Free Anonymous Surfing Courtesy of the US Navy
Yes, the US Naval Research Lab has helped to develop a system for surfing the web anonymously, with outside programming assistance by some independent programmers from Boston.
It is called TOR. ( The Onion Router ) ……. (huh?)
Now why would they do that, and why would they share it?
- First of all, it makes sense that the military would want to have a means of surfing the net without being tracked. That is pretty understandable. But why are they sharing it?
- And secondly, the more users there are on the system, the greater the anonymity.
- And thirdly, surfing is a water sport, after all.
Plus the system is now being co-funded and promoted by the civil liberties group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Strange bedfellows for sure.
And yes, it is free.
More info can be found at the following links:
Tor Torches Online Tracking by Wired News
Other similar systems include Anonymizer and Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP)
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In a nutshell, we have tested both of the above, as well as some other similar products. We definitely like the various products provided by Anonymizer, and found they performed reasonably well. But were not very impressed by JAP due to very slow response times.
We will be conducting tests of this system and will be publishing a review in the near future.
Also please note that Tor is a beta product, so please be aware this. Plus there may be issues and conflicts with your current system. And configuration requires some tweaking of system and browser settings. Please carefully read the FAQ and install instructions provided on the Tor web site.
