Surfing The Internet Anonymously Explained By Ryan Ginster At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

You will be surprised at how easily information about you is obtained from the internet! Even if your system does not contain any viruses or malicious software, information such as your IP address, location, computer system, internet browser, browsing history and others can be easily obtained by other people. Hackers can eaisly obtain your computer name and even find out your name if your computer supports certain programs such as finger or identd. Cookies downloaded by your computer can also track your browsing habits and from there infer your personal likes, dislikes, hobbies and many more.

So, How are such information being leaked?

When you visit a website or submit personal information, your computer sends the data to the website's hosting server. Basically, other people can intercept such data packets and use them to track your internet activities.

What can I do to prevent this?

Firstly, you can surf the web anonymously and not have to worry about others obtaining information you do not wish to share. While this is not 100% foolproof, it makes obtaining such information much harder for people. One way to do this is my using an anonymous internet proxy. The internet proxy server replaces your internet address for their own, thus hiding your IP address and making it much harder for people to track you.

Where can I get an anonymous proxy?

Many vendors sell anonymous proxy services. Free proxy servers are also commonly available online. Two such productsare ShadowSurf and Guardster. Guardster (http://www.guardster.com) provides various anonymous proxy services and also security monitoring for the internet. It offers both free plans as well as paid services. ShadowSurf (http://www.shadowsurf.com) also provides a free anonymous proxy service. While there are many others available online, these two are the most frequently used services.

Another useful product is Anonymizer (http://www.anonymizer.com). This company recently announced that it is releasing a new counter-censorship solution that will enable users to bypass even national internet filters such as the one belonging to the Chinese government. This will enable Chinese citizens, among others, to safely and anonymously access the internet without filters.

Will I be 100% safe by using such services?

While there is still an obscure chance that your information might be leaked, it makes it increasingly difficult for hackers to obtain such information.

How else can I keep my information private?

There are three other tips that you can use to help keep your information private. Firstly, using an encrypted connection can help to hide your internet surfing. While this article does not explain how to do it, details on such a procedure are widely available online. Secondly, deleting cookies after every internet session can help to reduce the risk of leaking information. This can usually be done through your internet browser. Lastly, disabling scripts in your internet browser using the Firefox addon NoScript or running Internet Explorer without addons can help to reduce the risk. However, this leads to certain limitations when using the internet and so has to be carefully considered.

Anything else?

Wishing you happy and safe surfing!

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