After some research and looking into some of the privacy issues I decided to download the TOR browser. The Onion Router.

The TOR browser is definitely worth a try. Firstly, the reason for this browser and the onion routing is to keep what you do on your computer and the internet private to you as you want it to be.

When I found out about the Snowden revelations and then looked more into it I realized that I was now scared of typing or looking for certain things on the internet. Even today I feel that if I say or look into something that is not say politically acceptable I will be held accountable for it. I feel that if I look up something or criticize the government of the US I may be banned from visiting if they happen to check my social media or even trace my internet activity. From what I understand our cel phones are always available to the intelligence community if they really want. For those who say if you have nothing to hide it doesn’t matter. I disagree, I worry that my surfing and computer habits will be tracked and eventually they will know more about me than I know about myself. That scares me.

TOR at least solved some of those concerns for me about my privacy. I feel now that at least I do not have google and their sponsors following me all the time. Surfing the internet is much faster. My old laptop now loads pages immediately. I still get search results that contain google ads but much less, so I feel my searches are less biased.

I must still use MS or Google as browsers or Firefox, since for some things such as banking or other websites it gets difficult. But for most of my browsing habits and my old lap top the TOR is my go to browser and I will not look back. If you are at all concerned about your browsing privacy and ads slowing down your pages check out the TOR. If you have children, especially children I believe that their browsers should automatically be set to TOR.

It is actually very easy to download. I can do this , so can anyone.

As I learn more about Open source and continue my computer & linux education you will be able to follow me.

I became concerned with what I was experiencing because of the privacy issue. I streamed the Netflix video Snowden then watched Citizen 4 on You Tube. It describes a lot of what I was feeling. As well , my laptop was old and acting up with windows. I realized the the performance of my laptop for what I was using it for kept diminishing. My google browser kept taking more time to download pages, and my OS kept crashing if I began to open too many windows or click a few gazillion times because the laptop was no longer responding.

I cannot prove it, but I do believe windows and google to be responsible. What bothers me is that I don’t know what is going on behind my Operating System (OS) nor my browser. I do know more now because of some of the aforementioned things about privacy; about meta data and what is actually happening with algorithms when we type or search on the internet. But it begins to affect the performance of the computer or hardware I bought and begins quickly to render it obsolete as it cannot process the new apps, or processes that run behind the OS or browser. I am not a computer nothing; I browse and use software but I do notice the way my machines lose efficiency when I have been using them for a while and especially when switching between applications and as I add more and more updates. (I often get the feeling the updates are more to get more access to my information and habits rather than helping my applications run smoother. )

So to get back to privacy. This one of the reasons I am trying to learn Linux. I want to take back some of the control over my hardware.

Privacy in much of Snowden’s revelations and especially with the great Joe Rogen interview pushed me to look into this issue and take actions that I feel will enable me to secure my internet activity. I worry that my browsing and internet use will be used to compile a profile on me, by my computer, phone etc.

I feel that windows masks what really happens to your CPU and that the google browser hides how your computer is searching and tracking. I find that the information we must provide now to access certain basic services or basic information on the internet is more than is offered in return. For example. I must enter my email and name and country of residence just to use pinterest. I then receive enormous amounts of email that slow the loading of my browser and email service. I only wanted to check out a picture or information that was automatically brought up by google search. So when I use a certain browser they automatically bias my search results by including their partners ads.

Anyway the issue of internet privacy is a cause I feel is important . I believe that as citizens of the world we are in the process of losing something that we don’t even know how important it is to us. We are giving our private information and location at all times to companies and organizations that we don’t even know. This information then becomes their property and not ours anymore. Somehow this does not seem right to me.