From the Kim Komando newsletter, Feb 10, 2001---

If you're like more than 85 percent of American online users, you have at least some concern over threats to your personal privacy while you're online. So you do all the right things.

You use a free e-mail account to serve as a buffer between your real e-mail address and the rest of the spam-infested world. You're very judicious about when and where you distribute that e-mail address. And maybe you even attempt to control if and when so-called cookies are dropped onto your computer. Yet in the back of your mind, you still know that those evil information harvesters have their evil ways; they have some way of finding out stuff about you, no matter how careful you are.

This may sound paranoid, but it's also unfortunately true. If you're using any major commercial Web browser. It's likely giving out more information about you than you ever imagined. For example, your browser typically sends the address of the last page you visited to each new site you visit. It also issues information about your operating system, browser software, IP address, and more. What's more, your Internet service provider most likely has the ability to track every Web site you visit.

If you'd like some idea of just what information your browser is sharing, take a trip to Privacy.net (www.privacy.net). Click on the "full analysis" link and within a few seconds, you'll see a shockingly large list of all the details your browser has to share about you. Although highly personalized details like your name aren't available, there's still plenty of information that, in the wrong hands, could cause you some grief. What's a poor Web surfer to do?

Fortunately, there are a number of tools available to help you keep your Web browser and other Internet programs from releasing more information about you than need be. For starters, consider The Anonymizer (www.anonymizer.com). The primary purpose of The Anonymizer is to serve as an intermediary between you and the rest of the Internet.

Since you can't keep your Web browser from sharing the information I mentioned earlier, The Anonymizer simply strips that information out before it reaches any other Web site. The best part is that The Anonymizer works over the Net. In other words, there's no software to install; it's simply a Web-based service. That means it works no matter what operating system you use-- Windows, Mac, Linux, Amiga, whatever.

You can use The Anonymizer for free. However, there are several advantages to upgrading to their fee-based service. To begin with, the free service is intentionally slow, the purpose of which is to encourage you to pony up. The free service also employs banner advertising to cover its costs. For only about $50 a year--less than a dollar a week--you can get full-speed, anonymous surfing with no extra banner ads. Plus you get some extra features not available with the free service.

For example, when you can have any URLs (the actual Web addresses) encrypted so that even your own ISP can't tell where you've been or where you're going. Encrypted e-mail and encrypted cookies are also available. If you're interested in your privacy, this is money well spent.

If you're more inclined to use software installed on your own PC rather than a service sitting out on the Web, take a look at the Freedom Internet Privacy Suite (www.freedom.net). The software tools available at this site provide essentially the same functionality as The Anonymizer, except that it takes the form of a program running on your computer.

One notable feature of the Freedom Internet Privacy Suite is the inclusion of personal firewall software--even in the free version of the package. The purpose of firewall software is to keep hackers out of your system. This is especially important for those of you with always- on connections, i.e., cable or DSL.

Unfortunately, to get the "anonymizing" features--namely anonymous browsing and encrypted e-mail--you need to buy the "premium" version of the software. This sells for about $50. There are currently versions of the Freedom Internet Privacy Suite available for Windows and Linux, and the Web site promised that a Mac version is under development.

If all this seems like too much trouble and expense, ask your ISP about Privada (www.privada.com). Privada takes yet another approach to the delivery of privacy services. This company markets its software to your Internet service provider, who can then in turn offer it to you. This is pure speculation on my part, but I can imagine that as various ISPs become harder to distinguish from each other in terms of features and benefits, services such as Privada will begin to appear in an effort to sweeten the pot. That'll be good news for everyone.

The Internet and the real world have a lot in common. Unless you stay locked up in your bedroom 24 hours a day, there's no way that you can remain completely invisible to the rest of the world. The same holds true in cyberspace. The only way to ensure that you remain absolutely, 100- percent, complete, totally anonymous online is to not log on in the first place. However, given that staying off the Internet is entirely impossible for most of us, there's no point in making the information harvesters' jobs any easier. With a little investment of time and money, you truly can travel cyberspace incognito.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 14, 2001

Answers

I ran the full analysis at www.privacy.net. Gotta say there's absolutely nothing there that concerns me. What's all the hubub?

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), February 14, 2001.

Doesn't concern me either. One thing I have noticed is that with my yahoo adress I get no spam With my ISP address I get a ton of it. Does Yahoo filter out spam or have the spamsters just not found me yet?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 14, 2001.

The spamsters know your millions are tied up financing Bill Clinton's speaking engagements. That leaves little money for them to pick at.

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), February 14, 2001.