Along with its widespread use, the Internet has also brought along with it a very frightening development. You may be under the scrutiny of someone monitoring your online activities. Government agencies, advertising networks and search engines monitor online activities of whomever they want to keep tabs on.
Although it's said to be for security reasons, many think it is an invasion of their privacy. You should however, become aware that what you do on the Internet should remain private and it should remain confidential, even if you do any thing illegal. Expecting your Internet experience to be private is your right.
The technology available to monitor you is so effective that everything about you can be pinpointed to the greatest detail including your geographical location. Web Masters, Government Agencies and Search Engines can watch your every move and also record your IP address.
These trackers may examine the sites you visit and record your search history at search engines like Google, Yahoo and others. It's easy to find your exact physical location worldwide using an IP address.
Why do people track you? For advertisers and businesses, they do this to improve their marketing effort and to pre-empt competitors from gaining an edge with you, be it for product or company loyalty. Some government agencies around the world profile Internet surfing behaviors. Such tracking enables them to exercise some level of, online censorship.
If you want to stop such tracking, there is one thing that you can do that is sure to fox them. Surfing the Internet anonymously is the answer. Today, there are software programs available that can help conceal your true IP address by randomly masking it to conceal your identity.
Using such proxy servers, anonymous surfing of the Internet is possible. No one will be able to track you on the Internet and you can protect your privacy. By randomizing your IP address, the proxy server simply enables you to surf anonymously. Each IP Address is unique which means it can be traced to you individually. When it is randomized using proxy servers, you are sure to keep your web surfing activities totally private.
There are a number of software programs available that can set up your proxy server and enable you to surf the Internet anonymously. You can thus ensure your privacy by installing one such software in your computer. You need never worry about others trying to track what you do and to use devious methods to influence you.
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.
Both Chad Kiser & Ryan Ginster are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Chad Kiser has sinced written about articles on various topics from Ford, Finances and Web Development. For More Information on and Other Privacy Software solutions, V. Chad Kiser's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.
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