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.

This new awareness of blog safety brought about the anonymous movement. People realized that the root of their problems and the biggest danger in their blogging lives is that they were being tracked and identified in real life. These blogs are often public too; imagine if a boss or potential employer were to view someone’s blog and turn them away from the job! The reverse of this happened a little while ago; a woman who constantly blogged about her disdain for a local politician and his methods was anonymous online. After some time and after having built a strong fan base, she decided to go public, and posted her name, a brief bio, and a picture of herself. Her boss, being an avid supporter of the ousted politician, fired her and forbid her from coming back to her job. She is now blacklisted from many employers in her area, for fear of being guilty by association.

Use an anonymous proxy to stay anonymous online. This is the best and most powerful way to do so. High bit encryption services will protect your identity, and a changed IP address will ensure you safe and anonymous browsing; and the avoidance of any identity-based privacy issues.

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The Iranians today are blogging on FaceBook, sending anti-leader protest on Twitter, and Ahmadinejad is quaking in his boots. He is desperate to shutdown these opposing forces. These Iranians are headstrong; despite recent additions and blocks, their Internet activity has actually increased!

The most popular content on Twitter currently is related to these Iranians. Protests, photos, and imperative blogs have caught the interest of not only the citizens of Iran, but everyone around the world.

In a less-than-democratic nation such as Iran, holding public protests can have dire consequences, so a grassroots system has taken place; these new candidates for office are doing their protests and advertising online. One of these e-candidates is Mir Hussein Moussavi. One account all about him (Moussavi1388) has won over nearly 7000 fans, and meticulous updates and news spearhead the assault on a bad government.

Twitter isn’t the only thing these radical citizens are using to send their message, (Moussavi’s FaceBook page has over 50,000 friends), but Twitter is their main method of advocacy.

Surprisingly, Twitter is completely aware of the vital role it is playing for these rebels, and it completely supports them! Twitter had scheduled maintenance ready to go on Monday, but have decided to re-schedule it, because this is a vital time for protestors to be using their site.

The Twitter channel “StopAhmadi” is one dedicated to writings and people opposed to the embattled leader. They put photos and blogs about Moussavi’s views and theories and keep the public in the know about government wrongdoings.

Another channel called “PersianKiwi” is thwarting any censoring that Iran might instate on Twitter by getting the page via Google. They are blatantly ignoring any censoring that Iran might do, and simply moving to a different page.

While most people on Twitter are just using the site to post peaceful protests and the like, some are aiming for the government’s head. A user known as “DDOSIran” actually organized a “hit” on the government: flood its Internet site with so much traffic that it crashes. After the plan had succeeded, the username was deleted and never heard of again.

As the election began to dawn on Iran’s citizens, government censorship reached new levels of injustice. They blocked text-message services and even the instrumental Twitter for a time, hoping to throw off any more protestors to the current leader.

Some have found a way around these wrongful acts, and a proxy server is the most widely utilized.

Even Americans, who are so separated from the conflict, are helping out. Austin Heap of San Francisco has actually been setting up proxy servers for the Iranians to use, and advertising them on Twitter. At any given time, nearly 750 Iranians are browsing anonymously due to his benevolence.

Many proxy services are on the rise now, due to this massive Iranian censorship. The Global Internet Freedom Consortium, which was run by outlawed and exiled Chinese Falun Gong, has reported almost triple the traffic they would normally have, and most of it coming from Iran.

This censorship has become a silly game of whack-a-mole: the government whacks one thing the people were using, and they have to find another; a vicious cycle.

After a time, there will be no new thing for the people to run to, and the government will be too adept at sniffing these things out to spread any more protest news, or the people’s voice of Mir Hussein Moussavi. This is when the anonymous proxy will truly have its day.

If an American citizen tried to access Twitter, obviously they would be allowed in, as the U.S. is a nation free of censorship and other such blockades. Most of the time, in countries such as Iran, the blocking of these sites is instated by the government. This is where a private proxy would come in. By encrypting the data, they can bypass these blocks.

An anonymous proxy server acts as a middleman in the Internet exchange between the website and the requester. You ask for the website through the anonymous proxy, and they go and get it for you. This covers your tracks as well; if Iran  was to read all logs of your Internet activity, all they would see is the proxy site, visited over and over again.

This successfully completes the anonymous browsing experience. In countries like Iran, visiting certain sites can lead to a jail stint. By using a proxy, there will be no evidence that you ever went on a banned site.

Anonymous browsing, surfing, you name it, is essential for these Iranian protesters. This technology will exonerate them from the and will allow them to fight the good fight, without the risk of being arrested for their protests.

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