Security of web browser activity

[BoomTown]

I realize that distilling isn't always legal. If you want to track what's going on, and are a little nervous about maybe someone monitoring your activity,

Your answer may be....TorBrowser....go ahead, google it.....

Boom

[pounsfos]

thanks for the link

If you don't want to install these then on firefox press ctr+shift+p (private browsing mode)
chrome is ctr+shift+n

or you can use a proxy site and browse through someone elses computer (usually has an encryption tunnel as well between you and the host)

a few people do this

[Michaeln416]

There is a free Chrome extension called 'HTTPS Everywhere' which will attempt an encrypted connection to every website that you surf to by default. Anyone monitoring your traffic externally will see the website addresses that you went to, but they won't be able to see any of the details or the data transferred.

The private browsing mode mentioned above prevents local logging and caching. It is useful if you are using a shared computer and don't want other users in your house seeing your browsing history.

[BoomTown]

Michael, does the same thing happen with Tor? Can someone see where the computer used is? And if so, can some see where the user went?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[rad14701]

Tor has been discussed previously and is not as secure as folks are led to believe...

[aj2456]

theres always vpnbook- but then thats more for downloading... but works great for everything but a bit more complicated to install, but its free

[Michaeln416]

Michael, does the same thing happen with Tor? Can someone see where the computer used is?

Hi BoomTown;

First of all, for the non-geeks reading this, when we talk about "where" a computer is and its "address" we are referring to its "IP address" which is simply a string of numbers for routing over the Internet. However, there are ways to associate your IP address with your other less discrete internet traffic. This in turn may be easily associated with public information that readily identifies you; think Facebook profile, LinkedIn, email, Amazon purchases, etc. Also, with help from your ISP records they can often associate that IP address with a known physical address.

The primary goal of Tor and other encrypted proxy services is to obfuscate (hide) the source (you) and destination addresses from eavesdroppers in addition to encrypting the traffic.

The best way to think of this is to use the US Postal Service in an analogy. If you send by regular letter mail an encrypted note that you typed onto a sheet of paper you still have to enclose that in a plain text envelope. You are not able to encrypt the recipient's name and address or else USPS won't know where to deliver it. Therefore, with traditional encryption, the content of your message is kept secret, however, all parties in the conversation and their addresses are public.

Tor and other proxy services are kind of like using a private courier that allows you to encrypt the envelope as well. It is important to note that the envelope is encrypted using a key that is shared with the private courier (so that they can deliver it). However, almost always, you are placing trust in someone that you do not know. If some stranger in an unmarked black van shows up at your door and asks for your private messages along with the delivery keys - how do you really know they are who they say they are? They could be the very person or entity that you are trying to hide from. What is much worse is that some of these private courier services on the internet (VPN proxies) require that you to use their keys for encrypting the message as well as the envelope. Therefore they have access to everything, including the contents of the message.

In summary:

• SSL/HTTPS or PGP = secure contents + public envelope
  Tor or VPN Proxy = secure contents + secure envelope - trust

To increase trust in that last example make sure that the service you choose only has the keys to the delivery envelope and that you get to use your own pair of keys for encrypting/decrypting the contents.Then do some research on how they manage their delivery keys (do they use the same set of keys for every message, or do they make new ones for each individual message and immediately delete after use).

[genejonesiii]

If your not selling likker and costing the government money, they are not going to raid your home for a forum. The government can trace everything, work and pay your taxes and don't sell no untaxed liquor and they don't give a shit. They are greedy thieves and as long as you don't steel from them, they will be fine.