11 Aug Why and How You Should Keep Your Online Identity Anonymous
Today, your online privacy and Internet security are more threatened than ever before. Everyone, from the government to your ISP wants to know which sites you are looking at by placing third party cookies. Irrespective, the need for stay away from people who scrutinize your surfing habits is on the increase.
Here are a few ways in which to boost your online privacy and staying shielded from snoopsters.
The Onion Router (Tor)
If you want to remain anonymous, the Onion Router (Tor) is a good place to start. It makes use of a wide network of computers that direct your Web traffic through multiple layers of encryption to hide its point of origin. Tor is a favorite with political dissidents and whistleblowers who share information anonymously, and you can use it to do the same. To start using it, download the Tor Browser. You can use it to directly connect to the Tor anonymous network, and includes other privacy-boosting browser extensions. While this is not the silver bullet for snoops, you need to abide by the Tor warnings and keep your browsing behavior in check.
VPN
If you want professional-level anonymity, you might want to explore VPN solutions like TorGuard or Private Internet Access. This is one of the best ways to cloak your traffic. While your IP address will remain hidden, your traffic will be equally unintelligible. Even if you live in a country where the government actively tracks VPN traffic and enforces censorship, you can go for a “stealth VPN.” TorGuard offers its sletch VPN services for digital privacy at no additional cost.
DNS leak testing
Unfortunately, even with VPN, though your IP address may remain hidden you can be given away by your DNS traffic. Luckily, it’s not very difficult to detect if your configuration is leaking your DNS information. All you need to do is visit DNSLeakTest.com and run the extended test. If you see the third-party DNS service you’re using (like TorGuard), you’re all good. However, a DNS leak will show if your ISP’s DNS details show up. In that case, follow the instructions on the “How to fix a DNS leak” page, and conduct the test again.
