Fake Your IDENTITY ONLINE

Fake is usually a word with negative connotations – from fake news that’s designed to trick you to fake products that rip you off. But if you want to protect your privacy online, and prevent your personal data from being gathered by marketing companies, cyber-criminals and spammers, then faking your identity is an effective and sensible option.

Many websites now ask you to provide information that they don’t really need – including your phone number, address and date of birth – and use it to build a scarily accurate profile of you in their databases. Faking this data stops your actual details falling into the wrong hands and means you’re much less likely to receive spam emails, nuisance phone calls and junk mail. It can even speed up the process of signing up for websites, as well as shielding you from phishing scams and data breaches.

In this feature, we explain the best ways you can fake your identity on the web, legally and ethically – so don’t worry, we won’t be suggesting ways you can commit fraud or deceive vulnerable people.

Instead, from concealing your email address to disguising your location, we reveal how you can stay anonymous using the latest tools and start the new year by being a new, fictitious you.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Generate fake data to enter in online forms
• Tweak your profile picture to fool facial recognition
• Sign up with sites using a fake email address
• Receive verification texts to a disposable inbox
• Withhold your real phone number from companies
• Spoof your location without a VPN
• Pay for items online with a virtual credit card

DISGUISE YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS

Generate a fake online personality

Setting up a fake online profile to trick someone into befriending you - a practice known as ‘catfishing’ - isn’t illegal but it’s certainly unethical, and is not what we’re encouraging with this feature. However, there are clear privacy and security benefits to using fictitious details when signing up with websites. Not only will it stop criminals and spammers obtaining your personal data, but it helps to limit your digital footprint - details of your interests and activities that companies can use to target you