Internet privacy, enhancing internet privacy using software. Email privacy - secure email service.
Anonymous internet surfing, anonymous browsing

"Many people don't want the things they say online to be connected with their offline identities. They may be concerned about political or economic retribution, harassment, or even threats to their lives. Whistleblowers report news that companies and governments would prefer to suppress; human rights workers struggle against repressive governments; parents try to create a safe way for children to explore; victims of domestic violence attempt to rebuild their lives where abusers cannot follow." Electronic Frontier Foundation

See the related topics on
Mutemail.com or Anonymize.net

What does internet privacy mean for an average Internet user?

A simple answer to that could be: it is opportunity to conduct all Internet activities securely, so that no one could intercept the communications, and privately, so that the remote party could see only those personal details of the user, the user would allow seeing.

This task is not that simple it may seem. Straightforward reconfiguring of the browser, email client and other software to remove personal details cannot solve it. There are some details, which cannot be removed or modified by a user alone. Here we will give some essentials of internet privacy software, email privacy, secure email service, anonymous internet surfing, anonymous browsing, secure and private communication in the Internet.

What are the main and most common activities in the Internet?

Well, emailing takes the major part. Then go browsing, ICQ, IRC, FTP, etc. Let us see how can one have email privacy protecting the content of his/her emails and identity.

Email privacy, email security, secure email service

The most common way of sending email messages is doing so via your ISP (Internet Services Provider). This is, probably, the surest way of letting the world know all intimate details about yourself, like who you are and where you live. Your or any other, ISP never cares about clients' privacy.

Another typical way of neglecting email privacy would be opening a free web mail account. It is a wide spread illusion - privacy of web mail. Great majority of web mail providers, even those claiming to offer anonymous services, will expose your IP address to the recipient if the recipient would wish to check the headers of the message to see it. Your IP address points directly to your ISP. Examining ISP's logs any curious person can find out identification and billing information which usually contains the name, address and other personal details. Quite often a clients' phone number used for dial up is logged too. Moreover message content may be stored uncontrolled in a local browser cache on your HD (hard drive), or in your ISP proxy cache. And the last, but not the least important thing is that if a web mail server does not use SSL encryption, then anyone interested in between your PC and the web mail server can look through your mail messages like a morning newspaper. To finalize this short review we can say that web mail cannot offer email privacy and does not fit for business correspondence. Anyone using it knows that.

So what should a person seeking email privacy, secure email service look for?

Here is a list of requirements your ESP (email services provider) should meet to provide secure email service.

• Your ESP should not collect and record any information about clients, i.e. you. Only two things are essential for signing up for a new email account: a login (used as a part of your email address) and password (to access the account). Other details should be optional.
• Your ESP SMTP (mail server) should not add the header containing the sender's IP address. The significance of the IP address for locating of the sender has been dealt with above.
• You should look for an ESP allowing encrypted connection to the server. This will eliminate intermediate snooping.
• And again, avoid web-based email. It is not a secure email service. It is not convenient either. Emailing a dozen of messages may take eternity. Using your favorite software like Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Messenger you will make your email communication much easier and convenient. Moreover storing your messages on a local (and encrypted) drive of your PC is far more secure than doing this somewhere in the Internet.

Anonymous internet surfing, anonymous and secure browsing

Browsing is a two-sided process. The IP address is being determined on the initial stage of the connection. Then, to receive any information from a server in the Internet your browser sends a request for a page first. This request contains some important details related to the privacy of the user, e.g. referrer page and user's preferred language. These details, although seemingly insignificant, can compromise your privacy when surfing. Here is a short list of the points to check for anonymous internet surfing and anonymous browsing.

• Referrer page is the page you visited last before going to any other page. For instance, if you were at your home page, and then moved to this page, then your home page is the referrer.
• User's language means your operating system language settings and/or your browser language settings. This detail can point to your nationality, for example, giving a hint to the country you reside.
• Finally, the IP address - it is the most betraying detail, which can lead to your ISP and then to you personally.

Language settings, referrer page - all these details can be controlled by the user (please ask the Expert if interested). IP address is the most critical detail since an Internet user cannot control it. She/he needs a third party, usually ASP (anonymizing services provider) that can mask the IP address thus allowing anonymous internet surfing, anonymous browsing.

How could one avoid disclosing the above details when browsing?

Since an average user cannot cope with the problem alone it is recommended to look after an ASP (anonymizing services provider) company. Here is a list of requirements your ASP (anonymizing services provider) should meet to ensure anonymous internet surfing, anonymous browsing.

• Services must be truly anonymous. Quite often "anonymous" proxy servers pass on users' IP address.
• Some anonymizing services (HTTP proxy based) strip off cookies, and some other headers, as well as Java scripts. Whatever is said about cookies in the Internet media, it is important to know that you will not be able to access about half of the web sites if your browser cookies or Java scripts settings are disabled or filtered by proxy. Moreover since any user alone can control cookies or Java scripts there is no need to use an ASP for these purposes. In case you are seriously concerned about cookies implanted in your browser, we recommend using any software deleting cookies after the Internet sessions.
• You should check whether the ASP you plan using allows browsing secure sites. It is essential if you wish using Internet for banking or payments.
• You have to make sure that your connection to ASP is also encrypted. This will help eliminating intermediate snoopers, e.g. your corporate network users, ISP or country content filtering or monitoring firewalls.
• Always ask your ASP about the activities they log. It is important to know what information is recorded and for how long this information (logs) is stored.

Security and privacy in ICQ, IRC, Newsgroups, FTP and other Internet activities

The main point in these activities for privacy seekers would be masking IP address, so you should look for an ASP, which would provide this. The rest like configuring the specific software can be done by an experienced user alone. It is very desirable to choose an ASP, which can provide connection encryption for these communications as well.

For all cases described above it is important that your anonymous services provider allows you to pay anonymously via e-gold, Western Union or by a wire transfer (options listed in the order of decreasing confidentiality).

Local security

Our experts can assist in securing your privacy in the Internet. However your local PC security can be a problem too and this problem can be solved by you only. Trying to help you in this we have collected a nice set of software tools. These tools will provide comprehensive protection of your PC. Here is a brief list of the "must have" software. Actual software products you may need would depend on your operating system, software installed, etc. You may wish discussing this with an Expert.

Personal firewall

It is a wall actually repelling the attacks from the outside (from the Internet). It will prevent any undesirable connection attempt from inside of your PC, e.g. some software (called spyware) or a virus may try sending data collected from your hard drive.

Virus protection

Internet is highly contagious environment. It is a general truth nowadays when so many have suffered from virus attack.

Local storage protection

We recommend using encryption software for protecting sensitive data stored on your local drives.

Please request additional information sending
a message to our fax numbers in:
UK: +44 870 421 1387
USA: +1 626 609 3984
or E-mail: info@privacy-solutions.com
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