Are you concerned about Internet Privacy?

[Simon-v]

I've been reading a lot about internet privacy lately, and it appears to me that a lot of people are concerned about "someone" being able to see them and take notes of what they are doing. Some of them also quote stories and provide arguments of varying levels of convincingness.

I have no desire to take any side at the moment. Instead, i would like to see what people of this particular social group (Linux/internet users) think about this.

Comments are welcome.

[starcraft.man]

Nope. I'm not concerned. That said, I never publish my full details so anyone can just read everything about me, nor do I have a myspace/other social account (never really felt like it was worth my bother I guess). People don't need to be concerned, but they should be more aware of what they post and publicize on the net. If you google my full real name, nothing comes up. I like it like that.

That said, the solution to privacy has already been made, it is TOR (http://tor.eff.org/) (The Onion Router) and it will make you instantly anonymous (read up on their site to understand how it works, I've explained it too many times). No one can ever trace or figure out what you do with it enabled. It will make browsing somewhat slower, and you cannot download large files or torrent with TOR active, that would strain the entire network.

[juxtaposed]

That said, the solution to privacy has already been made, it is TOR (http://tor.eff.org/) (The Onion Router) and it will make you instantly anonymous (read up on their site to understand how it works, I've explained it too many times). No one can ever trace or figure out what you do with it enabled. It will make browsing somewhat slower, and you cannot download large files or torrent with TOR active, that would strain the entire network.

I was wondering about that. How easy is it to set up? As easy as setting a proxy or something?

[starcraft.man]

I was wondering about that. How easy is it to set up? As easy as setting a proxy or something?

Its in the repos. Since I don't really feel like explaining, go here (http://tor.eff.org/overview.html.en) and read the overview. The basic premise of TOR is that your request for information goes to computer A, then A to B and so on, its never traceable backwards beyond one step, and thus you are secured, it is also entirely random the route taken and won't be repeated. The only thing you really have to configure is privoxy, which is easy to do, there is a guide on the site and these forums.

And geez, am I the only guy who knows his identity and personal information is secure from being seen/found on the internet?

[23meg]

I take care not to send sensitive data of any kind unencrypted, and refuse to use unencrypted public networks. I also opt out of online services that do privacy breaching data mining.

[earobinson]

I have a many level approach to my internet, I make sure to protect my banking information and such. But have no quams about people on the forums finding out my name, phone number email and such.

I have a few emails (email.spam.one@gmail.com) that I give out to websites I know will spam me/dont want linked to my earobinson online identity.

I know things like gmail can be spoofed and wish gmail would sign my email

[juxtaposed]

Its in the repos. Since I don't really feel like explaining, go here and read the overview. The basic premise of TOR is that your request for information goes to computer A, then A to B and so on, its never traceable backwards beyond one step, and thus you are secured, it is also entirely random the route taken and won't be repeated.

I know how it works, I just wanted to know how easy it is to get set up.


The only thing you really have to configure is privoxy, which is easy to do, there is a guide on the site and these forums.

Ok, i'll check that out.


And geez, am I the only guy who knows his identity and personal information is secure from being seen/found on the internet?

I don't put any information of mine on the internet.

I do wish I knew how to configure opera to not give any information to websites (like OS and browser, though browser you can set to IE, Opera, or Firefox).