Whenever I bring up the issue of online privacy I typically get the same reaction, a chuckle. Most users, even the relatively tech savvy ones, simply have come to terms with the fact that their online activity is being monitored all the time. Be it by their employers, their ISP, or the government (for those conspiracy theorists out there).

 As a privacy 2.0 advocate, I try my best to set the record straight and educate the public that there are many choices out there to anonymize part or all of one’s online activities. The only downside is, it takes time and technical skills. Just like everything else in life, whats it worth to ya?

In this post I would like to cover Internet Proxies. For those of you who dont know what proxies are, here is a high level explanation:

Internet Proxy

I’ve used several proxy servers, and the one I like the most is Tor.

Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a wide variety of reasons: journalists and bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers, corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary citizens.

The bottom line is, if you’re willing to put in the effort, anonymizing your online activities can help protect your identity and privacy from prying eyes.