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When websites could theoretically track me.
I keep my browser on "delete all my cookies/cache/local storage/history/everything (except bookmarks and addons, basically) every time I exit" mode. And I never log into anything without closing out of my browser entirely first to get rid of anything they could use to correlate "you visited this blog" with my specific Google (or whatever) account. When I'm done with whatever I logged in for, I close my browser entirely again.
My phone browser doesn't have a "delete everything on close" feature, so I just use the "delete all data on this app" feature liberally.
I have some bad news for you, Toot :(
Eh I don't feel like giving bad news, just please see my response to this question and extrapolate.
Extra things you can do:
Firefox browser has built in protection against tracking and you can use container tabs to isolate each site you go to further.
Ublock Origin browser extension will increase that protection. Make sure it is Ublock Origin and not any of the clones and lookalikes.
DNS level protection. I use what's called a Pi Hole, a raspberry Pi on my network acting as a home DNS server.
Here are my top blocked URLS for the month of May. I utilize all the above protections and as you can see the Pi Hole is still doing the majority of the heavy lifting. And it's a constant game of whack-a-mole as they change a single digit to bypass the blocks in place.
123 THOUSAND requests from Roku, all blocked without a single detriment to our media watching experience. No one in my household even uses Netflix. It's honestly sickening. People love to talk about how much energy crypto uses, but no one questions this at all.
................welp. I guess I'm getting a pihole.
Does ram matter? The pi4 comes in 1, 2, 4, or 8 gigs of ram. Each priced accordingly, and maybe I need the 8 gig? Or can I save some money and get the 1 gig?
I believe Pihole can be run from a docker container so if you have any hardware lying around that will do. The hardware requirements are extremely light, I believe the minimum RAM requirement is like 512 MB so any one of those should do. Personally, mine is running on a 4 with 8 Gigs of RAM and I have literally never experienced a single issue other than needing to power cycle it once or twice a year.
There's also the issue of being fingerprinted. An unfortunate truth of the internet is that most browser/device set ups are unique, and it makes it possible to track people that way. Having features like "do not track" turned on actually make you more unique, making it easier to confidently identify you when you visit sites. It probably doesn't matter though, in my experience basically every web browser/computer is recognized as a unique user now (with maybe the exception of using a popular mobile browser on a popular mobile phone model).
Anyways, visit https://www.amiunique.org/ to have your hopes of being anonymous crushed.
I feel so sad for you because your feelings come from a good place but unfortunately you just haven't paid attention enough ☹️