+1 on Tor/Onion. Like using a public proxy, there's a speed hit. Small price to pay for anonymity. I'm pretty sure it's a FireFox plug-in so you can turn it on and off.
Cryptohippie is one of the best VPN services, but my favourite is www.perfect-privacy.com The trouble with proxies is that they do not encrypt all of your internet activity and your real IP address can leak through Java and other browser plugins. They are also slow.
Cookies cleared. I don't know enough to confirm the earlier post about java leakage, but I can attest that I've experienced sites that recognize your IP regardless of independent proxies. I'm still not sure why, but that behavior makes me concerned about how well proxies mask identity.
In a post 911 world the government can track anything they want if they want. Google provides search records occasionally to law enforcement. You can also use anonymizer.com It will spoof/mask IP addresses. TOR is good too. Any of these programs slow your connection down though.
When I try to open this site along with several others mentioned previosly (except TOR), my anti-virus blocks it and says that opening it may put my security at risk. Any idea why all of these proxy sites do that?
http://www.h-online.com/security/ne...ead-out-list-of-visited-web-pages-732405.html http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/EFF-demonstrates-a-browser-s-finger-print-918786.html
Here is a test for Java IP address leaks: http://www.stayinvisible.com/cgi-bin/iptest.cgi But there are also Java/Flash cookies and web bugs that linger as well as ordinary cookies. Use CCleaner to get rid of them. Google "Practical Internet Privacy" for more. - and there are no viruses at perfect-privacy, maybe on your computer.