Call for Action's handy gift-giving guide
ATLANTA - Black Friday. Check. Cyber Monday. Check. What's next on that holiday 'to do' list? It's a safe gift-giving guide from our friends at Call for Action.
Call for Action is a nationwide, volunteer program that not only helps our FOX 5 viewers out of financial jams, but the organization gets in front of would-be problems, too. And this is where their shopping guide comes in: CFA Privacy Gift Guide.
Here's what you'll find inside - a lot about how to know if the site you're visiting is secure to truly figuring out how to hide what your searching for online.
Here's where the latter is important. Let's say you want to get the family the dog they've been begging for. You will need extras like comfy bedding. Well, if you are searching on your phone, an ad will most likely pop up later on that same phone. But those ads will also pop up on every device tied into your network. Yes, the kids will see it.
Well, my first thought is to turn on private browsing or incognito mode. That'll do the trick if someone sits down after you at the laptop, but here's what it won't do. It doesn't prevent the websites that you've visited from continuing to track you. It might limit it, but it doesn't stop it altogether. So, Call for Action recommends three sites that might interest you.
3 RECOMMENDED PRIVATE BROWSING OPTIONS
DuckDuckGo doesn't track IP addresses or store user info. It uses cookies but not a lot. It does track search terms, but it doesn't share them. Here are two more: Firefox Focus and Brave. According to "Call for Action," these are separate browsers for many platforms that have enhanced privacy settings.
But if you don't want to go that far, you can do a few other things like clear your history after searching for gifts, delete cookies at the end of the day and don't leave items in your online shopping cart for later. Somebody may see it.
So please, check out the whole guide. Helpful stuff. Again, here it is: Call for Action Privacy Gift Guide.