news&views Spring 2015 | Page 24

Safe Surfing While Travelling BY ERICH BERNDT

It is almost impossible these days to travel anywhere without the need to access the Internet to confirm reservations , check maps , read email or conduct financial transactions . Even if our accommodation provides Internet access , wired or via Wi-Fi , my wife and I still practice safe Internet surfing . We especially take precautions if we need to use a laptop or tablet that is on a public network like those provided at McDonald ’ s or Starbucks . Unsafe surfing can result in receiving more spam email or even downright hacking of your computer and email accounts .

To prevent our surfing habits from being tracked by companies like Google ( Chrome ), Microsoft ( Internet Explorer ) or Apple ( Safari ), we have installed a safe browser and a safe search engine on our devices . Firefox , which is an open source browser , does not track your surfing , nor does it spam you with paid-for advertising . It is available for download for free ( from https :// www . mozilla . org / en-US / firefox / new ) on most computers and devices including iPhones and iPads , Android tablets or phones , Macs and PCs .
Our safe search engine of choice goes by the strange name of DuckDuckGo . DDG does not track our surfing nor does it sell or give away that data to others . We have found that DuckDuckGo often takes us to sites that are different from the paid-for-by-advertiser searches done by Google ,
Yahoo or Apple . With DDG , the highest-ranked site is not necessarily the one that paid the most money to the search engine provider . With DDG , the most relevant site appears first . This search engine can be downloaded free from https :// duckduckgo . com and Apple includes it with the new Yosemite operating system .
Finally , to prevent others on public networks from seeing what we are browsing or even what is on our laptop , tablet or smartphone , we use the products of a Canadian software company , SurfEasy . com . SurfEasy provides a ‘ virtual private network ( VPN )’ connection while on the Internet . A VPN connection is encrypted in the same way that banks and the Canada Revenue Agency are when you do your online banking or pay your income tax . A VPN is like an encrypted ‘ tunnel ’ through the Internet , which means it is virtually impossible to hack into . It is like connecting a private telephone line between two locations .
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