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.
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.
