Congress passed a bill Tuesday rolling back impending FCC regulations and clearing the way for Internet Service Providers like Comcast and AT&T to continue mining and selling your data.
The difference between Google or Facebook trying to mine your data and your ISP is pretty dramatic.
"It's the difference between someone trying to follow you to work and someone putting a GPS tracker on your car," says cyber penetration specialist Ray Sims.
He says the ISP sees into places a single website or browser can't. After consulting with a few cyber security experts, here are a few ways to help keep your web data anonymous.
1) Tor
Tor is a free service that includes a web browser and other add ons you can use to send all web traffic through their random network of encrypted computers or nodes. It makes you and your data anonymous. There are some downsides though, says cyber security consultant Adam Tyra, including that it is slower
"If you are trying to do browsing that includes streaming of videos or downloading of large files, Tor is going to be the slowest option," says Tyra.
Also, Tor is often associated with internet crime (and journalists), which is ironic because it was developed by DARPA in the late 90s. Because of its prevalence among the unseemly (journalists included) the Tor end nodes--where your data is decrypted and sent to the internet--can be under surveillance. Your data could get swept up in an investigation of some sinister stuff.
2) Virtual Private Network service
A VPN service is not unlike the VPN you might use to work from home on your computer physically in your office. You download the client software and it encrypts and routes your web traffic through a remote server. Your ISP can see you using the VPN but nothing past that.
"It offers all the secrecy you could want," says Tyra
Unlike Tor, it is quick and you pay a monthly fee for these services. Both Sims and Tyra recommend VPN services, but warn that the VPN essentially takes the place of your ISP. They can see and track what you are doing but attract customers by having policies preventing them from doing that.
"Its who do you trust more? Do you trust them, or do you trust the ISPs?" asks Sims.
Either way, read the company's policies before you start using them.
Some VPN service providers:
3) Encrypted websites
This doesn't mean "private browsing" or the "Incognito Mode" on your Google Chrome. Your ISP sees all that. It doesn't see through a website's encryption. Encrypted websites are distinguished on the address bar by saying HTTPS or through a little lock icon.
Websites like your bank's and Google are encrypted, so your ISP can see you went to Google.com or Mybank.com, but can't see the pages you viewed or the searches you did. There is some concern about the amount of data a company can still glean off of these sites, but still the web moving more and more towards encryption is good from a privacy point of view.
Not sure if your favorite sites offer encryption? Ray Sims recommends the browser extension HttpsEverywhere.
"[It] maintains a list of websites that supports https and ensures you always use that when you go to those websites, says Sims."
