What is anonymous surfing?


Anonymous surfing is browsing web sites privately.

Anonymous surfing encompasses two different forms of privacy:
* Privacy protection from the web site you are browsing.
* Privacy protection from eavesdroppers who may be watching your network connection.

Why Anonymous Surfing?

There are many reasons why someone would want to do anonymous surfing. People surf anonymously to protect themselves from the government, their employers, or nosy family members.

People in Iran use anonymous surfing to prevent being executed in the streets. People in corporate America use anonymous surfing to avoid sharing the details of their personal lives with their employers. Everyone uses anonymous surfing to protect their privacy from nosy web sites and annoying advertisers.

How does anonymous surfing work?

Anonymous web surfing works by putting a proxy server between the user and the web site. The web browser talks to the proxy server, and the proxy server talks to the web site.

The web site does not know who you are, it only knows who the anonymous proxy server is. The anonymous proxy server does know who you are -- so you had better choose an anonymous proxy server that you trust.

There are four technical approaches utilized to enable anonymous surfing through a proxy server:

Anonymous surfing through a web site

With these systems, you browse the web site of the anonymous proxy server and enter in the URL of the web page you actually want to surf.
Anonymous surfing through client applications

With these systems, you download and install a client application which manages the details of anonymous surfing for you.
Anonymous surfing though an anonymous web proxy service

With these services, you configure your browser to point to an anonymous web proxy. These systems are public and are setup and advertised for anonymous proxy usage.
Anonymous surfing though an anonymous server

With these systems, you configure your browser to point to an anonymous web proxy. These systems are published in constantly updated lists on many web sites on the Internet. You normally do not know who is running each of these anonynmous proxy servers. You hope it isn't someone who is recording your traffic.


Features to Look For in a Web Proxy Service for Anonymous Surfing

 good web proxy service will setup a TLS or SSL tunnel with the anonymous surfer. This will prevent network sniffers from eavesdropping on the person who is anonymous surfing.

Some proxy servers support FTP, while others only support HTTP. Some, but not all, anonymous proxy servers support HTTPS. Make sure to select an anonymous proxy server which support the protocols you want to use.

In addition to hiding your IP address, an anonymous proxy server will typically remove traffic such as:
Cookies
Scripts
Pop-ups
Banners
Referrer information

These options should be configurable by the end-user to enable to proxy server to work with web sites which require cookies or pop-ups.


Web Proxy Services for Anonymous Surfing

Anonymous web proxy services tend to be somewhat unstable, the list of current anonymous web proxy services changes constantly. In addition, some anonymous web proxy services are free services and others are not. Most of the current proxy services offer some version of limited free service, and then try to upsell you to a monthly subscription.

Here are some current proxy services which make anonymous surfing possible:

Cotse
The Cloak
Anonymizer
IDzap
Mega Proxy
@nonymous
Guardster
Proxy Web
SnoopBlocker
Proxify
Bitesize Work
proxy spinner
The Virtual Browser
NoMoreLimits