Since the advent and commercialization of the World Wide Web in the early 90s, there are very few cyber concepts that is more discussed than the issue of "Privacy" on the internet. From allegations of government spying over citizens for supposed security reasons to tech companies selling users data for advertising and digital marketing purposes, and even substandard e-platforms with almost zero effort in following established standards regarding privacy implementation.

There are so many legitimate reasons why one may want to be anonymous or truly enforce privacy on the internet. You might want to share sensitive information against an established order for the greater good of the world and do not want such to be linked to you for security reasons, at least not easily.

Today, I will be highlighting top ten considerations you should explore if you truly want to be anonymous on the internet.

Abandon your current laptop and get a more random device: As you may already know, nothing is completely deleted from a computing device. You can only make it more difficult to retrieve deleted data, but to be on the safe side. You shouldn't be using your real computer anymore. Go purchase a computer from someone random, like a fairly used one and make sure the person does not know you. (Tip: pay with Bitcoin)

File System Obscurity: After getting your random computer hardware, repeatedly add some random stuff (preferably garbage, senseless stuff) to the computer and delete multiple times. Then use Ccleaner and CCenhancer to make it difficult to retrieve deleted data from the computer. This is just so it can't be traced to former owner.

Operating System: If possible, forget about Windows, it was not created with "anonymity" in mind. It takes logs, does monitoring and provides technologies that will aid a forensic investigator to gather footprinting data on previous users. While there are ways to make Windows more privacy-complaint, it is easier to configure an operating system whose architecture supports anonymity and privacy. I recommend Tails, but you can also explore Whonix, Qubes and ZeusGuard

Forget about any website that requires you to sign-in: Don't sign into any site. Forget about Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Browser: Browser help to interpret webpages, and is often used by software developers to store session variables such as cookies. Forget about Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc. You should use Tor browser. Mozilla is also not bad if what you need is just privacy, not necessarily anonymity.

Email: Forget about mail service providers such as Google (gmail), Microsoft (outlook), Yahoo, etc. You can use any of the following providers - yopmail.com (for receiving emails alone), emkie mailer (for sending alone), temp-mail.org, tutanota, protonmail

Instant Messaging: If you must use an instant messaging platform, I recommend Signal. It's encryption architecture is almost unbreakable as at the time of writing. You can be sure msgs will not be intercepted through a man in the middle situation.

Cloud Storage: If you must use a cloud storage platform, Spideroak is recommended. Forget Dropbox, Office365, Sugarsync, etc.

Search Engine: If privacy is your concern, DuckDuckGo is highly recommended. Forget Google, Bing, etc. they will sell your search history to the highest bidder.

Network: You should explore using a VPN. Technologies such as i2P and Freenet are also viable alternatives

Note: In this writeup, and to enhance understanding of a broader audience I used "Anonymity" and "Privacy" very loosely, but in actual fact they are different concepts