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How to stop websites from monitoring your personal data? Follow these steps
In Google Chrome, there is an option to request websites not to track or collect your browsing information when you use a PC or an Android smartphone. However, how a website responds to the request determines what happens to your data.
We are now heavily dependent on the internet for our jobs, education, entertainment and communication. However, with our work shifting to the virtual world, we are also knowingly or unknowingly sharing a lot of our information with websites we visit, most of the time without giving due concern of proper encryption. They collect our sensitive information which if gone in the wrong hands can be exploited for malicious purposes.
However, there is an option to request websites not to track or collect your browsing information when you use a PC or an Android smartphone to access the web. You can make ‘Do not track’ request which is by default turned off.
How to send ‘Do not track’ request from desktop
Step 1 Open Chrome web browser on your desktop computer.
Step 2 Click on the three-dot menu option present at the extreme top right-hand side.
Step 3 Clicking this will open the drop-down menu. From it, select the Settings option.
Step 4 In this menu, on the left-hand panel, you will find Privacy and security settings. Click that and inside it, tap on the Cookies and other site data button.
Step 5 Turn on the switch to send a ‘Do not track’ appeal with your browsing traffic.
How to send ‘Do not track’ from an Android smartphone
Step 1 To apply this feature in your Android smartphone, open the Chrome application on the device.
Step 2 Here, in this too, you will see the similar three-dot menu present at the right corner of the screen display.
Step 3 Tap it and go to the Settings option.
Step 4 In the option, find and select the Basics tab. In that, tap the privacy and security button.
Step 5 Click on the ‘Do not track’ option and switch the setting on.
Those using iPhones or iPads cannot use this “Do Not Track” option as this feature is currently not available for these devices.
How effective is this feature?
However, how a website responds to the request determines what happens to your data. Your browsing data will still be collected and used by several websites to enhance security, offer content, services, advertisements, and suggestions on their websites, as well as to produce reporting statistics, Google informs in a blog post.
When a Do Not Track request is made, the majority of websites and web services, including Google, don’t alter their behaviour. Also, Chrome doesn’t give information on which websites and online services honour requests for Do Not Track and how those requests are interpreted by websites.
