Probably my favorite session at the New Mexico Library Association conference was the one on internet privacy. I know a lot of our patrons are concerned about these issues so I took some notes so I could share. The good news is, they are all available for free.
Anonymity on the net. Probably the most intriguing and most comprehensive way to protect your privacy is via torproject.org. Originally from the U.S. Naval Research Lab, it's now Once a secret project of the U.S. Naval Research Lab, it's now "the concern of the Tor Project, an open-source community devoted to developing Tor, the software implementation of second-generation Onion Routing technology, and to maintaining the Tor network," as CNET put it.
The Onion Routing technology means that your data goes through several layers to anonymize it.
Other anonymizers are VPN's or Virtual Private Networks such as CyberGhost which allows you to be anonymous to websites you visit. It's not as all-encompassingly secure or private as Tor but may work fine for your purposes. As the presenter said, it also depends on how much you trust the VPN.
Https Everywhere encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure. It only works with Firefox and Chrome, however.
NoScript.net - A Firefox add-on. The website describes it as follows: When you install NoScript, JavaScript, Java, Flash Silverlight and possibly other executable contents are blocked by default. You will be able to allow JavaScript/Java/... execution (scripts from now on) selectively, on the sites you trust. You can allow a site to run scripts temporarily, if you're just surfing randomly, or permanently, when you visit it often and you really trust it. This means that NoScript learns from your own browser habits and tends to disappear in the background after a while, but it promptly comes back to save your day if you stumble upon a malicious web page.
Adblock Plus - blocks ads and disables tracking deices from collecting information about you. Also helps protect against malware. Works on Firefox, Chrome, Android and Opera.
Pidgin - Allows for encrypted chat which may be desirable when using public wi-fi.
Thunderbird email and Enigmail extension - a free email service that're more private than gmail, etc.
TrueCrypt - Creates a virtual hard drive that encrypts your data or storage device such as a flash drive.
Perhaps you'll have happier surfing now!
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