Having stated the above, some sites are very clear on their privacy policies.  For example, look at the Trollbeads privacy policy.  They state that they do not give out your information.  Given that this is a jewelry site, they would gain very little in giving it out.  The site’s goal is to sell jewelry.

Google on the other hand is interested in your information.  They make money based on it.

If you are concerned about privacy, there are two simple steps you can take to obscure the information that any website or search engine sees.

1. Use multiple user names or ID’s when you access a site.  This spreads your data across accounts which breaks any direct linkage to you.
2. Use an anonymous proxy that changes your IP address so that your accounts are not linked to your IP address.  Even better would be to use a shared proxy because many people will be using the same IP addresses thus rendering the information collected by the website useless.

Whenever you sign on to the internet, your IP address gives away your location.  If you are not in the United States, a website that you need to access may be blocked.  Whether you are signed up for a webinar, or need to do research, or if you just want to relax and watch your favorite TV show or a movie, if the site you need is blocked, it doesn’t help you much.   In order to “fool” these sites into opening, you must hide your IP address.

To hide your IP address, you must use a proxy server.  When you use a proxy server, the IP address used to locate you will be the address of the server.  This allows you to hide your true location, which opens up websites that would normally be blocked in the country you are in.

If you connect to a server in the US, then your US IP address will always show that you are in the United States.

You will be able to attend that online class in the United States while you are studying overseas.  You will also be able to watch movies and TV shows that would normally be blocked in some other countries.  There will be no limits on where you could go on the internet.

Want to try if for yourself?  Sign up for the risk-free trial and you will be hooked from the first time you use it.

It is good to know more advantages that can come from using an anonymous proxy, specifically to bypass filters. Aside from speed, it also blocks much of the spyware and junk that is sent to your computer. This saves you from the common problems that users come across. While this can be solved by using technical skill, it is very burdensome to encounter this problem repeatedly.

With an anonymous proxy, your personal information is better protected. From experience, once personal information is gathered by sites, it can be used for marketing purposes. You can be saved from a lot of trouble because with an anonymous proxy, websites can no longer have access to your personal information.

By policy, some corporations, institutions and schools use filters to block users from viewing certain sites. Using an anonymous proxy, this filter can be easily bypassed. This process has two essential steps. The anonymous proxy downloads the site onto its server. Then, the user can download the “blocked” site from the proxy server to his or her browser, thus getting around the “wall”.

Problems with slow-loading websites can be easily solved with an anonymous proxy. There are times when the problem is not in the web hosting company. Some users, especially those with some technical expertise, would even change their DNS server address but still can’t load the site faster. Then, the real problem is identified – the internet provider itself, due to bandwidth or network related problems. This is not a problem if you just use a proxy server.

The use of a proxy server is not yet well-known among many internet users. A lot of users have the wrong notion that it requires some special skills to successfully take advantage of its value. There is a need for users to learn more about it. People knowledgeable in the use of proxy servers can help educate by sharing their experiences about its benefits. Very soon, more people will know about its good uses and apply it to their advantage.

Computer security is so much more than checking your laptop for viruses every week.  If that’s all you are doing then you have left yourself vulnerable.  The bad guys can install malware on your computer and track your every click as you surf the Internet.  If you do a lot of shopping and banking online then you are particularly vulnerable.  But it’s not just criminals that you need to be wary of.  A lot of marketing companies are competing to acquire and sell your information to advertisers.  You’ll stop them before they start by using a proxy server.

If you’re like most people you probably have no idea what a proxy server does.  The server you use to connect to the Internet has a unique identification code called an IP address.  This identifier allows someone to follow your every move online.  When you connect through a proxy you keep all that information hidden.  The bad guys follow your history back to the proxy not to your computer.  This is a stellar tool for getting around firewalls at work too.  A lot of sports games and tv shows are blocked based on your location.  Use a proxy to get around these restrictions.

There are a few must-have features you should look for when you buy proxy software.  It shouldn’t be complicated to use and you don’t want anything you have to configure yourself.  Fast service should be guaranteed and they should not censor your activity.  It doesn’t make sense to protect yourself at the expense of using the Internet how you want.  There should be no restrictions on files or images and there should be unlimited bandwidth.  At the top of your list should be top of the line security.  Make sure they use data encryption for unsecured sites and that they rotate through a lot of different IP addresses.  Make sure that low price doesn’t mean you’ll be subjected to a lot of ads.  You don’t need to put up with that kind of business.

Protecting yourself and your computer by using a proxy server should be just as natural as using the Internet.  Use a proxy server to thwart the forces that want to track your every move online to get your personal information.  You’ll be able to use it to get around firewalls and watch restricted shows online.  Look for a system that is super easy to use, prioritizes security and doesn’t force you to see ads to use it.  Surf and shop in peace knowing you are fully protected.

Chances are that you have had to access the Internet in public when trying to conduct business while traveling for your job. Whether you’re trying to work from a convention center, the airplane or a coffee shop you need to know that your computer is as safe as possible.  It is all too easy to expose your company’s servers to malevolent forces when connecting to the Internet in public.  One quick fix for this problem is to use a proxy server.  You can keep close tabs on your important accounts and clients, attend virtual meetings and work on your quarterly budget knowing that your computer is safe.  Taking that easy step before you leave the office will make a huge difference.

Sometimes you might have to go to a country that cracks down on their citizen’s Internet use and the sites people can visit.  You can easily get around those firewalls to stay connected to your family and the home office.   A proxy server is the perfect tool for situations just like this.  Visit whatever sites you want and get all your business done without worrying about who is watching your every click.  Keeping up with current events can be difficult in these countries since they tend to block news sites.  A proxy server allows you to keep up with the market, read industry journals and your hometown paper as well.

When traveling, you probably do more than just work-related business on your company laptop.  Using a proxy server helps keep your personal Internet history private.  You don’t need to change your surfing habits just because you aren’t at home.  You can update your social media sites, send and receive personal emails and manage your fantasy sports teams knowing that no one else knows what you’re up to.  You can keep your private life just that, private.

Using a proxy server is a common-sense move when using the company laptop while away on business.  So often you have to use public WIFI networks to access the Internet.   These are notoriously risky to use and your company’s servers are at risk every time you log on.  You can do all your work worry-free when you use a proxy server.  You can easily break through firewalls in countries that heavily censor Internet use.  Even better, you can hide your personal Internet history from your employer as well as the criminals out there trying to get at your private information.  Your personal surfing history remains safely hidden from everyone when you use a proxy server.

There are certain questions that arise when thinking about an IP address”

Q. Can I be traced through my IP address?

A. Your IP address reveals only the locality and name of your ISP. Your Internet service provider by itself might have records of your PC using their system at such and such a time, but an Internet service provider will as a rule not reveal this information without a search warrant / court order.

Q. How long does an Internet service provider store logs of client IP addresses?

A. No one knows, although it can be somewhere from several weeks to a few years. This is necessary to monitor bandwidth usage.

Q. Someone over the internet has threatened they can find me due to my IP address. Can they do this?

A. Most likely they’re bluffing. Unless you administer your personal server or reside in the same building as your ISP’s headquarters, a stranger can’t locate you using only your IP address.

Q. Can someone find my username or password based mostly in my IP address?

A. No. Your ISP is the single one that is aware these details.

Q. Do my emails show my IP address?

A. Yes. To send email secretly, you’ll want to use an anonymous remailer or an anonymous proxy.

Q. What is a proxy server?

A. A 3rd party server used as a go-between by a customer PC that doesn’t want to attach directly to the world wide web.

Q. Can a proxy server give me internet privacy?

A. Not if it is merely a surrogate server. A simple proxy server will reveal to our online world that it’s acting as a substitute for such and such IP address user (your PC), so you can nonetheless be traced because of it.

Q. What kind of proxy server should I use to be able to surf secretly?

A. You want an anonymous proxy server that is secure, trustworthy and consistent. You will most likely have to pay a fee.

Q. How will an unidentified proxy server guard me?

A. Largely by hiding your actual IP address and blocking malicious scripts and computer programs from entering your system. You might get a different IP address every time you make use of the proxy. Additionally, a number of anonymous proxies allege they can’t reveal your data even if subpoenaed (court ordered) since they don’t save client logs.

Q. Are open proxy servers reliable to use?

A. Not if you are serious concerning your security and privacy. Numerous open proxies are either incorrectly set up, or owned by evil people who want to use your data for their personal ends. Beware of using free proxies and unidentified proxy servers that don’t allocate secure connections. And no matter what server you make use of, always encrypt personal data.

So why would we insert static IP addresses?  It would seem that randomly rotating IP addresses would include an extra layer of anonymity.  So why avail yourself of static IP addresses?  The solution is rather straightforward, however I will confess was not obvious to us when we initially planned the system.  The key reason to employ static IP addresses instead of randomly rotating ones is to include some level of consistency when going to the same website over and over again.  While usually you would think that you would not need to be recognized by your IP address, from time to time you do.

Think about your Web banking.  If you attempt to get into your web-based bank account from randomly changing IP addresses, it may appear to the bank that someone is trying to hack into your account.  Thus the requirement for static and regular IP addresses.

But this is not just about online banking.  It’s also about consistency used for any site where you want to keep a profile.  Even if you are trying to keep an unidentified profile, it still helps to be consistent.

None of this means that randomly changing IP addresses are a bad suggestion.  They nonetheless offer that added layer of secrecy.  Plus you should still use the rotating IP addresses when you are trying to stay unidentified when you are surfing the web.

Over the past month or so there have been a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal, that frankly, scared the bejeezus out of us.  We knew that surfing the internet exposes us to identity theft and that third parties of all kinds can, do, and are probably in some cases legally required (like our ISP) to monitor all our online activities.  Now we believe our internet use is a private matter (doesn’t everyone?).  And we don’t feel that by tracking our internet preferences third parties can “better” market us through more targeted advertising to create a “better” internet experience for us.  Call us old fashioned but we would rather make those choices for ourselves – privately.  The WSJ articles made clear that ANY internet usage by an individual can both expose that user to invasions of privacy and outright dangerous – like going to a gun fight with only a knife.  All this got us thinking about ways to protect ourselves.

We were, and still are, doing a number of things already.  Each weekend we run a program on each computer called “Evidence Eliminator” which cleans our computers of traces of where we have been.  We run registry cleaners, disk de-fragmentation software and SpyBot.  We also surf with IE8′s “in Private” turned on, but that does nothing to protect our identities online.  Where we were not covered was with our IP address out “in the wild” on the internet.  And the WSJ articles made it clear to us that exposing your IP address to third parties on the internet is one of the prime ways to “be at risk” on the net.

That got us looking into anonymous IP address alternatives.  The first place I looked was my ISP provider – not surprisingly they did not offer such a service.  Next we looked at using those free services where you go to an anonymous IP provider’s website and from there plug in the place you want to surf to.  That was a non-starter out of the gate – just way to messy and time consuming and bothersome.  The next alternative was companies that provide a paid for service to give you anonymous IP web protection real time all the time.

So I fired up “The Google” and started researching these companies. A handful surfaced to the top and were each similarly priced.  I ended up going with Private Proxy even though it was slighter higher priced than its competitors: A) because it offered IP address changes every 30 minutes, versus every 24 hours by its nearest competitor, and B) it offered 128 bit encryption on my web traffic – this seemed to me to be very secure.

Having now used the Private Proxy service I am very satisfied.  Installation of their software was easy and simple – very intuitive.  My surfing experience has also been excellent.  Web surfing speeds did drop slightly but I could only tell if I run a YouTube video in 1080p mode around peak hours in the evening.  During the day I can’t tell any difference in online speed experience.

So on the three most important items, Private Proxy is a winner for us:

1)            Gives us peace of mind with 30 minute ip address changes and 128 bit encryption

2)            Easy seamless installation and behind the scenes operation

3)            A virtually zero effect on internet speed experience.

Lastly, to finish this review, customer support from this company has also been excellent.  I have had professional and quick responses by a real person each time I’ve had a question.

Rob, Boston

To try Private Proxy for yourself, please follow the link for the Proxy Free Trial Offer.

Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing

Take Control of Your Internet Privacy

Here are  3 simple steps to control your privacy on the Internet:

1. Never post personal information on the Internet.  Once information is on the web, it can be copied and shared without your permission.  Once posted, you’ve lost control over where it can appear.  What may seem harmless can lead to the wrong people having your information.
2. Use an anonymous proxy to hide your IP address.  Your IP address is one identifier that can lead back to you.  By hiding it you can throw would be stalkers off your trail.
3. Clear your cookies.  While normally cookies are not harmful, they do provide information back to websites you visit about your habits on their website.  This may or may not be something you care about.  It depends on the websites you visit.

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.