Percy Blakeney

Highly anonymous proxies sound like they are a really secure way of browsing the web. In fact they really should be but alas all too often they are exactly the opposite. Before I tell you a why people make huge mistakes using anonymous proxies perhaps I should tell you a little bit about what they actually are.

You’ve probably often used a proxy maybe not at home but certainly at work, college or school. A proxy server is a computer that exists to send and receive web requests, when at work your request for a web page is sent to this server which sends out for the page and delivers it back to your browser. There are lots of benefits, the proxy server can cache copies of popular pages to speed up surfing, requests for pages can be monitored so that unsuitable content can be monitored or blocked mainly it gives the employer or school control over who surfs what through a particular connection.

For those who would like to keep their web surfing private from all the people trying to look at it from hackers, identity thieves to our concerned governments - anonymous proxies offer to possibility of privacy. Because it is the actual server which requests the web page and forwards it back to you then the only record in the logs of the web server you visit is the IP address of the proxy server.

Anonymous proxies go one step further and do not send the X-Forwarded-For header which would normally contain your IP address so there is no record at all of your IP address on the web server. But wait there’s more the definition of a highly anonymous proxy is probably a little less certain but it is usually referred to anonymous proxies that can handle https sites (the secure ones) or even masks it’s identity slightly by sending fake information.

Anyway although an anonymous proxy can hide your identity to some extent there are in fact some huge drawbacks.

• Many free anonymous proxies on the internet are in fact hacked or infected servers designed to either spy or install viruses anyone who uses them. Often the owner of the server will be completely unaware of the fact it is being used as a proxy
• Anonymous proxies can be extremely slow as you are sending your request to the server first which forwards it on to the web page. Using many proxies on the web can be extremely painful to use with multimedia taking forever to load!
• Although your identity will be shielded from the web server you visit all your details are in the logs of the proxy server and your ISP
• The vast majority of your web traffic is in clear text which can be intercepted at many stages of its journey by anyone with the desire to spy on you

Believe me this list above could go and on, using an ordinary anonymous proxy will not keep your data safe from most people and at the worse case scenario it could be delivering it to a server owned by an Eastern European Hacker group. Combined with the majority of governments now insisting that ISPs keep all your web logs, emails sent etc for two years your web surfing will be pretty much open to anyone who wants, how many identity thieves get a job doing the backups in your local ISP I wonder. Well they can can copy my backup logs all they like because mine are protected and encrypted by a military grade cipher used by the US to protect their secure data!

We’re all concerned with keeping not only our computers, but also our personal information safe as we surf the web these days. While email viruses are less of a threat than they were even a few years ago, identity theft is on the rise and identity thieves take advantage of every new technological development; adapting almost as fast as the technologies meant to thwart them. For this reason, keeping yourself protected from prying eyes as you go about your business online is important. One way that people sometimes (and should more often) use is proxy servers - but what are these servers and how do they keep you safer on the web?

Basically, a proxy server is just an ordinary web server, albeit one with a special function. This server lies between the web user and the sites they are visiting; with requests for web pages and files being relayed via this server. This relay means that it is the servers IP address which is reported to the site being visited rather than the IP address of the web user. Why is this important? IP addresses, particularly static IP addresses, which are more and more common with the expansion of broadband service, can be used to identify specific users. Just think about the implications of that for a moment.

It should be noted that not all proxy servers will hide this information which can be used to uniquely identify you from the sites you visit - there are anonymous proxy servers as well; these provide a higher degree of anonymity to you on the web. However, how can you tell which proxies are really protecting your identity? Read on for a few tips on how to find safe web proxies.

First, you can use the “whois” command if you are running any variant of Unix or Linux on your computer. There are also web-based interfaces for this program available, including the ones available at domaintools.com which can tell you if the owner of the proxy has hidden their contact information or not.

You can also use Google or another search engine to look up the proxy and see if anyone has had any experiences of malfeasance with the proxy and what, if anything people are saying about it. Another good source of information is available from the homepage of the proxy server itself; there should be a terms and conditions of use policy posted on the site which will tell you exactly what the proxy does and does not report to other sites in terms of information about users.

Using a web proxy can be a good way to protect your personal information and your privacy in general from those who may have bad intentions on the internet. However, while any proxy server provides you with more protection than no proxy at all, you should look into any web proxy before you use it to make sure that it is giving you all of the protection you are looking for. There are safe and anonymous web proxies out there, but finding one which will perform well for you may take just a little bit of investigation. Have fun out there and remember; safety first!