Iran’s Privacy Battles
Iran is known nationally for its tight ship on Internet communications. They have been known to oppress their people by blocking them from many different sites. Whether it be an adult entertainment site, an American glory site, even a rebel’s group site, the Iran citizens have been blocked from it at some point or another. This puts them in a state of complete disarray, and defeats some to the poing where they don’t even want to try anymore, and they just follow any order the government gives without question or regret; exactly what they want. Still, there are others who are non-conformists, and will fight order to the end. These people know how to get around the Internet blocks, and can do so pretty easily.
They have a tool of the trade; an anonymous proxy. This is a program that allows a user to get by any Internet blockade, no matter who instated it. They are either software based, or we-based. Either way, fire up your proxy and type in the address of the site you wish to go to that is blocked normally, and the private proxy will act as a middle man, and retrieve the site for you. This way, you are allowed access to the site because your browser which blocked you just sees that you are going to the un-blocked proxy site. This serves two purposes; first, the site is yours and you have uncensored access, and second, it leaves trace of you visiting on your computer.
Since evading the government’s unfair security protocol is a crime punishable by a hefty fine or a strong amount of jail time in the nation of Iran, these deviant people who do so wish to remain safe and anonymous online, lest foreign police knock down their door and take them hostage. These nations often have Internet police, whose sole job it is to find people who are trying to hamper around with the country’s security systems, or engaging in illegal activity.
Luckily the anonymous proxy has them covered. To ensure an anonymous browsing experience, the private proxy actually changes your IP address to one of theirs, and this way, you can’t be tracked online. All the Internet police would see is that the IP of the proxy is trying to get to a site, which is none of their concern. Secondly, it offers encryption services, which encode all of your data to a point where even the N.S.A. would have trouble cracking it. This way, if the government does somehow find out and intercept their data, all they would see is a bunch of random, hieroglyphic mush; nothing incriminating.
This can help for Americans in Iran who are used to a free Internet. You are bound by the same restrictions they are because you are traveling off of Iran’s censored servers. You know the old saying, (though a bit modified) when in Iran, do as the Iranians do; reach for an anonymous proxy.
Dave Says:
Iran is ridiculous! I don’t know if I could take not having my freedom I enjoy in the United States. It is funny too; it always seems like the government conveniently shuts down and censors more stuff as soon as something big happens publicly. I remember signing up for a Twitter account from one of the rebels in Iran, and after having hourly updates for at least two weeks before the big election, I suddenly got nothing from him, and afterwards, he wrote that Twitter was temporarily blocked. It almost seems funny to me, but it is so outlandish; although they don’t enjoy the constitutional protection we do here in America, it blows my mind that the citizens haven’t already had a coup de etat on the oppressive government. It is good they found the anonymous proxy though. This is such a great invention, and everyone should know about it. I use a proxy, not to get around Internet censorship like them, but I use it to stay safe and anonymous while online. Since I’ve signed up for my proxy service, I have had no privacy invasions and my Twitter rebel even got back on the air again. Guess he started using a proxy server too!