Welcome to the world of anonymous web surfing...

Maintaining one’s privacy on the internet is a growing concern for many, and anonymous web surfing ranks highly amongst those concerns. The internet may seem like it doesn’t leave any trace of where you’ve been, what you’ve been looking at it or where you’re looking at it from. But quite to the contrary, nothing leaves an accurate information trail like that internet does, and you can thank your technology for that.

That is why anonymous web surfing can be important to so many people across the globe. Leaving a trail and suffering breaches in your online privacy can have very detrimental results, ranging from the annoying to the severe- in terms of job loss, financial losses and in some cases, endangerment of lives.

There are a variety of reasons that people may be seeking anonymous surfing capabilities, and very few of them result from husbands trying to hide their porn websites from suspicious wives!

Just a few reasons why people are trying to accomplish anonymous web surfing include:

• Living in a country where internet access is restricted or controlled.

• Whistle blowing and activism when it could come back to cause you problems.

• Controversial or taboo subjects.

• Anytime you need to maintain privacy on the internet.

When you surf the web, you leave an entire, complex trail of detailed information behind. Websites you visit collect cookies with your personal information; particularly so if you have ever logged into their website, set a password or purchased something. Your IP address serves as a locator or homing icon, allowing anybody to know what computer you are using and where you are located. Internet service providers (ISP) collect a wealth of information from their customers. Today, even search engines can collect the information that you search about and there are many data logging devices monitoring what you are doing, typing and looking at.

That’s the long story about why you need to look into surfing the web anonymously. Now, here is what you have to do to combat these privacy issues. There are a variety of proxy servers and other private software applications that can help ensure that you are surfing the web anonymously. Just as with anything else, some of these options are free to use and others need to be purchased.

Proxy servers act essentially as go betweens between what you want to do and where you are, to your final destination and action on the internet. Proxy servers can be placed on local computers or in various locations throughout the internet. They create an alternate, hidden and more complex path between the original starting point and your ending location.

Other new internet services, such as Tor, are comprised of people around the globe all acting together and providing each other a pathway to anonymity. Basically everybody with the program acts as a buffer that passes encrypted information between many servers and computers before reaching its ending destination.

Of course, programs such as this cannot be 100% secure. Problems such as DNS leaks exist, which basically consist of an unencrypted original request that can be seen by interested parties. However, for most people and for most uses, programs like these will be sufficient for anonymous web surfing.