Learning Series Buy This Issue
Table of Contents For This Issue
E-mail This To A Friend
Web
December 2000• Vol.6 Issue 12
Page(s) 20-22 in print issue

Become Anonymous
Don’t Let Others Track Your Web Surfing Habits & E-mail Use
Jump to first occurrence of: [ANONYMOUS] [WEB] [MAIL]

There was a cartoon going around a few years ago of a dog typing away at a computer, with the caption: “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” This might have been true then, but the unfortunate truth is that now they not only know you’re a dog, but they know your breed, favorite dog food, brand of dog collar, as well as the fact that you just came from the site http://www.cutepoodle.com./

The amount of information you can give away when surfing the Internet or sending e-mail is staggering, and the simple fact is that you just never know who is going to be collecting such information, how long it will be stored, or how it will be used in the future (sold to advertisers and marketing firms, or worse). In just the past few months, high- profile privacy issues such as the following have made the news:

:CueCat. The original idea was to send out this barcode scanner for free to hundreds of thousands of consumers, who could then use it to scan barcodes and easily browse to company or product Web sites. A great idea . . . until it was revealed that :CueCat also came equipped with a tracking feature to monitor and report your usage.

Carnivore. This FBI e-mail surveillance system is capable of sifting through a massive amount of e-mail to find specific messages, a little akin to tapping every phone in New York City to get evidence on one suspect.

Toys. What is it with toy companies? A suit filed in September against Toys “R” Us claims that they track online user activity and share data with third parties, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently quashed a plan by Toysmart.com to sell its customer database, especially since Toysmart.com claimed while gathering the information that it never would.

Drug czar. The use of cookies was banned on all federal Web sites after it was found that Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the drug czar, and his Office of National Drug Control Policy were using them to track people who were accessing online drug information.

The list, unfortunately, goes on, and with very little regulatory overview, it’s safe to assume the worst when it comes to Internet privacy, and plan accordingly. Two great ways to minimize your risk are to try and make your Web surfing habits and e-mail use as anonymous as possible.



  Break Free From Web Tracking. Every time you go to look at a Web page, you could be giving a considerable amount of information to that site, including: your browser type and operating system; what plug-ins you have installed; whether Java, JavaScript, or VBScript are enabled on your system; your processor type, monitor resolution, and size; and your IP (Internet Protocol) address. Plus, sites can also track how many other sites you’ve accessed in the current browsing session, the last page you visited, and more. Luckily, a variety of both software and Web-based solutions now exist that can dramatically reduce the amount of information you give away.

Freedom. Zero-Knowledge Systems’ Freedom software (http://www.freedom.net/) is rather unique among the majority of solutions offered here in that it lets you not only surf the Internet anonymously, but also send and receive e-mail and use telnet, chat, and newsgroups. Freedom makes use of pseudonyms (or “nyms,” as they call them) that you can set up. With each nym, you decide how much you wish to disclose. This concept not only lets you control how much information you give away, but also lets you separate your online interests through the use of several nyms, a perfect solution for those with split virtual personalities.

Freedom works through the Freedom Network, a series of “privacy-enhanced detours” that sit between you and the Internet. Every time you send or receive a request, it is wrapped in several layers of encryption, and each bounce through the network strips of a layer, creating a powerful cloaking system that shields you from prying eyes (including, according to the company, Zero-Knowledge itself). All of this is controlled through a small panel that sits on your Desktop and shows your current nym, the type of information you’re sending, and more.

Special features include the ability to store cookies for each nym in its own special cookie jar (where you can view and delete them), use digital signatures that keep people from impersonating you, and much more. Freedom 1.1 is available for $49.95, which will give you five nyms for one year, at which time, you’ll have to resubscribe (as in, pay more money) to keep using the system.

Anonymity 4 Proxy. As the name implies, Anonymity 4 Proxy (http://www.inetprivacy.com/a4proxy) makes use of proxy servers (with IP addresses that you can use to hide your identity while surfing) to give you more anonymity on the Internet. This software comes with a database stuffed with hundreds of public anonymous proxy servers located around the world. These proxy servers not only let you access Web pages through them (using a proxy in Denmark, for example, will make it appear that you are logging into a site from Denmark), but they also claim to be anonymous, meaning that no part of your address transmits to the Web site from the proxy.

Using a proxy server is often a leap of faith. Is it up? Is it fast enough to use? Is it really anonymous? With Anonymity 4 Proxy, however, you can run a series of tests on a proxy server to determine its response time, speed, and most importantly, whether it really does hide your identity. You can select one proxy from the database to use full-time, or set up the software so that a different proxy is called upon with each request.
Anonymity 4 Proxy works with Web browsers and download managers such as GetRight, and while it has no ability to cloak you for use with chat, newsreaders, or e-mail, you can use it with Web-based systems like Hotmail as an anonymous e-mail solution. The software comes with a number of powerful features, including the ability to generate unique IP addresses, block cookies, and use it over a LAN (local-area network) so that each computer can have an anonymous Internet connection all to itself.

Anonymity 4 Proxy 2.5 is $35 for non- commercial/home use, and supports up to three computers. You also get free software and proxy database updates for life.

Anonymizer.com. Anonymizer.com (http://www.anonymizer.com/) has definitely become the high-profile king of low-profile Web surfing. Around since 1996, Anonymizer.com provides a variety of solutions, from free surfing to dial-up access, that put anonymity before all else by masking your identity, disabling cookies, addressing Java and JavaScript, and more.

To find out what’s really at stake, initially click-through to its Privacy Analysis, where it “reads” your connection and lets you know exactly what you’re giving away (the list that started this section was compiled using its Analysis). It’s a pretty sobering experience, and a very effective advertising tool for one of Anonymizer.com’s services:

the-Cloak. As a completely free Internet-based tool that sits between your computer and any Web site you visit, the-Cloak (http://www.the-cloak.com/) shields you from spying eyes. Using standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, it can encrypt all communication from your browser, or you can opt for non-encrypted surfing when you log into their system. A Desktop-based control panel lets you know if you’re getting ready to wander onto a non-cloaked page, so you always know when it’s running.

In addition, the-Cloak gives you the option of completely turning off cookies or placing them remotely on the-Cloak’s Web site (so they can be used during the session and then purged). Citing a need to regulate misuse, the-Cloak does keep its log files for several days before completely destroying them, and it may limit the number of simultaneous users and megabytes per session if usage gets heavy.

In order to use the-Cloak, you’ll need to turn on JavaScript in your browser (it’s necessary for the control panel to run), although you will maintain full control over what scripts run on your system (those that come from the Web sites themselves). You should also enable cookies (so the-Cloak can give you a login cookie) and turn on the browser prompt that warns you if you are leaving a secure site. Netscape Navigator users should also turn off the What’s Related feature.

SpacePROXY. SpacePROXY (http://www.spaceproxy.com/) offers another free proxy service. One of the features that is particularly helpful details how you can go about setting up various browsers so they can access the service directly (without constantly having to go to the service to do so).

Finally, if you’d like to do a little do-it- yourself proxy surfing, check out Proxys 4 All (http://proxys4all.cgi.net/), which maintains a list of anonymous proxy servers.



  Conceal Identification On E-mail. One place where you could be giving away a lot more information than you want is in the area of e-mail. Although many may see anonymous e-mail as belonging in the realm of hackers and spammers, there are a great many reasons why you might want to shield your identity when sending messages or using e-mail to post to newsgroups. Expressing political, religious, or personal views that run counter to your place of employment or community could have real life consequences in terms of being fired or harassed. Internet savvy employers could do a newsgroup search on you and pass you over for hiring if your views didn’t fit into their narrow philosophy. Or, if you’re placing personal ads, you may want to disguise your true identity for a variety of safety reasons.

The simple truth is that anything you e-mail or post to newsgroups can last a very, very long time, and its conceivable that something you say today could come back to haunt you in 10 years, or could land you in a spammer’s database tomorrow. Adding some degree of anonymity when e-mailing messages can help in both instances.

One of the simplest ways to add a layer of anonymity is to sign up for one of the free, Web-based e-mail services like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail using false information. Disposable accounts such as these are handy because, if one starts to clog with spam, you can just dump it and get another. You can add another level of anonymity by only accessing such services through a proxy server or with a program such as Anonymity 4 Proxy installed on your system. This way, if any information is sent with the message (such as the IP address you’re using to log into the service), it will be the proxy address that is sent.

Another tool you can use for both anonymous e-mail and newsgroup posting is the remailer. Remailers let you mail a message to a given address, which will then repackage it, strip out your address, and forward it onto another address you specify. The Anonymous Remailer Information list (http://anon.efga.org/Remailers) contains a large number of remailers and is updated frequently so you’ll always have access to the “freshest” remailers. Information such as usage, how long it takes remailers to delivers messages, and the features each provides appear on the list, so you can easily select a remailer that is both reliable and meets your particular needs.

Remailers can follow many different formats depending on their type or how they are set up, but the following is a brief example of how an e-mail message might be set up to work through a remailer. First, select a remailer from the Anonymous Remailer Information list and place its address in the e-mail To field. Some remailers allow subjects, others strip them out, and some require that you include it in the body of the message. We’ll go with the latter for this example, and leave the subject field blank. In the body of the message, the first five lines will essentially be instructions for what the remailer should do with the message, and are structured like this:

**Line 1: Type two colons, like this: ::

**Line 2: Type Request-Remailing-To: person@address.com, where the address is the person you’re sending the anonymous message to. Alternately, you could type Anon-Post-To: any.newsgroup for posting to newsgroups, and again, the “any.newsgroup” would be replaced by the newsgroup you’re trying to reach.

**Line 3: Leave blank.

**Line 4: Type two pound symbols, like this: ##

Everything after this line will be forwarded.

**Line 5: Type Subject: Place subject here, replacing “Place subject here” with whatever topic you want.



After this, you can start your message. When the remailer receives the message, it will reformat it and anonymously send it to the desired address. Before you actually send out a real message using this system, however, always test it to make sure the remailer is working, will work with the above format (or a different format; many will send you formatting information if it can’t work with your e-mail), and that it does send the message through anonymously. Unfortunately, some remailers will still include your address somewhere in the message or header.

More information about remailers and what you can do with them is available from the About Email page (http://email.about.com/internet/email/cs/remailers/index.htm). Or, if you’re looking for a much simpler remailer solution, MailAnon (http://www.mailanon.com/) offers an online solution for sending and receiving anonymous mail for $5 per month (try it free for the first week).

Information is the coin of the realm in the information age, and this year has seen some pretty flagrant privacy violations in an attempt to collect and capitalize on personal data. Expect more of this as governments fumble with how to best protect privacy in a medium that stretches across borders and cultures. In the meantime, with each layer of anonymity you add, your privacy gains an added layer of protection, and a little anonymity goes a long way on today’s wide-open Internet.  

by Rich Gray



Copyright & Legal Information        Privacy Policy

© Copyright by Sandhills Publishing Company 2001. All rights reserved.