Staying Anonymous On the Internet

A secret agent job is not the only reason why your subscription with Local Internet Service Providers will demand you to question their reliability. Even the random “Joes” like us have enough good stuff online that needs privacy. Although the proximate future holds much certainty that just about everything on the web will get logged, analyzed, and will also be used for everything that’s out of our control.

But this doesn’t mean there’s no solution available!

Let’s walk you through this growing array of tools that can keep you anonymous – while you surf online. Moreover, apart from being anonymous, you can start by guarding your online presence!

How Do You Go Anonymous on the Internet?

You’re often told to encrypt almost everything, from IMs to emails, by all the crypto-focused companies and user privacy groups. Encryption, however, does hide the content on messages, but not the person who’s communicating. You can use the cryptography tools for hiding your identity!

These days the most famous saying about the network is: hide in the network you use, the less obvious you become, the safer you are.

1. Use an Anonymous System

For being anonymous online, you need to use an anonymizing operating system that runs on virtual machines (VM) running on portable media. Although a browser is a major vector for snooping, third parties don’t only attack these places. PDF’s and similar seemingly harmless files may serve as homing beacons.

To prevent this from happening and your privacy getting breached, open all these files inside of VM. Load up your favorite system distributions inside the VM and configure it according to your likings, take a screenshot of your VM. Go ahead and download the file you want to and turn off the VM access to the internet. Once VM gets disconnected from the internet, the file is safe to open. Follow the same procedure for the future.

Remember: It’s better to use a Live OS that doesn’t store information. And if you’re using read-only bootable media, use a VM solution that resets itself. The best is, use both; a Live OS in a VM solution.

2. Go for Anonymous VPN

To achieve this, you should be connected to your internet anonymously. Your best choice may include jumping around various wireless networks, the public is preferred, and rarely reconnecting to the same connection again. Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the right solution for barring this method. They make it difficult for your identity to become recognized.

How VPN Works?

Your computer’s originating IP address is replaced by the metadata information. VPNs replace your IP address with their IP address, block your metadata information from traveling to the endpoint, and some may even promise to not log your connection – which means fewer data will be available with them for any sort of identification process.

3. Use “Tor” Software to Anonymize Your Browser

‘Tor‘ – was once the acronym for being “The Onion Router” is the most vouched for and developer-friendly software for using the internet incognito.

This software is free and is an open-source program that triple encrypts the traffic, bounces it from system to system all around the globe making it completely impossible to get traced. It is specifically for routing Web requests and page downloads. The majority of Tor users take advantage of the software to browse anonymously. But the software is much more than just a way to browse the web secretly; it’s an entire system, tools, APIs, browsers, and network.

How it Works

Tor software stays running in the background of your operating system while creating a proxy connection that links you up to the Tor network. Some of the apps and operating systems also provide the option of routing your data over this software – in return, you get to use the famous app or system and at the same time have your identity obscured. While some clever users are using Tor for almost all kinds of communications. Abide by Tor Warnings and remember that it’s not a magic bullet!

4. Avoid Plug-ins

Plug-ins, especially the ones used in today’s browsers, leave clues and reveal your identity as well as location. Avoid using plug-ins if you want to keep your anonymity alive.

5. Use HTTPS

HTTPS was once a difficult task to follow, but now almost all popular websites use HTTPS. This is by default, and if these websites won’t use this they can easily be defeated by an anonymizing VPN service. So, when you connect to the internet, try using HTTPS, and only use the trusted certificate authorities and not the ones that issue fake identity certificates.

6. Create Anonymous Burner Accounts

For each website, you create an account for, you will need a different password and the password question as well. The “burner” email accounts are expandable and hard enough to trace back to the original you.

You can use the webmail service in Tor browser to go anonymous completely on emails. This, however, will need you to sign in from another webmail account that doesn’t have your personal information. While, Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook will all need your phone number to register your account.

And remember that, encrypting the messages from webmail can simply be very tough. It will require you to copy and paste the messages into text windows and then also use PGP for scrambling and unscrambling them.

7. Anonymity Tools for Mobile Devices

The anonymity tools for smartphones and tablets are still far behind. An app was created lately that ran Tor on Android software, it was named Orbot and was created by The Guardian Projects. Orbot is capable of implementing Tor as a proxy on email, IM, and web browsing on Spectrum mobile devices.

This still is privileged to Android users only, and Apple users are far from having anything of this kind. On the other hand, there is an app as Onion Browser on the Apple app store and is designed for surfing the web anonymously on iPads and iPhones. More testing is still required for making Orbot successful.

For Everything Else – Anonymity Means Being Very Secure

Here’s the thing, despite the usage of Tor on your computer to anonymize everything – some information may still be leaking out. NSA uses unencrypted Windows error messages that are sent to Microsoft – identifying the users and their identities. Attackers are also capable of compromising your web pages and deliver exploits of breakouts on your browser and send in unprotected messages.

Your overall understanding of going anonymous should prioritize your security measures first. When you look for the best Local Internet Service Providers, ensure you subscribe to reliable service providers. Getting cheap offers may even compromise with your security – rather Spectrum Internet Prices will give you quality at affordable rates. Choose your service provider wisely and only secure surf websites.

NOTE: Tor is great for making you go anonymous. But if the endpoint of your online activities become compromised, your anonymity will also be compromised. Be secure!