Do you try to keep anonymous when surfing the net?

[tridean]

Hi All,
I was wondering how people go about surfing the internet and if they are concerned about being tracked? I have read stories of people who had their whole hard drives fried, believing it was their internet usage and bookmarks that triggered it, i.e. they were tracked. This may be paranoia it may not, but I am curious and I did a search on this forum and didn't find any posts relevant.

Thanks
Dingo

 

[D69]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

Personally I don't use proxies since it slows me down.
But if you want to use it then I would suggest to first install and get familiar with proxy changer for your browser.
For example , there is a nice proxychanger for firefox - foxyproxy
I`ll bet there are tons of newer and better though, I didn't check`em for a while.
Once you will know how to use it etc. then you will need a good source of daily proxies.
Thats quite dynamic 'market' if I can call it like that ;) Proxies are being taken offline very often but at the same time there are tons of newly discovered.
Websites like __http://proxy.org/ __http://freshproxies.net/ will provide a lot of proxy ip addresses to use.It is also good to look for better sources.
Then to make it even more efficient you should sort`em and categorize them. Unfortunately I don't know a good proxy hunter for windows that will do it for you but there is a nice project called YAPH (YetAnotherProxyHunter) for Linux. Also I know that there is a lot of Apps for windows but since I don't use windows on a daily basis , I am not familiar with`em.
After all that done , you can provide a nice list of checked proxies to your proxy switcher so it will cycle through proxy list every few requests (depends how you configure it)

BUT !!!

There is small problem with proxies and websites that want to track you.
You have to be aware that when using a proxy , your IP is hidden behind this proxy yes , but there may be malicious JavaScript on a website that will simply read your IP anyway.
To counter this , you will have to setup a LAN at your home and connect via so called NAT (Network Address Translation). Idea is that when connected that way , Java Script will only be able to read you local network IP.
This will be quite useless info for tracking site ;). Of course it will work unless someone creates some sort of smart traceroute kind of script that will log an IP anyway.
You can also deny JavaScript with plugins like NoScript but it is kinda hard these days since almost every website uses JavaScript and very often denying it will cause website unbrowsable.

Another important point is browser Cookie. Believe it or not but Browser Cookies are used to track users all the time. It is a good idea to delete cookies at the end of your browsing session. A lot of browsers will help you do that. Of course it is hard to read every cookie details and accept it or not every time (sometimes even more) you visit a website. You will also be unable to use auto login features on most websites if you deny cookies.
But hey ;) no one said that hiding is easy ;)

There are a lot of projects under linux , like proxychains , that should let you chain several proxies , but thats not that easy to use and quite good networking skill is required.
Proxies are a good idea to use if you want to evade web content filtering for example at your workplace but if its about hiding - they will find you if you don't know what you are doing ;)

Most effective strategy - that works for me - to stay hidden is to learn how to use USB linux distribution , like BackTrack 4 as an example and boot to your netbook through WiFi - preferably ha...d ;)
That way , you are not storing anything on your harddrive and you don't have to worry about cookies , but you have to be careful with WiFi , sometimes there are Fake AP (AccessPoints) just to catch innocent users but that is a story for another comment ;P

 

[msante]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

Dingo:
I'm curious about why so concerned about the hiding behind proxy servers . Note that the proxies, in the best, only allow you to hide your real IP. Not much benefit you can get from this. :(
Some of the techniques has kindly drygol, may be useful, but first you should determine your goal.
If you intend not to be tracked, or followed by some kind of organized intelligence, I assure you that their efforts may be in vain.
Do you have email account in gmail, hotmail, or yahoo? Do you use facebook, twitter or other social network? Do you use some google services (Picasso, google docs, google calendars, etc)? Do you use messengers like MSN, Google talk, yahoo messenger? Are you registered in blogs, forums, or news and actively participates in them? Do you use Windows in some version?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then do not worry, if "someone" wants to trace or follow you, he may do so despite its efforts ...
Today it is relatively easy to obtain personal information from someone without a great effort for a person with some knowledge. Imagine what you can do someone with great knowledge and great power...

 

[ScottD]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

Dingo,

I'm not so concerned about being tracked but I am more concerned about being targeted by marketing and traffic analysis and, I actively try to avoid it. You can try to be somewhat anonymous but anyone (bot or human) can track just about anything if needed. You can only slow things down or make it harder for them.

I'm currently running an easy to setup Linux firewall (smoothwall.org) as a first layer of defense for my home network. Secondly, when surfing I'll sometimes run firefox through TOR (torproject.org). The onion router is a collective of soft "routers" (basically anyone running the program and setup to route). So, when I run through it, google may think I am in Germany or somewhere else in the world depending on where I am routing through. The military likes to use it and I'll often see military traffic on my logs (blocked of course heh). It's not foolproof tech but it is kind of fun to play with. Lastly, I run PeerBlock (peerblock.com). It's mostly to deter P2P traffic sniffers from seeing what you're downloading but I use it to stomp on ad bots, the local ISP sniffing my traffic, and other marketing machines. You can add your own blacklists to PeerBlock from I-BlockList (iblocklist.com). Again, it's not foolproof, but fun to watch and see what traffic slams against your machine.

Lastly, sweep your machine at least every 30 days with an anti-spyware/anti-malware app. I currently happily use malwarebytes. It's free and works better than most retail packages.

Regardless, as msante has said, you can still be tracked if someone really wanted to but I personally prefer to make it harder on someone doing so. It's like locking a door to me. Someone could still get in your house if they wanted to but at least it's an active deterrent for most.

 

[msante]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

...
You can try to be somewhat anonymous but anyone (bot or human) can track just about anything if needed. You can only slow things down or make it harder for them.
...
Regardless, as msante has said, you can still be tracked if someone really wanted to but I personally prefer to make it harder on someone doing so.
...

I agree to remain as anonymous as possible can help. For this purpose it is essential not to use social networks or services known and public email (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, aol and others). Perhaps an email from your local Internet provider can be helpful.
If you use large "monopolies of services" in internet, from my point of view, the battle is lost from the start.
Anyway, I think it would be useful that Dingo tell us what he wants to avoid or hide to understand what would be its primary objective and to help him better.

 

[tridean]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

I appreciate all the replies, especially drygol, you put an awful lot of effort into that reply, so to ScottD.

Dingo:
I'm curious about why so concerned about the hiding behind proxy servers

I basically wanted to know if people on this forum, people who I have a lot more respect for the the average joe, concern themselves with how anonymous they are on the internet etc.

I guess with the US (and probably other western countries) passing so many laws now that pretty much class you a home grown terrorist if you don't worship the government, I thought it may have been something that concerns people here. Maybe not.

I do however wonder at times if I visit a site that is obviously aimed at finding truth (for example here!!!), that it is being noticed by the very people who don't want you knowing the truth.

The use of the term proxy was naive of me. I was of the understanding that going through a proxy site was a way to stay anonymous, i see that that is not the case.

I also am not concerned about my social sites, gmails etc. It's not information about me I am talking about, again, its if I visit a site such as this, am I being flagged somewhere to be put on a home grown terrorist list for example - that was just a hypothetical. So I hope that clarifies a bit more :)

Thanks
Dingo

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: Do you use a proxy sites?

Question is always: who owns and/or has access to the proxy server you are using?

I presume there aren't many people willing to pay the bandwidth bill that comes with running an open proxy server. Why would one pay the bandwidth bill for that or for running a tor router? Or, if I run an open proxy or tor router at home, why would I put up with the slowing down of my internet connection due to people using my proxy or tor router? People I don't even know?

Of course there are those that run an open proxy or tor router "for the good cause", but I don't think all of them do. Now, what other pay off could there be? Snooping on the data people are putting through the proxy server perhaps?

I don't use proxy servers because I think it actually makes me less anonymous for the above reason. I also think that as long as people believe using proxies makes them more protected against people snooping in on their trafic, law enforcement agencies and secret services purposefully set up open proxies for the sole reason of snooping in on the traffic. This is purely speculative because I don't have any proof that this happens, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it's true.

By the way, I know the connection between you and a proxy is encrypted, so machines between you and the proxy server cannot be used to snoop on the data. I know with tor traffic is also encrypted along the way between tor nodes and traffic going through a node to another node isn't 'snoopable' on that node. But, tor and normal proxies aren't totally anonymous, because the data you put through always exits an exit node or the last proxy int the chain unencrypted to be able to access the website or system you're visiting. So at the exit node or last proxy in your chain traffic can always be sniffed and read by a third party who has access to that node/proxy.

One more thing about encryption: I have the suspicion that the knowledge of encryption algorithms and how to crack them that exists inside various secret services and the military industrial complex today is much more advanced than we know. I think it's very probable that they can decrypt most if not all encryption algorithms that are used by proxy servers, tor routers, etc. I think it could very well be that the whole ban on exporting encryption algorithms with encryption keys longer than 40 bits that the US had some 15 years ago (see the history of PGP for an example) was just a cover story to make the public believe that the govt cannot decrypt certain encryption algorithms and key-lengths.

Long story short: I wouldn't worry about it. If they want to know, they'll know. And as some people here have said before: the fact that you're a member here pretty much guarantees that 'they' will read your e-mails.

 

[tridean]

Cheers, I have changed the title of this thread and removed all instance of the term proxy.

Thanks for the pointer on emails

Dingo

 

[The Mechanic]

Cheers, I have changed the title of this thread and removed all instance of the term proxy.

Why did you do that? I think it makes for a weird topic, because people are now reading answers to your question about proxies, but the question isn't there anymore...

 

[tridean]

Well, my reason for the question had little to do with proxies or proxy sites, and more to do with being untrackable when surfing the net. It was my lack of understanding that led me to think using proxy sites was a way to keep you anonymous. Now I'm really confused

 

[msante]

Cheers, I have changed the title of this thread and removed all instance of the term proxy.

Why did you do that? I think it makes for a weird topic, because people are now reading answers to your question about proxies, but the question isn't there anymore...

Dingo, I understand you. ;) You had changed the title of the post to make it clearer what was their original intention. It was not clear to me at first, but now I understand what are your point.
I tell you as I proceed. I do not use social networks, and try to avoid placing too much personal information and my loved close in public places. I use this poor strategy only to protect myself and my loved beings from common crimes such as kidnappings express, virtual kidnappings, fraud, etc. About being followed or flagged, I'm not worried because I do not think I have way to avoid it. :(
I'll take this little conclusion from Mechanic:

Long story short: I would not worry about it. If They want to know, they'll know.

 

[Buddy]

Cheers, I have changed the title of this thread and removed all instance of the term proxy.

Why did you do that? I think it makes for a weird topic, because people are now reading answers to your question about proxies, but the question isn't there anymore...

Dingo, I understand you. ;) You had changed the title of the post to make it clearer what was their original intention. It was not clear to me at first, but now I understand what are your point.
I tell you as I proceed. I do not use social networks, and try to avoid placing too much personal information and my loved close in public places. I use this poor strategy only to protect myself and my loved beings from common crimes such as kidnappings express, virtual kidnappings, fraud, etc. About being followed or flagged, I'm not worried because I do not think I have way to avoid it. :(
I'll take this little conclusion from Mechanic:

Long story short: I would not worry about it. If They want to know, they'll know.

Same here to all points above. I don't do anything special nor do I surf any eyebrow raising sites. I imagine I appear to be rather "boring" to anyone wanting to track me. ;)

 

[D69]

Or, if I run an open proxy or tor router at home, why would I put up with the slowing down of my internet connection due to people using my proxy or tor router? People I don't even know?

I totally agree with you that there are evil guys who setup proxies just to sniff the traffic , but thats rare if you know what you are looking for. But to answer your question , its simple , theses proxies are basicaly misconfigured.

I forgot to add that there is BIG difference between proxy server and web redirector - so called anonymizer.

This is anonymizer - __http://hidez.info/

these are random proxy servers (from Brazil in this example - !! I didn't test`em !!)

201.75.14.179:3128
200.249.196.66:8080

 

[Ellipse]

Hi Dingo,

Here is my advices :

Use Firefox with these extensions :
- Google Sharing (a proxy for Google searchs). Perhaps it's only being married with another wolf. Hard to know.
- CookieCuller : only 1 click need to remove unwanted cookies
- PrivacyPlus : remove flash cookies
- Ghostery : block javascript trackers
- YesScript : to block Google suggest on the homepage of Google

What I try to avoid with these extensions is crosschecking of informations which bother me.
If you want a network of proxy you can setup Tor to use it time to time.

 

[Iconoclast]

among other things i use
_http://www.optimizegoogle.com/
(addon for firefox)

it has the option to "anonymize the google cookie UID" which prevents google from building a cohesive profile of you.

and it has "don't send any cookies to google analytics" which is also something i find useful.