Are You Really Hidden Online in 2021 ?

by | Nov 20, 2014 | networks, technology

When you logon to your computer and start browsing the internet, there’s a feeling that you’ve some element of privacy.   After all you’re probably on your own computer, tablet or phone using your own internet connection in the privacy of your own home.  There’s a tendency to believe that whatever you do or say online is not really linked directly to you as an individual.  It’s part of the reason why many people seem to have complete personality changes online, an expectation that you can say or do anything without consequences.

Although twenty years ago, this was probably true to some extent – it certainly isn’t now.  The news in the UK are frequently filled with stories and reports of legal cases concerning blogs, tweets and comments made online.  It seems that many people make these remarks often under the misapprehension that they are made under the cover of anonymity.  However the idea that you can do anything online anonymously is fairly far from the truth.  Only this week a blogger in Singapore was fined $100,000 for reposting an article on Facebook with allegations about the Prime Minister – Singapore blogger ordered to pay nearly US$100,000 damages to PM for Facebook post | Singapore | The Guardian.

Facebook is of course probably the last place you want to hang out if you’re looking for any level of anonymity.  The platform is one of few that is based on people using their true identities when using it.   There’s plenty who don’t of course but it’s normally a simple case to work out who’s said who especially if they have any level of interaction with other users and friends.

This of course becomes very obvious when the individuals find themselves in court or in the media, however many young people still seem to fail to learn this lesson.   The reality is that just as in real life, anything you say online is ultimately traceable to an individual – sure it can take some effort and there can be some exceptions.  But overall it is important to act online in a similar way as you would act in real life.

The reason is that everyone who connects to the internet is assigned an IP address which is linked to the device they are using.   If you access to the internet at home, then tracing this IP address is a trivial matter – it is linked directly to  your name and address via your ISP (Internet Service Provider).   Tracking any web visit, email or message sent whilst using your home computer is very straight forward indeed.

Even messages sent from an unmanaged internet connection using a smart phone or  tablet can usually be traced.  This is normally not directly through the internet address you’re using at the time but through connections related to those accounts.  So is it possible to have any anonymity at all online?

Well it is possible, although it does take some effort and it involves using something called a proxy or VPN to hide the origin of your internet connection.  have a look at this video for example.  It enables you to hide your location by routing through an intermediate server.


This is a similar method lots of people use to bypass the other tracking technology used online – geo-targeting.  This technology filters and blocks based on your physical location, it’s commonly used by media sites to restrict access to their domestic markets. However millions of people use it to access TV sites when they’re outside the correct area.  Most UK expats for instance have been using them for decades to access UK television online like the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.  It should be noted though that these companies do try and stop these workaround, you can read about these measure in this article – How the BBC Tries to Block Your VPNs

As you can see it is possible to make it very difficult indeed to track people online, but without taking these steps you should presume that everything you do can in fact be traced back to an individual.  Of course the debate on anonymity/privacy online is often quite a heated one with strong arguments on each side.  Using proxies and VPNs like these though has become almost automatic for many of us who want to keep our online world private.

Some people think that everything should be attributable to an individual indeed social networking sites like Facebook insist on people using real names to interact.   Others point to the potential for abuse of this sort of data, and with the Snowden revelations which showed how the various security services routinely track and harvest our data – it’s difficult to argue with this.

Whichever side of the debate you side with, one things for sure – young people should be aware of the fact that they have a digital identity and it can usually be linked with there real life.   It is probably not appropriate to encourage the use of all these tools which hide and anonymize your connection without stressing their responsibilities.

Why People Mask their IP Addresses in 2021

by | Mar 27, 2013 | networks

Everything you do online is based on one important piece of information, your IP address.  This is your number on the internet and at any one point in time is unique to you and you alone.  The full name is Internet Protocol address and you’ve probably seen this series of numbers like 192.1.1.1.  In fact every single device, every laptop, phone or tablet has an IP address when it’s connected to the internet.

The address is used by lots of people online in a variety of ways.  In places like China and Iran, your IP address might lead to a knock on the door by the police if you post the wrong thing online.  In any country, what do you online can be traced back to your computer using this address.  Logs are stored all across the internet in the memory of routers, at your ISP or the logs of the web sites you visit – all of them contain your unique IP address.

Of course unless you live in a place like Iran and are not some sort of cyber criminal – then perhaps this is not a concern for you.   Many people of course are concerned by this lack of privacy and even people in democratic nations are concerned about the lack of privacy there is online.  These people and of course those with something to hide will generally use proxy servers to hide behind a fake ip and keep in the shadows.

Other people will use these servers to hide their IP address for other reasons.  Sometimes web sites block access to people outside a specific country.  Take for example popular media site like Hulu, will only allow access to their site if you have an American IP address.  Many videos uploaded on YouTube are only accessible from specific locations again based on the IP address you are using.  Another popular example is the BBC who have one of the best media and TV sites in the world, again restricted by location.  Although millions do use a VPN to watch the BBC despite their efforts to block access.

In reality a whole host of people are learning about and using VPNs and proxy servers for a wide variety of reasons.  It’s not just hackers and dissident protesting against despotic regimes.  It’s also worth investigating this area if you’re running any sort of online business as multiple IP addresses may be useful for market research and promoting your web sites.

Although people have been using these methods for many years to watch things like UK TV, I personally have been doing this for about 14 years now.  You would have expected some pushback from all the companies who instigated these restrictions in the same place.  They’re do this for a variety of reasons but mostly it’s two – copyright restrictions or profit maximization, sometimes a mixture of both.  Many firms now implement anti-proxy or VPN blocking technology but nobody has figured out a way to block them completely.  The Chinese Government invest a fortune trying to restrict all VPNs and haven’t yet succeeded completely either.

The next generation of proxies and VPNs are set to be even more sophisticated at hiding their tracks.  The weak point of any of these proxies is the IP address, so newer proxies usually operate by loading addresses from a vast central pool.  This means that they can switch between different IPs and classifications as required.