Here we go again.  More on Big Brother.  The US government announced in June that US government agencies may track traffic and online behavior so that they can better provide information and services for the people who visit their websites.

The stated purpose here is two-fold. First, the Obama administration wants  the government’s websites to be easier to navigate, and to become useful. Secondly, it wants to monitor your behavior on its websites to figure out what information was accessed the most and hence, potentially the most useful.

Privacy issues are crucial to the topic of government tracking and targeting, so much so that the government memorandum the Obama administration issued discusses it in the introduction. The government is assuring  people that they shouldn’t be concerned about the US government watching their every online move.

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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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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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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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It can be easily asserted that everyone has visited a mall at some point in their lives. It is quite a place; tons of stores right next to each other, competing for lower prices and all within walking distance. There are also a multitude of stores to choose from; clothes are in abundance and are tools of the trade for malls of all sorts, but there are also house based stores, electronic equipment, music equipment, and even the odd gag gift store. These malls are often air conditioned quite nicely, but during the scorching summer months or the frigid winter months, can be to one extreme or the other. Also, the usefulness and competitive prices these malls offer bring in throngs of people, and one can often have trouble traversing from store to store, let alone accessing the crowded rest areas and trying to find a seat. As refuge from these malls, but with the convenience, price, and selection they offer, online shopping was born. Your wallet protects all of your data from being stolen.

Online shopping is a novel concept. Instead of actually carrying all of your groceries, clothes, or other miscellanea around with you, you simply add them to your shopping cart. The prices are still low, but you can shop from the convenience of your home and without the open and close hours that sporadic malls have. Also, you don’t have to carry all of your bags when you are shopping and worry about keeping track of receipts and all of that small stuff.

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