Get smart on privacy
in four easy steps.
How important is privacy to you?
Before we get into understanding privacy and share some of our favorite related tips and tools with you, take a moment to ask yourself how important privacy is to you. If you haven’t given it much thought before, your answer might surprise you.
Do you mind that advertisers are watching where you browse online?
91% of adults think that consumers have lost control over how their personal information is used by companies *
61% say they “would like to do more” to protect their privacy *
* (stats from Pew Research Internet Project)
Understanding privacy
While the Internet provides countless ways for us to share and connect, it can also open our personal information to others. Understanding privacy on the Web is the biggest step to being able to take better control of it.
“But I have nothing to hide”
This is a common misperception, but the truth is we all have things we don’t want everyone to know about. It’s why we use passwords and PINs on our bank, email and social media accounts. For more, watch Glenn Greenwald’s TED Talk, “Why Privacy Matters.”
Shine a light on who’s watching you
Another key to understanding privacy is to know who’s tracking your online behaviour. If you’re a Firefox user, be sure to check out Lightbeam. It’s a simple and insightful add-on that reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user.
What you can do
To help put you in control of your privacy, Mozilla has implemented a number of privacy features in Firefox. But even if you’re not a Firefox user there are a lot of simple things you can do to help keep yourself in control of your personal information online.
Easy ways anyone can protect their privacy
Stay Safe Online has several guides that can help, including social networking and mobile privacy tips and an easy reference for updating your privacy settings on the services many of us use every day.
Privacy Features in Firefox
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Do Not Track
With this feature enabled, Firefox will tell advertising networks, websites and applications that you want to opt-out of tracking for purposes like behavioral advertising.
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Forget Button
Want to delete your recent activity? Firefox makes it easy with the Forget button. Clear your history, from 5 minutes to 24 hours, in a single click.
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DuckDuckGo
A pre-installed search option in Firefox, DuckDuckGo gives you search results without tracking who you are or what you search for.
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Privacy Add-ons
For even more more ways to protect your privacy on Firefox, check out our privacy add-ons collection.
Start a conversation
At Mozilla, empowering people to be in control of their online lives is an important part of our mission — it guides our principles and it’s why we want everyone to be smart on privacy. If you’re feeling smarter already, share what you’ve learned here with your friends and family. It’s as easy as starting a conversation.
Here are some questions you can ask to get the ball rolling:
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When you think about your online life, does privacy matter to you, and why?
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How much do you think about who has access to your online data (advertisers, corporations, governments, etc.)?
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How do you protect and manage your personal information on social networks? On your phone?'