I was recently looking at online "anonymizers;" tools that can mask your IP address (and/or other traceable data) from sites you visit.
They usually act as proxies; you communicate with the masking proxy, which then relays your clicks to the destination site, stripping off personally identifiable info along the way.
They're not foolproof and can be defeated. And to be honest, I've never found need to use one. But some people also use them as a way to get past content filters, and they can be useful in cases where privacy is needed (one sad but true real-life example often cited in discussions of anonymizers: people trying to stay invisible from abusive spouses).
Try one yourself. First, go here to see your current public IP address and the other data normally encoded into your browser clicks:
http://showip.net/
Now click here, to an anonymizer, and see how your identity is masked:
http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html
This site isn't as thorough as the above, but it's also available:
http://www.hidemyass.com/
I hope you'll never really *need* to use one of those services, but in any case, there's two, and Google can show you many more.
These two sites are ok if you just want to go to one site, as you have to type or copy in a website address. I've played around with a few systems for anonymous browsing.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite at present is JAP
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html
plus FoxyProxy in Firefox to switch it easily on and off.
I've also tried TOR in various disguises, but it is sometimes very slow.
Fred,
ReplyDeleteI've found that anonymizers can let non-US residents watch online TV stuff that is otherwise blocked, such as if the show is broadcast in one's own country but not made available online by the licensee. So reasons to use anonymizers aren't all bad.
Interesting. Show IP takes a wild guess at where "irvnca" is located (and gets it wrong) but does show a lot more than GRC|ShieldsUP! does. I have found it useful in the past, though, to have my browser announce that I'm on a Mac... But then I'm neither abused, nor Chinese.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks, Anonymous, for mentioning FoxyProxy. I'll have to take a look.