Anonymity and online privacy

(my july 2013 comment in toledotalk.com thread )

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Visit http://ipaddress.com with your normal Web browser. You should see listed:

• your IP address
• your Internet service provider
• your city
• your state
• etc. - basic information

Tor Project

If you are concerned, then download the Tor Browser Bundle to your hard drive or to a thumb drive. The Tor Web browser is a customized version of the Firefox browser.

With the Tor browser, called Vidalia, visit http://ipaddress.com again. Your IP address will be displayed as something different than reality, and your location could be anywhere in the world.

For example, right now when I visit ipaddress.com with my normal Chrome browser, my location is listed as Toledo, Ohio.

But when I visit ipaddress.com with the Tor browser, my location is listed as being in the Ukraine with a "false" IP address.

Browser Plugins

Back to your normal Web browser, you can protect your privacy more by installing plugins into your Chrome and/or Firefox Web browser. I have no idea about the IE browser. Your workplace may force you to use the IE browser, but on your home computers, use a different browser.

For Firefox at least, helpful plugins that I have used in the past include:

• AdBlock Plus
• NoScript
• HTTPS Everywhere
• Web of Trust
• Flashblock
• Ghostery
• Bloody Vikings

This Lifehacker article may be helpful - The Best Browser Extensions that Protect Your Privacy

And occasionally check in with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to see what's happening out there.

... off-topic but somewhat related to online privacy and anonymity ...

Deep Web

I'm guessing that 99.99 percent of the population uses the surface Web 100 percent of the time.

But a sub-surface Web exists. It's the underbelly of the underbelly. It's the world of anonymity. It's sometimes called Deep Web or Dark Net or who knows what.

With your normal browser, visit http://hiddenwiki.org to learn more about the sub-surface Web and how to access it.

Also read this:
http://theanonymousinternet.tumblr.com/faq

If you want to navigate the sub-surface Web, then you will need to use the Tor browser.

The sub-surface Web permits activists in oppressed countries to communicate with the outside world without being tracked down and hauled away by their governments.

The sub-surface Web is also where nefarious actions occur, such as hiring hitmen, buying illegal drugs, buying illegal firearms, human trafficking, selling stolen credit card numbers, and just about anything you can think of. If a transaction can be completed in the physical world, then it's possible that it can also be completed in the digital world. And if it's illegal, it will happen in the sub-surface Web.

June 2012 Gawker story

The dark net is a shadow internet where people can do what they please with little fear of being tracked down and identified. Activists in oppressive regimes use the dark net.

And the government knows about this, but they cannot stop it because of the anonymous nature of the sub-surface Web.

Interestingly, Tor was created by or sponsored by the U.S. Navy.

Q: What was the original intention of the TOR Network?

A: Ironically it was used for anonymous communications within the Military, to keep messages encrypted and secret.

But just because extremely hideous activity occurs on the sub-surface Web, that does not mean it's entirely bad. For decades, automobiles have been used for all kinds of illegal activities and heinous acts, including drive-by shootings, car bombs, human trafficking, and transporting illegal products. But vehicles are an accepted part of our society.

While some politicians, media people, and the leaders of Facebook and Google want to end anonymity on the surface Web, a backup option will always be the sub-surface Web.

.onion

Here's an example Web site on the sub-surface Web. It's a seemingly benign site called "Beneath VT - Exploring Virginia Tech's steam tunnels and beyond." The site is found at:

http://74ypjqjwf6oejmax.onion

The above location will not display on your normal browser on the surface Web. You need to fire up the Tor browser to access the above site.

Websites on the sub-surface Web end with .onion. It's not a real domain name that you buy at Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

.onion is a pseudo-top-level domain host suffix designating an anonymous hidden service reachable via the Tor network. Such addresses are not actual DNS names, and the .onion TLD is not in the Internet DNS root, but with the appropriate proxy software installed, Internet programs such as Web browsers can access sites with .onion addresses by sending the request through the network of Tor servers.

The purpose of using such a system is to make both the information provider and the person accessing the information more difficult to trace, whether by one another, by an intermediate network host, or by an outsider.

If you decide to descend into the depths, the sub-surface Web version of the hidden wiki (your main starting point) is located at:

http://kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion

Raspberry Pi

If enough shitheads get their way, maybe someday ToledoTalk.com will only exist in the sub-surface Web.

That's probably a long way off, and I'm not worried. Enough smart people exist who create interesting ways for anonymity to survive.

This is a fascinating device that I intend to hack around with:

http://www.raspberrypi.org

It's a $35 computer about the size of a credit card that contains no operating system. But a Linux version can be installed called Raspbian. The operating system image is installed on an SD card. The computer can be plugged into a network.

On this little gizmo, I can install a database, a Web server, programming languages, my own code, and a lot more.

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.

Or ...

• March 2012 - BBC - Raspberry Pi network plan for online free-speech role
• June 2013 - raspberrypi.org - Onion Pi: Foil the NSA and Prism with a Tor proxy
• June 2013 - Ars Technica - Onion Pi turns Raspberry Pi into Tor proxy and wireless access point
  • Adafruit's step by step instructions

EFF, Raspberry Pi, Tor network, encryption, peer-to-peer. When the times comes, we'll function around all the surveillance, but you might need to upgrade your tech skills a little.

Maybe in a few months, I'll post the .onion address for the sub-surface version of Toledo Talk.

#tor - #privacy - #deepweb - #blog_jr