You've been doing all the right things. You change passwords regularly, you clear your cookies (and not just the ones in your jar), you are very cautious about deleting your browsing history whenever you are on a shared computer, you also encrypt your mails, and you don't download software unless you're really, really sure of everything. But even with all that, aren't you forgetting something? Your ISP!

Let's face it - you can never be 100% private and secure on the internet. In fact, a judge in Ontario ruled that ‘there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy online' while dealing with a case allowing police officers to obtain any individual's name, address and other details from the IP addresses alone WITHOUT a search warrant. (So much for Data Privacy Day) but isn't it completely violating to know that your ISP will blatantly share you browsing details, and other information we keep leaving online with other companies and that there is nothing you can do to stop them, or even know if and when they collect this information? 

It's true - your ISP has complete access to everything you send or receive online. Of course, they may not be actually doing it, but potentially they form the biggest danger to internet users all over the world - this according to a Law School Prof in Colorado, Paul Ohms. According to him, "ISPs pose a much greater threat to privacy than other online entities and they even pose a greater threat than offline institutions as well, including doctors, psychiatrists, and lawyers." And there are two factors contributing to this: deep packet inspection technology and methods and increasing pressure from the companies and online marketers. 

Recall, Webwise by Phorm - the technology that offers ISPs the option of showing targeted ads to their subscribers based on their preferences (by knowing what they do online) and it's only a matter of time before sophisticated technology comes into the picture and your ISP will snoop around your private data. However, law makers are on the side of the consumers so far, with one US Court of Appeals in Columbia denying a petition by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association to override the privacy rules that they are bound by which makes it difficult for them to share subscribers personal info with third parties. Thank God for that! 

Proxy servers can do a lot more than just keep your privacy with you. Of course, all the other things it can do stem from that basic function; but it's just that this particular feature can actually be put to various uses and advantages - one of which is downloading faster, especially with torrents.

Anyone who's a full-on downloader online knows of torrents and how they get you the best of movies and music and television shows, mostly for free. However, something most users know or don't know is that your ISP is not really very happy about you being so happy. That's because anyone downloading huge files via torrents are hogging the bandwidth, meaning less traffic for them potentially. And since it's the "almighty" ISP, he can see very well what it is that you're downloading and from where. Therefore when initially you'll see speeds soaring to 125 kbps, it will eventually come down to 25 kbps, and you'll be wondering what happened. Well your ISP happened. He just throttled your connection.  

Most BitTorrent clients offer an encoding option to ‘mask' the data that you send and receive via the torrent in order to let you get away with high speed at the cost of your ISP's bandwidth. However, ISP's have become smarter and these tricks don't seem to work anymore. Therefore proxy servers come to your aid. You will find quite a few torrent clients that act as proxy servers themselves. These pass their IP address as yours, so it actually seems like they're downloading and not you and thus your speed stays pretty good. Then there are third party proxy servers which you could use for downloading torrents. These work in the same way that browsing proxies work.  

You could go in for the torrent client-cum-proxy server, but there's a very good chance you might have to download a program onto your comp, and if you're not sure then you really shouldn't go ahead with it. Third party proxy servers, on the other hand seem pretty safe. You could try out a few and then stick with what you think is the best.  

It might surprise you to know how much information about you is going out even when you perform a simple task like using a search engine. In the previous post, there was a mention of cookies, and nobody loves cookies more than search engines. Cookies are how search engines can track your behavior on the internet and this info is mighty useful for marketing purposes. Now we cannot deny how useful search engines really are, but exactly how much privacy are we willing to lose over them?

The answer to these questions may very well be in the form of proxy servers which hide your IP address, thereby making it impossible for a server, any server, to figure out where exactly you are on the internet. Simplified: if the search engine can't locate your computer, it definitely cannot send you a cookie. For those who find using proxy servers a little too ‘techie' you can try many features available in some of the browsers and search engines. 

Ixquick, a popular Dutch meta-search engine offers you complete privacy over the internet by not storing your IP address on their servers, thereby not sending you cookies at all. Most search engines save cookies on your computer for at least 3 months, but Ixquick has always been deleting cookies within 48 hours. As of late, Ixquick no longer needs to store cookies at all on the browser. Thus, Ixquick is quite a safe choice when you're looking up sensitive information and quite important too when your kids are browsing. 

Ixquick is also the first search engine to offer such privacy to its users and won the EuroPrivacy Award in 2008. However, the privacy lasts only between the PC you're searching from and the Ixquick server. The moment you click on any of the search results, you are now connected to their server, and thus no longer private. Thus, if you're looking at really sophisticated protection, then thus far proxy servers seem to be the best bet. And for the technically-challenged they've become quite simple now. 

Most people think that online privacy can be achieved largely through antivirus, anti malware, anti spyware and a lot of other ‘anti' software. However, there is an aspect of internet privacy that's quite simple, and yet overlooked - and that's your browser. In fact this option is even more important while maintaining online privacy as you may be using a shared computer, workplace computer or even a computer in a public place such as an internet café, where you might not have any data to protect on your PC, but you will have to protect data that you send. At such times, you really don't have the privilege of installing anything, but a little check on the browser will go a long way.

So here are the things you need to look out for. Nearly all of the tinkering can be done via the ‘Options' tab under the ‘Tools' menu in most browsers like Mozilla Firefox, IE (Internet Explorer) and Safari. Google Chrome however, has only one ‘Settings' button (actually shaped like a spanner) and the ‘Options' below it. Click through to this tab and fiddle around with the following: 

1. Auto Complete options: Google chrome doesn't have this feature yet, but IE and Firefox do. Turn this option off. If left on, it will allow you to see everything that has have been typed in the browser previously and will give others after you the same benefit. Which means your email ID, and other fields like name and address, could become public property.
2. Remembering passwords: Turn this option off as well, for obvious reasons.
3. If sending sensitive emails from a shared or public computer, allow encryption of the emails. Look for this option in the privacy or security option.
4. On a PC, look for options that disallow third party cookies. This is easily found in Firefox. Go to Tools > Options > Security and disallow third party cookies. In Chrome go to ‘Settings' (Spanner shaped icon) > Options > under the hood. In IE go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy. Restricting third party cookies is the most important aspect of maintaining online privacy.
5. At the same place, you will find a way to delete Temporary files - something you might want to do after you're done with your internet session on a shared or public computer and periodically on your PC.
6. MOST IMPORTANT: On a public or shared PC, once you're done with the browsing, ensure that you clear browsing data. This option will be available directly under the Tools menu in Firefox (Clear private data); under the spanner button in Chrome; and in the ‘Clear History' button found in Tools > Internet Options > General in IE.

If you are concerned with your safety while you are online, you might stay away from the many contests that are available to you on the Internet. Using a service that will keep your identity and IP address anonymous on these sites will give you the freedom that you need to enter these contests with confidence. Many of the contests are real, but there is really no way of knowing without opening yourself up to all kinds of dangers.

When you use a service that hides your identity while you are online, you can enter the contest regardless of any research that you have done on the site. Anonymity Gateway gives you the ability to do just that. When you are able to enter these contests safely and securely, you will feel you have a much better chance of winning one of them.  

The prizes that are available are quite tempting and you can get in on all the really great offers. The site for Anonymity Gateway has some very good tips for handling yourself while you are online. If you use the service to keep your identity anonymous and follow all the tips that are outlined on the site, you will be able to enter some really great contests with renewed confidence.

While the service will not guarantee your win, it will leave you free to enter the contests without worry. Contests online are a numbers game and the more that you are able to enter, the greater your odds of winning something on one of them. When you have a security measure in place, you will be increasing your odds of actually winning a contest when you have the ability to enter many of the various contests available online. 

Take some time to protect yourself while you are online and check out Anonymity Gateway. Protecting yourself online is a simple process, but it is an absolutely vital one if you are going to protect yourself against identity theft and numerous scams that exist online.