Best software to use internet anonymously

Stingerbar

I started reading up on this and I'm getting a bit paranoid, so much private data is apparently easy to access from almost anyone's computer. I had a trojan virus last year and this year we've been getting endless calls from India and the US trying to sell us junk (have good anti-virus, and scan for malware a lot now)

I am just looking for one simple program that could run and make our internet use as private or anonymous as possible, but I just seem to find a lot of complex stuff, VPN software, TOR, proxies, and so on.

Any suggestions or recommendations, thanks

_AVALANCHE_

Wouldn't worry about Trojans or Viruses, run your scanners every week or before you buy something online, use an onscreen keyboard to type in the important stuff, or use Sandboxie and you'll never pick up any of the bad stuff. Well, less likely.

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FrequentlyAskedQuestions#HowSafe

Calls from India is most likely due to your Insurance Company or somewhere that asked you for personal details when buying something, like PC W0rld, selling on your Info. Hang up, No biggie.

Their's loads of Browser addons to stop sites tracking you, No Script, ghostery, adblock, Superantispyware is good for wiping the tracking cookies.

https://www.blackvpn.com/ "looks" to be the best paid option, their privacy package.....I don't know if it was ever tested though (ie-->they were asked for Logs and the logs were there?)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056066624


Tor is the only free option that is even remotely worth considering. Their's lots of others but I wouldn't trust 'em on a Home machine. Bit of work to set it up, easy then.


No one really cares what you do online.

Tallon

Install firefox.. Then press CTRL+SHIFT+P

Private browsing

Stingerbar

Thanks lads, I read that Tor is too slow, much like dial-up.

I think I'll go with something like BlackVPN, I'd prefer a once-off payment.

If anyone else has suggestions please add, the simpler the better.

fasttalkerchat

Using TOR in Ireland has no legal purpose (other than curiosity) IMO. Firefox private browsing or Google Incognito should do the job.

Also check your router's security, you shouldn't be using WEP anymore.

evolving_doors

Check out the firefox add-on 'Collusion' it's a graphical representation of how your info is passed on to other sites. Although this might make you even more paranoid. Sorry!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_f5wNw-2c0

riclad

Heres a good browser for privacy,use incognito/private mode,
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
good private search engine
https://www.ixquick.com/eng/aboutixquick/
i find firefox slow,compared with iron browser,still firefox has good extensions,for privacy.

tricky D

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

Calls from India is most likely due to your Insurance Company or somewhere that asked you for personal details when buying something, like PC W0rld, selling on your Info. Hang up, No biggie.

They get their numbers from the phonebook and plain old brute force auto-dialling all the numbers and using the answered ones.

imitation

Stingerbar wrote: »

I started reading up on this and I'm getting a bit paranoid, so much private data is apparently easy to access from almost anyone's computer. I had a trojan virus last year and this year we've been getting endless calls from India and the US trying to sell us junk (have good anti-virus, and scan for malware a lot now)

I am just looking for one simple program that could run and make our internet use as private or anonymous as possible, but I just seem to find a lot of complex stuff, VPN software, TOR, proxies, and so on.

Any suggestions or recommendations, thanks

The most difficult way to get private data would be to try and scrape it from somebody's PC. The sad truth is that info we give to companys in good faith is not being handled correctly (Especially true if they are not based in the EU. After the spate of hacking attacks on big company's I have resolved to do the following.

I'll never enter my real date of birth, I'll just use some date I can remember thats roughly close to it.

I try to use paypal instead of my visa.

Firefox with no script is a good option to try and avoid viruses that get in via scripting.

VPN's just won't help the average person IMO, unless your worried about like the government or somebody intercepting your info. The biggest risk comes from the end points, the sites where you place your data and keyloggers on your PC.

Best thing is to limit what info you give out, and be happy

CaSCaDe711

+1 for Ghostery (Firefox plugin). Using this the last few weeks, VERY surprised seeing the amount of what is blocked when browsing sites I'd always visit.

PayPal for all online shopping.

Weekly/Bi-weekly scans on all drives/partitions for virus and malware (Avira, MalwareBytes, Spybot S&D etc).

Sandboxie for browsing.

Avoid opening/replying to SPAM type mails.

Don't entertain any strangers calling you, especially those trying to sell stuff. Hangup sharpish, or, waste their time tagging them along for a while

_AVALANCHE_

tricky D wrote: »

They get their numbers from the phonebook and plain old brute force auto-dialling all the numbers and using the answered ones.

No, fact.

Not all of them anyway.

CaSCaDe711 wrote: »

Avoid opening/replying to SPAM type mails.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/02/you-dont-even-have-to-download-an-attachment-anymore-to-get-infected/





Anyone ever use any of these.

http://hidemyass.com/proxy-list/


Scrool down down down for instructions.

riclad

IT seems to me the worst risk hacking is from large company ,
ie you use your credit card to buy something in a chain store like best buy ,then they get hacked ,the hacker has 500 k credit card nos.And theres regular cases of companys,semi state bodys, losing laptops with loads of customer information on it.
OR companys like sony, they were using out of date software ,without
the latest updates,security patches.
So even if you have perfect pc security ,you are still at risk of identity
theft or credit card fraud.
Under us law ,any us company that does business in europe ,the us
government, can ask for any info,or customer records ,from any of its european
branches.
IF security is important to you,its easier to just use linux
as an os, as its more secure than windows.

CiaranC

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Using TOR in Ireland has no legal purpose (other than curiosity) IMO.

Huh?

Firefox private browsing or Google Incognito should do the job.

Neither of these much provide anonymity.

_AVALANCHE_

riclad wrote: »

.

Paragraphs man.;)

fasttalkerchat

CiaranC wrote: »

Huh?


Neither of these much provide anonymity.

It depends what he needs them for. If he doesn't want his wife to see his history FF or Chrome are able to cover for that.

_AVALANCHE_

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

It depends what he needs them for. If he doesn't want his wife to see his history FF or Chrome are able to cover for that.

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/08/private-browsing-not-so-private.ars

CiaranC

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

It depends what he needs them for. If he doesn't want his wife to see his history FF or Chrome are able to cover for that.

These modes are primarily designed to hide your browsing history from people who have physical access to your local machine, they have nothing to do with the privacy or anonymity of your traffic on the internet itself.

OP, Tor is not complicated and is fast enough for day to day browsing. It does not work with 3rd party browsing plugins such as flash however. A VPN from a security firm would be a good investment.

fasttalkerchat

CiaranC wrote: »

These modes are primarily designed to hide your browsing history from people who have physical access to your local machine, they have nothing to do with the privacy or anonymity of your traffic on the internet itself.

Yes. Such as for the purpose of hiding internet history from ones spouse...

Stingerbar

tricky D wrote: »

They get their numbers from the phonebook and plain old brute force auto-dialling all the numbers and using the answered ones.

I'm not listed and they had my name and plenty of details. Very aggressive phonecalls.

Hang-up? they just keep calling at weird hours. Yeah block the number, etc, but come in from diff numbers.

I just get tired of it.

Regardless of that, I would like to use the internet privately (not browse incognito) Everyone seems to have some opinion and speculation on it, I don't really care

The blackVPN is cheap, anonymous and I can connect to a UK server and watch Channel4, ITV, BBC etc, so I'm happy. If there is a riskless free simple program out there that does the same then I'm up for that too.

Departed

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

f, or use Sandboxie and you'll never pick up any of the bad stuff. .

someone said recently certain virus writer can leak through sandbox

Khannie

Armelodie wrote: »

Check out the firefox add-on 'Collusion' it's a graphical representation of how your info is passed on to other sites. Although this might make you even more paranoid. Sorry!!

Shocking stuff!

yoyo

Check the type of stuff $_SERVER can track with a bit of simple PHP scripting here :pac: . All stuff like IP, Browser, OS, Referer etc.

Nick

_AVALANCHE_

Departed wrote: »

someone said recently certain virus writer can leak through sandbox

Yea, the makers admit that holes are found in the software from time to time but they fix them as they find them, same with Microsoft and Windows.

How safe would I be, by using Sandboxie? You would be quite safe using Sandboxie. It should be noted that, from time to time, people are able to find some vulnerability in Sandboxie, an open hole through which malicious software can still infiltrate the system.
This happens once every few months, on average, and is quickly resolved by closing the hole that is the attack vector.
Thus it's a good idea to have more traditional anti-malware software. This is is the subject of the following question.
Back to Table of Contents
Do I need other solutions if I use Sandboxie?
Sandboxie may be your first line of defense, but it should certainly be complemented by the more traditional anti-virus and anti-malware solutions. These solutions can let you know if your system does become infected in any way.
Typically, those other solutions employ various forms of pattern matching to discover malicious software and other threats. Sandboxie, on the other hand, quite simply does not trust any software code enough to let it out of the sandbox.
The combination of the two approaches should keep malicious software -- which is serving the interest of other unknown parties -- out of your computer.

yoyo

Sandboxing is more secure than none but as I pointed out earlier they are sustainable to security holes where data can leak outside the protected area. I would advise keeping plugins Java, Flash et al. up to date, keeping an up to date anti virus like security essentials, and if you use Vista/Windows 7 keep UAC enabled

Nick

Departed

riclad wrote: »

Heres a good browser for privacy,use incognito/private mode,
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
good private search engine
https://www.ixquick.com/eng/aboutixquick/
i find firefox slow,compared with iron browser,still firefox has good extensions,for privacy.

can you make the search engine remember your search terms ?

_AVALANCHE_

Departed wrote: »

can you make the search engine remember your search terms ?

Maybe if you add it to your search box-->if using Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ixquick-privacy-search-engine/?src=search