Even when you're covering your tracks by opening a new incognito window, your web browsing history might not be as private as you think. Information about what you do online, down to every single URL, can likely be purchased on the web by anyone who wants it. And while in most cases people are making those purchases for marketing reasons, they could choose to use their newfound knowledge maliciously as well.

Trying to find the perfect iOS apps can be tough, and we’re willing to bet that your iPhone or iPad is full of pages and pages of apps. There’s just so much out there, it’s hard to come up with a short list of favourites. We understand. Allow us to help you with our freshly updated Lifehacker Pack for iOS.

Which Android app is worth a spot on your new smartphone or tablet? Trying to find the very best of the best is a challenging process, because there are millions of apps to pick from on the Google Play Store. Even if you just scan Google’s “top free” or “top paid” list on a daily basis, you’ll miss out on a lot of digital gems. Allow us to help you out with our freshly updated Lifehacker Pack for Android.

Has your NBN connection been less congested in the last year or so? Unfortunately I've got some bad news for you: At the end of October NBN Co will conclude a temporary promotional deal on extra bandwidth for retailers, and that's expected to bring back some of that dreaded congestion.

The Internet was intended to be a vast public network with the World Wide Web designed to be a way for everyone to share information in an open and free way. But the massive growth of Facebook, Google, Amazon and others has resulted in a centralisation of the web with vast swathes of our data in the control of a relatively small number of parties. The creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee wants to change that with a new project he has launched.

Whenever you click that easy "Sign in With Google" button on a company's website, you're granting the app or service access to some of your information. While in some cases that might just be access to your name and email address, for others you're giving that company the ability to read your email as well.

Good news for anyone wholly fed up with waiting for the NBN, or having the NBN and still experiencing terrible connection speeds. Another company is stepping in to offer their own super-fast wireless network, one that's not wholly broken from being tossed around in an endless game of political football. There's a catch, though: you might have to move if you want to get connected.

Following from the ACCC's Service Standards Inquiry, NBNCo has agreed, voluntarily, to offer a $25 rebate whenever they miss an appointment. And there's no need to go through a lengthy or painful claim process as the process should be automatic.

There are so many Windows apps out there, that picking a list of the very best, most must-install software for your desktop or laptop feels daunting. We've pored over pages of recommendations, countless forum posts, and lots of comments to come up with this year's Lifehacker Pack for Windows, a list of software champions across four categories: productivity, internet/communications, music/photos/video and utilities.

The company behind the National Broadband Network has updated its searchable rollout map to coincide with its revised three-year timetable. Want to know when the NBN is coming to your suburb? All you need to do is type your address into the website.

It’s frustrating to make a typo when you’re trying to visit a website for the first time. Then, because your browser hates you, it will attempt to autocomplete to the wrong website — like netflux or faceboik — whenever you start to type the correct address into your address bar.

It's probably been a while since you signed up for internet service, but you should have an idea of how fast your plan is. If not, give your ISP a call. Write down your plan's maximum download and upload speeds. You can then use these speed-testing websites to see just your wifi's actual performance stacks up to what you're theoretically paying for.

We’re so used to using computers and phones that they feel like an extension of our brains — it isn’t just me, right? A Google query comes back as fast as a thought, and the information at my fingertips feels intangible like the information in my brain.

Most of us have a reasonable understanding of how the internet works - but it can be notoriously difficult to explain in plain English. This infographic from Internet.Frontier does a pretty good job of breaking it all down in easy to understand language.

Dear Lifehacker, Is there a way to use my phone to provide wifi to my laptop and smart tv so we can say goodbye to our home broadband? I'm flabbergasted at the cost of internet!

I rent a room in a house and one of my overlords is a former networking engineer for one of those companies here in the area. In other words, he knows his stuff. But I've encountered a perplexing issue with my room's networking setup that we haven't pinned down yet. And we'd prefer to find an easy solution before we start having to lay new ethernet cable through the wall or anything crazy like that.

You’re probably used to bookmarking your favourite sites for easy access, but the web goes much deeper than the top domains you’re familiar with. From your social networks to your email box, having the right URL to hand can enable you to jump right into the page, feature, setting, or search you need. Here are 10 of the most useful ones.

My web browser of choice is Google Chrome, but I'm always on the hunt for a better browser. After all, it's the app I use most often on pretty much any computer. If a browser can perform faster and more efficiently than Chrome, I'd absolutely consider it. So I decided to give Firefox a try.

By 2020, every household in Australia is expected to connect to the NBN - and those who don't will have a raft of telecommunications products and services switched off. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has put together an infographic explaining five things you need to know to ensure the big switch runs as smoothly as possible.