A cache system is storage of data that is saved to your computer every time you visit a site. When you access a site that the cache has stored data on, the site will be accessed more quickly because you cut out the middle man (the site) and load it directly from your hard drive. This will speed up browsing time, and allow some sites to even be viewed while offline using the cache! While you wouldn’t be able to interact with other users or post things, you could view the entire site while you aren’t even connected to the Internet.

Some people use these cache systems to help out with their P2P (peer-to-peer) transfers. This will store part of the data that needs to be transferred and copied, and will allow it to load much more quickly. The cache will also hold other data that will cause the Internet to be a faster place for users and allow more data to be transferred more quickly.

The cache also comes with some risks too. Anytime identifying data or browsing history is stored on your computer, you will have some sort of privacy issue. The less information you keep about yourself and your browsing habits on your computer and on the Internet, the safer and more anonymity you will enjoy. It is possible that a hacker could gain access to your data by using your IP address to hack into your computer. It is also possible to just steal your computer and get into your cache. It is one thing for your system to be physically stolen, but if a hacker could remotely access your computer and get all sorts of sensitive information and other browsing habits, it could be forever before you found out and tried to stop it, but by then the damage could be irreversible.

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In the U.S., we enjoy a great amount of freedom and many social rights. Privacy is one of those, and arguably the most important. Our Internet is completely uncensored and our government has no notions or plans to change that. We can surf what we want, when we want, and people have almost taken this for granted. Many other countries are not this way. For example, Iran is very censored, and around certain times, it gets worse. As the last election drew to a close, the government in Iran blocked Twitter and other instant messaging services were shut down so as to not give protestors a medium to communicate their message. In China, people always make jokes about the “Great Firewall of China”. It didn’t earn this nickname for no reason though, Chinese citizens are blocked from pretty much any site that has anything anti-communist or any content that might go against their ideologies.

Although out Internet is as free as red, white, and blue can be, freedom can bring about some bad things. Criminals and identity thieves roam the Internet; hackers and trackers prey on innocents. As technology increases, these criminals up their arsenal and still have some tricks up their sleeve. Some people may feel comforted by the security systems and firewalls installed on their computer, but this is just the same as a child hiding under the covers; what are the covers actually going to do?

These preliminary defenses are a piece of cake for a hacker of even the most rudimentary talent. The truth is, even if these defenses worked, they still wouldn’t fix the main problem: the IP address. This virtual nametag your computer wears is shown to every website, and contains your location. If someone got your IP address, all they would have to do is copy it into a Google search, and they would have your location.

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Blogging is a recent Internet phenomenon, which can be classified in a variety of ways. Blogging could be as simple as someone posting an update of where they are going for the weekend, or just writing their thoughts in a stream of conscious manner. Blogging can be angry too; there are people who have a wide following that read their rebel blogs about everything from government to driving laws. Blogging is also a good way to keep people updated; consider the social networking giants MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter. MySpace and FaceBook both are used to provide an inside look into a person’s life directly from them, and also what they are doing. This is in the blog section you see; your friends could have anything written there. Twitter is just a more condensed form of blogging, making use of a minimal amount of characters to propagate a message to many people.

With blogging becoming such a popular and widely utilized pastime, people are beginning to see the security issues it represents. First of all, there is the possibility of someone tracking the blogger from his or her page, and maybe even posing as a friend (which isn’t hard to do online) to arrange a real life encounter. There is also the simple possibly that the blogger is just putting too much information out there. While they may talk about other things, blogs are often centered around friends and their activities together. Oftentimes you will see a blog that lucidly describes the place they are discussing, (sometimes even an address…) people involved in the event, and usually a picture attached of the person and their friends. This is everything and more than a criminal needs to find this person and rob, kidnap, or steal from them.

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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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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.

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Anonymous browsing is just that. Using an anonymous proxy service, a person browses the internet with their IP address and information hidden from the sites being visited.  There are a number of websites, called “Web Proxy Servers”, that are often used for this purpose. Most of the online servers are unreliable for a number of reasons which will be explained later in this article.

When you access an online proxy site, you type in the web address of the page you wish to visit. The site will then take you to the page while hiding the location of your computer. The online proxy server is supposed to act as a representative for the user. The problem is, often it isn’t a very good representative and has a low level of protection.

The Risks of Using Online Anonymous Browsing Severs

Any data sent over a free anonymous proxy server runs the risk of not being encrypted.  This means important and private information can be seen on the anonymous browser’s server.  Passwords, logins and credit card information can be collected and recorded when a person is surfing in this manner.

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