No, I dont work for a subscription anonymous proxy service. I am just here to tell you why you should always use one however. Everytime you link into a website, your ip address is stored somewhere in a log that is easily searchable. These logs could be combined one day into a central repository and anyone with access can easily type in your ip to find all the dirt you have looked up on the internet. Right now, it appears the administrators of these websites use these ip logs for anti-trolling, however, lately I have seen these ip logs being abused and confidential information about the poster being listed publicly on the internet. Although there are laws and various court decisions that protect you from these actions (i.e. revealing private facts about a person on the internet is sometimes not legal) trying to prosecute and sue these website administrators is tough, expensive and lengthy. So I have cheap solutions for anyone who spends time on the internet. That solution is the subscription proxy server. Currently, I use www.privateproxysoftware.com which has 4 servers located in the United States and Netherlands which switches out the IP addresses every 30 minutes. This is a really secure service for the paranoid. After my monthly subscription is done, though, I will be switching to the slightly cheaper service www.anonymizer.com which switches the IP addresses every 24 hours. I dont really need the IP addresses to be switched every 30 minutes nor do I need the servers all over the world...however, I would like the ip address to be switched everyday to prevent logging of my activity. These subscription proxy services usually keep a record of the times you log in and log out, but do not store what you are actually doing through their server. The next method of tracking used is regular and flash cookies. Regular cookies and other tracking programs can be cleared from your system by simply setting Internet Explorer to clear the cookies each time you close the browser. You should always set the explorer to clear out the cookies. Programs like Spybot and Hitman Pro will also help clear out the nastier cookies. However, flash cookies are not easily cleared. These can be removed with www.flashcookiecleaner.com. Oftentimes you are asked for an email address to verify who you are on some of these websites then what follows is a rash of spam which sometimes contains viruses and trojans. Use a website like mailinator.com to get a temporary email address that will last 10 minutes or so. In regards to your regular everyday email, dump your gmail or yahoo accounts as those services send over your ip address to the sender. Its best to get a more secure email service like www.hushmail.com and www.neomailbox.com. Lastly, no matter what justification you might have, never use your real name on the internet. Google your name and look closely at what comes up. If something comes up, then start attacking the source sending emails requesting for the information to get taken down. On Facebook, there is a way to block the search engines and your information clears off of there within a few days. If you are not absolutely anonymous over the internet, I can guarantee that someone is combing through your private information. Would you enjoy someone watching you from day to day logging exactly the times you eat, shit and sleep? See my point. Thats not pleasant so these anonymous proxy servers are absolutely essential to everyday websurfing. Take note. None of these services will protect you from illegal conduct. Anyone who can get a court to somehow tap and subpoena these services will have access to your information. However, using these services will make it more difficult for strangers to obtain logs of what you do from day to day.
Servers in other countries are not anonymous either. The United States has treaties with other nations that ensure cooperation. For example, the Hushmail service is in Canada, but the authorities in the United States were able to subpoena information from Hushmail. http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2007/11/secure-hushmail-can-still-talk-to-the-feds.ars What happens is that if the email is out of the United States it will ultimately SLOW the courts and authorities down, but it will not stop them. What usually happens is the host country will review the requests and put it through their court system which takes time, but it will not stop anyone from getting the information. The purpose of this thread is not to help you commit criminal or other wrongful activity, but to simply make it more difficult for casual observers to track you around the internet and to protect your privacy. I used the example of going to the bathroom. Do you want someone logging in what times you piss and shit from day to day? Using the methods I explained will stop people from logging your everyday activity, but if they truly want to find you they still can through the court system even if you do use services outside of the United States. There is absolutely no way to truely protect your information on your laptop or over the internet. There are always ways...
As long as it is not my banking info, who really cares? People know when I log into ET, because I post here. Big fucking deal. Also if I visit cutelittlekittens.com, is it really that important information? (by the way I don't) Sure there are cases when you want to be anonymus, but most of the time if you don't do anything illegal, your webcruising habits are just mundane info. By the way I take a shit usually around 8:30 about 30 mins after I had my coffe.... But thanks for the spam....
Its up to you. I think any bit of my private information should be just that, private. I regard my ip address as private information that should be just for my eyes only, however, these websites have developed sophisticated search engines and data bases which datamine your ip address. Imagine if all these logs on the most popular sites were combined together in a central repository which I believe is where all these logs are headed. I dont think this information could do me harm like someone watching me eat could do no harm, however, I like to live and feel like I am secure. I like doing things in privacy like eating and shitting. The sites I mentioned will not slow down your web surfing and are fairly established especially the anonymizer.com which has been doing this since the 90s. I would rather have a different ip address each day so no one can figure out what I am doing or where I am doing it.
FYI, I used anonymizer before...it slows the heck out of your computer. Maybe things have changed, but it became unbearable to navigate the web at turtle's pace.
You realize in a post 911 world the Eschelon program is real time. There is no hiding from the US government.
Here is the difference: Download speed No proxy software - bare computer - cable modem 14 mbps www.privateproxysoftware.com - 11 mbps - When I try to track myself through the various ip sites, I can see the town and state the servers are based out of. There are 4 different servers with one located in the netherlands. The ip addresses are rotated every 30 minutes and there are 10 ip addresses per server according to the server. - The whois does not tell you the server is a proxy. - $25 per quarter or $10 per month - The website does not go into much detail about the encryption used or how secure the servers are. It does say it uses 128 bit ssh encryption -Under privacy policy: "Non-personal data we collect may include the pages visited on the Privacy Partners web sites, unique URLs (1) visited within Privacy Partners.com, browser type and IP (2) address. Most non-personal data is collected via cookies or other analysis technologies. Privacy Partners.com Web pages use cookies and other technologies for data analysis and personalization services. Privacy Partners also places ads on other web sites that may use cookies." www.anonymizer.com - 5 mbps - When I try to track myself through the various ip sites, I can not see the location of the server. The ip sites will not tell me where the server is located. The IP address changes every 24 hours and the site reports there are over 10s of thousands of possible ip addresses. - $80 per year annual subscription. 30 day refund policy - The website goes into detail about the VPN technology it uses and how secure it is. - The whois tells you its a proxy server. From comparing the two services, the anonymizer is probably the most secure. Stronger encryption, better VPN, location of server not identified and lots more ip addresses. However, I believe the better service is Private Proxy Software for its speed. I dont belong to the NSA nor am I an executive at a big firm contracted with the military so I dont need a very powerful encryption scheme. All I want to do is to spoof the websites so they cant get my private ip address and I could use a faster service. If the websites have the exact location of the server that doesnt matter to me. I dont think they are going to invade the location to find the server. Since I am not doing anything criminal, I dont have anything to worry about.