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How do You Protect Your Online Privacy?
P asks: "In the light of the recent discussions about on-line privacy: What can one do to protect his/her on-line privacy, while still having a enjoyable web experience? For example, are you using PGP for all your emails and Zfone for all your VOIP traffic? Or are there better ways of protecting oneself? Share your tips and tricks."
I don't use the internet.
seriously, if "They" want your data, They will go through your trash, subpoena your pay records and phone records, and tap your phone line. "They" will know more about you than you can imagine, regardless of whether you use encrypted VoIP or not.
Want to feel safe on line? Write your Congressman, tell your friends about IP and privacy issues, affect a cultural change. As long as 51% of your friends are willing to trade freedom (theirs and yours) for security (mostly theirs), you're fscked.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
[x] Post Anonymously
I was using GPG in Thunderbird, linked to my gmail account. This was just for signing though, so it was more to protect my identity than my privacy. I believe GPG does encryption too. It was seamless once it was setup, but I use gmail from too many places. It just wasn't worth it. Here's hoping Google adds support for this sort of thing to Gmail.
This isn't a direct answer, but it's directly related. I've always wondered why network applications don't use encryption by default. For practically everything, from web servers to instant message apps, you have to go out of your way to set it up with any decent level of security.
Why aren't all connections passed over ssl or ssh? I know it's a bit of overhead, but it's not that significant for modern desktops.
Why isn't it the norm to see web servers running SSL? Why is SSL reserved for only financial transactions? For high-traffic web sites, this will slow the server down a little, but isn't that a valid tradeoff?
People seem concerned about the NSA wiretapping scandal, but this would be largely moot if the traffic they were snooping were encrypted. I can't be the only person who wishes encryption was the standard rather than the exception.
well, personally, if i'm doing something that i don't want traced, i'll fire up tor (http://tor.eff.org/)tor
i currently don't really worry about my email security (if someone wants to read my aunt's cookie recipes, thats fine by me). if i happened to be doing something important, i'd likely use some form of encryption, likely PGP or maybe something stronger.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
i surf slashdot. they talk about all the bad things on the intarweb.
About all I use online is a web browser. For this, I of course use Mozilla Firefox, but disable cookies (except for sites that I know really need them, like online banking) and disable certain javascript features (opening windows, removing location bar, etc.).
I also use adblock to disable tracking sites. You know, hitbox.com and the like which use included URLs to track you by your IP address.
It's simple. Don't ask stupid questions on a forum populated by a good chunk of people who consider BOHF to be non-fiction (and a training manual, to boot).
UTF-8: There and Back Again
I have the best method of protecting my privacy online... I use a computer belonging to someone else. The internet connection used by that computer is actually being mooched off of someone else (read: gotta love those unsecured wifi access points). I never use online commerce sites, nor do I maintain an email account.
Also, when anyone asks for my name, I tell them that my name is "Bob".
(btw... my post is supposed to be a joke)
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
So you have to decide what is cost effective. For me, for most things, no security at all the the perferred option. I _want_ people to read my postings and email. I'm far more concerned with my msgs not being received/read than unauthorized people reading them.
Lie. Lie about everything. Writing an email to your friend? Lie about it. Lie about everything that happened to you. Lie about who you are. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Signing up for some new service? Lie. Lie about your name, age, race, sex, address, credit card, whatever. Actually need to recieve the package? Send it to your neighbor and pick it up at the FedEx office with a fake ID that goes with your fake personality. Sometimes if you lie enough to a girl, you even get to sleep with her. Then, if you get herpes you can just lie to everyone else and say you don't have it! IT'S THE SAME THING IF YOU USE WINDOWS AND GET A VIRUS!! HOORAH! The lies will set you free.
I just simply do not enter valid information. If they wanted valid information, there are enough ways of getting it. The more information a site asks for, the more I make sure that the responses I give are false. If a site only wants say, my date of birth, I might give my real date. If it wants my postal address, telephone number, yada yada without just cause...I will give them wrong info. Its my way of discouraging the use of such techniques. Maybe if enough people do it, then the next time they upgrade their site they will ask only for information that they absolutely need to have instead of every little detail.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
The only way would be to browse the internet from a completely anonymous place like a public library.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
John Smith
1234 Anystreet
Anytown, CA
90210
(123)456-7890
DOB: 1/1/1900
email: aolsux@aol.com
Mothers maiden name: mommy
Easy to remember on any site I visit.
the moral of the story, NEVER give out true information to ANY online site.
You make exceptions on an as-needed basis.
(eg. bank, 1 or 2 trustworthy sites to shop from.)
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
"In the light of the recent discussions about on-line privacy: What can one do to protect his/her on-line privacy, while still having a enjoyable web experience?"
The Internet is a convenience. Convenience is road towards the loss of privacy. Grocery cards are convenient because you get a discount, but you lose your privacy. Same with credit cards. The internet involves loss of privacy from the get go. e.g. ISP and continues with a digital path straight back to your computer.* Online shopping is convenient and a loss of privacy. And lets not mention all the "traps" out there just waiting to snare the privacy of the unwary. The best way to maintain privacy is to share as little of yourself with the outside world.
*You can obscure this path, but it is still present, and theoretically it can be traced.
I think the biggest thing is keep your mouth shut about internet stuff to others because you never know who is listening. Only give that kind of information out to those who know it. Also i think that you should only use fake stuff if you have had experience in things going missing like money etc. I also only put my name when signing up for e-mail accounts etc. because that information they do need. Also I believe another way of dealing with good security is make usernames that are unique and not simple like jdoe, or johndoe or doej234 and crap like that use something people wouldn't use to try and figure out who you are. When I pick any type of usernames etc. I try and make it be something that relates to me but doesn't give personal information or flag any.
Easy, I just use someone elses!
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I prefer Tor because it is affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). A page on the EFF website states, "A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently . Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations."
The issue is trust. I trust the EFF.
On the other hand, some anonymous proxy servers are located in Mexico. Do I trust that Mexican society is a staunch advocate of privacy rights and other civil rights?
I once received an abusive e-mail from some guy who was receiving loads of spam from a source using a rotation of from addresses. My address happened to appear on the mail he received and it he snapped, firing back at me. His mail address was from his family business, looked up the whois information which was correctly filled in. Phone number, address etc, simple google of the domain name showed me forums in which members of the family had posted in, different topics, cars, real-estate. From there I could build quite a profile of this person, his family, where they lived, google earth supplied satellite images of their house. I knew what kind of cars they owned, how much their house cost and when they bought it (purchasing records of individual houses was available online as part of the council areas statistics).
I sent him a mail explaining that it wasn't me sending the spam, and he wrote back apologising, then I explained to him all the information that I'd found including the google earth picture and he couldn't believe what I'd come up with by just roaming around the net.
Task Mangler
Generally, the F-16s wouldn't see the F-22. If they did (visually), they couldn't get a missle to lock on. The machine gun stands a chance, barely.
An F-35 with a laser might do OK against the F-22, but that toy isn't shipping yet.
I almost never put my real name on the net, I use my "nick" extensively (it _really) cuts down on phishing attacks and makes them much easier to spot), If I have to put my name down for anything other than CC purchases I put my initials in only.
Out of site out of mind and common sense is the only way to survive.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Honestly, only giving out my personal details on a NEED to know basis IS how I protect my privacy.
There are plenty of websites, grocery store "loyalty" cards, etc. that have really wonky ideas about who I am or where I'm from. And I use only cash wherever possible--the grocery stores would catch me very quickly if I ever let them link me to a credit card or something.
Remember: they can't inadvertantly disclose information they don't have!
If the people could comprehend the difference between a man and a person, then all the privacy problems would be solved.
First, trademark the name. Second, respond only in matters of interest -- by contract, not to adhere to codes and related private law patented subject matter. Third, the law of trust.
Every server today wants a "name" to a trusted "resident." As defined in law dictionaries, a "resident" is a "thing known" and by subject matter that "thing known" is in dispute by a prior contract to discharge of its account. In terms of services that have no cost for registration, it would prevail that the people move their person to contribute intellectual property that may discharge the want of funding. Such is the inherint case with SLASHDOT, whereby most people contribute good information and bring such a good content that registration is acknowledge to discharge by good contribution; or show a quo-warranto where the matter does stray from a journalist bringing "news" and dialogue to trade.
As well, it would seem that a "person" is defined in the 14th century french (its first occurrence) as "a mask worn from time to time." Thereby, "isometrick" is as much a person as "nradude." Even so, there is a person shared as "Anonymous Coward." In terms of protecting one's privacy, it is acknowledged that a certain name is capable of copyright by determination of trade value. For distinguishing among others of similar patent, it is advisable that a trademark known to an account of a certain day of a month of a year would prevail that there are many of similar name and trademark but each is an separate and independent interest.
Consider that there should be allowed many accounts to a single person on Slashdot, as distinguished by port and time of entry by landing rights. If there were an infinite number of Gregory Thomas(tm) born April 20, then they would surely be not the same instance of 420 but precisely different measurement of time. Why would not the time of registration of a Slashdot account be any different? Slashdot records the personable name to the account, the account number is deed and unique by its own, yet Slashdot doesn't allow same name?
"Anonymous Coward" is just the example, yet it appears there is one public without and one private reserved within. If everything was a correct world, then it would not be difficult to determine (by accounting) the CowboyNeal from fellow CowboyNeal.
Also, on the driver license or related applicatiosn that demand a SIGNATURE (only signature, not "sign"), it is good to "DBA" the name and acknowledge the true name as the trademark. As in my examples above, "Gregory Thomas" is a trademark of the Mundt family; contracts are meeting of the minds, not meetings of the flesh (think bacteria, or fungus, or virus reasoning with cell structure);
In matters of law, most trusts are derived from the tradename of a child, and the trusts are assumed and therefore coerced because their nature is unlawfully negotiated without a sound mind or "unconcionable contract." For those, just dissolve the trust at signature as would determine on the Face of the private trust matter (advertisements on behalf of the trademarked name):
(at a private intstitution, such as that DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES)
with Power of Attorney over "Gregory Thomas Mundt";
Gregory Thomas dba GREGORY THOMAS MUNDT
Notice how the above only abates the 14th amendment origin from the trademark; government is a public trust, not a private matter. Any registration is to lay dormant one's property, wherever derived from their legislative and judicial and executive ability, and be endowed with benefits from another. Administrators of Slashdot are no different than executives, but they are voluntarily in this respect and verry much honourable.
without prejudice
Firstly, tor with Privoxy and a Firefox plugin that makes it easy to switch between it and a direct connection. Others may use FreeNet, but I personally don't bother.
For IRC, connect using SSL (If you trust the network admins. Even if you don't, still better than nothing) and perhaps through Tor as well. For email, anything PGP-ish.
Also, for protecting my files, I use TrueCrypt.
Good, I see that dummy mode is already engaged (permanently, no doubt) ...
Now, what was your username again?
*clickity* *clickity*
Do you remove your browser's cookies on a regular schedule? If you don't, your favourite search engine has a nice track record of all of your searches. If you happen to enjoy your search engine's webmail offering, too, they may very well be able to associate your search habits to your real name, know who your contacts are, and by parsing the mail's contents, in order to place matching ads, they know what you talk about.
While Google promises to do no evil - which can be true or not, I'm not judging them - they are collecting an enormous amount of data about their users. Currently a prospective employer may google up some information about you. But what happens when Google, in some more or less distant future, is no longer guided by their noble motto and instead starts to sell their records as an alternative form of revenue? Your email conversations, your "talk" conversations, and for a small additional fee your full search records?
Paranoid? I don't know. Oh, and Google is just one example, maybe the the most famous. I'm not saying they're out to harm you either, it's just that they have the technical possibility.
Use your neighbors open wireless connection.
I'd suggest using LOTS of events to generate entropy (and destroy the Universe) -or- random number generating hardware.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I bounce everything from my botnet of zombie PCs, using a stolen internet connection. I thought everyone did that.
Long live cash!
And fuck grocery store 'discount cards'. I've found it is best to get a new card with application, then discard application and continue to use card. If the application is necessary, the store's address and name of "General Manager" usually works for as long as you need the card.
I'm not sure what value there is in using GPG/OpenPGP when none of my friends do. I can think of a few things:
- promoting awareness of GPG (on those rare occasions when people ask me about the GPG signature block),
- using GPG for fun with fellow geeks I meet (but GPG is not mandatory --I mean, face it, I like you geeks and all, but no way am I going to exchange credit card numbers with you)
Right now I've got my wife set up to optionally have GPG available (via Enigmail on Thunderbird), but she's hardly using it, and I don't blame her. I don't want to force her to use it, but to make it drop-dead easy to use when the need arises. The fact that she's not using it means that the need isn't there, a situation that's not solved by making her use it.
Anyone here using GPG for a substantial reason? That is, GPG lets you communicate something that you otherwise wouldn't? This could be giving credit card info to family, or just feeling more at ease talking about confidential stuff because you know it won't be intercepted. Let's hear some cases. Anyone?
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
"I'm not sure what value there is in using GPG/OpenPGP when none of my friends do."
You're 100% correct which is why I wish the major webmail providers would start looking at it. I think if its done well it can be very useful without getting in the way.
This reminds me of a joke that takes place in a courtroom:
Prosecutor: Did you see this woman in New York?
Defendant: I refuse to answer that question!
Prosecutor: Did you see this woman in Chicago?
Defendant: I refuse to answer that question!
Prosecutor: Did you see this woman in Atlanta?
Defendant: What!? Atlanta?? I never saw her in Atlanta!
Moral of the story: if you don't pay attention to your email security except when you really need to, then when you do pay attention, someone else would also know to pay attention!
If someone wants to read my aunt's cookie recipes, that is not fine by me. Eat my {/dev/random}-XOR'd dust.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Because we good people have nothing to hide!
...Just don't put shit on the Internet you want to keep secret. You never enter it in, it never gets out. AE
The best answer is to talk with your kids, and encourage them to make good decisions. The internet is full of plenty of content easily-accessed that you probably don't want your kids to see. Either the computer is kept in a public place, or you have to educate your kids and trust them. Software programs are too easily bypassed.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
That's what Robert Welch (founder of the John Birch Society) argued: "Welch's famous book, The Politician, caused a stir even among many loyal Birch members who were shocked by Welch's assertion that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was "a dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.""
Got to love those conspiracists.Some cross platform tools I use both under Linux and Windows:
But most importantly: /dev/brain
If you care about your privacy, don't give away your data to everyone!
I love using Sneakemail for hiding my real email address much of the time. It's great for reducing spam, too.
I use loop-AES to encrypt my hard disk.
But since you asked:
Tinfoil!
That is all fine, but there must be support from both parties to use encryption. Somehow I don't think his aunt uses GPG, and even if he could go there and set it up, he (or you, or me) can't control what everyone he sends emails to uses.
Of course, you can just stop talking to your friends who don't install GPG and move on with your life.
Sometimes I worry that so much of my data is so freely available, but then I always remember that people routinely provide even more when advertising their business or service. But even so, what do you guys think? Should I take some of that data off the net?
Asking Slashdot: Now THAT's a cheap way to perform methodical analysis for a government agency. No, I will not share any wisdom about how I do protect my online privacy.
There you are, staring at me again.
This'll be suck eggs for many, but new to others.
I, like many of you have the ability to have anything@mydomain email addresses that i can use/create on the fly. So what I do is, whenever I register on a website or give my email address out to a third party, I enter/provide a unique address. my email address at slashdot is 'slashdot@mydomain', at amazon it's amazon@mydomain and for any business contact it's my companyname@mydomain - anyway you get the idea.
The instant I get spam sent to an address, I immediately kill the address, and (if I can) shout at the person who leaked the address to spamlists.
It's my small way of (trying) to keep my inbox spam free, and to protect my privacy by not having a global email address that any tom dick or harriet can hassle me on.
-Jar
PS. As a side note. Does ANYONE know how to get Outlook to auto-file emails based on recipient smtp address, including auto creating the folders?
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
Secondly use encrypted filesystems for data you want to keep private. I can recomend encfs for Linux http://arg0.net/wiki/encfs... it's easy to use and can be installed with yum in Fedora. It uses file-level encryption which makes possible incremental backups which retain the encryption.
If you want protection from being forced by a court to give up your key, take a look at http://www.truecrypt.org/ . This is a filesystem that lets you keep multiple levels of data encrypted with different keys, and if you give up one key noone can know that there's more data hidden with another key.
For web browsing use Tor, http://tor.eff.or/. Tor is still under development and may not be secure against a focused attack on you specifically, but at least your ISP won't be able to easily spy on you and your IPSs logs (which as we know are being mass-analyzed by the NSA) won't show anything about your activity. Also tor is
Plus, here's a good trick for ensuring that your web browser cache, history, etc., can't be easily searched by someone who gets access to your computer... put them on an encrypted filesystem, as follows. Make a script that mounts an encrypted filesystem (asking for the passphrase), sets your HOME env var to the newly mounted fs, then starts Firefox (which now places its cache there because that's HOME), and unmounts the encrypted fs after Firefox exits. You should do this even if your entire home dir is also on an encrypted fs, because your normal home dir is likely to stay mounted for longer periods of time, so this way you separate the risk levels. And it's easy. An additional little-known trick for this: set the LOGNAME env var to something other than your username to let you run a second copy of Firefox on the same X display (so you can have an "insecure" and a "secure" one running at the same time).
Of course use GnuPG for secure email. The Thunderbird Enigmail extension makes it painless.
You should also give money to the EFF and run a Tor server if you can, to help maintain our ability to have some privacy.
Finally, if you are a hardcore libertarian and/or think we should have a truly free Internet, experiment with FreeNet http://freenetproject.org/ and consider donating to its development. This project ran into some dead ends with scalability but the developers have taken a fresh approach and the new 0.7 dev version looks like it might be the start of something that could get big. They have a full-time programmer working on it paid by donations (and he's so dedicated to the ideal that his salary is the bare minimum he needs to live), so consider donating. (Btw., I'm not a libertarian in the political sense, but I think we need a strong counter-balance to the marching forces of fascism, so I donate to the Freenet project.)
Virtual-hosted e-mail addresses are a great way to find out who is flogging your e-mail address, since you never need give the same address to two people. For my own pages, I wrote a bit of code to generate a uniquely-identifiable e-mail address based on the timestamp and the remote user's IP address.
I never give out my real details to anyone who does not need them. If they want a postal code, I just think of a city somewhere in the world and give them the postcode of the catholic church there {there's a catholic church in every city with a catholic population, which is almost every city, and even the Vatican don't know where they all are}. I give a made-up name, gender, country, occupation, income and all the other details they want -- although if a field is accepted blank, I'll leave it blank.
Also try looking here for some fake details you can use when filling in forms.
Supermarket loyalty cards can save you money, but provide a toehold into your private life if you are not scrupulously careful how you use them. I have several in different names, and split my shopping amongst them so as to make it look as though these people have very strange purchasing habits {such as the clergyman who buys nothing but toilet rolls, curry sauce and blank DVD+RW media}.
Lastly, when ordering anything on the Internet, I never use a credit or debit card. I just send a cheque or postal order by snail mail.
GnuPG/GPG (http://www.gnupg.org/) for encrypting e-mails and TOR (http://tor.eff.org/) for anonymous Internet communication.
Many people say "I will encrypt if I am sending/recieing something important/strange". It sounds reasonable, but this his way they (the ones who, legaly or illegaly, oversee) know when you send/recieve something (that you think is) "special" and to who. It's worse than not encrypting at all. They know that you have things to hide other than casual things (aunt's cookie recipe).
The point is that even the aunt's cookie recipe, or the photograph of me in my backyard is something I want to choose who will see.
So if we want privacy, we must use encryption in every single message we send/recieve. The problem is what happens when you need to communicate with someone who doesn't know to use GPG or is not willing to learn. Well, in that case you must choose, either privacy or communication.
I just go to China. The real Internet can't touch me there.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
FTP doesn't need any more than my client & the source's server... ie, no intermediary...
So, why should VoIP be any different... ie, after a directory lookup leads to a connection
between caller and callee?
(We're talking about the simple case of a 2-party conversation...)
The solution you seek has already been implemented: anonetnfo.brinkster.net.nyud.net:8090.
or join the underground network named AnoNet, stops snoops on both the inside and the outside. its a self contained internet on top of the internet running over multiple vpn's, it might even have holes to the outside via a tor or proxy servers, i use it all the time, not only from an anonymous point of view but also the networking experiments, great community, great spirit.
free the nerd inside you!
90210? I have a much better ZIP code I use when lying to the web: 20505. Go ahead, look it up, it's interesting. Heh...
Really? I have my doubts that it could be unobtrusive. The actual encryption/signing of mail could be done invisibly or nearly, but what about key management? You need some sort of web of trust. Which means you need to tell the system who you trust to sign keys, and how much. I don't think there's any automated way around that, which means that you MUST put the burden on the user. And explaining what they are doing (setting up the "web of trust" or whatever you want to call it) is NOT going to be an easy task. I've read about it and other PKIs, and I still don't know all the details. (And the user WOULD have to know what they are doing to do it correctly; a poorly set up web of trust could be just as bad (if not worse, because you think you're safe) than no encryption at all.)
and my eyes arent what they used to be, but when I first saw the headline I saw "How to protect your piracy". I thought "Finally a useful article on Slashdot", but lo.
Tor's pretty nice. Unfortunately, Slashdot blocks known Tor nodes. Or at least it did when I last tried to log in via the Tor network. It was very annoying.
Method of processing duck feet
The FF extensions I use are:
If anyone can answer this I'd be chuffed though: Can FF be made to automatically try to use HTTPS for all surfing? For example, you type in a URL and it'll try the HTTPS site, you click on a link on a website and the browser will go to the https if it exists?.
As I said above I'm going to be setting up a tor node too on a spare machine, and will use this for searches and any communication with governmental sites, and sites where I may disclose personal info.
I can, if I want to, renew my car tax online for example. The UK government has demonstrated it's obsession with data collection with the the ID cards etc., and sooner or later they will realise really how powerful datamining is. I don't feel they need to ever be given my name/address and IP. If they ever want to determine users from IPs (eg IndyMedia servers) they can get a fucking court order and get the ISP to hand over the info. Even that's horrific, but there's not much I can directly do about that, apart from a Tor node. An extension for FF to automatically use a proxy for certain domains would be cool.
Of course common sense too protects your privacy. Always use fake details if registering for somewhere that doesn't need your details, and never use the same fake person at a bunch of sites, or even all the time. Make up names on the spot, or just munge keys. Some sites want valid info, or even check postal codes exist... We all know about 90210 for America, and the British postal code system can be abused too. I tend to use B1 1AA when a site wants a post code, or I'll go to their contact pages and find one there. Some sites are smart enough to not let
Car analogies break down.
What you should do, and this only applies to you, is to go find a bridge or cliff somewhere, take your whole fucktarded family, and you all jump off.
GO AHEAD, FUCKING FLAME AWAY 0R WASTE YOUR G-D DAMNED MOD POINTS FUCKTARDED SHITDOT SHEEPLE!
You do realise that TOR protects you only as much as your endpoints let you, right? Look at this. They don't have to be nice and blank out the interesting characters... neither does anyone else running (or compromising and altering) TOR endpoints.
Proteus' Child
Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.
I use an anonymous proxy. It's not foolproof, but the way I see it, stops maybe 99.9% of what I am worried about.
... YMMV
The one I use is Secrex but there's a few of them around. The price is reasonable enough for what it does, ie act as a gateway for basically all my net traffic. Choose secrex because they seem fast, and others I tested were really slow, and tried TOR but it was pretty much unusably slow.
I thought about setting up a proxy by myself but the truth is, if it's just used by me, it's not so anonymous is it? And the cost would be higher than just paying someone else to do it.
Of course the minute you pay for something with a CC or Paypal, all your effort goes to waste
TOR and PGP/GPG.. enough people have mentioned them that I will only touch on them in passing. No sense in beating a dead horse. Encrypt whatever traffic you can. If you can set up SSH tunnels to connect to a proxy server that connects to the TOR network or FreeNet, do so. Just remember that not all of the ingress/egress points you will contact will be friendly. Use webmail sites to set up disposable e-mail addresses. Hushmail is good for encrypted webmail, unless you don't mind writing all of your e-mails offline, encrypting them, and attaching them to webmail messages. Don't leave any sensitive information laying around on your computers' hard drives (who on Slashdot has only one computer?) that isnt' encrypted. PGP or GPG are good for encryption.. encrypted filesystems are useful, too. Set up encrypted swap partitions if you are able to so that sensitive data can't be written to disk for possible retrieval. Consider removable storage: Encrypt files and move them to a USB key, compact flash card, or something else to get them off the Net entirely. Use secure erase programmes (like shred) to erase the originals. Consider filling up the file systems of your hard drives with junk (copy a big file from the OS, like the kernel image until the filesystem is full, erase the copies, do it again) to scramble the latent data in slack space. Don't let your web browser accept every cookie it's offered. It doesn't take much time to look at a popup window when you go to Foomail.com, see that the cookie would be from drax.bar.com, and hit "Don't set cookie for this site ever." Set up another user account on the computer you do all of your web browsing on and browse from there. Write a little script that securely erases the contents of that user's home directory every time you log off or power down the machine. Erase your cookies and browser history periodically. Less scrupulous folks might want to consider using the world's largest wireless hotspot (ESSID 'LINKSYS') for their less savory activities. Remember that this is probably illegal in your area. Or go to a library or a local coffee shop that offers free wireless.
Proteus' Child
Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.
Use a nym, like CmdrTaco, but don't let anybody associate your nym with your RL persona, like Rob Malda did.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Here's hoping Google adds support for this sort of thing to Gmail.
Ah NO. The point of using GPG for encryption is that the data is encrypted **BEFORE** it leaves your computer.
Do we really want Google's servers performing encryption/decryption on our email?
I think not.
I pee in the shower!
Bullshit. It's true that exit nodes can see your cleartext, but they still don't know your IP address. Entry nodes, which do know your IP address, only see encrypted traffic and the address of the next Tor node.
Using unencrypted protocols is no more dangerous over Tor than it is over the internet in general. Any router between you and your destination can see the same things Tor exit nodes see, except the router knows who you are, Tor nodes don't.
Tor's purpose is to defeat traffic analysis, not to provide end-to-end encryption of the contents of communications. SSL/TLS/SSH do that well enough.
1) My common sense
2) My Mac
If #1 should ever fail me, #2 ensures I won't have any privacy-threatening stuff drive-by installed on my machine without my knowledge.
I've got twelve years of using the net under my belt (well, more, actually but I'm only counting the time the web has been in somewhat wide use) with no problems to date.
Are you related to Al Gore?
Seriously, I give false information and scrub cookies regularly, and avoid suspect sites. Oh, one more way, I don't use M$IE. Firefox rules, at least for now.