How to Search For Internet Health Information Anonymously

Whether you are experiencing symptoms you don't want someone else to know about, or you are concerned that your employer might learn you've been diagnosed with something you prefer to keep private, or for any reason you want to be anonymous as you conduct your Internet searches for health information, you'll be happy to know that there are ways to conduct anonymous or private health information searches online.

You may not have known that any Internet searches you do for any purpose, whether they are health-related or not, are tracked and identified as belonging to you unless you take steps to be sure they are obscured. Understanding how your searches are tracked will help you take the steps you need to protect your privacy.

Searches are tracked by several entities, depending on how you use the Internet:

1. They are stored on the computer you use to do the searches. Anyone else who uses that computer can trace the websites you have visited using your history, cookies or cache.
   
   
2. They are tracked by your internet service provider. That's the company you pay to give you access to the internet, such as Time Warner, Comcast, Verizon Fios, or dial-up or satellite companies.
   
   
3. They are tracked by the browser you use. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and others collect information about your searches on their servers, at their locations (in addition to the information that is collected on your own computer.)
   
   
4. They are tracked by the search engine you use, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Like browsers collect information about your searches, the keywords you use and the results you click on are tracked by search engines, too. In particular, Google announced in early 2012, that not only would they continue tracking your every move, they would begin pairing it up with other things you do online, too. (And, it's presumed, sell that information to anyone willing to pay for it.)
   
   
5. Your searches may also be tracked by the sites you visit, using cookies or your registration.

These search data collections can have different outcomes:

1. Anyone who uses your personal computer can peek at the searches you have done by using tools on those computers. That includes someone else in your family, or anyone else who uses your work computer, like a co-worker or your employer.
   
   
2. Both browsers and search engines collect data about your searches to aggregate their results (meaning - your information is mashed with data from millions of others), to supply to advertisers, or to improve their own services. But they can also be forced to turn that information over for law enforcement purposes. Also, unless you take specific steps to block that tracking, it could be made public intentionally or by mistake, just as 650,000 AOL users learned in 2007.
   
   
3. Individual sites have differing privacy policies, but few people ever read them. Some of those policies actually give the owners of the site permission to sell your information.

How to Surf Health Information on the Web Anonymously to Prevent Being Tracked

On your own computer - at home, work or school:

1. Tracking on your individual computer is done through the browser you use. By cleaning out your search history, cookies and cache (storage of web content - text and graphics), you can prevent someone else who sits at your computer from figuring out where you've been. Each browser has a different protocol for clearing these tracks. Learn more from About.com's Web Search Guide.
   
   
2. Internet Explorer offers a private browsing feature. Open IE Version 8 (or higher), go to TOOLS, and choose InPrivate Browsing. You'll then see a designation in the search bar that you are using InPrivate Browsing. That will keep a search history, cookies and cache from tracking you. Be aware that if you open a page in a new IE window, then it will not open using InPrivate, at which point your sites will begin being tracked again.
   
   
3. Firefox also offers private browsing depending on which version of Firefox you use. Click on the Firefox tab (top left of the window) and choose "Start Private Browsing." Firefox has a good explanation of how this works on its website, including this warning:

   Warning: Private Browsing doesn't make you anonymous on the Internet. Your Internet service provider, employer, or the sites themselves can still track what pages you visit. Private Browsing also doesn't protect you from keyloggers or spyware that may be installed on your computer.

4. Use a different computer. Go to a cyber-cafe or the public library, for example. Public computers reflect browsing by the dozens of others who have used them, too - your browsing history can't be effectively uncovered and matched to you.

To prevent tracking by browsers and/or search engines or individual websites:

1. Browsers use IP (Internet protocol) addresses which are your connection through your Internet Service Provider. Every search coming from the same IP address is "assigned" to the same user. Sometimes you can change IP addresses on your home computer by unplugging your modem and then plugging it in again. That causes it to reset, providing you with a new IP address.
   
   
2. Never use the search provided by your ISP - like Comcast, RoadRunner, AOL or others.
   
   
3. Use different browser and search engine combinations. If you use Firefox and Google, then switch it up to use Internet Explorer and Yahoo an hour later, or Firefox with Chrome (which is also owned by Google.) By recombining these on a regular basis, you'll mix up the aggregation of data.
   
   
4. You can prevent any tracking by browsers by using a browser that is specifically developed to erase any tracking. Two such browsers are IxQuick and Tor. They are considered private, or anonymous browsers. You'll want to read about their privacy policies and how they "dispose" of your Internet trail. Interestingly, these browsers were originally developed for people in other countries who were afraid of tracking for political purposes, not health reasons. Now they are used by everyone from journalists who work with whistle-blowers, to those who seek health information privately, to people with their own nefarious reasons for wanting to be anonymous.
   
   
5. Don't register on the websites you visit. Don't provide any private information, particularly your email address or your name. Registering will place cookies on your computer, and will allow those sites to align your IP address with your personal information.
   
   Alternatively, register with false information. Set up an email address that you only use for your health searches, and claim you are a different age, gender, race - any personal information you're asked for, make it up and make it wrong. It will be tracked, and may even be traced back to you - but won't "they" (those who want the information) be surprised to find out they were wrong! (And won't "they" be upset that they wasted their money buying bogus data.)
   
   
6. Be aware that IE's InPrivate browsing and Firefox's Private Browsing will not prevent your information from being captured by individual websites, browsers or search engines. It will only keep information from being stored on your own computer.

These are just some of the ways you may be able to obscure your website visits, keeping your anonymity and privacy intact.

• You can learn more about anonymous web surfing from the About.com guide to web searches.

• Here is a list of search engines that allow you to search anonymously.