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Have you ever wanted to be anonymous? Do you feel uncomfortable knowing that people can watch, track, and record YOUR actions online? Learn how to make yourself "untrackable!"

STEP 1: FINDING "OPTIONS"...

Open Firefox and look to the top of the screen, find "tools". Select "options". This should pop up a window titled, (you guessed it) "Options".

STEP 2: MAIN TAB

The first tab you will see when the "Options"window opens is the tab titled "Main". There are two settings we must change or check here. The first one is the startup section. Where it says "Home Page" either put your own, or click "Restore to Default". This is to prevent you from opening a malware-infected site at startup. The next thing we will check is the "Downloads" section. Make sure that you have checked the box that says, "Show the download window when downloading a file". Next, check the last box that says, "Always ask me where to save files". These two options will prevent a site from downloading malicious software against your will.

STEP 3: CONTENT TAB

The next tab we will tweak is the "Content" tab. There are four options that we will change: 1. "Block Pop-Up Windows" - Check this one. It will prevent pop-ups from opening. 2. "Load Images Automatically" - Check this one too, as it won't jeopardize your privacy. 3&4. These two you will have to decide for yourself. From a purely security-minded perspective, they should be unchecked, but this is both unpractical, and mostly unnecessary. Therefore I would say it is mostly up to you to decide. If you are extremely cautious, and on the border of paranoia, you can uncheck them, but for anyone else (including myself) I would advise that you leave them checked.

STEP 4: PRIVACY TAB

In the Privacy tab, you can change the settings for how Firefox will remember your history (or rather not). If you are worried about your privacy, you should change the first option to "Never Remember History" and that's it. You can choose custom settings too, but just saying that you don't want any history whatsoever is easier, and safer. The only drawback with this is that you will not be able to accept cookies. What I do, and what I would recommend is to put it to custom, uncheck all boxes, and add any site that doesn't work like it normally should (usually login pages) to the "Exceptions" list. If you are concerned about someone looking over your shoulder while you are browsing, I would suggest choosing "Nothing" from the drop-down menu on the bottom. This will make sure that nothing will be displayed when you start typing into the address bar except what you are typing at that moment.

STEP 5: SECURITY TAB

Check all the boxes displayed, and set a long, secure master password when prompted. You will have to enter this whenever you open Firefox.

STEP 6: ADVANCED TAB

Finally! The last tab! Open it up and select the "General" Sub-tab. Check the following boxes:

• "Warn me when websites try to redirect me or refresh the current site"
• "Always check if Firefox is the default browser on startup"

Next, go to the "update" sub-tab and select the top three boxes, and the bottom two. This will make sure that Firefox stays up-to-date, and it will make sure that nothing can be installed without your consent.

STEP 7: ADD-ONS

This is the last step, and possibly the most important one. There are many good ad-ons for Internet privacy, but the following are the best I found for privacy.

• My WOT - The ultimate add-on in my opinion. This will rate every single website you visit, and it will display a fullscreen warning if you try to enter a site that is rated as dangerous. The site ratings are based on user ratings and online blacklists, making it very accurate and user-friendly. When you install the addon, you might can try it out on this site. Feel free to go and rate.
• Ad-Block Plus - Will block ads displayed on web pages. Some ads plant third-party cookies on your machine, but if you did step 4, this should not be a problem. I would say that this is not necessary, but practical if you are not interested in ads.
• BetterPrivacy - Helps you keep track of Flash cookies. These behave like normal cookies except your browser won't block them in your settings. I recommend that you set it to clear these automatically every 20 minutes or so. Also make sure it clears them upon browser shutdown as well.

That's it folks! Enjoy your newfound online privacy! If you want to be totally anonymous, I would recommend that you check this guide out: The Ultimate Privacy Guide