How to Surf the Web Anonymously

Many people have legitimate reasons to conceal their online identities.

The Internet has a way of lulling you into a false sense of anonymity. After all, how can anyone know your true identity in a virtual world? The truth is that simply by connecting to the Internet, you share information about your computer, your geographical location and even about the Web sites you visit.

The goal of anonymous Web surfing is to circumvent the technologies that track your online activity and may potentially expose your personal information to others. By surfing anonymously, no one knows who you are, where you're connecting from or what sites you are visiting.

When people think of surfing the Web anonymously, they automatically associate it with extramarital affairs, malicious hacking, illegal downloading and other sordid behaviors. That's not necessarily the case. In fact, there are many legitimate reasons why someone would wish to remain anonymous online:

• Your employer or school has strict Web surfing policies and filters your access to the Internet.
  
• You're a staunch free speech advocate and don't want the government or anyone else to censor your activities.
  
• You believe that the Internet is the perfect forum in which to express your opinions freely without fear of being harassed or tracked down by people who don't agree with those opinions.
  
• You believe the Bill of Rights and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights empowers you to conduct your private business without outside intrusion.
• You live abroad and want to access streaming video content that's only available to people living in your home country.

          

• You don't like the idea that search engines are collecting information about your queries.
  
• You don't want online advertisers to know where you live or what products you buy.
  
• You want to participate anonymously in Internet forums, perhaps to speak to other people about a private medical condition or to discuss 
  

As you'll see in the next section, surfing the Web anonymously isn't as easy as erasing your browser history. Learn more about computer networks and IP addresses and how they can expose your identity.

IP Addresses and Cookies

Cookies can track your browsing history to help personalize your online shopping experience.

Every machine connected to the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, including your computer. You may have a static IP address or it may change each time you go online. Either way, you are tagged with a unique identifier every time you surf the Web.

An IP address is necessary for the Internet to work. It is literally the address of your personal computer on a vast computer network -- like a single house on a crowded street. The only way a Web server can send the contents of a Web page to your browser is if it has your computer's address on the network.

IP addresses, in and of themselves, do not contain any personally identifiable information about you. However, if you're signed up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) -- which is the way most of us get our Internet service -- then your ISP can easily link your IP address with your name, home address, phone number, e-mail address and even credit card information.

Don't get paranoid just yet: In general, ISPs have fairly strict privacy policies. They won't give out your personal information to any random person who asks for it. However, under laws like the U.S. Patriot Act and through subpoenas from the police and federal agencies, an ISP may have no choice but to supply personal information related to an IP address.

Cookies are another way for an outside source to track your Web surfing habits. Cookies are tiny text files that are saved in your Web browser when you visit a Web site. The file might contain your login information, your user preferences, the contents of your online shopping cart and other identifiers. These cookies make your Web browsing experience more personalized and customizable. They're designed to save you time when you visit your favorite sites. They're also designed to help advertisers tailor their messages to your personal preferences.

First-party cookies are cookies left on your browser from Web sites you visited. Third-party cookies are files stored on your computer from advertisers and other parties that have information-sharing agreements with the site you visited. Many people find third-party cookies to be a particularly egregious breach of privacy, since you have no control over who collects information about you.

In the next section, we'll taker a close look at how scam artists can use an online data trail to piece together your identity.

Piecing Together Your Online Identity

You Are What You Search In 2006, AOL posted 20 million of its users' search histories for research purposes. Each search history was tagged with a number, not a name. Still, journalists were able to successfully deduce the identity of several of these "numbers" simply from examining their search queries. More than 100 people had searched for their Social Security numbers.

Cookies and IP addresses alone may not give away your personal information, but when these clues are combined with other Web surfing data -- like your search history -- you could unwittingly disclose your identity to hackers, scam artists or government investigators.

Search engines routinely store search queries associated with your IP address. Google stores search queries for nine months and MSN stores them for 18 months [source: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse]. By examining hundreds or thousands of search queries from the same IP address, it's possible to deduce someone's identity, particularly if they have done map searches on their home address or entered their Social Security number.

Another threat to online privacy involves Web e-mail accounts. If you use the same Web site for both your e-mail service and Internet searches, you might be leaving a very clear trail for hackers and cybercriminals to follow when you go online.

For example, if you use Google as your e-mail provider, then you need to log in to Gmail.com for each e-mail session. Any Google Web searches you conduct while logged in to your e-mail account will be associated with the same IP address as your e-mail account. From there, it would be easy for a hacker or other third party to associate your searches with your e-mail address -- and to use this information to send you customized spam or other e-mail scams.

The simplest and most direct way for someone to track your Web surfing is to view the history on your Web browser. Your Web browser keeps a chronological list of every Web site you visit. Most Web browsers will save your browsing history for at least a week by default. If someone wanted to monitor your Web surfing, all that person would have to do is open your browser and search your history.

If you're surfing the Web from a work computer, your boss doesn't need to physically turn on your computer and check your browser history. Since you're working on an office network, your employer has the right to monitor what sites you are visiting.

In the next section, we'll talk about anonymous proxy servers, one of the most effective ways to hide your identity online.

Anonymous Proxy Servers

Every time you type a URL into your Web browser and click Enter, your computer sends a request to aWeb server, which then delivers the Web page back to you. To do this, the Web server needs to know your IP address. So much for surfing anonymously, right?

Not necessarily: One way to avoid revealing your IP address to every Web server you contact is to use a proxy server. A proxy server is a machine that sits between you and the rest of the Internet. Every page request you make goes through the proxy server first.

An anonymous proxy server is a special kind of proxy loaded with software that erases your IP address from any page requests and substitutes its own. When the page is sent back by the Web server, the proxy server then forwards it along to you free of any additional software scripts that might compromise your identity.

The most popular kind of anonymous proxy servers are Web-based proxies. All you have to do is go to the Web site of the proxy service, enter the desired URL in a special address box and the service will relay the request to the Web server anonymously.

There are some downsides to anonymous proxy servers. Because each incoming and outgoing page needs to be processed by the proxy server, this can often result in slow page loading times. And since the proxy server attempts to delete or bypass any suspicious elements on the returning Web page, a lot of pages will load with errors.

Make sure that you use a recognized Web proxy with a clear privacy policy. There have been cases of malicious hackers who have set up phony anonymous Web proxies to collect information from unwitting clients. When you use a proxy server, the information often travels unencrypted, allowing hackers to see things like usernames, passwords and other sensitive information .

You should also avoid so-called "open proxies." These are proxy servers that claim to have been abandoned and accidentally left "open" for one reason or another. Many of these proxies are booby traps set up by malicious hackers who want to steal personally identifiable information. Some open proxies are actually living on the computers of unwitting users who have been infected by a computer virus.

Now that you know how to hide your IP address online, it's time to check your Web browser settings.

Privacy Settings in Your Browser

There are many easy and effective ways to preserve your online anonymity.

Anonymous proxy servers are a great way to mask your IP address online, but there is still plenty of information about your Web surfing habits stored on your computer. Luckily, it's easy to control your privacy settings directly in your Web browser.

One of the simplest ways to cover your online tracks is to manually delete your browser history. All Web browsers -- like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome -- allow you to delete your Web surfing history.

Follow these instructions to delete your browser history:

• In Safari, go to the History menu, scroll all the way down to the bottom and click "Clear History."
• In Firefox, open the Preferences box from the Firefox menu. Choose the Privacy tab. Go down to the section on Private Data and click "Clear Now."
• In Google Chrome, go to the Tools menu, select "History," select a recent Web site and click "Delete history for this day."
• In Internet Explorer 7 and 8, this process is a little more complicated. Go to support.microsoft.com and follow the directions there for assistance.

Note, however, that any network administrator -- at the office or even at your ISP -- can access your surfing history on the network level, even if you erase it on your computer.

You can also control how your browser handles cookies. The default setting on most browsers is to accept cookies from all sites. You can either block cookies entirely -- which might prevent you from using certain online banking and shopping sites -- or you can choose only to block third-party cookies.

Since anonymous Web surfing is becoming more and more popular, the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome include special settings for surfing without a trace. By enabling these settings, your browser won't save your surfing history, search queries, cookies, download history or passwords.

Here is how you activate anonymous surfing in some the more popular Web browsers:

• In Internet Explorer 8, open a new tab and select "Browse with InPrivate."
• In Safari, under the main Safari menu, you can check a setting called "Private Browsing."
• In Google Chrome, click on the page icon next to the URL window and select "Open New Incognito Window."

In the next section, we'll talk about ways to get around the thorny problem of Web sites that force you to register.

Anonymous Registration

Many free and subscription Web sites require you to register before using their services. This usually requires three basic things: an active e-mail address, a username and a password.

Aside from the security risks of giving your e-mail address and other personally identifiable information to a random Web site, a lot of people simply don't want every Web site they visit to know who they are, and certainly not how to contact them.

For security purposes, experts recommend that you don't use the same username and password to access all of your Web sites and services. The danger, of course, is that one of these sites will -- either maliciously or accidentally -- hand your information over to identity thieves who will use your universal username and password to access your online bank account or other highly sensitive Web services.

Another annoyance is that many Web sites have no problem with selling your information to third parties who will then load your inbox with spam. Some sites allow you to opt out of receiving e-mails from partners, but it isn't always clear which boxes to check or uncheck.

If you don't want to give your real e-mail address to every Web site that requires registration, you can always create multiple e-mail accounts using free services like Yahoo! Mail or Google Mail. For most Web sites, the only real purpose of the e-mail address is to confirm registration, so it's OK if you never check the e-mail account again.

However, if you register with many different Web sites and want to keep track of all of your different usernames, passwords and e-mail addresses, don't create an Excel or Word file and save it on your computer. If someone is able to access that file, they'd have more than enough information to steal your identity.

A better solution is to use a secure, Web-based service like ShopShield or Anonymizer. These services automatically generate temporary e-mail addresses with unique usernames and passwords for any site you wish. Whenever a new e-mail message is received at one of these temporary accounts, it is scrubbed for viruses and spam and then forwarded to your real e-mail address. You can also delete unwanted accounts with a click of a button.

Another clever solution is a Web site called BugMeNot.com, in which users post free usernames and passwords for shared access to popular Web sites like newspapers and video sharing sites. If a username and password stops working, it is voted down the list.

For lots more information about online privacy and the mechanics of the Internet, follow the links on the next page.

Sources

• Barbaro, Michael and Zeller, Tom. "A Face is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749." New York Times, August 9, 2006 (Accessed June 5, 2009)
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Privacy and the Internet: Traveling in Cyberspace Safely" (May 19, 2009)
  http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm
• Proxy.org. "Your right to anonymity" (May 19, 2009)
  http://proxy.org/
• Shop Shield. "Anonymous Registration" (May 19, 2009)
  http://www.shopshield.net/secure_registration.html?source=top_menu
• WhatismyIPaddress.com. "Internet Anonymity" (May 19, 2009)
  http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/internet-anonymity
• WhatismyIPaddress.com. "What is a Proxy Server?" (May 19, 2009)
  http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/proxy-server

New Student Design Competition Launched

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 29 September, 2009 -- The IEEE Computer Society is launching a new design competition for undergraduates with prizes totaling $10,000. The purpose of the competition is to promote excellence. Teams of three to five undergraduates will be invited to design a CPU simulator, a program used in many architecture courses to illustrate how computers work.

“This is an exciting competition because it cuts across traditional boundaries by combining architecture with program design and software engineering – just like real life,” said Alan Clements, Vice President and Chair of the Educational Activities Board and a professor of computer science at the University of Teesside in the UK. “All you have to do is to write a program. Well, that’s not quite all. You have to write an excellent program using professional design techniques.”

The competition will require the skills of students who have taken a course in architecture and the skills of programmers and software engineers who can turn a specification into a working program. At the end of the competition, teams will submit both a report and a working program.

The competition will last several months. The top 10 teams will be selected and awarded certificates of achievements. These 10 teams will be free to participate in the final stage of the competition, when they will be competing against each other for four prizes.

Judging will be carried out according to the following criteria:
o Originality of the architecture designed
o Functionality, quality, and versatility of the simulator
o The use of software engineering in the design of the simulator

Prizes of $1,000 will be awarded to the winning team in each of these categories and a prize of $7,000 will be awarded to the overall winning team. No team will be judged an overall winner unless their use of software engineering in the design and creation of the simulator is deemed high quality.

In order to help students get started, a FAQ website will be set up to give teams a better idea of what is expected. For additional information, contact Clements at alanclements@ntlworld.com.

About the IEEE Computer Society

With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 IEEE societies, the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology. The Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, certifications and online courses.

Top 5 Booths at CES 2009

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the kind of event that causes tech geeks to drool. Electronics manufacturers from around the world gather in Las Vegas, Nev. to display new products and technologies. The show isn't open to the public, which likely makes the event even more tantalizing to a typical gadget enthusiast.

The purpose of the show is to give manufacturers the opportunity to talk to potential buyers and the press. In the world of CES, a buyer isn't just an individual looking for a new

At CES, the big exhibitors try to top one another by having the 

most impressive booth.

television. Instead, buyers represent retailers ranging from a small electronics shop to global store chains. An attractive display booth at CES may mean big business for the manufacturer, while potential buyers may overlook a somewhat lackluster booth.

One element that impacted 2009's CES was the global economy. In the weeks leading up to the show, some journalists predicted that attendance would be down and exhibitors would scale back on their booths. While the show floor wasn't quite as packed with bodies as it had been in previous years, many big names in the technology field still had impressive displays, some of which spanned the entire width of the showroom floor.

Now let's look at the most impressive booths of CES 2009, listed in no particular order.

5: LG

LG's booth featured an enormous touchscreen interface, among other technological goodies.

The LG booth was constantly busy. Part of that was due to the booth's location -- it was next to a major entryway into the Center Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But the booth also happened to feature some of the most popular exhibits at CES.

The company's line of HDTVsreceived a lot of attention. Not only did LG introduce televisions that consume less energy than current models, it also unveiled new sets with "NetCast Entertainment Access." These televisions have an Ethernet port that turn the television into an interactive device that gives consumers the ability to use Yahoo! Widgets on their TV screens.

LG also introduced a television with a 240-hertz refresh rate, meaning the screen refreshes 240 times per second. A high refresh rate helps a television display images that are moving quickly across the screen without effects like trails or fuzziness. LG wasn't the only company to show off this kind of set -- Sony and Samsung also had models on display in their booths.

4: Sony

Sony's booth at CES 2009

Sony's booth featured technologies ranging from HD televisions to digital photo frames. While some booths emphasized one technology over others, Sony cast its net wide by featuring each technology in its own section of the booth.

Perhaps the most impressive electronics on display at Sony were the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. An OLED display is a solid-state device composed of layers of organic molecules that create light when you apply electricity to them. Televisions or monitors using this technology can be very thin and these displays require less energy to operate than plasma or LCD models. And OLED displays can be flexible -- it's possible to create a curved display. Since Sony's OLED demonstrations were in the concept phase; we probably won't see many of these new devices on the market for a while.

Sony's booth also had several different models of HDTVs, including the Bravia V4100. Sony claims the V4100 is an eco-friendly television that's Energy Star qualified. In addition to the V4100, Sony showed televisions from more than five different series of products. The company plans to play a large role in the HDTV market over the next year.

3: Panasonic

The Panasonic booth featured a 3-D home theater system with a plasma HDTV.

Panasonic's booth stretched from one side of the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center to the other. The centerpiece of the booth was an attraction that inspired a lot of buzz on the showroom floor: a 3-D home theater demo. Panasonic's booth included a walled-off theater demo room. You had to pick up tickets to get a chance to see the presentation. About 25 people at a time could watch the demo on a 103-inch (261.6 centimeters) plasma screen. To experience the 3-D effect, you had to wear special glasses. The effect was very convincing -- Panasonic included video footage from feature films, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and even professional wrestling.

While the 3-D theater dominated Panasonic's display, there were plenty of other things to see in the booth. One end housed Panasonic's eco-friendly technology. This included televisions that have lower power requirements than older sets and washing machines that use water more efficiently than current models. Panasonic also announced that it was expanding its recycling program to include 280 drop-off sites in the United States -- consumers can go to any of these sites to recycle old Panasonic televisions and other electronics.

The rest of Panasonic's booth featured high-definition televisions, home audio systems, high-end headphones, cameras, Blu-ray players and even massage chairs. But at the end of the day, it was the 3-D demo that people talked about the most.

    

2: Samsung

The entrance to Samsung's booth was through an arch built out of HDTV screens.

The main entrance to Samsung's booth was through an enormous arch of television sets. Samsung featured televisions throughout its booth space. The sets ranged from top-of-the-line high definition TVs to conceptual models that we probably won't see in the market any time soon.

One of those conceptual televisions was the 82-inch (208.3 centimeters) LCD ultra-high-definition TV. High-definition televisions have resolutions of either 720 or 1,080 horizontal lines of pixels. The ultra-high-definition set from Samsung boasts 2,160 lines of pixels. While the images on the television were crisp and vibrant, there's no real opportunity to receive ultra high-definition video signals right now.

Samsung, like LG, also had televisions that feature a 240-hertz refresh rate. Samsung placed the 240-hertz set next to a 120-hertz TV and played the same loop of video on both sets.

1: Intel

The Intel booth had several interactive displays that were powered by the company's microprocessors.

Intel used CES as an opportunity to show off the capabilities of the company's latest microprocessors. Most of the interactive displays featured a Centrino 2, Atom or Core i7 processor.

Intel designed the Centrino 2 processor for notebook computers. Intel says the processor helps boost WiFi performance. Intel even offers an optional WiMAX capability with the Centrino 2 processor. The company also claims that the Centrino 2 is more energy-efficient and will help preserve battery life compared to other processors.

The Atom processor is Intel's solution for portable electronic devices like netbooks, GPS receivers and digital cameras. Intel designed the processor to work with Internet-enabled devices that don't require the same processing power as a full-fledged computer.

The Core i7 processor was Intel's heavy hitter at CES 2009. Based on the Nehalem microprocessor microarchitecture, the Core i7 can handle the intense processing requirements of advanced computing tasks like the latest video games or media editing applications. Intel had several displays featuring the Core i7, including racing simulators and an interactive touch screen that looked like something out of the film "Minority Report."

Top 5 Technology Trends at CES 2009

Every year in Las Vegas, Nev., hundreds of electronics manufacturers, retail store buyers and members of the press descend upon the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The convention is essentially an enormous commercial -- it allows manufacturers to advertise products that will soon come to market. Companies can also unveil conceptual devices that may still be a few years away from mass production. The 2009 CES was no exception.

There's always a wide spectrum of exhibitors at the show. On one end, you have small companies that may offer only one or two products. These companies tend to occupy small booths crammed together in a corner of the showroom floor. On the other end of the spectrum are the big companies like Sony, Panasonic and Microsoft. These corporations use CES to showcase dozens or even hundreds of products. Their booths may have private rooms, multiple levels and even a professionally-lit stage.

You might think that the relatively tiny exhibitors have little in common with their gargantuan counterparts. The truth is that certain themes and trends stretch across the entire show, uniting some of the largest and smallest exhibitors in a common philosophy. The themes you see at CES can give you an idea of what to expect from technology companies over the course of the year. In past years, themes like portability and the rise of MP3 devices were prevalent. What were the themes of CES 2009? In no particular order, we'll look at the top 5 themes.

5: Technology for Kids

CES 2009 devoted a sec tion of the showroom floor to technology designed with children in mind. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which is the organization that produces CES, named this special area the Kids@Play Summit. There were two main components of the summit: the space on the CES show floor where exhibitors could display their products and a series of conferences about the ways children use technology.

The products ranged from educational devices to toys and games. One of the most popular items at the summit was the Mind Flex game from Mattel. The game consists of a circular playing surface that has a small air vent aimed straight up and several obstacles mounted on a rotating track. To play the game, you place aplastic ball on the vent and try to maneuver the ball through the obstacles as they rotate in place. But there's a catch -- you control the ball using a device you wear on your head. Mattel claims the device measures your brainwaves and you control the ball's height by concentrating or relaxing.

4: Technology for the Elderly

The Clarity phone from Plantronics was designed with senior citizens in mind.

Just a stone's throw away from the Kids@Play Summit was the Silvers Summit. But while Kids@Play focused on technology for children, the Silvers Summit concentrated on technology designed to make the lives of senior citizens easier.

Developing technology for senior citizens requires a special approach. Rather than cram as many features into the technology as possible, manufacturers concentrate on making features simple and easy to use. While a young person may want a PC that can edit audio and video or play the latest video games, a senior citizen simply may want a machine that lets them check e-mail or browse the Web.

Marketing electronics to the elderly also requires a different approach. Traditionally, older people represent a very low percentage of the electronics consumer market. Some manufacturers are skirting this issue by marketing devices designed for the elderly to younger generations. The message is that technology can help children stay in touch with parents and grandparents. The devices help seniors maintain a sense of independence while at the same time reducing their sense of isolation.

3: Green Technology

Schwinn brought its electric bicycle called the Tailwind to CES 2009.

One of the biggest themes at CES in 2009 involved the environment. CES dedicated a small section of show floor space specifically for green technology companies. Exhibitors within this space included several solar panel companies, a few wind power device manufacturers and many devices that limit or eliminatevampire power problems. But the exhibitors within the green technology area were only a small part of the overall story.

Most of the big companies at CES had a section within the main display area set aside for green technology. Some companies featured their eco-friendly devices prominently in the booth. Others grouped their green tech in a corner off to one side. And some of the companies seemed to be engaging in a littlegreenwashing. Greenwashing is an attempt to come across as environmentally conscious even though the actual product or manufacturing process isn't eco-friendly.

2: Convergence

Panasonic's Internet televisions featuring Viera Cast are an example of televisions converging with computers.

Convergence has a special meaning in the field of technology. It refers to the trend of different technologies evolving to fill the same function. This usually involves two different approaches to meet the same set of consumer needs. Ultimately, convergence might mean these two different technologies will merge into one.

For example, smartphones are becoming increasingly powerful. The latest smartphones on the market have WiFi capability, a GPS receiver, a powerful operating system (OS) and a library of applications ranging from music players to productivity software. Meanwhile, portable computers are shrinking. The introduction of netbooks -- generally defined as computers with a 10-inch (25.4 centimeters) or smaller screen and limited processing capability -- took CES 2009 by storm. The result was convergence: Phones looked more like computers and computers looked more like phones.

1: 3-D Displays

The 3D High-definition Plasma Television from Panasonic is an example of 3-D technology at CES 2009.

Perhaps the most prevalent trend at CES 2009 was the emphasis on 3-D technology. Nvidia, which produces graphics cards for computers, entranced booth visitors with a GeForce 3-D demo that featured clips from films like "Star Wars: A New Hope." The booth also featured a 3-D version of Guitar Hero, which inspired many CES attendees to let their inner rock star out as wicked guitar solos scrolled toward them.

Nvidia's system uses active 3-D, which means the GeForce glasses actively work to produce the three-dimensional effect. Each lens has a shutter that opens and closes at a rate of 60 times per second. The shuttering pattern combined with the image on the screen produces a stereoscopic effect. Most of the other 3-D technologies on display at CES used polarized lenses, which are passive. Glasses with 3-D polarized lenses don't require power -- the 3-D technology resides in the television set or computer monitor. Nvidia's 3-D system is available now for around $199.