It is an all too common misconception that anonymity equals privacy. Anonymity and privacy may be related, but their significance is worlds apart.
Do you wonder what other people know about you? Use one of these links to see what they see.
http://cavency.virtualave.net/proxy/ (very good tool) http://internet.junkbuster.com http://echo.znet.de:8888 http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/anon/test.htm
There are hundreds of web-based email services that appear to offer anonymity. Few really do. These include names such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Excite, Pobox, Dejanews, and too many more to list here. In each of these cases, the user is allowed to create a pseudonym that he uses for his messages. Unfortunately, through sign-up procedures, logging, and message headers, it is amazingly simple to determine your ISP, and even your true identity, when you use these services.
For the obvious reason, there is no point in wasting space dealing with those types of services. Instead, we'll try to provide information on methods that offer at least a degree of anonymity. As the user, it is your responsibility to know that your internet anonymity is only as secure as the service's privacy policy. You should always familiarize yourself with the usage and privacy policies of any E-mail or internet service you consider using.
http://www.skuz.net http://www.securenym.net http://www.hushmail.com http://www.ziplip.com http://www.anonymizer.com http://www.ultimate-anonymity.com http://www.nymserver.com http://www.gilc.org http://www.freedom.net http://www.privacyx.com
THE best means to insure e-mail and usenet anonymity remains the remailer network. There are some trade-offs, but used properly, there is no way a user can be identified. Using any search engine, enter the keyword 'remailer' to begin learning about the remailer network. If you want to use the remailer network today, get QuickSilver. This is an absolutely great ap which makes remailer use as easy as it gets.
***********************************************
There are a large number of nonprofit organizations that specialize in protecting your rights to privacy. It is time well spent to visit these sites, as you can learn what the current laws are, what is being proposed, and what is being done to protect privacy.
Contrary to what some ultra-conservatives might think, visiting these sites will NOT turn you into a radical or a bleeding heart liberal. In spite of what certain officials try to tell you, privacy is your right. You need information to protect that right, and these sites can help.
http://www.eff.org http://www.epic.org http://www.efga.org http://www.privacyrights.org http://www.aclu.org http://www.ipc.org http://www.rightoprivacy.com/ http://www.privacy.org/ipc/ http://www.computerprivacy.org/ http://www.bigbrotherinside.org/ http://www.privacy.org/pi/
************************************************
If you really want to learn about internet privacy and security, these links will give you more information than you could possibly use.
The first is probably the most comprehensive set of resources I've ever seen. This is THE link farm on the subject of security and internet privacy.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/9648/pgut-links.html
And here are a bunch more; not grouped by any particular subject, but all informative.
http://jya.com/crypto.htm http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/www-security-faq.html http://www.epic.org/ http://www.privacy.org/ipc/ http://www.cdt.org/ http://www.offshore.com.ai/security/ http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/ http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/popcrypt.html http://www.rpini.com/crypto/cryptocd.html http://www.andrebacard.com/privacy.html http://www.tamos.com/privacy/
AND QUIT WORRYING ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT ANYONE IS WATCHING.....THEY ARE.