Online Privacy
2012
Worried about your online privacy? You should be. Lee Bellinger,
publisher of Independent Living, recently reported on new legislation
which could allow police to access information about your online
activities. He says;
"The National Sheriffs' Association says it "strongly
supports" and endorses a proposed federal law that requires
Internet service providers to store the logs of their customers'
online habits for one-and-a-half years. They say this will make
their job easier – just in case you commit some kind of
unknown and unpredictable crime in the future.
Sounds like unlawful searches without "probable cause"
to me."
It looks that way to me too, but I don't expect the courts
to stop this.
There are a few ways to have greater online privacy though.
One way I don't recommend, but which I have seen a friend use,
is to surf the net using a wireless signal from a coffee shop
near you. He got the password under the pretense of accessing
the internet there, but knew the signal reached his apartment
nearby. Of course, should some authority want to track him down
based on his internet activity, he was still close to the source
IP address. Better ways?
Proxy Server
The website anonymous-proxies.net says: "A proxy server
is a computer that offers a computer network service to allow
clients to make indirect network connections to other network
services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests
a connection, file, or other resource available on a different
server. The proxy provides the resource either by connecting
to the specified server or by serving it from a cache."
Basically you are accessing the internet using the through
the proxy server's computer, so if they try to track you the
trail goes cold there--sort of. It is better than nothing, and
offers some anonymity, but the proxy server may not encrypt your
data. That means eavesdroppers at public Wi-Fi's like a cafe
or airport may be still able to see what you are doing. Furthermore,
employees of the company providing the proxy server could log,
record, and view your online activity.
Virtual Private Network
A VPN offers privacy and anonymity. According to Bellinger,
these systems were "created to allow corporate employees,
who were traveling on the road or stationed in satellite offices,
to use the Internet to securely connect to the corporate information
system." It's like an encrypted "tunnel" you use
to access things online. You connect to your VPN provider's computer
servers using encryption, and then use the VPN's servers to surf
the web. Bellinger recommends perfect-privacy.com as a provider
that "seems to put consumers first and stands on the correct
side of privacy, security, and confidentiality."
You can use services like proxy servers and VPNs as ways to
access the internet when traveling in countries that limit internet
access. Some are free, and most are relatively inexpensive. Personally
I tend not to trust free services, especially for something as
serious as online privacy. I would go with a company that has
a financial interest in helping to protect your privacy.
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