Hiding my location to websites with region-specific languages/content

Question

I just went to download Microsoft Secority Essentials and it enraged me as it redirected me to a site in my home language and not the default English. If I go to America, I don't want them to speak Swahili. It reminded me of all the other websites who try to do the same. I don't want my content in greek when I'm on vacation!

I for one simply can't work on a computer unless the language is English (or unless there's a VERY good reason to change the language). Location aware content is only good for download mirrors, and even then I would rather pick from a list of countries myself. (or if you can't speak anything but your own language)

I know websites get your location from your IP and ISP, but is there any way you can inhibit this behaviour on a browser level? Is there any Chrome/Firefox extension for it?

Do I really have no choice but to hide my IP? There's all sorts of services that claim they're hiding your IP for free so that people can't log and trace your steps through the internet, but they're probably logging it themselves and making money off it. Why else would they be free?

I've found that Firefox has an Option that says "Choose your preferred language when displaying pages". Haven't found anything for Chrome.

Answer 1

Its not from the browser. But most software and sites have indeed option to set the language. The only reliable way is to go trough English speaking country anonymous proxy. But it is too much pain to do it permanently.