How to Protect Your Online Privacy Using Chrome

Now, with all the hullabaloo about online espionage and unwarranted personal data breaches, you could be asking yourself: How do I keep my privacy online when I’m out enjoying the world wide web? Well, fortunately for Chrome fans, there’s a way.

To note, however,  your gadget is not the issue here. So it just doesn’t matter whether you’re tinkering on your dependable Android gadget or making headway via a Windows PC. Or as the case maybe, lost in another digital dimension in a classy i-tablet perched on its sleek iPad mini keyboard.

If you’re surfing the net (or doing whatever it is you want to do online), the following extensions will help protect your privacy - assuming you’re using Google Chrome, of course:

Disconnect
Disconnect is the good guy. It is like a tracking police that does away with third-party resources vent on tracking your browsing activities in various sites and web apps. With these trackers stopped, you get to enjoy faster browsing as your bandwidth is freed from trash.

Well, it may have been a cliche but “Information is power.” Not only that, data is money in the making - especially when it lets in on the buying habits or the market’s behavior.

Most - if not all - of the websites that you come visit and perhaps “get lost into” over the internet, tracks your browsing history, and various bits and pieces of data that become valuable market insights when taken together. As a result, these information play a large part as a vital building block in the advertising efforts of major enterprises. And they are willing to pay much to get it.

Do Not Track for Chrome (DNT)
Do-Not-Track also gets rid of these pesky tracking devices, acting like an opt-out mechanism in the process. Chrome may have built-in settings to toggle the Do-Not-Track HTTP header, but this seemingly puny extension is powerful enough to roll out the tracking without getting your hands dirty with the browser settings.

However, hold your horses. Before you jump for joy or cry out loud “Eureka”, be warned: Do-Not-Track may not be totally observed by some of the companies you encounter daily on the web. Among them, Google and Facebook.

Don’t Track Me Google
This one could be the answer you have been waiting for as you are on the lookout in your searches. When you utilize Google as you most often will, Google keeps tracks of the links that you have clicked upon, among other search statistics. With the Don’t Track Me Google extension, Google tracking is disabled so tracking cookies are not set  and targeted ads while you browse are also incapacitated.

In other words, this useful extension tells Google to stay away from tracking you as you try to find your way products and services you want.

Keep My Opt-Outs
To note, this handy mechanism come from the sweat and Google’s brow, so relax.

Keep My Opt-Outs is a handy extension that lets you as a user opt-out of behavioral data tracking and its twin sister, personalized advertising. With this, you’re off the grid. Companies who want to advertise and look into your search and browsing history are swept aside, their hands tied behind their back.

How to Best Use Google Maps

It’s easy to find your way with Google Maps around, no doubt. But with the New Year just around the corner, the experience need not be a drag. With a few tricks you can get to that high school reunion or for that matter to your way home even when you’re a little tipsy – without getting lost.

Here are 10 proven tweaks that could get you a much-more palatable Google Map experience. This is a service that would have otherwise been impossible had GPS not come into the limelight. Of course, your viewing experience will be a lot more fun on a tablet (e.g., an iPad on a sleek iPad mini keyboard case) but smartphones will not give you any disservice, delivering you those crispy Street Views when you need one.

 Most of the methods here are generic and will work fine on either an iOS device or an Android one. Except for the first one, which is (for now) applicable only to the Android system.

Have G.M. (Google Maps), will travel!

1.   Operate offline.

Sounds too good to be true? Yes, unbelievable as it seems, you can actually use your google maps even without Wi-Fi or cellular data. Though available only on Android (iOS-users click here), this useful feature will let you enjoy

2.   Rate those wonderful spots.

Here’s a way to cast a vote of confidence on that wonderful resto-bar you’ve spent your Friday night-out – and had a good time. It’s so much more useful, if you’re the yelping type. Just pull up the info sheet and navigate to “Rate and Review”.

In case you are loathing erasing a business enterprise out of the map, you can also do that. Get your negative reviews out via the same window.

 3.   Get timely suggestions how to spend your day.

Lazing up on a Sunday afternoon, not sure what to do. Well, let Google Map help you. Just tap on the search bar and hit explore. Voila! You’d be surprised how many more of those must-see places or eating places you’ve missed.

 4.   Save a place for use later.

As busy as we can get, this one is a time-saver. When you are looking at a particular place and you’re out of time and want to see it later, just pull up the info sheet of the place and tap save. To pull it out later, just go to the person icon (upper right hand) and pick the saved place you want to see.

5. Get needed specs on a business.

There are times you would want to get to know more a restaurant or a summer get-away before checking on the location personally. This one’s easy. Just tap on a specific business place, and then swipe that info sheet located at the bottom. Doing a swipe left or right also to get to know similar places located just nearby.

6. Get a list instead of a map.
 
Ok. We get you, you’re the specific type. If looking over a map dazes you and blocks your creative thinking or whatnot just lest G.Maps do a list instead. To do this, just tap that list view icon when you do a search.    

7. Find more ways to zoom.

True, you can still do the usual pinch to zoom. But why do only that when you also just double-tap a particular map, hold your finger down and scroll down thereafter? May feel a little outlandish at first but with practice it really is pretty smooth.

8. Enjoy GPS navigation in seconds.

Lost in a big city like New York? No worries. Let the advanced technology of Google Map guide you. Just select where you want to venture by holding your finger in that particular spot dropping a pin in the process. For a turn-by-turn GPS guided navigation, just do a simple tap then hold.

9. Drop a pin to Street View.

For clarity and detail, Street View amazed me. Now, you can also utilize this dazzling feature via your smartphone or tablet. To do this, just press and hold that particular area effectively dropping a pin. From there you get to usher in Street View or even share the location if you choose to.

10. Save addresses for speedy directions.

You could be creating unwanted delays. Save the routine. Get those usual places saved (e.g., home, work, restaurants) so you will not have to retype them over and over again. Just tap that person icon situated in the right hand corner near the Search bar. And if you need to, editing these addresses is but a matter of pulling the settings tab out (bottom left corner).