want to be Granular Use custom settings for history.

customhistory383. If you opted for Use custom settings for history click the box for Clear history when Firefox closes.
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  • To specify what types of history should be cleared, click the Settings button next to Clear history when Firefox closes.
  • In the Settings for Clearing History window, check the items that you want to have cleared automatically each time you quit Firefox.
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  • After selecting your options, click OK to close this Window.
  • Close the Options tab in the browser, marked as: about:preferences page.

Removing your Internet History from almost everywhere

For any reason you want to remove your Internet activities and thus hide them from your spouse, boss, potential employer or another entity, here are some tips and directions:

Deleting your Internet History from your Browser 

Google Chrome

  1. Locate the Chrome Control Center upper right corner of the browser. You should see a symbol with some horizontal lines

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2. Click on History as the Figure below shows:

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3. Your browser Internet history will appear. Click on the button “Clear browsing data”

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4. In the next window you can select which elements to delete and the time range. If you want to delete only your history, check only the first 2 options. If you check Passwords, for instance, all the passwords previously saved in your favorite websites will be removed.

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5. Click on Clear browsing data again.

6. Excellent job!

Note: Chrome lacks the feature to remove history on exit, but there are several extensions you can integrate to the browser to accomplish that function.

Firefox

  1. In the upper right corner of the Firefox Window locate a symbol with some horizontal lines.
  2. Click on it and the windows below will appear.
  3. Cllick on the History symbol

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After you’ve clicked the History option. The following window will appear:

4. Click on “Clear Recent History”

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That option will take you to the next window.

  • Here you can delete ALL your history (Everything) or just the last few hours or the last day, as well as select WHICH elements you want to delete, not just History but Cookies and Cache, Form-saved fields, etc.

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5. Click on Clear Now and You’re Done!.

In Firefox you also have the option to delete the history while closing the browser.  For more detailed instructions click on this post.

Internet Explorer

Are you kidding? Use another browser.

Automatic Tools

If you use more than one browser it makes sense not to want to do this individually. Worry not, there are apps for that (well, actually computer programs)

You might want to check:

Both programs would let you not only to delete your internet history (and related content), but empty your Trash Bin, delete the lists of the files you’ve recently used on Windows (MRU), among other advanced features.

Also, if you don’t want your browser to store any History information anymore you could always use incognito mode.

Removing your Google Internet Search History 

Ok, now you’re computer is rid of your whole internet activities. That doesn’t mean your activity on the sites you’ve visited is gone. Don’t worry, most sites would delete that info after a while (sometimes they have to store that info for legal/law issues), but what about what you’ve searched on Google? Yeah, you want that gone too, you want that gone now!

Well, I was going to take some screenshots but Google Help has this documented nicely. Just click here to get directions on how to remove your Google History from your Computer or Smartphone. Also (like myself) to disable the History records.

Going Anonymous

If for some legitimate or paranoid reasons you wish to go anonymous on the Internet, you can use Tor, an anonymity browser which doesn’t store anything on the browser and which doesn’t let the sites know your real IP. Covering Tor, its capabilities, disadvantages and potential legal issues, is quite extensive for this post.

Good luck!