Use Firefox (which is open software) for your web browser and set it up as follows:
Adjust it to automatically delete ALL cookies and ALL personal information of every type whenever you exit Firefox (and I have mine set to delete this information each time without asking permission). The exception is Site Preferences if you must utilize popup functionality for certain sites (unfortunately), such as some banking sites.Disallowing popups may help your machine to NOT becoming infected with certain "drive-by malware." However, you can set Firefox to disallow popups but make exceptions for individual sites of your choice. In addition, allow JavaScript. Set Firefox to be your default browser. Also, Firefox may be less likely to have security problems and be more resistant to “drive-by” malware installation than a number of other browsers. In addition, you can add protection for your children to protect them from accessing many websites containing pornographic material.
Firefox also helps prevent redirection to another web page without your permission. In that way, it helps protect you from “spoofing” which occurs when a malevolent hacker infects a website (without the owner of the website knowing about it) with code that redirects your browser to the hacker's website that is designed to look identical to the real website at which you are trying to look. The hacker is generally seeking your personal information such as your name, address, and information such as your credit card number. The hacker's website may even be made to make you think you have a secure encrypted connection (a closed lock in the lower right hand corner of your screen and a “https:” prefix on the web address). If you try to buy something while on the hacker's website, your personal information will be compromised.
NOTE: If your bank requires that JAVA be activated or a JAVA extension be installed (not to be confused with JavaScript, which is okay), then I recommend that you choose a different bank.
Extensions
From time to time Firefox may have updates that make it incompatible with one or more of the extensions or add-ons in the list below. If this happens, Firefox will typically AUTOMATICALLY disable the incompatible extension or add-on until such time that the author(s) update their extension or add-on to again be compatible with the current version of Firefox.
After you have configured Firefox in the manner described below, you may find that some websites (a tiny percentage) do not function as desired. If you must access those websites (such as when the site will not allow you to pay for an item using your credit card because of some privacy function implemented in Firefox when you set it up as described below), then I recommend that you use Google Chrome if you are running Windows or else Chromium if you are running Linux. If you value your privacy, I suggest that you use Firefox, as configured below, for all Internet browsing whenever possible.
NoScript Extension
For Windows
An extension to Firefox called "NoScript" provides powerful protection to your browser and is effective in disallowing many scripts (from the Internet) from running that might otherwise cause installation of spyware or other malware. It also provides significant privacy protection and very important protection from website "spoofing," also mentioned below. You can find NoScript here. You can can "Enable" or "Disable" NoScript at will. From your Firefox menu selection choose Tools—>Add-ons, then within the window that opens choose the Extensions button at the top of the window, then click on NoScript. After that, just click on "Enable" or "Disable" as you desire.
You can also change your Preferences within NoScript in basically the same way (instead of choosing Enable or Disable). One of the first adjustments to Preferences that I recommend is to choose the Appearance tab within Preferences and then within the Contextual Menu uncheck "Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous)". This will prevent the Options menu to have available the "Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous)" choice during normal operation while you are surfing the Internet. It is too easy to click on that choice accidentally. For the greatest security, I suggest that you DO NOT “Allow Scripts Gobally.” Even though NoScript allows you the freedom to Allow Scripts Globally, you will be disabling most of its protection if you do so. However, even if you Allow Scripts Globally (which is strongly preferable to disabling it), you will still retain powerful protection against certain forms of website "spoofing," which is actually one of the most important protections for communicating with your bank or buying things over the Internet.
For Ubuntu Linux
The extension to Firefox called "NoScript" provides significant privacy protection and very important protection from website "spoofing," also mentioned below. When NoScript is used with Firefox running on Ubuntu Linux, it also may provide some protection to your browser by disallowing scripts (from the Internet) from running that might otherwise cause installation of malware into Firefox itself---even though that is not likely. As far as the probability that your Ubuntu Linux operating system will be infected with viruses or malware, that is usually not even a reasonable possibility.
You can find NoScript here. You can can "Enable" or "Disable" NoScript at will. From your Firefox menu selection choose Tools—>Add-ons, then within the window that opens choose the Extensions button at the top of the window, then click on NoScript. After that, just click on "Enable" or "Disable" as you desire.
You can also change your Preferences within NoScript in basically the same way (instead of choosing Enable or Disable). One of the first adjustments to Preferences that I recommend is to choose the Appearance tab within Preferences and then within the Contextual Menu uncheck "Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous)". This will prevent the Options menu to have available the "Allow Scripts Globally (dangerous)" choice during normal operation while you are surfing the Internet. It is too easy to click on that choice accidentally. For the greatest security, I suggest that you DO NOT “Allow Scripts Gobally.” Even though NoScript allows you the freedom to Allow Scripts Globally, you will be disabling most of its protection if you do so. However, even if you Allow Scripts Globally (which is strongly preferable to disabling it), you will still retain powerful protection against certain forms of website "spoofing," which is actually one of the most important protections for communicating with your bank or buying things over the Internet. You can run NoScript this way (especially with Ubuntu) if you do not value the extra privacy that it gives you, or you are satisfied with the degree of added privacy attained via the other items below.
For both Windows and Ubuntu Linux
When you use NoScript without allowing scripts globally, companies that specialize in tracking your computer (with possibly better than 99 percent accuracy), your web browsing habits, how long you view each web page (and other things), and finally selling that data to companies that statistically correlate that data specifically to you, have a significantly harder time invading your privacy. That so-called "personally unidentifiable data" is no longer so "personally unidentifiable," when it can finally be tracked specifically to your name, not just your computer. Using NoScript will not ensure your privacy, but it does make it harder for companies to invade your privacy.
Privacy (an unfortunate situation)
The methods listed below are primarily to establish greater privacy while you are surfing on the Internet. Because of the way that the Internet developed (with financial profit being a primary motivator), privacy on the Internet is very difficult to achieve. In fact some IT professionals say that it is next to impossible. There still does exist some extreme measures that can be taken to almost assure privacy on the Internet, but these are beyond the scope of the information on this website—at least at this time.
Normally, huge amounts of data is harvested from nearly every individual who surfs the Internet (generally without their awareness that it is happening), and that information (usually called "personally unidentifiable data" to make it sound innocent) is reassembled and statistically correlated specifically to the individual's name. The methods I have listed below do not assure privacy, but instead they can be used to very significantly limit the amount of information about you that is available to companies doing this data harvesting. Whether or not you visit exclusively honorable websites, there is danger lurking when either companies or the government invade your privacy. That type of information is basically power that can be abused.
BetterPrivacy Extension
The BetterPrivacy extension to Firefox helps protect your privacy from the information stored in Flash or DOM cookies, also called “supercookies,” over which Firefox has no control and cannot delete them—because they are produced outside of Firefox via your Adobe Flash or Adobe Shockwave Flash add-on. Information is stored in the supercookies when you view Abobe Flash videos. (I personally have the Options for BetterPrivacy to delete any supercookies after only 2 minutes—not the preset default time.) Also, have it to delete the Flashplayer default cookie, the empty cookie folders, and auto-delete the DOMStorage file (containing the HTML5 cookies). In addition, disable ping tracking.
Because Adobe Flash videos are commonplace everywhere on the web, it is essentially necessary that Adobe Flash (or equivalent) be present. However, BetterPrivacy will safely get rid of the supercookies for you. Go to YouTube and watch a video before installing the BetterPrivacy extension. Simply watching a video will cause a supercookie to be installed on your computer. Do this to avoid certain warnings or errors that you may see during the installation of the BetterPrivacy extension, since it may expect supercookies to already be installed on your computer. (Then adjust the preferences of BetterPrivacy to delete that supercookie and also any others.) You can find BetterPrivacy here.
Other Bad Privacy Invaders -- Evercookies
Evercookies are especially a problem since they were designed to be very difficult to delete, and if the computer user is successful in deleting the "supercookies" (and perhaps others), the Evercookies may automatically regenerate those deleted cookies, so that monitoring of the user's computer can continue in as grand scale as possible.
The good news is that they can be deleted, at least manually. The program BleachBit deletes evercookie tracking, deletes DOM Storage (HTML 5 cookies) in five major browsers (including Firefox and Chromium), and cleans Silverlight cookies. It also frees up disk space and improves performance in some areas. You can download it for either Windows or Ubuntu Linux here. I recommend that you run this program at least once per day for every day you use your computer. It is very fast and so may take only a minute or two. I recommend that you set it to wipe every category for Chromium (if you use Chromium), every category for Firefox (with the exception of Site Preferences, if you access certain sites that require the functionality of popups for you to do certain tasks—such as certain banking sites, unfortunately), and the cookies and vacuum categories ONLY for Thunderbird (if you use Thunderbird). I recommend to always have all your applications (such least Firefox, Thunderbird, and Chromium) closed before running BleachBit. If BleachBit is going to remove data regarding an application, be sure to exit that application before you run BleachBit. Also, if BleachBit gives you the option to run it in Administrator mode, DO NOT DO THAT unless you are very informedregarding exactly which data will be deleted and the consequences of deleting that data. Always run BleachBit in the regular user mode. Other applications that you may seriously consider deleting the associated data are Silverlight, Adobe Reader, Flash, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and RealPlayer, if these applications are on your computer.
Ghostery Extension
Install the Ghostery extension. Then configure the Ghostery extension by going to Tools→Add-ons. Then click on the Extensions tab. Find Ghostery and click on Preferences. Within the box that opens click on the Options tab. I suggest that you “Enable bug list auto-update” and that you do not “Enable GhostRank.” Then click on the Performance tab and check the option to “Delete Flash and Silverlight cookies on exit.” Then click on the Blocking tab. Click on Select: All and also click on “Enable blocking.” Then go down the list to make sure that every one of the items are blocked (as indicated by the check mark to the left of each item. If an item is not checked, then click to the left of it to block the item. If you have Google websites or other websites that depend upon some of those items, you may wish to clear the check from the items you wish to not block. Also, when you are shopping on the Internet, you may wish to disable this extension temporarily to be able to see some of the 3rd party ads (from companies other than the main one representing the website) that are related to the items for which you are shopping, that would otherwise be disabled on the website where you are visiting.
You can also enable all the cookie blocking that Ghostery Extension offers, and in most cases, that will not cause a problem.
RefControl Extension
RefControl may be used to help keep web sites from tracking a part of your website surfing activity so that they get less information. You can block the referrer web page, and this generally causes no problems with functionality, it just makes it a little harder for them to invade your privacy. When you buy products with a credit card, in some cases you may need to temporarily disable this extension. You can get RefControl here.
Startpage Search Engine
You can also use an anonymous search engine (such as Startpage Search Engine) that provides a secure link (via encryption) similar to your communications when you contact your bank or you buy something over the Internet via your credit card. In addition, the Startpage Search Engine does not even track your IP address or anything else about your computer or identity. When you enter a search term in this search engine, it will give you a list of links similar to most other search engines, and it searches from a number of other high quality search engines—but not including Google. (I recommend that you do not install the add-on that they offer because you get adequate functionality without the add-on. In addition, Firefox add-ons cause overhead to Firefox, so it is better to not install unnecessary add-ons.)
If you click on “Highlight,” it will highlight your search terms in a similar way that the Google search engine does except that the highlighting will be of the exact site the way it is presently rather than from the “Cashed” function of the Google search engine. Also, it does this real-time, so it is slower than Google's “Cashed” function.
For continued privacy when you click on a link to a website, you can also click on "Proxy" (placing you in stealth mode for Internet surfing) and it will allow you to go through their server so that the website that you contact cannot see your IP address, and Javascript is disabled automatically. (The website will not be able to determine who you are.) The result is that you get to surf privately in addition to using a search engine that does not keep data about your computer. The downside to using the Proxy option is that your web surfing becomes slower since you are having to go through their server in that case.
There are other search engines that you may wish to consider (that do not log your IP address) such as the DuckDuckGo search engine (a powerful search engine, despite the name), which also provides a secure link (using the https protocol) if you wish to use it---and the link I provided earlier in this sentence is a secure link. DuckDuckGo does not provide a "proxy" or "stealth" mode so that you can also visit each website privately.
You may also consider using Privatelee as a search engine. It has automated features that most people will enjoy.
More Privacy
For extra privacy you may also use the privacy browsing mode which is built-in to the latest version of Firefox (Tools—>Start Private Browsing, or Ctrl+Shift+P to toggle private browsing ON and OFF). The downside to this is that it will not remember any history while private browsing is ON. When you toggle private browsing OFF again by using Ctrl+Shift+P, it will suddenly remember your browsing history that occurred before you activated private browsing. (During the specific time that you are using the "Proxy" or "stealth mode" of the Startpage search engine, this function of Firefox probably does not provide any significant additional privacy.)
Child Protection
You may wish to install the add-on called FoxFilter to help keep Firefox from accessing pornographic sites. This add-on can also be password protected (not for free) to keep it from being disabled. It works with both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.
If you are running Ubuntu Linux and the only Internet browser that you have installed is Firefox and you don't reveal to your children the Ubuntu Linux system password that you have set up, then the children cannot install any other Internet browser and will generally be prevented from making any critical modifications to the Ubuntu system.
Also, see Hardware Firewall and Selection of DNS Servers for a way to set up fast DNS servers that you can use at no charge (for both Windows and Ubuntu) to help prevent contact with pornographic sites.
Popups
Unfortunately, some sites (even including some banking sites) utilize popups for normal functionality. Configuring Firefox to disallow popups can help, but some malware programmers have apparently have learned how to bypass this protection. Clicking anywhere on a popup may lead to the unknowing authorization of malware installation. If there is a popup that you don't want, DO NOT click anywhere on the pop up (not even to move it out of the way), and this includes NOT clicking on any close buttons or even the cancel X button in the upper right hand corner of the popup window. If you do, you may be authorizing the installation of malware, because malware makers sometimes design popups to operate in this fashion. Instead, do one of these four things: 1) right click on the task bar tab for that application (generally located at the bottom of your screen) and choose to close that particular window tab if it gives you that option, 2) if the task bar does not show that window tab, then using Firefox's backup arrow, try to backup off of that site, 3) if you cannot backup off that site, right click on the task bar and choose Task Manager and quit Firefox through the Task Manager, or (4 if you cannot quit Firefox through the Task Manager, press the <Ctrl> <Alt> <Del> keys (simultaneously) on your keyboard to either sign out or restart your computer, and if this is chosen, it is better to simply restart your computer.
For Windows --- Return to Setup Your Computer to Protect Itself and for Privacy