How to be anonymous on the internet

Nerusy · 30 Aug 2011 at 20:56

Hello,

I've been browsing Red Orchestra forums (awesome game check it out if you don't know of it) and one signature caught my eye. It had my IP address, my broadband provider my location, my OS and browser.

Then I googled IP security and found out that IP address gives out loads of information and even latitude and longitude!

I generally try to keep a low profile on the internet, once one makes a footprint I heard its quite hard to erase it.

It is my understanding that people use proxies to stay anonymous on the internet, is there a program or a website where I could get that, which is trusted? As I understand many work places uses proxies to monitor and control what the employees can access. If that's the case then using proxies is dangerous as the one who's providing the proxie has access/information to ones computer?

Also should I bother? It's quite unsettling to know that if somebody wants to they can hack into my computer or find a lot of my personal information over the internet but it seems not many people use proxies, otherwise they'll be as widely known as anti-viruses. So do you guys use it, if so which program/web site do you recommend? Or is anti-virus all that is needed for safe browsing?

Also is it true it does not matter if you I have firewall and anti-virus, if people want to hack my computer they will? That's even more disturbing.

Thanks for you help.

Duke · 30 Aug 2011 at 21:51

You'll lose much more information via social networking sites and forums (i.e. by not using the privacy tools) than the chance of being hacked & that info going.

DefiantAsh · 30 Aug 2011 at 22:09

Nerusy said:
Hello,

I've been browsing Red Orchestra forums (awesome game check it out if you don't know of it) and one signature caught my eye. It had my IP address, my broadband provider my location, my OS and browser.

Then I googled IP security and found out that IP address gives out loads of information and even latitude and longitude!

I generally try to keep a low profile on the internet, once one makes a footprint I heard its quite hard to erase it.

It is my understanding that people use proxies to stay anonymous on the internet, is there a program or a website where I could get that, which is trusted? As I understand many work places uses proxies to monitor and control what the employees can access. If that's the case then using proxies is dangerous as the one who's providing the proxie has access/information to ones computer?

Also should I bother? It's quite unsettling to know that if somebody wants to they can hack into my computer or find a lot of my personal information over the internet but it seems not many people use proxies, otherwise they'll be as widely known as anti-viruses. So do you guys use it, if so which program/web site do you recommend? Or is anti-virus all that is needed for safe browsing?

Also is it true it does not matter if you I have firewall and anti-virus, if people want to hack my computer they will? That's even more disturbing.

Thanks for you help.

You're probably more paranoid than anything.

As long as you keep banking safe, and no passwords on your pc then you should be alright

, i suspect.

Not many hackers will target i single computer though, they aim high for a bigger effect

like LulzSecurity etc etc.

Ask if anyone on this forum has been hacked by an individual from using their computer day to day without doing anything out of the ordinary and just browsing the forums, and reading up on things on the web.

I would think none or a small minority have been targetted, even so if your details are stolen, just get in touch with the appropriate places and reset your information/get new credit cards etc.

ivantheboss · 30 Aug 2011 at 22:18

As DefiantAsh said: "Not many hackers will target i single computer though, they aim high for a bigger effect", so don't worry mate

Judgeneo · 30 Aug 2011 at 22:23

DefiantAsh said:
Ask if anyone on this forum has been hacked by an individual from using their computer day to day without doing anything out of the ordinary and just browsing the forums, and reading up on things on the web.

One day when I was a wee boy, notepad opened by itself and displayed the text
"hacked by akj;sdfa" or what ever his name was. As far as I could tell, nothing else happened to my PC, and I'm not even sure if it was someone targeting my PC or just some virus.

grudas · 30 Aug 2011 at 22:38

the signature actually uses some kind of script to know the info and only YOU can see it.. everyone else will see their own ip/os/browser etc.. and the person that has the signature won't see anything at all.. i think you're just paranoid

tntcoder · 30 Aug 2011 at 22:57

grudas said:
the signature actually uses some kind of script to know the info and only YOU can see it.. everyone else will see their own ip/os/browser etc.. and the person that has the signature won't see anything at all.. i think you're just paranoid

That's incorrect. If they host the signature generation script themselves then they get all the info.

asim18 · 30 Aug 2011 at 23:18

Nerusy said:
Then I googled IP security and found out that IP address gives out loads of information and even latitude and longitude!

That's not your location. It's the owner's or ISP's location.

tntcoder said:
That's incorrect. If they host the signature generation script themselves then they get all the info.

It's not really information, it's just useless data.

Chances are that pretty much any website you visit will gather and store such data for statistical purposes. My website's control panel gathers all this data by default. It's actually pretty neat once it's put into graphs and tables.