Tuesday, October 7, 2008

About Anonymous Surfing

Anonymously browsing the World Wide Web with your identity hidden is primarily done through what is known as an anonymous proxy websites that will take you the website you wish to visit with information such as the location of your computer and the IP address hidden from the web page. The practice of anonymous browsing can maintain privacy of from loggers spying on the user’s connection.

Anonymous Browsing effectiveness

Since it lets the user bypass restrictions placed in the Internet connection, it is a widely used technique. It is used in schools and offices where there are heavy restrictions on web pages. Students will anonymously browse to gain access to sites classified as harmful to the students. Office workers will anonymously browse to bypass restrictions set by the employers, or not leave behind any tracks in case that the employers are monitoring their Internet browsing.

Anonymous Browsing risks

Anonymous browsing can be harmful because the anonymous proxy does not encrypt data when it is sent to the proxy server. Important information such as logins, passwords, and credit card numbers could be recorded and leaked by a proxy server administrator with has evil plans

Features to Look For

A good web proxy service will setup a TLS or SSL tunnel with the anonymous surfer to prevent network snuffers from eavesdropping. Make sure to select an anonymous proxy server which support the protocols you want to use.

In addition to hiding your IP address, an anonymous proxy server will typically remove traffic such as:

• Cookies

• Scripts

• Pop-ups

• Banners

• Referrer information

These options should be configurable to enable the proxy server to work with web sites which require cookies or pop-ups.