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Originally Posted by pem
Sorry - but you are wrong.
First of all IP addresses are a very poor way to track people as they can change at any time (very few people have long term static IP's). Many people also access via NAT so potentially thousands of machines all appear to have the same IP (we have 3000+ pc's at work that all appear as one IP on the net).
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Yeah I agree in principle, but if you've ever used online shopping recently, your IP address will be recorded along with the transaction. So there must be some value to storing the IP address.
You are correct about NAT tho - same happens at my work.
All I'm saying is that along with cookies your ip is another link in the chain.
Also with the rise of broadband - more & more people are getting semi-static IP addresses. I know mine rarely changes.
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Secondly using a proxy is a poor way to hide your IP as the proxy server will pass the originating IP on to the server as an http variable anyway and more and more software looks for this and records it.
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Sorry - not true. It wouldnt be an anonymous proxy if it did this!
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As Keyser point out above - ports 3128 & 8080 are the "standard" ports used for proxy servers, not port 80.
The standard method used to track people is cookies - you could disable these but many sites rely on them to actually work. So you could no longer use the site.
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Hmm well a quick search on various web sites for lists of anonymous proxies seems to show a lot more on port 80 than any other.
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Why are you so worried about hiding anyway ?
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LOL! This is the standard line most people throw up when you discuss privacy issues with them!
I'm not saying I have anything to hide, and to be fair if I did - a simple proxy is not going to throw off the FBI!
The point is a lot of people make a LOT of money out of tracking surfing/purchasing habits and selling the information on to large corporations who then will use this to 'suggest' products to you when you visit their site.
So surely I should be allowed to choose if i want to give out a unique identifier to who I am? Would you hand out your phone number to anyone?
Also with the advent of scriptkiddies/hackers, developing websites to harvest ip addresses to either attack or use as part of an attack - well you see my point? There are loads of reasons not to give out a UNIQUE identifer to yourself to all and sundry.
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