Do you remember a time, long ago in our past, when one had to go out to buy something and bring it home? It seems like a crazy concept, but it really happened. People drove their cars to a sort of vending center, where they exchanged monetary units for perishables and other items. They would then buy enough to last them for some time, and when they needed more, they would head back again and again. Someday kids will read about this very outdated practice in their history textbooks. All joking aside though, the idea that one would actually go out to a store to buy something is becoming obsolete. These stores have fewer users than they did fifty years ago, even with a larger population. The world of explosive technology has penetrated nearly every aspect of life, and shopping certainly under that umbrella.

People’s lives around the globe|world] today, especially those of the United States citizens, are of a highly mobile type. We use our cars to go anywhere, work a whole bunch of separate shifts to augment our bank accounts, and have more entertainment in our house than does a whole circus. Consider going out to the movies in the present day; in the prehistoric days, before the VCR player, you would have to buy a ticket for the theater playing at your time. Now you can simply download movies temporarily whenever you choose by taking your pick from an on-demand service. Our homes these days are like the best place to relax and have fun; it almost defeats the point of going out. This self-containment is a must today though because we have more going on in our lives than ever before.

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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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Sometimes I wonder about marketing messages.  The video below is targeted at “youth” according to the credits.  I watched it 3 times and while I think I understand what they are trying to get across, they did it in a very, very bizarre way.  Watch for yourself and decide if this increases your desire to be private.  For me it just increased my need to stay away from odd videos.

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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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Do you ever get that feeling that someone is following you, someone is watching you? Don’t quickly jump to the conclusion that you are crazy; many others feel the same way. The fact is that you are often being watched, and not just by other people. In Britain, and as being tested in some undisclosed parts of the United States, people are being held under surveillance by discreet video cameras mounted on houses. These video cameras can watch passerby and record everything that they see and or do. The cameras can be accessed by local law enforcement, federal law enforcement, or any other criminal agency at any time, with a live feed able to be brought up. These cameras are supposed to watch for “anti-social behavior”, and when detected, the police are to be dispatched and the situation taken care of.

While the idea of being watched sounds bad, it really is not. It depends clearly on the type. When you are being watched for your own safety, as these video cameras are doing for the citizens, sometimes it is necessary to make some privacy sacrifices to ensure your protection. The only question that arises is what exactly is “anti-social behavior”? If this anti-social behavior means a man waiting outside someone’s house looking to see if anyone is home, and then trying to break the door down or open a window, then it goes without saying that we would all be okay with these cameras. Sometimes these cameras can snoop into places we don’t want them too, and they then abandon their public service. This is the bad kind of being watched, a voyeuristic viewing of your life and its details. It doesn’t have to be the actual watching of your person though or what you are doing; this illegal type of surveillance expands into the extension of your self, except online: your social security number, your documents, your emails, etc.

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These days, it is hard to place our trust in anything. Perhaps it is the prevalence of terrorism, or the declining economy, or maybe even the thought of a nuclear war floating in the back of our minds. While we are hesitant to put faith in almost anything, we do so often every day in the least trust-worthy situations; the problem is, we don’t realize it.

Take the Internet for example. Kids, every day, converse with each other online. This has become the primary form of communication among the youth of America; rare is the case when a group of friends will actually go out and meet in person when it is so much easier to do so on the computer. With this virtual existence though, one can argue they lose who their friends really are. While this is meant in a sentimental, profound fashion, the literal meaning applies too. Without seeing their faces and hearing their voices, how do you know the person typing is the one actually typing? It would be easy and plausible enough that the friend they are exchanging personal information with is actually a hacker who is trying to lure them into a real life encounter. This is sobering news, but sadly it happens often.

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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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An inmate in a maximum security prison was recently involved in a privacy case that went all the way to Maryland’s highest court. Usually inmates, especially those who have committed heinous enough crimes to land themselves into a maximum security prison, are expected and granted no privacy. These people have forfeited that right by taking away someone else’s rights, sometimes even through murder. This man actually killed another prisoner while already serving his prison sentence.

What happened was he wrote a letter to his dad and left it in an unsealed envelope. The letter described his confusion with his actions, and how he was disturbed that he killed another man. Prison officials seized the letter and used it as evidence against the man in a case against him. This letter provided irrefutable proof that he did indeed kill the man, and this would certainly land him a guilty charge, with no contest. This man would be in prison for the rest of his life, if not land him on death row.

In court, prison officials argued that the letter wasn’t sealed, and that all prisoners have to have all of their mail scanned and censored, both out-going and incoming. This, they argue, would have had the letter found anyway, so they would have gotten him like that. They also argue the letter is good evidence. The man argues that his Fourth Amendment rights were being violated by them reading and seizing his un-sent letter. Even though it was unsealed, they still should have not been allowed to get into it. By doing this, the evidence should be negated he said, and he wasn’t planning on sending the letter anyway, it was just a venting system.

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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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Terrorism has always been a big concern of the United States, and the main job of the most powerful person in the world, our president, has been to try and counter it. While many people are not worried about terrorism or the threats it brings to the American people, the government has always been concerned with this matter and done the up most to try and prevent it. There are many safeguards and agreements in place; even though many countries and nations hate the United States out of religious and cultural differences or perhaps just a strong feeling of envy, we have successfully been able to negotiate many cease fires between enemy nations. No matter how strong our diplomatic skills are though, there will always be some countries that are inconsolable and will try and attack us no matter what.

We were able to fend them off for some time, and did so quite well. It wasn’t until the 911 attacks that we faltered. These terrorist attacks jaded our nation and knocked down our confidence. It was similar to the Titanic; the impossible and the impenetrable was broken down. America seemed like a huge fortress, but some ramshackle terrorists were able to infiltrate it and deal us some swift damage. This woke the government up, and made them protect America even more diligently, and think of many new ways to do so.

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