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Software: Intermute is a Java application that mimics a proxy server on a user's machine, creating a buffer between the browser the and the Web which gives Intermute room to work. The software can block Java applets, prevent JavaScripts from loading, crack down on cookies, block out user information when clicking on hotlinks, and stop banner ads, background images, and background music from loading. A zipped copy is available for free on its website. PGP 5.0The latest and greatest edition of Pretty Good Privacy uses both RSA and Diffie-Helman 128-bit algorithims to ensure practical unbreakability. It comes bundled with Eudora, and includes a simple point-and-click interface that not only encrypts your data, but will find the recipient's public key as well, eliminating the ol' time consuming process of cutting and pasting keys. The commercial version is available at the company's website and the free version (a PGP tradition will be available soon. Current federal restrictions disallow the use of the software outside the country, but a hacked version is floating around Scandanavia as we speak. PGP Cookie Cutter A freeware ultility available for Windows 95 and NT 4.0 (other Mac versions exist) that allow users to selectively edit the "cookies" file within web browsers. Cookies are snippets of information that can be used to trace what sites the user has recently visited, but are also integral to online "shopping baskets" and personalization. Cookie Cutter allows one to keep the good and toss out the bad.
Internet Anonymity Anonymous remailersRemailers are essentially email accounts that receive messages, strip away the original names and headers, encrypt them, and forward them at a random interval to the original address. Type1 remailers receive messages that are written in standard e-mail software packages and are remailed. Type2 remailers use special client software that anonymizes and encrypts on the user's desktop and then mails the message directly. For a list of anonymous remailers, consult the REMAILERS!!! page at Rutgers University or the Remailer list at the University of California at Berkeley. Lucent Personalized Web Assistant A web-based privacy application recently released by Lucent that doesn't disguise your location but will provide you with a secure and unique username, password and e-mail address for any site requiring registration. In place of the usual information, a user who has first logged onto the LPWA proxy server will fill the blanks with a secret keystroke. The LPWA will then fill in the forms with encrypted data. When you return to the site (again having first logged onto the LPWA servers), you'll have the old shopping basket and your privacy in place. Anonymizer.com The Anonymizer allows people to surf the web anonymously without giving away information like ip addresses and E-mail addresses. Simply click on a link that says "BEGIN SURFING ANONYMOUSLY" and everything that follows is anonymized. It prevents Web sites from finding your address in its referral logs. It tremendously and makes normal Web cruising seem like a point-and-click experience. But it does protect your privacy. It also comes, not coincidentally, from c2.org, also known as Community Connexion, a company that provides privacy services like remailing, anonymous Internet access, and anonymous Web pages.
Online Privacy Sites Electronic Frontier FoundationFounded by Mitchell Kapor and John Perry Barlow in 1990, the EFF has grown to become perhaps the largest (and one of the more disorganized) site on the WWW for information on electronic communication issues and rights (or the lack thereof). The site offers innumerable documents, government reports, news, and links to other resources on these issues. You can search the EFF database for everything from the Freedom of Information Act to encryption to Phil Zimmerman's Pretty Good Privacy program. And you can buy one of their t-shirts online as well. Electronic Privacy Information Center EPIC, as it's known, is an public interest group was established to focus public attention on emerging electronic civil liberties issues. EPIC regularly gathers government legislative proposals and other government initiatives that possibly curtail privacy, and often go far afield from the Net. Past coverage includes criticims of a House-approved health care bill that included establishing an ID number, Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposal to ban "bomb-making information" on the Internet, and some previously classified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act about FBI wiretapping proposals. EPIC also administers the Privacy International group based in the U.K. and is heavily involved in global privacy rights. glr.com/Stalker's Home Page It's been said that if Glen Roberts didn't exist, we'd have to invent him. He's also been called a political provacateur. And still others have said he should get a real life. But it's certain that Roberts's site hosts some of the more exhaustive documentation on privacy violation and censorshiop on the Web. Some of the tidbits include a fast and easy way to look at your FBI file, Cybersitter's list of 126 dirty words, info on cell phone eavesdropping, SSN disclosure, and a list of helpful hints toward bluffing past Internet filtering software.The Stalker's Home Page contains links to enough resources to hunt anybody down -- and hopefully you'll learn how to protect yourself. Thorough, irreverent, and somewhat scary, Roberts' site is worth the visit. And some lucky guests receive a door prize, too.
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