The prevalence of data theft and data breaches call for a more secure online connection. These days, one can only hope that there could be a better way to hide from data thieves while surfing online. There have been numerous attempts to address this concern, but only a few successfully gave satisfaction to users.

Once a user’s IP address is known, it is easy for unscrupulous people to get his or her personal information. Literally, the user can be followed and monitored – the kinds of sites he or she visits, how long he or she stays there, and what products he or she is interested in. If the user’s IP address is hidden from everybody else, these annoying, and actually dangerous, activities are not possible.

The best way to hide one’s IP address is by using Anonymous Proxy. This can help a user maintain online anonymity in several areas. No one knows the location from which the user is surfing, so his or her surfing activities can no longer be tracked. Anonymous Proxy can help a user protect his or her personal information. Having this, the user does not have to worry when shopping online. The foregoing are some of the personal reasons why one should use Anonymous Proxy.

Every time a person goes online, prying eyes are watching his or her online behavior. Companies spend a great deal just to keep track of users’ internet activities. Users should know that this is important to those companies for marketing purposes. Almost everything the users do is being “analyzed”. What sites do they frequently visit? How long do they stay on a particular site? What pages do they visit during their stay? Furthermore, trackers look at the categories of the posts that users read and the comments that they leave.

Online behavior can be tracked mainly with the help of HTTP cookies. These are little packets of information that contain user preferences and are stored in the computer. The original purpose of using cookies was to improve the users’ browsing experience. With their preferences stored, users do not have to repeatedly provide their basic data, such as login information, very time they visit the same site.

Because cookies store private information, privacy concerns have been raised about it. As a response, browsers provided options for users to choose whether or not they want cookies to be stored. Also, at his or her discretion, a user can delete cookies at anytime. In other words, users do not have to worry because they have absolute control over these “tools”.

However, there is a new breed of cookies that seem to have taken control – supercookies! It was revealed by a privacy researcher that supercookies can track users even when cookie storage is disabled, or when options are set to privacy mode. These cookies use a new technology that makes them undeletable because they can resurrect after being deleted. They can also collect a user’s browsing history, even when there are two or more different browsing tools used.

The supercookie detect a new tool as a unique identifier known as ETag. Some companies are now using supercookies. This was discovered by researchers at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. Actually, one supercookie that was found is capable of looking back at web-browsing history. It is not the ordinary cookie because this one can dig deep into as many as 1,500 sites that the user has visited. They presumed that the new breed of cookie is paying attention to the products that the user is interested in buying. Supercookies are very similar to the older cookies, but these new ones are worrisome because of their “toughness”.

Today, most schools offer some amount of internet access to students as part of the curriculum. To make sure that children are properly guided, each school issues an Internet Acceptable Use Policy. Parents and students are required to sign this document, usually at the beginning of each school year. It contains and explains the school’s guidelines for internet use. It also spells out the rules regarding online behavior and the corresponding consequences for each violation.

In this Policy, some schools include the rights of staff members and students when it comes to using the school’s internet facilities. In general, every Acceptable Use Policy recognizes the rights of students to benefit from the internet and guards them from harm. To strengthen its implementation, parents need to play an important part. They should know what their children are learning in school and how they are going to use the internet to help in their lessons. More importantly, they should know that children are using it in a safe manner.

At home, parents should discuss the Policy with their children. At their age, students might not fully grasp the meaning of these rules. Parents should particularly explain those that might seem harmless but are actually not allowed in the schools. Does the school allow emails for personal use? What does the school mean by harassment? Can students visit file-sharing sites or download music? What are the penalties involved for cyber-bullying while using the school’s computers? They should compare how their children typically use the internet at home and the things that are prohibited at school.

Many parents have the tendency to separate their children from the internet. Some of them say that the amount of information contained therein is so vast that it makes it difficult to control. Others reason that the internet widens the communication gap among all members of the family. Still others assert that it endangers children to online “friends” who are, in fact, cyber criminals.

Their reasons are partly true, but technology is here to stay despite the fact that some people may run away from it. It has become a storehouse of unlimited resources of useful information. As parents, alienating children from that source of information is sure to do more harm than good. Children are not only being deprived of the chance to gain from the internet’s benefits; they are also becoming dangerously inquisitive.

Children’s online experiences can be as rewarding as any offline activity if done with parental control and guidance. What makes the internet dangerous to children’s privacy is the absence of well-defined rules that have been agreed upon by both parents and children. This is aggravated by those parents who need to educate themselves more about the internet.

It is important that home and school online safety rules are synchronized. Children should feel that rules in school reinforce or complement those at home. This is important because nowadays, schools are taking a more active role in the enforcement of rules concerning online behavior. As children enter school, they should have been prepared by their parents for the new environment.

Children who are not used to following internet rules at home will find it difficult to obey those of the school. It is best for parents to institute policies of their own at home so that children do not feel awkward or intimidated. Of course, not all school internet rules are the same, but giving children the feeling of “familiarity” will help them to become more agreeable.

From time to time, schools will change their policies for several reasons. One could be the reactions of parents, which could range from being too lax or too strict. Another could be the general behavior of the children in a particular school. This is greatly determined by the socio-economic circumstances of the family to which these children belong. In general, schools have to go by the generally accepted norms of online behavior. There are schools, though, that lay down internet rules that are non-negotiable and are never compromised.

Social networking has drastically expanded the communication gap between parents and children. Many parents spend their time on their jobs, while children drown themselves in their online exploits. Children have no one to guide them as they explore the digital world. As they become enslaved by it, it is too late for parents to learn that their children’s conduct has already been compromised. Having been left alone without parental guidance and control, these children have not learned the value of internet safety. Their parents are supposed to be the ones to educate them on this, but this does not happen because many children know more than their parents about the internet.

A private non-profit organization recognized this reality and is now partnering with schools to give workshops for parents. They would use PTA and parent group meetings as venues to help schools educate parents about internet safety and media literacy. Team members of the organization would bring actual gadgets like Xboxes, PS3s and Windows or Mac machines to the workshops. They would show parents how to set up parental controls. The organization believes that giving a manual to parents is not a wise step. Most parents do not feel at home with technology, so it would be wiser if they could actually see how it is being done. Parents can get first-hand experience and set aside the apprehension that they usually have with technology.

There is an increase in the number of middle and high schools that are now challenged by online safety concerns. It is reported that cyber bullying and “sexting” are the most common. These happen not only online but have already spilled out offline. Undesirable behavior by children is showing up even on the school campuses, and is fast becoming a “school culture”. School heads see this as an urgent concern, so they have requested the help of organizations who can teach these children and their parents.

With the rise in popularity of social networking, users do not waste a second uploading their personal data just to open an account. They were so excited that they did their best to make sure their circle of friends became bigger. The same thing is also being done by “friends” of their “friends”. As soon as they open an account, they start to upload personal data to update their profiles. Also, as if to make sure that nothing is left out, they share photos of all sorts. The same thing is repeated by millions of other users of diverse ages. For twenty four hours a day, huge amounts of information is uploaded and shared online.

Everything went well until data infringement problems appeared from out of nowhere. At first, this was not a big problem, but as the number of violations increased, privacy advocates took corrective steps. They tried to ask the help of government in revising privacy laws. They also requested internet companies to evaluate and improve their privacy policies. Debates regarding government intervention and privacy breaches are still going on. There are some privacy laws that are yet to be implemented. Private companies continually revise their privacy policies, but these cannot answer the nature of the privacy problems that emerge.

Of late, users are becoming more aware of the presence of too much data on the internet. All they want to do now is to delete all of this information. This is because they know that many interested parties can use this information against them. The internet already knows so much about them that they become vulnerable. Data marketers have different purposes that users do not even know about.

It is difficult to set internet use rules for children when the parents themselves do not know about the dangers of irresponsible internet surfing. Parents should first educate themselves about its positive and negative effects on children. Only then can they appropriately set clear and achievable rules on their children’s internet activities. Basically, children should be aware of the limits on the kinds of sites that they could visit, online etiquette (or netiquette), duration of internet use, information that can be shared online, etc.

I have four children, and all of them are using the internet. My three teenage girls, aged 14 to 18, are using the internet mainly for research and social networking. The fourth one, an 11-year old boy, enjoys playing online game applications on social media sites. The eldest was first exposed to the online community when she was 14 years old. That was the first time our family had access to the internet. At first, she was just using it out of curiosity, until she discovered the thrill of social networking.

It was to our family’s advantage that I knew more about the internet than my children. This gave me sufficient control over their online activities. However, I can say that the most challenging area of control among my children is for them to set limits on their time of use. As with other kids, social networking and online gaming can be addicting. Once children get hooked on these games, it is very difficult for them to say “stop”.

I realized how valuable Private Proxy is when I became a blog writer. My first encounter with the internet was about five or six years ago. At first, I was just interested about browsing various sites without any definite reason. Then, being a teacher, I began to use the benefits of the internet as my resource center. After some time, I also used email as my major means of communication with my relatives and friends in other countries.

Social networking became very popular and it caught my curiosity. I opened an account with each of the three major social networking sites. Although I already heard about privacy issues, I did not consider it important. As usual, I provided some personal information, which the websites required. The social media experience was something different. You can just imagine the excitement of connecting with everybody from virtually anywhere. I did not recognize that I was already giving up too much information about myself online.

Then, I was able to get a part-time job as an online blog writer. Internet issues and privacy were the usual topics that I have to write about, eight blogs every week. I have to upload two blogs to each of the four identified sites. This job exposed me to more opportunities to find out about internet privacy issues. There is online safety, identity theft, hacking, protecting personal information, data breaches, online fraud, and many more. Despite knowing all this, I was not at all concerned about my own privacy.

As the number of data breach cases increases, more users realize that they themselves are to be blamed for these breaches. They give too much information online without being conscious of its consequences. The time comes when they cannot believe that there is so much information about them when they do a “self-search”. They question how this happened, only to remember that they shared this information on one site or another. They now want to win back their privacy, but it seems very difficult, if not impossible.

It is too late for users now to realize that every time they are online, there are many third parties that watch their online actions. There are lots of marketers, game developers and search engines who have their own purposes. However, these third parties are up to one common factor. They will do anything to collect as much information as they can from internet users. Behind all this is the assurance that someday, they can make lots of money from whatever valuable information they can gather.

One user tells a story of how he found a large amount of information about himself in just a simple search. He could not believe that the site “knew” where he lives, his addresses in the last ten years, household members, food preferences, and even had a picture of his house! It is no wonder why many users want to win back total control over their own identities. The first step that they need to take is to remove their information from the internet.