Because only you should be keeping tabs on your tabs. Most of us don’t want to be tracked by every advertiser and website we visit. Luckily there are tools to make your browsing stealthier.Just like pizza, ads are great when they come in moderation - but too much of anything can be harmful. We all know the feeling of being watched at all times, and there’s nothing better than breaking free and knowing that whatever you do, you’re the only one who's keeping tabs on your… tabs.So if you’re looking to go incognito without actually browsing in incognito mode, here are four tools to help you out.
We can’t talk about blocking ads without mentioning an ad blocker, now can we? uBlock Origin has been my go-to blocker for more than a year now, and most times I forget it’s even there, silently running in the background. The browser extension can be found here and it’s extremely lightweight; unlike other blockers I’ve used in the past, this one doesn’t eat up your resources like it’s going on an eating binge. It has a huge list of filters, which means it automatically knows what’s an ad and what isn’t, and it’ll block most ads on a page even if you haven’t visited the site before.If you do spot an ad, all you need to do is point uBlock at its general direction and it’ll be the last time you see that ad. Top notch stuff right there.
At a first glance, I thought it was an amazing coincidence that I had the exact number of companies tracking me on both my phone and my computer - until I realized I’m using Chrome for both, and cookies are shared between them. So you now have the opportunity to opt out of all of these companies tracking you, or just some by choosing them one by one.
The problem with AboutAds is that all the companies that take part in it do so voluntarily. So if you have a shady advertiser tracking you, they’re probably going to be shady enough not to let you go.Disconnect.me is a nuclear option that shows you who’s watching on any site that you visit, then stops them from tracking you. You can Disconnect on any platform you’re using - Android, iOS, Mac or PC. The Chrome extension is another one that’ll sit there quietly in your browser’s task bar and do its job like one of the Queen’s guards.One area you’re going to see improvement when using Disconnect.me is load speed. They claim that pages will load 27% faster, due to nobody coming in the way of what you’re loading.#4: Facebook Disconnect
When it comes to tracking, Facebook is the granddaddy of them all. Every single page that has a Like button - and what freakin’ page doesn’t nowadays - is there to ask you to like the Facebook page… and to spy on you a little. There are more than a million sites, and God knows how many pages, that use the Like button, and Facebook is notified each time you visit any of those pages.What Facebook Disconnect does is block the traffic that goes back to Facebook letting them know what you’re up to. Everything else is intact, and you can use social media without any restriction.
What's my model number?
There are several ways to locate your model number:
- Option 1
- On your device, go to Settings, then "About device" and scroll down to "Model number"
- Option 2
- Often times you can view the model number inside the device, by removing the battery
- Option 3
- Using Samsung's model/serial number location tool