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Safeweb Turns Off Free Service
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Seems like Safeweb was the last one to cancel providing free anonymizing service. Rest in peace, Safeweb, I loved you a lot. With Anonymouse down and Anonymizer.com restricted, are there any free services left for those suffering from corporate oppression?"
Noproxy still works. There is also a list of free services at antiproxy. I personlly run my own CGI Proxy on my home server while I am at school.
... avaliable from here and here.
James F.
There is still work being done with AT&T's crowds. Basically, the caveat is that you have'ta share the load if you wanna use the service. Good karma there.
Before I part with'em: two pennies weigh ~4.996+/-0.014g, have a zinc core, and the face of Lincoln. You can keep 'em.
Why not do it yourself? Its not all that hard to mask your IP, or pull a couple of the same tricks spammers use to spam people... anonymously at that...
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de is still beta but
working...
I like to use sneakemail for hiding my true email address from the multitude of lists and webpages I sometimes use.
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
I totally dig the fact that the submitter of this story was 'anonymous coward'...!
I dig it too, because that's the real irony. Anonymous Cowards here aren't, because their IP addresses are still subject to subpoena, and there's a 2 week long window where Slashdot stores the IP address as an MD5 hash, which can be easily defeated. Think Church of Scientology.
The only way to make AC posts truly "anonymous" is to post through an anonymous HTTP proxy that instantly "forgets" the source IP address. This is what Safeweb provided, and now it's gone. The irony is that the Anonymous Coward who posted the story probably isn't Anonymous.
Of course, there are still other anonymizers, but Safeweb was the best known.
Why do we need anonymizing services (essentially hacks) when excellent substitutes are in the works? Projects like Freenet are providing new protocols which are specifically designed with anonymity in mind.
Megaproxy.com is another free service and one of the only ones I can find that runs behind https. Does anyone know of any other web based proxies that run behind https?
Actually, it didn't. SafeWeb kept logs for seven days.
Orangatango provides a great method of surfing anonymously for extremely reasonable prices. I love their "MailBlox" email anonymizer.
Orangatango is based on a pretty cool idea: Rather than my computer negotiating a connection with every site I want to connect to, my computer negotiates a connection with Orangatango, and Orangatango does the rest. To the outside world, it looks as though Orangatango is making all of the requests. Maybe it's not a unique idea, but they have implemented it extremely well.
Yeah, I know that I have to give them my credit card and that makes my connection ultimately traceable through one means or another, but it's a far cry better than surfing directly through my ISP.
They have additional benefits other than just the anonymization as well. It really is "the web on your terms" as Orangatango claims. They're worth a look! Check them out.
Before you ask, I'll answer that no, I am not affiliated with Orangatango. The only reason that I know about them is that I applied for a development position at Orangatango a year ago. I've kept my eye on them (as well as my browser pointed at them) ever since.
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
Or better put, it effectively would end up being a 32 bit encryption key, which is VERY easy to break.
Here's a more detailed analysis of the CIA/Safeweb bedding:
http://cryptome.org/riaa-anongo.htm
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
It depends why you want to be anonymous. If it is because you are terrified that 'they' know you are alive, then tough - 'they' know that anyway.
If it is to stop 'them' tracking your web browsing, then what's the problem?
1: They store your User/pass along with credit card details
2: You sign in, they mask your IP through their proxy.
3: (not really a step but...)They keep no record linking your user/ip to the sites you browse.
The only problem is if you don't trust the company to not store the info. If this is the case, then the anonymising service would be useless even if free.
Oh, and if you're not happy about giving them your CC number, send a cheque.
Or was there some premium pay-to-use service available?
Note too that I was to pay for Freedom (by Zero Knowledge), but since they halted development of linux-version (they did have beta-version for older kernels... but I had upgraded to 2.4.x series) I couldn't. And now it would be a moot point since they threw in the towel.
Finally, like someone else said; the problem with paying is the damage to anonymity. It is kind of hard to take payments without getting the ability to track down the user. ZK did go to lengths to work around the problems, but it's not a trivial problem.
I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"However, SilentSurf.com features its own banner ads at the very top and bottom of every page. You should be aware that SilentSurf.com does not serve or control those banners, which are served by independent Internet advertising firms. Those firms may send cookies to your browser, track your IP address, or attempt to capture or control other information about your browser or web surfing session. At present, SilentSurf.com utilizes the services of Internet advertising firms Flycast, Burst, AdAuction, and LinkExchange to serve banners"
So basically there is absolutely no privacy with this service. And their advertisers can "capture or control any information about your web surfing session".
Yea great service. Please mod the parent down.
The new USPS regulations prohibit the delivery of mail without a return address.
It's easier to just throw your money into a lake.
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Let me give you the lowdown
Ummm, re: public radio... I thought that was supposed to be supported with tax dollars. Tax dollars that are collected and spent even if I don't use public radio/TV.
Nope, public radio is no longer allowed to accept government funding. Hasn't been for years. It's 100% listener-supported. For example, KUHF here in Houston is allowed to broadcast from the university campus, but that's about the only freebie they get. The government-funded thing is a common misconception.
What's your damage, Heather?
This graph might help clear it up - it's a chart from NPR showing their funding sources.
What's your damage, Heather?
How about a word from one of the "Web Nazis."
I'm one of the lucky few that manages one of these oppressive machines, and well, unfortunately we need them.
I hear a lot of whining about folks not being able to surf what they want. When we check our logs, we see that they are trying to get to p0rn, ESPN.com or spend company time looking for other jobs. We have had several sexual harrasment suits as a result of people being caught surfing p0rn, and no company wants to deal with that mess. Yes, I agree sometimes it does get in the way, but it's not that hard to open up sites as required.
After all you're at work to do that, work. Sure surfing makes lunch a little more enjoyable, but deal with it. This is an HR issue, take it up with them if you have a problem.
What I'll miss about Safeweb is the way it sanitized Javascript rather than just magic it away. Megaproxy claims it will be able to provide this at some point, but currently, no one does.