News

Internet Censorship – Online Anonymity Pros and Cons

To be honest the more I think of this subject, the more I keep filling in the cons category and see little for the Pros. For instance you may have read recently a survey commissioned by Google about the value of the internet economy to different countries. To the UK economy the internet was estimated to be worth over 100 billion dollars – a staggering amount of money I’m sure you’ll agree.

online anonymity pros and cons

It is potentially one of the biggest benefits that the internet can give to the economies of the world, the chance to open up world markets to people, companies and countries across the world. Some investment in infrastructure could give people the chance to set up online businesses and engage with economies across the planet.  Imagine the potential opportunities that are available in less developed countries, the chance to access these market irrespective of your location.

So what has this got to do with online anonymity?  After all doing business online is partly about trust and being anonymous from your customers hardly helps this.  Of course this is a perfectly fair opinion and a very valid point.   Indeed if the internet was a huge global digital marketplace where we where all treated completely equal then there would be little reason to hide your identity online.  Unfortunately it isn’t and there are many barriers of entry to even the simplest online business from many countries.  Payment processors, geo targeting restrictions and

Considering the Online Anonymity Pros and Cons

This is one of the reasons why being anonymous is good, it gives you the chance to detach your online business persona from your personal one. If you live in a country where it’s difficult to operate online for whatever reason, then you can detach from this and operate virtually from another country. For instance I know loads of people who now make their living entirely online, from web designers, marketers, programmers you name it. An amazing chance to perhaps equalize the life chances of people across the planet.

Why are lots of people at a disadvantage? Well there’s a variety of reasons, from access to payment processors to simply credibility issues. The internet should really be a level playing field where we can all have exactly the same access irrespective of who we are and where we are located.

In reality of course this isn’t happening, the same backward, despotic governments that have created third world countries have spotted the internet and seen it as a threat rather than an opportunity. But of course they’re probably right it is certainly a threat to them, alas the opportunities for their people will be denied. I strongly believe there is no real argument, there is no internet censorship pros and cons discussion to be had.

You will see investment in internet technology, Saudi Arabia have spent a fortune in hardware to spy on their citizens, Syria force Cyber Cafe owners to monitor their customers – whilst they filter at a packet level every single web request from their country. Of course we know about China and Iran who live in fear of every web site that allows people to communicate and talk to each other.

There is no real ‘pro’ to internet censorship and blocking only excuses. Despite what people may argue regarding the ethics of online anonymity. The reality is that even if it was decided that online anonymity is bad and should be prevented then only ‘law abiding’ people would follow these restrictions. It is possible to be pretty much invisible online if you have some knowledge and the ability to fund a solution. So anyone who is involved in criminal acts is likely to take these options, the poor and innocent would be blocked from these solutions.

So what’s in my internet log files?

It’s a fair question that anyone who wants to protect their privacy should be asking. What’s in my Internet Log files and who can access them? Well I’m afraid, and you’re not going to like this, is just about everything you do online is stored in logs files.

In fact even just the phrase internet log files is confusing as there are so many of them.   Let’s focus on the main ones which contain the most information about you online and that’s the ISP logs.

You see when you connect to the internet every thing you do is routed through your ISP, they have a complete record of everything you do pretty much. One of the main problems is that we use HTTP to surf the internet, that’s Hyper Text Transport Protocol – which has helped the internet to develop so amazingly fast.

There is a problem with HTTP though, and that is because it is in completely clear text. So anyone who has access to this data like the ISP can instantly read it and see exactly what and where you go on the internet.

It’s why Governments and organisations access this information when searching for terrorists, criminals and even just people who downloaded materials under copyright.  It’s all there in the internet log files stored at your local ISP.  There’s no technical knowledge needed to learn how to view .log files as the vast majority of it’s in clear text with no encryption.  It’a all recorded at that central point simply because all your data has to go through an ISP, which is recorded and saved to the .log file extension of their choice.

Internet Log files

Who Has the Right to Access My Internet Log Files ?

You might argue that any law abiding individual has nothing to fear from having their online activity recorded.  After all normal citizens shouldn’t care even if they are engaged in a little anonymous torrenting to download a few films, that’s nothing to the Government is it? However just consider how much information there actually is stored there in those log files.  Everything web site you visit, every video you watch, every message you send or receive it’s all there in your log files.   Would you be happy to hand over a comprehensive list of everything you’ve done online?   It’s a huge intrusion to your privacy, imagine a step further one made likely by the Governments latest piece of snooping legislation – the Investigatory Powers Act.  It’s been passed in Parliament but hasn’t got Royal Assent yet, but it’s likely to become law in the near future.  It would mean a whole host of Government agencies have access to these records for a variety of reasons.

Imagine you’re sitting in an interview for a Government job?  Across the table the interviewer sits with a booklet containing every web site you’ve visited in the last 12 months.  How would that make you feel?  Does this feel like an open, democratic situation or something like the KGB or Stasi would have done?   Perhaps you have medical conditions, something about your health or sexuality, perhaps private political affiliations.  All this is likely to be known from anyone’s web history and hence the person sitting across from you with your internet log files.

Even if this information was restricted to a select few agencies, we know this would spread.  The data once out would get into more and more hands, usually under some pretext of criminality or preventing terrorism.

The solution is actually quite simple but it does require some effort – encryption.  If you use a VPN service, you can encrypt your connection so that your logs contain no useful information. Here’s one in action –

The only information accessible in your logs as long as you keep encryption enabled will be the time you are online and the IP address of the VPN server you’re connected to. there will be no other data that is legible as it will all be encrypted and no record of the web servers you visit as all requests will be channeled through the VPN server. The added benefit of this is that you can also use the VPN service to bypass the myriad internet blocks that exist online.

For example, you may have found that certain sites particularly media companies block access based on your location. It’s called region locking or geo-targeting and it’s becoming increasingly common. For example if you try and access your Hulu subscription from outside the US you’ll get blocked, or similarly if you try and watch the BBC iPlayer from outside the UK. However if you switch to a VPN server in the correct country you can bypass these blocks irrespective of your location. I use mine every single day when travelling to watch the BBC News when I’m travelling.

Evil Twin Spoofing – Bye Bye Passwords

Ever hear of this – Evil Twin Spoofing? Sounds quite weird but it’s a very simple way of stealing peoples accounts, passwords and basically their entire identity. So that you’re aware here’s a how it works. An identity Thief makes himself comfortable in an airline lounge or his local Starbucks and gets out his laptop. Instead of just then browsing like everyone else, he sets up his laptop as a wireless access point using some free software. He calls his Access Point something friendly and plausible – perhaps Starbuck-Free-Wifi for instance, they then sit and wait.

It won’t be long before people start connecting to this bogus access point and as long as it’s been set up correctly – IE to relay all connections through the legitimate wifi AP then noone will be any the wiser.

Why Would He do This ?

Hopefully you’re one step ahead of me by now, everyone who is using the bogus access point will be unaware that they’re sending every keystroke, every password and every account name they connect to through this computer. Checking their paypal account, buying something from the internet, online banking – anything vaguely like this and the identity thief has struck gold.

You’re not likely to find out straight away of course, depending on the skill of the online thief and what lengths he intends to go to. But likely when you visit the ATM and find your balance at zero or worse then you might find out. Be very careful when connecting to Public free Wifi anywhere if you do use it, either use a product like . or never check anything with a username or password.

Learn all about the issues across the world about online privacy protection.

Chinese Internet Censorship

Censorship in the People’s Republic of China is defined by the suppressing or restrictions of publications. Chinese Internet Censorship is implemented and enforced through the People’s Republic of China’s ruling body, the Communist Party of China.

The censorship of the media is to prevent the masses viewing something that the Communist Party of China does not wish then to view. Their control expands over the television, radio, newspapers and the internet.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs class the media situation that extends to the internet as being “very serious”. They have ranked the government of China among the worst.

The Communist Party of China censors the internet as a way of control. Censorships help to prevent any reformist or rebellions from taking place, or at least helps to minimise this risk.

In February 2009, Li Dongdong, General Administration of Press and Publication, introduced an array of regulations that would govern journalists. Any one who opposed or contravened these laws would be placed on a list and be unable to continue to work as a member of the press. These were designed, so Li Dongdong announced to “to a halt to fake news”. The editor of China Youth Daily criticised the new regulations and was later dismissed for opposing the censor.

Chinese Internet Censorship – some Stats

According to a study carried out by Harvard University, there are over 18,000 websites which are blocked and banned within the People’s Republic of China.

52 cyber dissidents have been imprisoned for their online communications. This is a worrying fact and one where it is clear to see the extent of which some countries will go to, to ensure total control through censorship.

In recent months, discussions and negotiations have taken place to reduce the number of barred websites; Yahoo, Wikipedia and YouTube to name a few, and restrictions on these have been relaxed, although with limitations.

In has been suggested that by banning and restricting the internet access to mainland China, it helps to ensure that their own e-commerce industry booms.

There is also an issue of self-censorship within the internet debate. As some companies from Hong Kong are opting to regulate themselves by the guidelines decreed from the Communist Part of China. This giving them an opportunity to expand in an unsaturated e-commerce industry, this obviously is advantageous for the company, but it does raise some moral questions as to whether regulating themselves in this manner advocated the Republic of China’s regime and the impact that this is having on the inhabitants ability of freedom of speech.

Learn all about the issues across the world about online privacy protection and why you might feel the need to buy a vpn service in the future too.