Anonymous proxy, what is it? Why would someone need to be anonymous on the Internet? What is anonymous surfing? These are all reasonable questions.

Anonymous Proxy usage is on the rise. This is because an anonymous proxy can help you bypass Internet restrictions or Internet censorship. An anonymous proxy is an Internet server that you connect to and that appears to be your ISP’s Internet server to any site that you visit. The websites that you visit when connected to an anonymous proxy see the proxies IP address and not the IP address of your ISP, or employer. This helps bypass restrictions based on IP address. If your IP address is banned or blocked, then by using the IP address of the anonymous proxy, you are bypassing the ban.

Anonymous surfing is slightly different. In addition to hiding your IP address, anonymous surfing is the process of being invisible on the web. With an anonymous proxy that encrypts your website traffic, you make virtually impossible for someone to monitor your Internet surfing. All they will see is the encrypted traffic which is almost impossible to decipher.

When you surf anonymously by using encryption, then the data that you send not only can’t be read, its hard to block. Let’s say that you are in mainland China and researching democracy. By encrypting your searches, the Chinese government won’t know what you are looking for. This bypasses the block on those searches. Let’s also assume that the New York Times website is blocked by the Chinese. Again, the URL that you enter into your browser is encrypted so it cannot be monitored. This also means it can’t be blocked.

Anonymous Proxy and Anonymous Surfing are keys to being safe on the Internet. Safe from hackers and thieves. And safe from repressive governments.

For most of us, we don’t worry about being anonymous because we don’t live in a repressed society. However, governments aren’t the only ones watching you. Hackers and thieves are watching you too. Using an anonymous proxy can also protect you from would be thieves.

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With all the advantages the Internet has brought comes a new kind of crime. Internet crime is at an all time high. Thieves have learned that this is an easier way of robbing their victims than ever before. All they have to do is gain access to a person’s connection to the Internet and it is possible to take their identity or their money. This is being committed even as you are reading this article. Accessing someone’s bank account, credit cards and other personal information through the World Wide Web is the way a thief can get by with his crime with the least likelihood of getting caught. Gone are the days when going on the Internet was not threatened by the possibility of malware and spy ware. When a thief gains access to your Internet connection, all the information you are sending on that connection is out in the open for the taking. Bank account numbers, credit card numbers – all manner of personal information – is no longer safe. How do you take steps to keep this from happening? One of the best ways is to have an anonymous proxy server. This is one solution to keep thieves from gaining knowledge about your connection to the Internet and in turn keeping your information safe.

What is an anonymous proxy, you may be asking? First of all, there are two types of anonymous proxies. The one that most people use is the web-based. This is because it is simple to find. All that is required is a search on the Google site for “anonymous proxy” and a vast amount of results will be shown. Choose one of the results and go to the site. An empty URL box will be shown and you need only type the web address of the place you want to visit. The anonymous proxy will then take you to this address without showing your IP address. When you leave the website there will not be a record of your having been there. The anonymous proxy acts as a combination protection and retrieval tool. It gets the website for you and keeps anyone from accessing your IP address. Your IP address can tell a thief where you are located. How many people do you want to know your name?

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Lately I’ve come across a number of websites that are promoting anonymous proxies.  These sites are filled with nonsensical articles and are designed to drive traffic to one or two anonymous proxy websites.  I guess I have to ask the question, if they are creating garbage websites just for the purpose of spamming the search engines, how good can their products be.

The proxy marketplace is filled with lots of companies.  We have a number of quality competitors that I know and respect.

Unfortunately, the anonymous proxy world overall is a scary place.  Many of these proxy companies are out to take your money one way or another.  Remember that when you are connected to an anonymous proxy server, everything you do goes through that server.  Do you really feel comfortable putting your personal information through a server owned by a company that may not be legitimate?

Before you buy anything online, make sure that you know who you are doing business with.  That is especially true with proxy companies and even software companies.  If you install something on your PC, then you are granting that program access to all your information.  Again, maybe this is not a big deal, but I like to know the source of anything I install on my PC.

One way to learn more about a company is to read their privacy policy or terms of service.  Then you can look up the company to learn more about them.  If you can’t find company information, run, don’t walk away.

On a related note, we get a lot of phone calls from people before they sign up for our service.  I think this is mostly to reassure them that we are indeed a real company with real people who stand behind our products.  Think that’s silly?  Try calling some of the other proxy companies out there.

Stay safe by knowing who you are doing business with.

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With all the advantages the Internet has brought comes a new kind of crime. Identity theft is at an all time high. Thieves have learned that this is an easier way of robbing their victims than ever before. All they have to do is gain access to a person’s connection to the Internet and it is possible to take their identity and their money. This is being committed even as you are reading this article. Accessing someone’s bank account, credit cards and other personal information through the world wide web is the way a thief can get by with his crime with the least likelihood of getting caught. Gone are the days when going on the Internet was not threatened by the possibility of malware and spy ware. When a thief gains access to your Internet connection, all the information you have used on that connection is out in the open for the taking. Bank account numbers, credit card numbers – all manner of personal information – is no longer safe. How do you take steps to keep this from happening? One of the best ways is to have an anonymous proxy server. This is one solution to keep thieves from gaining knowledge about your connection to the Internet and in turn keeping your information safe.What is an anonymous proxy, you may be asking?

First of all, there are two types of anonymous proxies. The one that most people use is the web-based. This is because it is simple to find. All that is required is a search on the Google site for “anonymous proxy” and a vast amount of results will be shown. Choose one of the results and go to the site. An empty URL box will be shown and you need only type the web address of the place you want to visit. The anonymous proxy will then take you to this address without showing your IP address. When you leave the website there will not be cookies from the site on your computer nor a record of your having been there. The anonymous proxy acts as a combination protection and retrieval tool. It gets the website for you and keeps anyone from accessing your IP address. Your IP address can tell a thief exactly where you are located. How many people do you want to know your name?

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The Internet was originally created with one goal in mind; exchange information. This purpose has completely been manifested today, as we have so many avenues with which to share information. One person might get a funny email, and wishing to show it to all of his friends rather than poorly act it out and ruin the humor, can simply forward the document to everyone in his or her address book online. Many media sites like Youtube are completely based around this sharing principle. The videos you put on there can be seen by anyone, and whether your dance was really good or just completely awful, all one has to do is hit a button and the video is being sent to everyone on their email list. While these are all legal and easy ways to share content while online, many people have invented more insidious means to violate user contracts and copyrighting laws. If you search a popular music video on YouTube, you will probably find some random user who has uploaded it, which is in direct violation of YouTube’s user contract, and will probably be taken down quickly. People also can put songs up on the Internet for others to listen to and download; which is also illegal. There is a new kind of sharing though, called P2P (or Peer-to-Peer) that has law makers scratching their heads.

While uploading a copyrighted video is obviously a direct violation of the artist’s rights, is sharing one with a friend? If you buy a CD and your friend wants to hear it as well, should they have to pay to listen to your copy? The answer to this is for most people a resounding no. Then why are these P2P networks being so scrutinized? The problem is, they create digital copies of the songs, which can them be dispersed online for free, and completely ripping off the artist. This is the problem, but shutting down these good natured P2P networks is not in the cards right now.

What needs to be discussed though is the danger these networks provide, and not just for the artist’s bank accounts. Since anyone can upload anything to these networks, there can be some shady activity going on. While YouTube is the principles, this conduit of media has active virus scans and would not allow that to happen anyway, a feature that maybe one percent of all P2P networks enjoy. This means that somebody could have titled something to read as what it really isn’t and could have laced a tracking or crashing virus onto the file to hook onto your computer.

P2P networks can be a godsend if used correctly, but beware of their risks. You can enjoy using them if you just adequately protect yourself when surfing one. An anonymous proxy can stop trackers from latching onto your connection by changing your IP address, which is the system most use to follow someone online. With your new IP address, no one will be able to stalk you online.

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Anonymity is important and is present everywhere in life. You can be anonymous in a figurative manner, like just one person in a crowd of thousands on the populous streets of New York City, or you can be anonymous just as a voter in a United States election. Can you imagine not being anonymous while you are voting? What about everyone seeing you pick your candidate of choice, and then having your name and choice broadcasted to the world? Voting is a highly personal act; no one can tell you how to vote, and only you can make the final decision of who to choose. People do not go around asking each other who they voted for; in fact, teachers and other educational staff are under oath not to tell for whom their sympathies and opinions lie, for they might influence their impressionistic students. If everyone knew who you voted for, life could be a bit dangerous. There are extremists of everything, and the political battle is no different. On both sides, there are people who might even kill to further their candidate and lower the opposition’s forces by one more. Voting is just one thing though, and anonymity spans a wide strata of daily life.

Think about being online; for most things and applications on the computer, you have a screen name, user name, log in code, call it what you will. This combination of numbers and letters is supposed to be a mask to hide you from the rest of the Internet, this is why you are advised or even forbidden to use your name or any other identifying details about yourself in your online name. Imagine if every one online knew everybody’s else’s real identity; the Internet would not run correctly! Who would sign onto the anonymous comment sites and share their real or dissenting opinion on some highly controversial issue if they knew everyone else knew who they were and they could be judged or get in trouble for their words?

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When you represent some sort of organization, whether it be a school, business, or a non profit, you assume the responsibility of their identity and the well being of it onto your person. When you are out there being a part of the organization in question, you become an avatar of it, and people will connect what you do and who you are with the thing you are representing. This can be a double edged sword: if you do well, your company looks good, and if not, you can be in for some hard times. If a business man is the head of a big name company and decided to hold a charity for some degenerative disease and raises a lot of money and gives it away, it brings good P.R. (public relations) back to the business. Those who believe in karma think that if they do good, they will receive good, and vice versa. On the other hand, if the business man falls into the public eye with some sort of scandal such as a DUI charge, their business could be forever associated with the crime and fail quickly.

This situation happened recently with a couple of high school football players. When they joined the team, they signed a contract with their coach saying that they would always abstain from drugs and alcohol and that they would maintain a good image, for their image reflected the entire football team’s. About halfway into the season, after a major and crushing victory, the team in question had a party to celebrate. The football players who had previously signed the contract started drinking, and actually ended up getting pulled over for underage drinking and driving under the influence. The coach immediately, even though they were the star players, cut them from the team. Ever since, many jokes and puns have been made about the team and their partying habits; they could never be taken seriously again.

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Every Internet user knows the hassle of constantly popping up advertisements and other flashing ads on the side of their screen. While most just view this as the trade-off that they give while surfing the free Internet, some are a bit more worried. And with good reason; recently, a new practice has begun: behavioral advertising. This will actually go into your browsing history, scan it to determine your interests, and then put ads all around your page based on it. It is a bit invasive, and completely involuntary.

The premise is simple; give people ads that they might actually consider. Imagine a dainty young woman into flowers, teacups, and all things cute and cuddly. If while on a beauty website, she encounters an ad for a protein shake that is guaranteed to put on fifteen percent more muscle in one week, she probably isn’t going to even think about clicking it. On the other end of the spectrum, if a muscle-bound college kid is managing his fantasy football team, and an ad for a miracle garden solution pops up, he probably won’t think twice before exiting it out.

These may be a bit extreme, but everyone has had something like this occur. One can see two sides of the coin to this new behavioral advertising; one is good and puts ads that you may actually consider on your screen, and another is bad and completely invades your privacy without permission.

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Privacy is a big part of today’s world. As people’s information and data become more and more sensitive, the need to keep it hidden becomes more and more necessary. Ten years ago, someone’s IP address wouldn’t have been treated with any security what so ever, now it must be hidden at all costs. People probably wouldn’t have known what an IP address was at the time!

The demand for Internet privacy got to be so strong, that there began to be a market for it. People would pay for the services they provide, and would do so willingly. At first, these companies charged ridiculous amounts for their services, but today they are often dirt cheap.

Anonymous Proxy usage became more and more important. These are programs or web sites that actually alter your IP address, which is a virtual nametag showing location, browsing history, etc. The programs then allow you to surf on their encrypted networks to be sure all of your information is encoded upon you sending it. Then, they actually go and retrieve the websites you wish to visit for you, allowing you to bypass blocks set on work and school computers (or possibly an oppressive government) and enjoy the sites you want to. They will allow no traces of data such as cookies or cache to stay on your computer, allowing no one to see your browsing session. All your employer or teacher would see is the name of the anonymous proxy over and over and over again. If this isn’t good enough for you, professional fee-based proxies offer a “delete session information” function that completely deletes history of your browsing for that session, leaving no traces anywhere.

There are two major types of proxies; a software based proxy and a web based proxy. We’ll focus on the web based one first.

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Every computer comes stock with some sort of Internet browser; whether it be Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, etc. These browsers start out completely uncensored and unblocked. This is the prospect of America; you have absolute freedom unless you choose to limit it. Parents who buy their young kids computers have to go in and manually install child-blocking software and other censoring programs. This is all done by choice, and is completely unnecessary to the correct function of the computer.

This is true of most countries, the United States being the most prominent. There are some places where the government censorship is running rampant and is instated unwillingly upon its citizens. These places are few and far between, but are highly publicized for their censorship and other injustices on their citizens. China is a prime example. “The Great Firewall of China” is what China’s censoring agenda is satirically known as, and its citizens are becoming fed up with it. The people of this nation used to just be defeated by it, and would never do anything to try and help themselves out of desperation, but recently, movements have been made to free them. People in the Americas and other free nations set up proxy servers to send aid to their companions in less-than-democratic nations. These anonymous proxies ensure anonymous browsing for the citizens, who run the risk of being caught for their “crimes”; YouTube, FaceBook, etc.

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