I am trying to learn how to keep my computer clean and to not be tracked with my usage and what I do on my computer. What are some good practices I can use terminal for and software and applications that I should learn to utilize?

as far as clean up you could write a script that deletes every file you want to get rid of just before your computer shuts off, as in during shut down, and put that script where ever you think is a good place, mark it executable then add a command to execute it during shutdown in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown

Not tested by me, but it is Feasible.

I am new to all of this so how would I go about doing that? Maybe something I could copy and paste into terminal?

cookies keep track of what and where you've been, and whatever else someone put in it to do, and your history that is controlled by your web browser. same for Windows. use your web browser to delete all cookies and history. put up a firewall look into whatever distro you have and how they set up a firewall. read up on network security so you'll have a better understanding of what to do to keep people out and such.

A web search for "bash script delete cookies" will turn up a number of articles and tutorials that you might find helpful.

I think it's a good practice to set your Browser up properly, first of all.

• Either disallow storing of data on your machine, or delete it when closing the browser.
• Disallow cookies completely (however this will break many sites, incl. this one), or disallow third-party cookies, or clean everything out when you exit the browser.
• do actually close the browser completely every now and then
• disallow javascript

for javascript control, the noscript addon is highly recommended.
various cookie control addons exist also.

which browser do you use?

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There are ways but I find it a fools errand. There are so many methods of tracking the only way not to be tracked is to not connect to the internet. You can minimize, but you will never eliminate.

and do not keep personal information on your hdd.

When you say "keep from being tracked," who are you worried about? Your parents? Your employer? Criminals? Law enforcement? Government agencies? You have to first identify the risk, before you can plan the best response to that risk.

My first boss gave me excellent advice that I follow to this day: "Never do anything on your computer that you would be embarrassed for your mom to read about in the newspaper."

Assume that anything you do on the internet is part of the permanent, public historical record.

That said, in my opinion, the number one thing you can do to stay "safe-ish" on the internet is to use a VPN.

Another tip is to use a Live CD for "sensitive" web browsing, and reboot the computer after each session.

go to the public library and do all of your 'dirty work' on there IP because that can always be tracked to the source. Hence the reason the VPN thing was invented.

I'd use bleachbit and a vpn.

It really does depend upon what you wish to hide and from whom.
Just telling my browsers to delete (almost) all history stops me getting annoying adverts for things I searched for before, for example.
If anyone were to read the contents of my hard drive theuy may, well, actually be able to log into my accounts (I have 'burn down my house' plans) but almost all of my history data would be missing as it*ks in cache and (my) cache is in RAM.
As mentioned above sites can and do track IP addresses so, unless you deliberately choose a new exit node on a VbPN or ToR, you will be tracked that way.
Have a google of Panopticon by EFF also, if you want to become more paranoid.
Personally. I would just suggest buying things for youyr own reasosns, giving minimal data to any site you log into and just trying to keep up with how you are being tracked and what you're legally allowed to do to avoid it.

Privacy is not a thing. It's a way of life! I might add that social media are deal breakers for me, not to mention a waste of time. 4,000 friends on face book plus $2.00 will get you a cup of coffee!

hey pokes are still free lol ...

I at one time only worked online from a VM with a snapshot. Every time I launched the VM I reverted to the snapshot.