How to Browse From Your Phone Anonymously

Almost everybody in the civilized world has mobile phones – around six billion people. More than 50% of those people have smartphones. Smartphones are used nowadays to access the Internet; 50% of all Internet traffic is executed. And this amount will only increase due to the popularity of smartphones among youngsters. 

So, all problems for Internet usage from PC are also applicable for mobile users – viruses, anonymity, identity identification, tracking history, ad blockage, etc. Moreover, considering the apps for banking accounts and virtual systems like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, the requirements for safe browsing are even higher than for PC.

Main aspects of phone safety

Mobile safety consists of several main aspects:

• Blockage of phone preventing strangers’ access
• Availability of data encryption on the device
• Safety of used apps and their behaviour and usage of mobile resources
• Antivirus availability 
• Used Browser
• Root access to the phone
• Bluetooth should be maximum turned off as an accessible channel to access the phone
• Some special programs preventing access in case of theft
• Usage of public Wi-Fi networks
• Amount of private information stored on the phone
• Safety levels of banking apps

Some aspects can be combined like some Browsers include antivirus already and protect the phone data in public WI-FI networks. Also, Browsers can propose many other features for more sophisticated browsing without digital fingerprints. So, that is why we will look at phone browsers more closely.

Mobile browsers

Many Mobile Browsers exist on the market that may already be pre-installed with leading software on smartphones. 

The popular Web ones are:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Dolphin
• Safari

But all these Browsers are limited in functionality and do not provide confidentiality for the users. On the other hand, they have standard functions: friendly interface, web technologies with options to review almost all extensions (HTML, Flash, JavaScript, etc.) on the phone, Internet browsing, synchronization with different accounts, adblocking, and reserve copying. 

For sure, there are some minuses even among these simple functions: not all standard browsers are supported by all smartphone models, require a lot of memory, no traffic compressing, not working stable.

And the main minus is you cannot browse with standard settings without plugins anonymously. 

Anonymous Mobile Browsing

Anonymous browsing is essential not only to hide your identity for illegal activities but also to stop advertising, stop keeping track of your movements, keep all your sensitive ideas to yourself, access restricted content in your countries. The standard browsers typically provide incognito (or private) mode; all cookies and browsing history will be deleted after the internet channel is closed. 

But such a mode does not provide complete anonymity; Internet providers can easily find all required information and distribute it to Third Parties. Anyway, in each Browser, to be safer, do not forget to clean your history and always try to use the HTTPS protocol, as it is safer than HTTP.

Anonymity could be two types:

• Local anonymity when your device does not track your activities on the Internet,
• Web anonymity when the Internet does not track your activities.

You may use Browser that is a leader in this respect – antidetect ones (Orbot Tor, GoLogin, Tails, Orfox – this one is a standard browser where for additional payment Orbot settings can be used), includes protection for tracking on all levels. All features that pose these browsers can be used separately but require a more complicated installation, and each safety solution should be chosen precisely. In the antidect browsers, you can select the amount of collected data, as sometimes some log-in identity is still required.

These browsers are dedicated to keeping anonymity on the highest level, routing the Internet traffic in encrypted channels, not keeping cookies after each session, and finding and deactivating trackers. Some browsers can provide VPN (Virtual Private Network) hiding your current location and your private data; you can choose the desired country and access the local resources. VPN protects incoming and outcoming traffic.

Antidetect browsers can easily hide the user’s IP address via proxies and allow work from multiple devices. However, it is also essential to hide your phone’s IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), your phone’s IP address. 

If you are a frequent user of public WI-FI networks, you should be in constant alarm that it is an easy way for third parties to steal your data. Most mobile apps also do not encrypt the information, even if you do not open Browser. So, check how your apps use traffic. Some antidetect browsers can redirect traffic from apps to the Browser to protect the user.

For sure, all antidetect browsers have trustable antiviruses, but you can install an additional one on your phone to increase your safety level.

Conclusion

Despite the antidetect browsers, do not forget about other simple safety advice: do not store data on SIM card, the information cannot be encrypted there; do reserve copies of essential data and keep it elsewhere, as in case of third party access the telephone will propose to return to the original settings and erase all information, do not send important information in SMS, this source is not encrypted as well, turn off geolocation, do not show in the open resources photos or video with private information, delete metadata from the phone. 

The user should always check all apps for access to the camera, microphone or GPS, as some spy’s apps can hiddenly record and turn on this feature remotely. 

Nevertheless, some measures are to be taken to protect your safety; it seems that the mobile phone was created to track the user’s activity as some people have used it constantly, even for work. But do not panic, there are too many Internet users, and giant fields with memory cards are required to store detailed information about each of them. For top-secret communication, you can buy the old-fashion phone with buttons and use a SIM card for one call.