Since each anonymizer works differently and comes with its own set of pros, cons, and risks, it is extremely important to see whether a specific anonymizer meets your specific needs. In other words, an anonymizer does nothing to protect the integrity of your data as it is sent to and from the web server.
Moreover, using an anonymizer may increase your vulnerability to a cross-site request forgery , cookie stealing , and, in particular, simple packet sniffing. Beyond the security risks to your data, anonymizers may increase a number of other potential privacy risks:. If an anonymizing intermediary server is located within a country that requires ISPs and other service providers to keep records of traffic, your browsing habits are not invisible. The government or an authorized third party could subpoena or seize the history of your browsing activity from the anonymizer.
By routing your traffic through intermediaries, you increase your exposure to man-in-the-middle attacks. An anonymizer could sell or provide unauthorized access to your browsing history. If you transmit sensitive unencrypted data through an anonymizer, you are taking a considerable security risk. In other words, when logged in to your Google account, your Google search behavior among other things will be personally identifiable by Google-even if you are using an anonymizer. An anonymizer is a tool which hides the name and the IP address of the user.
As a pleasant compliment, it allows to access a website which is restricted in your region or is prohibited by a Parental Control policies.
The most common type of anonymizer is the so called web proxy. They are a web page offering an opportunity to bypass restrictions and access prohibited websites. The employ the following method: A user enters the name of a web proxy into the search field say, anonymouse.
Then, as usual, the request is sent to the web server, and not from the computer, but from the proxy. The network activity in this case is entirely handled by the anonymizer. The list with all proxy server IP addresses can be found on the Internet. Then all requests from your browser would make a small detour and be handled via the proxy server of choice. As you could have gathered from the above, kids have methods of bypassing restrictions and see inappropriate pages.
The networked anonymizer design meets this threat by passing your communications through a preferably random path of other computers. This design has advantages, but also disadvantages, summarized below:. The first networked anonymizer system was Zero Knowledge Systems , which provided a multi-server network design and provided a range of confidentiality features.
Single-point anonymizers. This type of anonymizer passes your surfing through a single website to protect your identify, and often offers an encrypted communications channel for passage of results back to the user. Single-point anonymizers offer less resistance to sophisticated traffic analysis described above than do networked designs, but they also provide a compensating simplicity, organizational familiarity, and apparent trustworthiness.
You can access your favorite anonymizer website, type in your destination, and the anonymizer does your surfing for you and passes the results back to your browser. Many single-point anonymizers create an anonymized URL by appending the name of the site you wish to access to their URL, something like the following:.
With single-point anonymizers, your IP address and related identifying information are protected by the arms-length communications and not transferred to the sites you visit. If you are using a secure channel to the anonymizer, as most services offer, then your communications to the anonymizer site are also confidential to any local eavesdroppers tapping your Internet line connection or service provider — essential if you have reason to suspect a local tap.
Common features. Both networked and single-point anonymizers share a range of design features. Most importantly, once you access a web page through an anonymizer, the page is filtered so that all of its links are also anonymized.
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