20 top tips to be a better internetter

We want to help people to understand how technology works and how it shapes the world around them.

The Better Internetter campaign includes tips to help you on your way to take greater control over your digital life.

Here are our 20 top tips for being better at the internet. Share one of them or one of your own under #betterinternetter via @doteveryoneuk.

  1. Turn on two factor authentication (2FA) where you can for your online accounts.
  2. Use a password manager (a digital vault for your passwords) to keep your online accounts secure and make it easier to use hard to guess passwords and have a different password for every account.
  3. Install a tracking blocker or an adblocker if you don’t want to see adverts.
  4. Switch to using a privacy preserving browser like @brave or search engine like @DuckDuckGo to reduce gathering of your personal information online.
  5. Use a virtual private network (VPN) to help keep your personal information safe and prevent some types of price discrimination.
  6. Turn on chronological timelines in social media where possible.
  7. Turn off notifications on your social media platforms about news you don’t need to see urgently.
  8. Set your phone to grayscale to remove the positive reinforcements we get from colourful icons.
  9. Regularly update your devices and apps and remove or turn off apps you don’t use.
  10. Try keeping the home screen of your phone to tools only (the apps you use for quick in-and-out tasks like Maps, Camera, Calendar, Notes). Move the rest, especially mindless choices, off the first page and into folders.
  11. Regularly clear your cache so private information isn’t stored and used to help target personalised advertising and pricing and so it’s not accessible by future users/vulnerable to hacking.
  12. Check prices on a different device or browser before making a big purchase online.
  13. Charge your device outside the bedroom. Get a separate alarm clock in your bedroom, and charge your phone in another room (or on the other side of the room).
  14. Use tools like Terms of Service, Didn’t Read (@ToSDR). They help explain T&C’s. Try to avoid ones you find unacceptable.
  15. Only install applications from authorised app stores.
  16. Don’t look at private information on public wifi. Public wifi networks are less secure and more susceptible to hacking than private networks.
  17. Set up an alternate social media account, follow people from the ‘opposite’ side of the debate or try out other sources of news and information to avoid filter bubbles.
  18. Use fact checkers like @FullFact and @snopes to build up your ability to identify online misinformation.
  19. If you do not like receiving targeted advertising or having your personal information collected, consider paying for services that support other business models.
  20. Use your rights under GDPR and complain where your rights are breached.

More about the better internetter campaign 

Doteveryone’s recent People, Power and Technology report explores how the nation thinks and feels about internet technologies. It reveals five digital blindspots – areas in which people have a poor understanding of the fundamentals of how technology operates.

Be a Better Internetter is part of the action we’re taking to help people take more care of their digital lives, to understand how technology works and how it shapes the world around them.

We are able to run this campaign thanks to funding from Omidyar Network, and generous support from BETC for creative development and from the Guardian for dissemination.