For those of us concerned with protecting our privacy online then the search for a free fast proxy seems like the answer. But I’m afraid it’s not the answer, and at it’s worst it could be much more insecure than doing nothing. I hate being spied on, hackers and identity thieves try and intercept our data to steal from us and governments and organisations tell us where we can surf and what we can say online. Our privacy and freedom of expression should not be sacrificed for the chance to maybe catch a thick criminal or two.
If you’re concerned with protecting your privacy on the internet, then you may have been led to believe that all you need is a fast free proxy and you will be protected. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, and in the worst case scenario you could be handing over all your details to hackers and identity thieves.
This is not too say we shouldn’t be concerned about privacy, I personally hate being spied on. Unfortunately most of our governments have joined the ranks of others who wish to spy and monitor our every movement online. They use the tactic of spying on everyone in order to catch one or two criminals or terrorists online. It’s not just governments like Iran who do this, there’s a European Directive which states that the ISPs must keep complete logs of everything we do online for up to two years, so they can check on us.
So am I saying a free proxy can’t help us protect ourself online. In theory it could protect us partially, at least to the point of obscuring our IP address from web servers we visit. The problem is that a huge percentage of the free proxies are actually run by hackers and identity thieves. Some use these servers just for their own privacy, but many others steal the data and passwords of people using them. Free proxies are a lottery, using them is a huge risk and not one I would take.
I mean lets be sensible for a minute, a proxy server costs a great deal of money to run properly. The cost of hardware and the bandwidth costs for a free to use proxy would be enormous. Could you imagine why anyone would want to foot a huge bill for complete strangers. The truth is that the majority of these servers have been configured incorrectly, accidentally left open or hacked. Do you still want to use them to send all your web traffic, the free servers will never be the best proxies. Besides sometimes you might need a server from a specific location like a UK proxy or Irish proxy, to watch or access a specific web site.
So for all us grown ups who realise you rarely get anything for free. Just think about the servers you are using, the online web proxies covered in advertising may be painfully slow and annoying to use but at least you can see how they are financed.
Freedom of speech is worth preserving, there are plenty of alternatives online to protect your privacy. Sure some of them cost a little money but at least you know you’re not relying on an Eastern European criminal gang to protect your data. If you use the free proxies and suddenly find you have suddenly acquired a few more credit cards which you’ve never seen, or your bank account looks rather empty then don’t blame me.
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