Protecting your identity, and your privacy, online
Part 1 of a look at virtual private networks, or VPNs
Most people acknowledge they are being tracked while using the internet and some of them shrug it off as a necessary inconvenience. However, if you want to browse, stream, or download while hiding your location, identity, and activity on the internet a virtual private network, VPN, could be of interest to you.
To understand how a VPN works you’ll need to know some essential technical aspects.
You pay an internet service provider (ISP) such as Bell, Nexicom, or Cogeco to connect you to the internet. The ISP assigns your computer or mobile device a unique number, called an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the company maintains a detailed log of every website visited and email sent by that IP address.
Any website can read your IP address and determine your general location as well as your ISP. You can see what a website can glean about you at the IP Location website (www.iplocation.net/find-ip-address).
An IP address can be used to personally identify the owner of the computer assigned that address and, if directed by court order, an ISP must supply the name and home address of that person to law enforcement agencies or the copyright holders of illegally downloaded material.
However, things can get worse. The data transmitted between your computer and a public website on an unprotected public Wi-Fi connection, found in most coffee shops or airports, could be intercepted by a hacker and read to reveal passwords and personal information.
If you find this alarming, a
VPN can prevent these privacy threats. The simplest form of a VPN is a proxy service which you can install for free as an add-on to your web browser. All of your internet activity will be routed through a distant proxy server and websites will only see the IP address and location of that server, not yours. Also, all data between your computer and the proxy will be scrambled or encrypted so that a hacker cannot decipher it and your ISP will be unable to log any of your internet activity.
Kproxy (www.kproxy.com) is free for the Chrome or Firefox browser on your computer. You’ll be limited to a proxy server in one pre-selected country, or pay for the retail version to be able to choose different countries.
A nice alternative is the Opera browser (www.opera.com/) which is free and, besides an ad blocker and other useful features, has a proxy service builtin. You can choose a server in one of four locations in the world and Opera will encrypt all of the data leaving your computer. You enable the VPN in Opera’s settings and turn it on or off and select a location by using a button at the top of the browser. Opera is available for Windows and Mac computers and Apple or Android mobile devices but the VPN feature will not work on an iPad or iPhone.
The free Tor browser (www.torproject.org) was developed by the U. S. Navy for secure intelligence gathering. Tor connects to the anonymous Onion network and is often used by journalists to hide their online activity while in repressive countries that enforce internet censorship and tracking. It will run on any device and operating system and if run from a USB flash drive it will leave no traces of its use on the computer. The official Tor site has tons of info and instructions.
However, you should know about the limitations of a proxy service. You will only be anonymous when you use the specific browser to which it’s added. Any other program that connects to the internet will still broadcast your true IP address. Tor will not accept tracking cookies placed by advertising companies to track your online activity but other browsers will do so unless run in incognito or private mode; there are instructions at The How to Geek website (http://tinyurl.com/m6cqrcm ).
In my next column I’ll tell you about getting a powerful, moderately priced, virtual private network that will totally shield your identity and let your computer or mobile device appear to be located in almost any country you choose.
Ray Saitz, a Peterborough resident and teacher, writes a regular column on the internet. He can be reached at rayser3@cogeco.ca