I was astonished yesterday to find that my identity can be traced all the way past my IP(?), even to the identity of my PC. I had joined a website forum on about.com and then got an email that showed all this information to me. It was just shocking.
This was really sobering because there is an individual on that site who has taken to harrassing me and making my life miserable there. I had thought to go in there as another person, not talk about my stuff, and thus enjoy my other friends.
I suppose that even this site has that ability but Erin has not abused it.
I am very well aware that almost everone here knows more about Computers than I do and I have a simple question. I was looking last night and there is some software available called an IP anonomizer, that I wonder if it would assure my privacy. Apparently the name of my computer is imbedded in the Qwest internet box, and I would like to change that but the Qwest guy was unwilling to do so.
I don't do mean things on the internet, I just want my privacy.
Gwenellen
Comments
Be safe
Gwenellen, I went through a nasty situation a couple of years ago (seems like it just happened) and I believe it takes someone with administrator status on a site to see that information. Erin can tell you more, I'm sure.
BUT, do not give out your email address, at least not the one your ISP gives you. There is all sorts of potentially revealing information in the headers of the emails you send that can lead somebody to your front door, literally. Get a Gmail or the like address and use that when online. Then everything points back to there instead of you.
I looked at some of those annonomyizer programs, as far as I can tell the pay services may do what they promise, but the one free one I tried (recommended by some agency, I forget who) wouldn't work with the ISP I use. (Which, to give you an idea of how concerned I am about a repeat incident, is over 200 miles away and I access it by long distance.)
If you are curious what goes out with your visit to a website, try out this link: http://www.danasoft.com/ This, at the very least, is what is available to any website you visit.
Be Careful!
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way."
College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
I'll add a couple more suggestions.
These are recommendations I give to the people whom I help with computers, or whose machines I admin to any degree. I assume you're running Windows.
Are you using MSIE -- Microsoft Internet Explorer -- to access websites on the Internet? Don't. Download and use Mozilla Firefox instead. Don't use MSIE to connect to anywhere but to Microsoft.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Are you using Outlook Express, or whatever the latest Microsoft email program is now, to read, write, send and receive email? Don't. Download and use Mozilla Thunderbird instead. Don't use the Microsoft program at all if you can help it.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Both Microsoft programs have a long history of security holes, ways in which people out on the Net can get into your machine, take control, and get at your private information (such as credit card information and personal-identity stuff), caused by the bad design decisions made in writing the programs. Microsoft takes entirely too long to even admit to the holes, much less fix them. It's a lot safer to avoid them entirely. The Mozilla programs are open-source free software.
Microsoftophobia
I've always been a bit cautious about using Microsoft products. It took me a *long* time before I decided to use Windows on my home computer. Of course, it would have been kinda tricky trying to get MacOS to work on the PC I bought when my Mac finally died and I didn't have enough money for a new one. I'm sure some people would say I'm being silly. Maybe I am.
Still, there's something about not being able to move IE off my desktop that made me uneasy about using it. Also, having little windows popping up assuring me no personal information would be sent over the internet along with information about a malfunctioning program made me wonder what information would be sent, and how could a programmer who never met me know what I consider personal?
Heather Rose Brown :)
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx
Gosh
Oh, I have Firefox, but I just did not think to use it. So, will that take the place of an anonomizer? I am sorry, I am not a hardware/software person. I just like to use the computer.
Gwenellen
Make sure it's the latest version, then.
The community of developers responsible for Firefox, and the Free/Libre Open-Source Software (FLOSS) community in general, are usually somewhere between pretty-good and extremely-quick about fixing any security holes that are found, whether those are the result of programming errors or of not thinking something through all the way and considering all the angles...but that does you no good if you keep on using the older, known-defective version.
No, that will not replace using an anonymizing proxy. It does close additional security holes which, if you're looking into anonymizing, you also need to consider or your efforts will have been wasted.
Once you've updated your Firefox version, read up on the extensions available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/, some of which are specifically for improving your Internet security (NoScript, for example). Yes, this will mean that you inevitably will be learning more about computers and programs, but, since you're asking about proxies, you're at the need-to-know point already.
Lots of choices out there
A free alternative to MicroSoft Office can be had for the downloading at
http://www.openoffice.org/
Regular updates, looks and acts, otherwise, just like the MicroSoft stuff.
Jess
"In this universe there are many strange interesting things. I like to think I am one of those Strange interesting things. "
"In this universe there are many strange interesting things. I like to think I am one of those Strange interesting things. "
Proxy
It's definitely pretty scary just how much one can learn from something as simple as just an IP address. Some ISPs are better than others for it, but many will even go so far as to include one's city (or even DISTRICT within a city) into the customer's host name (which can be resolved from the IP). The name of your computer is broadcast in a lot of situations, so it's always best to keep it impersonal. No Family's Computer, or 's computer.
One option is to surf the web and do everything online via a proxy server. What this means, is that you first connect to the proxy server, and via them connect to the various websites. Then all the information on websites and such refers to the proxy server, and not you. Most proxy servers have very tight privacy statements, and generally nothing short of a warrant or court order will get anyone any of the users' information.
It is also possible to do everything behind a proxy, including things like IRC, newsgroups, emails, and so on. Some proxy servers offer data encryption to ward off electronic snooping (even from your ISP!). Some will also offer things like remote cookie management (so cookies are stored on their servers, and flushed regularly, leaving no "traces" on your home PC), and "content filtration". What that means, is extra protection against possibly malicious active web code (be it javascript, activeX, or so on), and potentially the option to disable different applets and ad softwares from reaching your browser.
The downside to using a proxy server, is that slows things down, as you add a number of extra steps in the transfer of data. I imagine things are better, now, with the faster internet and hosting options available, but by adding a "middle man" it's going to reduce the response time of the sites you visit.
I can't really recommend any particular proxy to you though; I'm not terribly familiar with what is out there these days. There are a wide variety of options, both paid and free, and ranging from simple anonymous web browsing through a site like http://anonymouse.org/ to a full on proxy server that you connect to as soon as you connect to the internet; thus filtering everything through them.
Cookies matter.
Website forums keep track of who you are mainly through the use of cookies, which are snippets of text stored by your browser and offered up to the website when you connect. BCTS's Drupal system issues cookies to your browser when you log in; that's why you don't have to put in your username and password every time you post a comment.
In my copy of Firefox, you can get at the cookies by clicking Edit / Preferences / Privacy / Show Cookies. To start a new identity at about.com, you'll have to, first, delete all the about.com cookies in that cookie-manager, and maybe log off the Internet entirely and log back on (so you get a new dynamic IP-number), and then go back to about.com and start over as a new user. Take your time sifting through those cookies to make sure you get them all.
While you're in there, you'll want to notice cookies from places like doubleclick, whose services are used specifically to track you around the Internet, building up a collection of information about you by your browsing habits. Those, you'll want to get into the habit of deleting often.
Where am I!
Greetings
While much information can be determined from what software you use and the ISP service. That does not directly point out where you live.
If you use a local service provider that can give a locality, but the only people who know the address are the accounts department, after all they tell you how much you owe them.
If you did a trace on the IP numbers for me, it would show a link to Sheffield. Beyond that you would have to ask for more information, maybe needing court orders.
If you hear the snick of handcuffs you will know they've found me :)
Brian
Creepy
This really frightened me because the link in the email they sent me went straight to a Qwest window showing the Qwest DSL Modem I use, and then there were a half dozen different headings, on which showed what they called my IP number and the name "Gwen" on my computer.
I am not worried about legal problems because I don't do anything illegal but it sure removes any illusions I have about my personal privacy.
The Web Cam won't be used anymore, except in special cases. I knew it was going to come to this eventually but I did not think anyone but law enforcement would be doing this.
Thanks for all the advice.
Gwenellen
In responce to...
Try turning off remote registry in services that should beef up security a little more. And get yourself a decent firewall. A good firewall will also block private headers and tracking cookies.