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[Staying Anonymous]
July 25th, 2007Staying Anonymous
There are always some great things about the internet. One of them being that if you try hard enough, you can actually remain anonymous. If you were to follow my explanation on how to circumvent content filters you’d be able to remain fairly anonymous. Maybe.
Through the use of cookies almost every website, including Google, is able to authenticate, track, and store information — usually preferences — about the user of the website. Whitedust has a short writeup which says:
When most of us log onto the net and do a search on Google we assume that it is essentially anonymous. In fact unless you’ve configured your computer very carefully then that isn’t the case. Most Google users have a small file, called a cookie, sitting on their hard drives that Google uses to uniquely identify you - and identify your search history.
Then they go to say that it freaks them out. It really should. Whitedust goes to solve this issue with Blackdust which you can read about here.
So, how do you stay anonymous? It involves shutting up, using proxies, blocking cookies, lie, use secure methods, using cryptography, and using anonymous remailers.
Shutting Up
This is honestly one of the easiest ways you can befuddle your anonymity. This should go without saying, but I’m going to anyway. Whenever you’re communicating whether it be via an Instant Messenger, IRC, or Email, don’t give out personal information or specify your primary email address (discussed in a bit).
Using Proxies
I’m not going to go over this any more. I’ve discussed it in decent detail here.
Some More Proxies:
aixs.net
anonymizer.com
the-cloak.com
Blocking Cookies
The fundamental issue with blocking cookies is that there are a lot of legitamate uses for them. If you’re shopping online it’s almost manditory so that the website can keep your shopping cart information. In Firefox,though, you can use a white-list for cookies. This allows you to only accept cookies from places that you use and don’t function otherwise. Check out Tools > Options > Privacy.
Lie
Whenever you are signing up for something that you don’t have any interest in knowing your real information, make something up. There’s no harm in lying to a webserver when the information would just be passed along and sold to the highest bidder. Use a fake name generator if you don’t feel like being clever, or use BugMeNot if it requires logging in. If you want to pretend to use a different Operating System or browser, feel free to change your useragent with this plugin.
Use Secure Options
If it’s any website worth it’s salt, they probably have an SSL certificate. That means you can navigate to it with encrypted traffic, which is nice for all sorts of secure reasons. Other Secure options include SSH instead of TELNET, SCP instead of FTP, et cetera.
Cryptography
Using cryptographic methods like PGP can keep your information from being intercepted. Read more here.
One I forgot to mention then is Scatterchat which allows you to IM with some beefy RSA crypto.
Email Options
Email privacy is a big deal. From an email address people can figure out a whole bunch about you. So, instead of signing up for everything with the Email that your ISP provided you, instead use a free one like Gmail, or use temporary email like Mailinator, Dodgeit, et al. If you are rather bored, you could bother with an Anonymous Remailer, too.
Utilizing all of those you should be able to stay ridiculously anonymous. As always, if you have suggestions feel free to comment below.
Update: Some of the links are broken, due to Whitedust going under. Sorry for the inconvenience. I’d also suggest checking out peerguardian. (wink)
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