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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

The importance of anonymity cannot be stressed enough while online. Consider the fact that you are amongst thousands of random people you don’t know while online. These people could just be there to do their required surfing and then get off, but others could have bad intentions. Being anonymous can shield you from their bad intentions and not allow them to hack into your system.

Since anonymity is so important, people know this, and have created products to help one ensure their anonymous browsing while online. Enter the anonymous proxy, a godsend to all people concerned with their Internet safety.

The anonymous proxy is pretty much an all encompassing Internet privacy tool. When hackers look for their prey online, they look for people who are unprotected and will be easy to get into; the path of least resistance. These people usually just use their stock systems their computer was pre-loaded with to gain a false sense of security. Often times, they haven’t even properly set up these programs! This doesn’t matter though, even the most well configured firewall couldn’t stop a determined hacker. These criminals cower at the sound of anonymous proxy though.

The United States have always been wary of terrorism and other threats to our national security. Other countries seem to despise us, whether it be for differences in religion or ethics, difference in cultures, or simply a strong envy of our opulence. While America has always been very conscious of our security, the 911 attacks showed us that our defenses were not infallible, and there is always a chance for disaster to strike. This woke us up so to speak, and in today’s day and age, security for our nation is top priority of the government.

You have seen the changes all around you, and they were often blatant. The medium that allowed the attacks, air travel, has been most affected by that fateful day. Many people remember before the attacks when they could go and meet their loved ones in the terminal to greet them, while now they must wait outside. Many people remember zipping through the security lines, while now you are in there forever being searched and prodded. Everyone has heard the news of the airports possibly putting in full body scanners to scan passengers even more thoroughly, and to avoid even more accidents from filtering through.

Do you remember the days when you would get random advertisements on your computer that had absolutely nothing to do with what you like? Those days are long. The Internet took a page out of television’s book. First, they began to place appropriate ads on appropriate sites, just like T.V. Consider a sports channel; likely there will be many ads about football and baseball tickets, and little about the new Cabbage Patch kids doll. The Internet then became the same way. On a guitar chat website, one would see guitar cables, amplifiers, and guitars rather than miracle-grow garden solution. They have stepped it up once again, but this time not everyone is happy.

Enter behavioral advertising. This new form of ads actually investigates your browsing history and other documents on your computer to form a keyword profile of what you like and are interested in, and then brings ads to you based on those investigations, and this is all involuntary. Privacy advocates are having fits over this, and the public are scared that their sensitive information will be compromised, and it won’t have even been their faults.

“Is it worth it” is their slogan, and they say that it isn’t worth having someone’s entire computer scanned just for more ads to be thrown at them. It also is involuntary, often an entire ISP (Internet Service Provider) signs up all of their customers for a portion of what the advertisers make. It is all about the money. That’s what these advertisers think; these tailor made ads will lure people into spending their hard earned money.