You may notice the word “Anonymity or Anonymous” on the internet. What is anonymity? Under what conditions it will be helpful and when you have to avoid it? This article is specially dedicated to beginners who know nothing about it.
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What is Online Anonymity and Anonymous?
Anonymity is derived from a Greek word ?anonymia? who meaning is namelessness. Actually, anonymity is the name of hiding your personal data like your location, IP address, etc. The person who is browsing as namelessness can be called as Anonymous.
You may understand that when you browse online, your data is being collected by online sites that you visit. These sites insert a cookie on your web browser and then they can know your location, your gender, age, your behavior, and IP address.
Except for sites, your internet provider and Government also can observe your activities. Simply, it means that you are not safe from a privacy point of view.
Advantages of Online Anonymity
Anonymity is useful when you want to browse in a totally private mode. An anonymous person usually cannot be tracked. It features is helpful when you are going to talk about any sensitive topic on the internet or you are going to talk with unknowns.
Disadvantages of Online Anonymity
For another point of view, anonymity has some disadvantages. Might be, it will be helpful for you but it can be dangerous for individuals or companies.
I explanation of this point starting from your behavior. Usually, all the sites track your behavior. This helps them to better understand what the people of a specific country like or dislike. On the basis of this behavior, they improve their services that are useful for you.
Being anonymous will not limit you. There will be no boundaries or another word, no judgment of your actions which might lead to criminal acts.
Why People Use Anonymity?
It depends! According to the above discussion, it is easy to conclude that a person who is willing to not to be tracked will browse anonymously. But it is hard to say what is his/her goal to use this function.
Nowadays teenagers are very familiar with it. They use anonymity (browse built-in incognito mode) so they can not be tracked by their parents/guardians.
How to Use Anonymity?
Three are the most common ways of anonymity:
- Browse incognito mode.
- VPN
- Guest mode.
Browser Incognito Feature
This feature provides anonymity to do not saving your browsing history and cache data. This feature will not save your browsing data anyhow, a site that you visit can track you.
VPN Features
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the most popular way to browse anonymously. This will connect you with any other country’s server and the sites that you visit will not be able to see your original location.
The best VPN services providers are NordVPN, IP Vanish. These VPNs not only hides your identity but also do not store your information. Which is great for user privacy.
Guest Browsing
All browsers support this feature. Anyhow, you are not much anonymous with this feature.
Hopefully, you have understood all about anonymity. Make sure you are not going to use it to harm anyone.