Anonymous surfing is the ability to travel the Internet completely incognito; no one knows your identity. Another part of this is not being liable to tracking either. An anonymous proxy can change your IP address, which is what sites use to tell who and where you are. The proxy substitutes your IP for theirs, so it appears like they are trying to access the site, and not you.

Another useful service a proxy can provide is getting past firewalls. Oftentimes, schools and workplaces have blocking programs that block “fun” sites such as Myspace, Youtube, FaceBook, etc. The sites block these students or workers because the server that they surf the Internet from has placed bans on the URL of those specific sites. This is easily combatable! When you surf all of the other sites using a proxy, the computer server only sees that you went on the proxy site a bunch of times. This worker could go to the site on a proxy server, and surf all of the sites he or she wished, being completely uncensored. Remember that while you may be able to access the sites, your boss or teacher will still likely be able to see what you’ve been up to, so you can do it, but there is still a chance you will get caught.

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In Ottawa, Canada, there is a pending bill that proposes to allow police complete access to Internet communications. The police say they need to upgrade, for Internet security, laws haven’t been updated in forever, and the laws need to move with the times.

This proposition would force ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to make it possible for police to access their databanks for any reason to extract data about users and particularly their conversations.

This push for more Internet power from police has been going strong for almost ten years, and the police think it has been long enough. They insist that with the dawn of the new technological age, criminals are hiding and doing their dirty work online, a place where it is tough for them to get caught.

The police have no surveillance teams online, and don’t have the ability to dispatch a monitoring force, and certainly aren’t allowed to see what criminals do online. This needs to change for people’s safety they say. The police promise not to abuse their power, and even use a warrant system as in a real-life search.

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The Internet is on its last legs in Namibia, Africa. There is a bill waiting to pass that would cripple the net to a point where it would be almost unusable: the banning of encryption.

Encryption is a technique which encodes all data that passes through to an undecipherable format. There are different levels of encryption, measured in “bits”, but even the lowest levels offer a great protection boost.

Getting rid of this technology would basically unlock everything online. Imagine a neighborhood, where every house has a lock and alarm system. Now imagine all of this was deactivated: absolute chaos! Anyone could break in and steal anything from anyone else.

Without encryption, some websites can’t even operate. If you ever see the lock icon in the bottom of your screen, this means the site is encrypted. Every banking site is encrypted, so none of these would work if the feature is banned. It wouldn’t just be banks and business things to go either: MySpace, FaceBook, Gmail, Skype, Yahoo… all gone.

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Long gone are the days when two warring factions would line up to face each, announce a start, and then enter the hectic fray. Nowadays, the “old war” of guns, blood, and violence is taking a backseat to a new kind of war: a virtual one.

This new modern warfare occurs on the Internet, and the winner isn’t the one with the least dead or the last standing; he is the one with the enemy Intel stored away nice and safe. In order to protect itself, the U.S. will need a vast and in-depth monitoring system, and we might find an extension of the Patriot Act in the works.

Last month, President Obama unveiled this huge new Internet security overhaul. He insists that all civil liberties will be upheld during any surveillance the system will be doing. His senior officials however, think that the complete upholding of all privacy laws will be difficult to do, when scanning every virtual nook and cranny to scout out terrorist activity.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is the branch that is going to spearhead the virtual protection of the U.S. This agency has been in a bit of controversy in the past for supposed privacy invasion. The nation’s security is not a matter to be taken lightly though, and they can justify every action they make. Some have just felt that they have been a bit more invasive than they need to be.

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Everywhere you turn on the internet, there are articles and columns warning you to be safe on the internet and touting ways to do so. After awhile, you can become desensitized and the threat of internet security breaches will seem unreal. It seems enough to most to avoid sketchy websites and pop-ups telling them they have won a million dollars, but it seems the danger is closer than we thought.

The Federal Trade Commission that a major retailer has been caught red-handed snooping on customer’s computer information. The retailer offered participants 10$ to sign up for a survery program. Here is the description of the program: “…participate in exciting, engaging, and on-going interactions- always on your terms and always by your choice.”

It seems benign, harmless, and vague, but unfortunately, according to the FTC, it turns out that this retailer was gathering more information than just that which pertained to their business. The company said that all it would glean from its participants’ activities was online browsing of their company website, to delineate product demographics, find popular pages, etc…. boring, corporate stuff.

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The average American household has access to at least one Internet-ready computer now. That means that every time your family boots up the computer system, you are potentially exposing your information to the rest of the world. In a matter of seconds, your Internet privacy can be compromised by hackers, identity thieves and other criminals who can use your family’s information for illegal and immoral activities. Protect your family’s personal information by utilizing some of the free and low cost Internet privacy software available today.

Internet Surfing History “Erasers” – Whenever you visit websites, check your email or conduct transactions online, your personal web surfing history is stored in your computer cache. Criminals who can access your hard-drive can get to your sensitive personal information, including the keystrokes you’ve made. Even if you try to delete your web browsing history, clear cookies and temporary files from within your Internet browser, this information is still not fully erased from your computer records. There are several Internet surfing history eraser software applications now available that can clear all remnants of your Internet browsing history.

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