Does anyone PRIVATELY surf the web?

[Slugfest]

Greetings everyone,

Every week I seem to read articles about the lack of freedom on the net. It seems every keystroke and website is recorded and compiled. All the information is kept on servers and analyzed. The information that can't be analyzed, due to current technological limitations, is kept for the future.

This being said, does anyone PRIVATELY surf the web. Some proxy web services are compromised like TOR. Does anyone know of any reputable companies that provide truly anonymous proxy services? How is your experience with them?

Buy the way, I don't do anything illegal. I'm just a freedom loving American.

Comments appreciated

 

[Tucker301]

Much of the information gathered and used is not user specific. Sure, you will see ads based on things you've done or read, but there's typically nothing tying that information back to you specifically.
That said, it is getting worse, and it goes well beyond just surfing. Smart phones track your every movement, and that data is used in a variety of ways. Again, not specific to you as individual, but still creepy. http://video.foxnews.com/v/5731183327001/
I browse with a number privacy enhancements, filters, and ad blockers, but I doubt they catch everything.

 

[2ndamendfan]

Pretty hard to stay incognito when I can have 5000rds of anything dropped off at my front porch. Even better, cheaper than local. Only thing close is a gunshow which is 45min away and a shit show more than anything.

 

[Nik H]

Greetings everyone,

This being said, does anyone PRIVATELY surf the web. Some proxy web services are compromised like TOR. Does anyone know of any reputable companies that provide truly anonymous proxy services? How is your experience with them?

Comments appreciated

Why do you believe TOR is compromised? Is it because of something you read or do you have 1st hand experience. Reason I ask is if TOR is truly compromised via backdoors, there is nothing else that can help you. Any VPN proxy would be compromised in the same manner. It would be even easier as TOR has multiple layers to scramble the path.

Many of the "compromises" or discoveries of users within TOR are not a result of a weakness in the method. They made themselves visible which led to discovery by alternative methods of intelligence gathering.

In my opinion, TOR is far safer than any other method out there.

 

[FS1]

They say you have signed away your rights by joining or using these goons. What happened to "Inalienable Rights"? It seems you can alienate them by their rules. Where is the Nanny State when I need my rights protected? The Govt. is too busy trying to overturn an election rather than protect me like they are supposed to.

 

[QuickNDirty]

Why do you believe TOR is compromised? Is it because of something you read or do you have 1st hand experience. Reason I ask is if TOR is truly compromised via backdoors, there is nothing else that can help you. Any VPN proxy would be compromised in the same manner. It would be even easier as TOR has multiple layers to scramble the path.

Many of the "compromises" or discoveries of users within TOR are not a result of a weakness in the method. They made themselves visible which led to discovery by alternative methods of intelligence gathering.

In my opinion, TOR is far safer than any other method out there.

It is much safer than nothing, but you can still get popped if someone wants you bad enough.

 

[rijndael]

https://news.bitcoin.com/leaked-document-appears-to-show-nsa-infiltrated-cryptos-tor-vpn/

Leaked Document Appears to Show NSA Infiltrated Cryptos, Tor, VPN

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

AFAIK Tor is still g2g if proper opsec is followed. As said, it was mistakes by the users that got darknet market admins and such caught. Ultimately tho, if I was a international fugitive or some shit, I'd go full Taliban and get rid of any electronic devices at all.

 

[Nik H]

It is much safer than nothing, but you can still get popped if someone wants you bad enough.

You can always get popped if someone wants you bad enough. My point is that I haven't seen anything any better

 

[Foul Mike]

When I was in High School back in the 60s I read George Orwell's book 1984.
At the time I thought he was such a Space Kadet that nothing like that could happen yet here we are now!!!
I also read about Dick Tracy and his 2-way wrist radio and thought "Na, ain't happening." yet look at us now!!!
I would recommend 1984 for a read to anyone and pay attention as to when it was written and how much ridicule the author received at the time. FM

 

[Maggot]

When I was in High School back in the 60s I read George Orwell's book 1984.
At the time I thought he was such a Space Kadet that nothing like that could happen yet here we are now!!!
I also read about Dick Tracy and his 2-way wrist radio and thought "Na, ain't happening." yet look at us now!!!
I would recommend 1984 for a read to anyone and pay attention as to when it was written and how much ridicule the author received at the time. FM

Follow it up with Brave New World.

 

[PolarisBreach]

Bottom line, if you're connected to the internet, don't expect anything you do to be private. Ultimately, with enough time and resources, everything can be traced back to you, and no amount of proxies or level of encryption will change that.

 

[Long Range 338]

Buy the way, I don't do anything illegal. I'm just a freedom loving American.

That's exactly what makes you dangerous!

I do some work in the Physical Security market and the technology today is just overwhelming in the way it intrudes into every facet of our lives. And its only getting more so.

If you are concerned about your internet surfing being monitored, you should be fully aware that EVERYTHING on your mobile devices is being intercepted.

 

[W54/XM-388]

It depends on exactly who you are trying to hide from and how badly they want you & what for.

Are you trying to keep advertising companies from building a profile on you?
Are you trying to keep wife / work / divorce lawyers / kids from seeing what you did online?
Are you trying to not be on some government "list"?
Are you trying to post things / opinions without people tracing it back to you?
Are you trying to visit some sites that may potential also be used by criminals, for your own legitimate academic research but don't want to be on a list?

Those you might be able to minimize with a lot of work (and much more than you think).
However even just trying to full escape the identity net that Google/Facebook/Advertisers use is pretty hard. Not to mention now thanks to Microsoft your OS (if using Windows vista or above) is also sending data about you for "revenue enhancement", so they can make money off selling your info the same way. Even your video card drivers are sending back data about what you do.

Just remember however that pretty much all electronic communications from anywhere in the world anytime are basically intercepted and stored by the NSA. Then if for some reason the NSA is actually going after you, Anything electronic even "unconnected" is probably going to still give them the data they want.

In my opinion one of the best defenses on the average day is not to use social media & to try your best to just disappear into the background of the data collection that happens as yet another insignificant record.

You can take more active steps, but most things that are actually effective will entail a lot more than loading a piece of software on your home computer & going from there.

 

[FS1]

Any of you guys remember PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)? It was so good the Govt. sued and made them put in a back door.

I’ll bet if you started using a pre back door version (if it would even work now) you would get a lot of attention.

Our loss of Privacy is not due to just tech. It’s by design. JMHO

 

[W54/XM-388]

I have a bunch of old versions of PGP and some new ones. I don't think it will make any difference which version you use in regards to attention, as unless they choose to decrypt it, it doesn't show up. however encrypted stuff like that does often get flagged a bit more to see who you are.

I wouldn't really worry as much about NSA back doors on encryption as much as them having capabilities and knowing weaknesses before anyone else as well as just getting your data directly. Back doors in open source encryption programs tend to get found eventually, so more subtle mistakes or weaknesses are more used, or just ignore the encrypted message & get it from the source.

Also if you listen to what the guys who run the spying say, they reveal a lot. Most of the time the message is not that important, the "metadata" about who sent it, who got it, where it came from, what server sent it, what server received it & matching up that information across vast data tables is what is actually useful to build up patterns and matching activity

They could probably crack the encryption if they decided to use the resources to do so, but why bother, most likely the management engine in your PC chipset will give them full keylogger access once they decide you match enough communication patterns to be worth the look. If you are running Windows, it's even easier, Microsoft (let alone the NSA) can go out and grab "problem files" from your PC to see what is causing the error reports (Microsoft does say you can "choose to not participate" and they will "respect your choice"...

Your cell phone may be running an "encrypted" communication app... but somebody already has root access to see all that goes on in your phone.

 

[rijndael]

(Microsoft does say you can "choose to not participate" and they will "respect your choice"...

That's always been an issue for me. Just because you click a box to opt out of something doesn't mean they're actually doing it.

I don't like that there's a check box in One Drive app to allow access to any files on the PC. I'm sure it's only allowing/disallowing my access, not MS's access. But the lack of a checkbox doesn't mean it's any safer, it just means I may not be able to control it.

 

[Slugfest]

Thanks everybody for chiming in. Any thought on Cryptohippie?