Practical Anonymity: Hiding in Plain Sight Online

Book Preface

Google CEO Eric Schmidt ignited a firestorm in 2009 when he declared “Privacy is dead.” He said:

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it’s important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities.

For those with legitimate reason to use the Internet anonymously—diplomats, military and other government agencies, journalists, political activists, IT professionals, law enforcement personnel, political refugees, and others—anonymous networking provides an invaluable tool, and many good reasons that anonymity can serve a very important purpose.

Anonymous use of the Internet is made difficult by the many websites that know everything about us, by the cookies and ad networks, IP-logging ISPs, and even nosy officials may get involved. It is no longer possible to turn off browser cookies to be left alone in your online life.

For many, using any of the open source, peer-reviewed tools for connecting to the Internet via an anonymous network may be (or seem to be) too difficult, as most of the information about these tools is burdened with discussions of how they work and how to maximize security. Even tech-savvy users may find the burden too great—but actually using the tools can be pretty simple