Surfing anonymously
Sep 17th, 2007 by Vinny
Surfing the web has become a staple of American society. There are a lot of websites out there that track your browsing habits to give you personalized ads. This is slightly disturbing so here is a quick way to browse anonymously.
A proxy is a special kind of server that takes your web request, and sends it out for itself. This makes all your requests come from that server. A lot of workplaces use this method to control what content employees can see.
To find a free proxy, just do a search for “anonymous proxy” on google, and you will find tons of websites with lists of free proxies. For IE: use these directions. For Firefox: use these. One thing to note, these proxies CANNOT be trusted. Who knows what they are doing with your information.
A better and free alternative is to use the TOR network. TOR is a connection of anonymous proxies that tunnel your data through random places on the internet. These are called endpoints and are hosted by people from all over the world. Goto the download tab and install the bundle for your OS. This inludes the TOR engine, Privoxy, and Vidalia. Privoxy is a great little program that makes sure all the data sent from your PC is cleaned. This includes cookies that might be sending private information, and other bad browsing items. Vidalia is a graphical interface for the TOR program. Firefox (great free browser) is recommended for all of this, it has extensions that let you turn TOR anony-mizing on and off with a click.
Read more on the TOR network and how it can protect your privacy online. One large item is to make sure any important data is still encrypted with SSL. The TOR endpoints cannot control what comes out on the other end!