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What is the best, fastest, safest way to surf the web anonymously, and how much anonymity can you really achieve?
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What is the best, fastest, safest way to surf the web anonymously, and how much anonymity can you really achieve?
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Installing the Tor Bundle includes the TorButton Firefox extension, which won't allow plugins like Flash - these plugins could leak your identity, even when using Tor. For example, a Flash app could determine the local IP and send that information back to the server, so even if it's being sent over Tor, you're still hosed. So use Tor, Tor is good, but don't use any unsafe plugins.
To be certain that browsing history isn't saved on a hard disk, you can boot from a Linux Live CD and run Tor from there.
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Not a direct answer to your question, but: when using Flash, then read some details on How to automatically remove Flash history/privacy trail? Or stop Flash from storing it?...
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I would imagine you mean not keeping your information from being stored on your computer, but being stored on everyone elses. For the former, just use private browsing mode, which is now in every major browser.
For the latter, there are a few things you can do.
Other than that, I do not know.
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If I wanted to surf the web anonymously, I'd focus on 3 main areas:
The main ways to achieve these goals (in order to preference) are:
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1c.) When using IPv6, ensure you're not transmitting your MAC address.
– Arjan – 2012-04-13T17:12:55.2132
Different anonymity services exist for what type of anonymity you are looking to achieve.
Want to change your IP?
Want to surf on a machine without leaving a trace?
Also something that has not been mentioned yet is VPN services. These usually cost $$$ and money can always leave a trail back to you depending on how you spend it. It all depends on how much you trust your VPN provider.
There are some other ways of getting anonymity but these cross the lines of what most countries consider to be illegal.
1I would second 'use a public/unsecured wifi hotspot' – Tim – 2012-04-13T11:22:46.890
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There is no real way to be completely anonymous on the internet.
You can use Tor, change your IP all the time, delete all data left behind, but given enough time, it can always be traced back to you. So yes, for simply hiding one or 2 sites you visit, a proxy and all these other good idea work fine.
But if your not supposed to be doing it, legal reasons or whatnot, just remember, they can always fun you given enough time and enough subpoenas will always find you.
1You use an anonymous connection like open wireless networks or prepaid mobile internet cards, strong encryption, and secure services (service providers that either don't keep or anonymize their logs) so that there's no one to be subpoenaed. Perfect security may be impossible, but good enough security is possible, even against governments. – Lèse majesté – 2012-04-13T11:25:38.903
1Even with that, browser plugins, IP address, fonts even can provide a unique identifier for almost any computer in the world. Yeah it might be anonymous for the most part but if someone can test your computer versus a known ID, your screwed. – alpha1 – 2012-05-21T15:37:01.273
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Use TAILS, The Amnesic Incognito Live System from https://tails.boum.org/ via either burning the ISO file to a Live CD or a USB flash drive. It incorporates all apps such as email for use over Tor, and appears to release every couple of months. It uses a Debian Linux release with a Firefox derivative (version 10+) that is heavily modified to protect privacy along with the Ad Block Plus and NoScript Firefox add-ons and uses Vidalia, a GUI controller for Tor. They are working on producing a persistent storage (USB related) in a future release.
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You can use TOR + your internet provider proxy + web proxies. You can also try freenet but its more like a private network.
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I'll add Privoxy to the list.
Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
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If you're talking about not identifying yourself, your IP address and browser, etc, to websites, then Proxify may be of use.
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UltraSurf is fast, free, and very easy to use.
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Using a virtual machine could help out; though it doesn't really hide your ISP, it just produces another one... Could be something you could try out though.
No. A virtual machine, by itself, will do nothing to hide your ISP (ISP = Internet Service Provider). It will also do nothing to hide your public IP (Internet Protocol) address, although it will change the one used internally on your local network. The most that would do is allow you to tear down the virtual machine to erase any traces of activity on your hard drive, but it would have to be used in conjunction with other methods to hide your IP (such as Tor or UltraSurf). – Contango – 2013-01-31T09:54:25.010
6I always thought the MAC doesn't propagate after the first routing device? – Arjan – 2009-07-23T21:16:34.263
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Expanding on point 4, this can be automated now for some sites by using the addon HTTPS Everywhere from the EFF.
– Turix – 2012-04-13T11:20:05.180I would add Ghostery and Redirect cleaner, to this list. Also check EFF's Panopticlick to check your uniqueness. As a last solution: use different profiles in Firefox to separate privat browsing and using gmail/facebook/twitter.
– Tim – 2012-04-13T11:28:43.2631@Arjan: I think you're right; TCP/IP doesn't transmit MAC addresses, otherwise most online apps like forums would use MAC address bans instead of IP bans since most internet users have dynamic IPs. – Lèse majesté – 2012-04-13T13:48:55.713
Using a blank user agent is less anonymous than using something like Firefox that has lots of users; likewise with disabling JS. It seems like you're more anonymous if you disable JS and don't let Google track which search result you click on. But anonymity is ultimately about not identifying yourself, not hiding non-self-identifying information. Doing things that cause you to stand out from the crowd would make you easier to track. – Lèse majesté – 2012-04-13T13:56:37.310
I would consider timing considerations if you are really paranoid/"tinfoil hat". From a residential connection, one thing an adversary might do is compel your ISP to cut off your connection for a time in order to correlate whether connections made to a remote system are from you. Try not to do anything on a predictable, regular schedule over Tor, such as software updates. – LawrenceC – 2012-04-29T15:10:39.527
Also disable Microsoft's NCSI if you are using Vista or Windows 7. It contacts Microsoft's servers every time your network adapter goes up or down. – LawrenceC – 2012-04-29T15:13:45.683
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