by Adam Pash

Click to viewThe internet has become an inextricable part of contemporary life, both in terms of how we get things done at work and how we get things done in our everyday lives. The problem is, sometimes our personal use of the internet conflicts with what the bossman has in mind.


As a firm believer that you can do your job well while getting in a little personal time with Sweet Lady Internet, this week I'm going to highlight a few methods for adding a layer of privacy and freedom to your work browsing.

NOTE: I don't want to start a debate over what kind of personal browsing you should or should not be able to do at work, so if you're against the idea that someone might want to have a little browsing privacy at the workplace, then this isn't for you. Then again, none of these tips are inherently evil by any means - most of them really just increase your privacy; it's up to you to decide how you use them.


Install Firefox: If your company allows you to install your own software, do yourself a favor and install Firefox; the free, open source web browser is all the rage here at Lifehacker. Not only is Firefox the basis for most of the following tips, but it's also one of the safest and extensible browsers available.

Use https: Whenever possible, you should make sure to take advantage of the additional security and privacy afforded by https connections. A web site using https scrambles your data, making it harder for someone to listen in on what you're doing. For example, yesterday Rick posted about accessing Gmail securely using https rather than the default http (in fact, a lot of popular webmail clients offer https). Also, most of Google's web apps (from Google Calendar to Reader) offer a secure https connection.


Secure Gmail access on public networks Tech blog Friedbeef's Tech offers this simple tip on keeping hackers at bay when you access Gmail… Read more

You can always remember to type in the extra "s" every time you visit one of these sites, but another nifty solution is the HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector Greasemonkey script, which lets you define a list of URLs you want to make sure always use https.


Regularly clear private data: Firefox has great options for managing your private data, so head to Tools -> Options and click on the Privacy tab to dig into them. From here you can tweak how Firefox manages your browsing history, cookies, form and search bar entries, and more. Of special note, I'd suggest ticking the checkbox to "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox" so you know that your private data has been cleaned every time you exit Firefox.


To set exactly what is thrown out and what remains, hit the Settings button next to the private data option and check off what data you'd like to clear. Naturally, you may be trading a little convenience for your privacy, so it's up to you to decide what you're willing to do without.


Disable address bar history: There are times when having every address you type into your address bar is handy, and then there are those times when it's not so handy. Getting rid of this feature at work has obvious advantages. Here's how to do it:


On a Windows computer, go to your Start menu and click on Run... (or use the Windows-R shortcut). Paste %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ into the text input and hit OK. This will open your Firefox profile folder. If you're on a Mac, navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles .

This folder should contain your default profile folder. Open that folder. (Unless you've created more than one profile, there should just be one choice. It should follow a format like: xxxxxxxx.default .


In your profile folder, you should see a file called history.dat . This is the file that tracks your address bar history. If you're using Windows, right-click the file and select Properties. Then tick the checkbox next to Read only and hit Enter.


On a Mac, right-click on the history.dat file and click on Get Info. On the info panel, find the section labeled Ownership & Permissions and set the file to Read only.


Now just restart Firefox and your browser will no longer save any URLs in the address bar.

Install the Stealther Firefox extension: If you don't want to totally disable your address bar history, and you feel like clearing your private data every time you restart Firefox is overkill, the Stealther extension is probably your best bet. When we first posted about Stealther, I joked that Stealther was the ultimate porn-hiding extension (which is true!). However, it's also the perfect extension to use if you want a quick, private browsing session at work without completely disabling features - like history - that you may want to have enabled most of the time.



Secure your saved passwords in Firefox: If you decide that you can't live without saving passwords at your work computer, you should at least set up a master password that a user will need to enter in order to have access to those saved passwords. Luckily for us, Gina's already covered that territory.


Use a proxy or RSS reader to browse personal sites: If your company restricts your must-visit web sites, there are still ways to get your daily dose of internet. For starters, you might want to try using a proxy to access restricted sites. You can read more about proxies here.


If you don't need to actually browse around a site, but simply want to read the latest it has to offer, you need to get yourself set up with an RSS reader (our favorite around Lifehacker HQ is Google Reader). If your reader isn't blocked by your company, you can read content from any web site with an RSS feed unrestricted. Since your reader has already fetched the content for you, everything is being fed to you from a clean domain (for example, Google).

For ultimate browsing privacy, try Torpark: If you're really serious about workplace browsing privacy, the free, open source, portable browser Torpark runs off a thumb drive and plugs into a Tor anonymity network to keep your browsing as anonymous as you can get it without an advanced degree. The downside: The Tor network can be very slow. However, you can toggle TorPark to drop the Tor connection when you don't need it. Either way, TorPark is probably the best free solution for private browsing.


If you're looking to add a layer of privacy to the browsing you do at work, these tips should get your started - but they're certainly not the last word on workplace privacy. If you've got your own favorite methods for keeping your browsing private at the workplace, let's hear about them in the comments.

Adam Pash is an associate editor for Lifehacker who thanks god every day that he's his own system administrator. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.