Ghost Surf
Guide to Online Privacy
- Introduction
- What's really at stake
- Keeping your identity from the web
- Keeping your surfing from people who use your computer
- Conclusion
Introduction
When you surf the web, information accumulates on your computer that web site owners, and other people who share your computer, can use to learn a lot about you. They may know what your name is, they might even know where you live. They probably know what items you've bought on the Internet, and very likely they know what web sites you visit. Most people don't want strangers (and companies) on the Internet to know so much about them, especially without their consent. And some people don't want their co-workers, friends or family members to see where they've been. Fortunately, it's not very hard to protect your privacy online. You just need to know what to do.
This article is written as a non-technical guide to protecting your privacy online. It first addresses common misconceptions about Internet privacy, and then presents the ways in which you can protect yourself from the real problems.
What's Really at Stake
Many people who use the Internet fear that, if they purchase something, their credit card will be stolen. This almost never happens; banks use very secure systems to protect purchases online. In fact, there are much easier ways to steal credit cards; if your card gets stolen, it probably wasn't online. Similarly, people sometimes worry about privacy abuses that cannot happen. This section helps describe what information can be collected on the Internet, so you know what you're up against.
When you visit a web site, the owner of the site can install a little tag on your computer, called a "cookie," that allows him to identify you when you return. This isn't such a bad thing as it stands; all the web site owner knows about you is whether or not you've visited before. But cookies can also be abused by web owners. Without going into detail, it is possible for web site owners to use cookies to see what other web sites you've visited, and even information you've entered into those sites. Whenever you type anything into a web site, whether it be a question into a search engine or an address for a purchase, that information may be stored in a cookie and, in turn, seen by any other web site you visit. Secure information is never stored in cookies, like credit card numbers for example. But any non-secure information can, and very well may be.
Other than cookies, web site owners have one other tool to learn about you. Whenever you're on the Internet, your computer gets its own address. The Internet works a lot like the real world: if you want to send real mail to someone, you use his mailing address that tells you where in the country he lives; on the Internet it's very similar. Your Internet address says a little about where you are, because it says from where you're coming. If you're an AOL user, your Internet address ends in (aol.com). If you're a Harvard student, it ends in (harvard.edu). If you're a MediaOne customer, it might end in (cinci.oh.mediaone.net), which shows that you're in Cincinatti, Ohio. But Internet addresses aren't really used by web site owners, because they don't usually convey much information. If your Internet address is (ah17642.aol.com), that tells the web site owner absolutely nothing about you except that you're one of 10 million AOL users. And on top of that, most people's Internet addresses change each time they connect to the Internet. So the address can't even be used to identify you the next time you visit; your address probably changed.
So in total, you have to worry about cookies and Internet addresses. Internet addresses don't pose much of a problem really. Cookies, on the other hand, contain information about what web sites you've visited and anything you've typed into those web sites. To be safe, you should assume that every web site in the world knows about all the other sites you've surfed, and everything you've typed in. And if you're not happy with that, you'll have to turn cookies off. This is described in the next section.
There's one more concern for people using the Internet, however. For your convenience, your web browser stores a history of sites you've visited and makes it easy for you to see this history; it's supposed to help you get back to a site you liked. But you may not want other people to have such easy access to your browsing history. Browsers also store histories of the information you type into web pages too, that will actually pop up when you visit that page. Oftentimes you don't want co-workers or friends to see your home address, for example, but your browser will pop it up right in front of them. There is a way to turn both of these features off too, described in the fourth section.
Keeping your Identity from the Web
As described in the previous section, there are two potential sources of information about you when you surf the web: cookies and Internet addresses. If you block both of these, it's impossible for a web site owner to know anything personal about you.
The first and most important concern is cookies, because that's where any valuable and interesting information may be stored. You can turn cookies off in your browser by using its settings, or you can install GhostSurf which will do all this for you automatically, and also police your browser to make sure it's really not storing anything in cookies. This is a single, simple step that eliminates almost all the privacy problems on the web.
The second concern is the Internet address. Since this is very important to the way the Internet works, it's impossible to turn Internet addresses off. You have to work around them by sending all your information through a different computer. This other computer will have a different Internet address, of course, so when your information comes out it looks like it's coming from somewhere else. You can do this by finding an anonymous CERN proxy server on the web and configuring your browser to use it, or you can install GhostSurf, which will do this for you automatically, in addition to finding the fastest and most reliable intermediary computer for you. There is one important note of caution however: since you're sending everything through another computer somewhere else in the world, your Internet connection may slow down. And if that computer gets shut down, your Internet connection will cease to work until you switch to another one. GhostSurf makes switching easy, but it's still something to think about. And when weighed against the benefit, which is relatively small, blocking your Internet address is usually not worth the cost. If you're using a big Internet Service Provider, like AOL or MediaOne or EarthLink or NetZero, or anyone with more than 100,000 customers, it's almost certainly not worth it. If you're one of 100,000 or more, you're pretty anonymous already.
Keeping Your Surfing from People who use your Computer
As mentioned earlier, web browsers try to make it as easy as possible for users to see where they've been and what they've typed; it saves them time and frustration. But at the same time it shows everyone else who uses that computer everything that has gone on there. Many people consider this to be a violation of their privacy.
Fortunately, just like with cookies, there are easy ways to solve these problems. You can turn all the history features off in your browser by reading the documentation. There are probably a number of features you'll have to turn off, so there may be some research work involved here. The main ones you should look for are just "History" and "AutoComplete." Any history features will keep a list of the sites you've visited. AutoComplete fills in boxes with things you've typed before. So when AutoComplete is on, for example, anyone can see what you've searched for and any other information you enter into web sites. You should also turn off the temporary storage or "caching" features of your web browser, because they will store copies of all the pages you visit on your computer, clearly visible to other users.
Alternatively, you can use GhostSurf to do all this for you. It automatically takes care of all the features that store information on your computer, and even gives you the ability to forcibly flush this information out if you want. This keeps browsers from mistakenly leaving information on your computer that others could see.
Conclusion
We've now seen exactly what kind of information can be taken from you when you surf the Internet, and how to prevent this from happening. Although the abuses of privacy are wide-spread, well-documented and often frightening, there are very simple steps you can take to ensure that your personal information is not leaked onto the web. The best part of the Internet privacy problem is that it's simple; at least you can take just a few steps and then be sure that your information is not going anywhere.
We hope this article has been informative, and easy to read. Please contact our Customer Services department with any questions or comments you have. Feedback is welcomed!
