Web-based Anonymizer Discontinued

RobertB-DC writes "With no fanfare, and apparently no outcry from the privacy community, Anonymizer Inc. discontinued its web-based Private Surfing service effective June 20, 2007. No reason was given, either on the Anonymizer web site or on founder Lance Cottrell's privacy blog. Private Surfing customers are now required to download a anonymizing client that handles all TCP traffic, but the program is Windows-only (with Vista support still a work-in-progress). And of course it's closed-source, which means it has few advantages over several other alternatives."

Comments

Re:Child Pornography and Terrorism

[Ant P.]

And your OS should have no firewall and share the root directory to the world by default.

After all, it's not like you're hiding kiddie porn on your hard drive, eh?

I've been anonymized

[ToiletDuk]

As someone who actually paid money for the full Anonymizer service, I'm quite disappointed with the web interface going away and I have missed it dearly. The anonproxy.exe POS that they use crashes pretty much daily for me, something the web proxy never did. I'm upset that I've paid money for a service that lost a significant amount of its value after I purchased it.

Re:Nothing to get excited about

[ClaraBow]

Our TNS product is completely functional from Mac or Linux (or Windows).
I don't complete understand this statement, because I went to your website and it specifically says that your TNS product is supported in windows only. Could you please explain? Thanks.

Re:no loss

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

"Freedom of speech" doesn't mean you get to be anonymous. It never has. You need to completely eviscerate that false belief from your world view.

Held:
Section 3599.09(A)'s prohibition of the distribution of anonymous campaign literature abridges the freedom of speech in violation of the First Amendment.
--Mcintyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1975)