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Surf The Internet Like a Ghost
By John F | March 31, 2008
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When you surf the big ole’ WWW. its possible that your browsing habits and patterns can be accessed by people or organizations that you wouldn’t want to. You leave a trail behind online, such as your IP address, computer name and other data available from your computer. This is true even if your system contains no virus or malware software.
Your IP address, your country location, your specific location in your country, what computer system you are on, what browser you use, your browser history, and other information can all be accessed with the right knowledge and systems. But that’s not all they can access. These people or organisations can get your computer’s name and even find out your name, email address and possibly your credit and bank details in extreme cases.
When you visit a website, information about you can be retrieved, using cookies and search engine data. In late 2007 Google admitted that they keep information about what sites and searches you performed for up to 18 months. Information can be intercepted and used by others to track your Internet activities, mainly for marketing purposes, but your private information could be used for much more sinister means as well.
You can surf the web anonymously and stop leaving a trail for others to find. This is not a 100% guaranteed solution, but it makes it much more difficult for people to know who you are, where you have been and what you have been searching for. There are websites and programs that can allow you to surf anonymously using proxy servers that help protect your identity and browsing habits.
An anonymous proxy server replaces your Internet address for its own. This has the effect of hiding your IP address and making it much harder for people to track you. One use of using a proxy server could be at your workplace, where using a proxy server can allow you to bypass your employers firewall and gain access to those social networking sites or eBay that you’re not allowed to visit. Now that’s just a guess, so don’t quote me on that!
There are many free proxy websites out there on the website. I won’t suggest any to you as if you want to find some proxy websites, a simple search via a search engine will give you many results. There are also some paid for proxy programs out there if you are really serious about making your surfing habits much more private.
Like I said, it is isn’t 100% guaranteed, but if you don’t want your privacy invaded any more than it already is, then think about using a proxy web server or web service.
Topics: Computer Security Usefulness |