How to Become Anonymous, Secure and Free Online

How to Be Anonymous, Secure and Free Online

By Amy Awol

Copyright 2018 by Amy Awol

Commercial use of this book or its contents is prohibited. Private, educational, and non-commercial use is permitted for quoting short passages if credit attribution is given with the title, author, and publication information. Images provided are public domain or may be subject to Creative Commons copyrights and fair use policies. All other rights are reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Chapter 1: Why We Need Anonymous Security

Chapter 2: General Options for Going Incognito

Chapter 3: Set up a Tor Anonymous Relay System

Chapter 4: Get a Secure, Encrypted Email Account

Chapter 5: Set up an Anonymous OS, Browser, and Applications Suite

Chapter 6: Use a Web Proxy or Virtual Private Network

Chapter 7: Use Free Online SMS Messaging and Virtual Phone Numbers

Chapter 8: Freedom, Privacy, and Accountability

Chapter 9: Share and Publish Anonymously

Chapter 10: The Debate about Anonymous Social Media

Chapter 11: Use Free Apps and Resources

Chapter 12: The Best Fit and Final Argument for Anonymity

Afterword

About the Author

Reference List for Links and Resources

Thanks for Reading

Dedication

This publication is for all Internet users who want to be safe, secure, and free.

Foreword

This book explores different uses of anonymity to protect online internet security and privacy under a wide variety of needs and circumstances for users. Most resources mentioned in relevant chapters are free. They’re also listed at the end of the book.

Since this book may be important to all common citizens, it is offered free of charge.

Chapter 1 - Why we Need Anonymous Security

Let’s face it, the Internet has revolutionized the lives of those who regularly use computers. We use computers almost without thinking, but there’s an underlying concern if we want to work and share with reasonable freedom and security. The Internet isn’t as innocent as it might first appear to be. What people take for granted in daily activities, doesn’t take into account certain dangers that might jeopardize their privacy, finances, or lives.

Most users aren’t aware they’re being tracked and followed by AI bots and algorithms, which register and record computer activities, locations, preferences, personal data, passwords, and finances. They may be tracked by the government, online companies, malicious users, or hackers who could act to hurt them. All of this happens without clear surface evidence to alert or help those who are attacked, nor is there any indication who might be doing this—friend or foe.

The inventors of Amazon, Apple, E-bay, Facebook, Intel, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter have created Artificial Intelligence Algorithms, which track human activities, resources, money, and time. Call it what you will, these AI algorithms have been designed to exploit human emotions with the best intentions, but often worse results, with a primary purpose for making huge quantities of money. Once the AI genie escapes the bottle, there’s no going back. We can’t count on it to go where it was intended to go, or do what it was supposed to because it isn’t conscious in the sense that people are. AI on corporate platform levels tends to operate autonomously and those who suffer consequences from this have little recourse unless they take measures to protect themselves. With money as the bottom line, legitimate businesses, governments, or criminals may get in on the action, often by using—or subverting—the same technologies that people suppose are helping them to do the things they want.

AI algorithms have equation routines and functions that lie beyond common user comprehension and control. People usually can’t see the proprietary software or formulas, and yet these have capabilities for invading our privacy and extracting information about our personal lives that we wouldn’t want to give to anyone else. Unfortunately, all of this has been aided and abetted by the government and military agencies, which most would assume are intended to protect us. Furthermore, these systems have weaknesses that are exploited by high tech criminals, who can potentially attack unsuspecting victims.

Hide if you can

Aeryon_Scout_In_Flight.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Public Domain by Dkroetsch 2011

Not to be alarmist, but is this what we really want for our future?

Besides the intentional surveillance, our lives are being scrutinized in ways most people in the past could never imagine. This starts to get frightening. What you can’t see can hurt you if you do nothing to protect yourself. These nascent technologies have amassed huge data bases which compile information about billions of human beings. How secure is that data? Documented evidence from thousands of hacks and security failures show we cannot trust our personal data in the hands of government or corporate giants. Security breaches have repeatedly jeopardized personal information for hundreds of millions of people. These are data breaches that have been discovered and people already know. How much worse could this possibly be from what isn’t known?

Influence or control of global economics has worked insidiously to gradually siphon money from the general economy into the hands of the super-rich. One percent of the population now owns or controls more than 50 percent of the world’s resources. While this may not be immediately evident for people who have never control to resources to begin with, those in lower economic strata find it difficult to make decent living wages or improve their lives, because billions of financial and personal transactions are already automated and controlled by others through corporations with tremendous economic power. Artificial intelligence helps those who have power to stay in control.

While it seems reasonable when law-enforcement agencies collect information to capture the bad guys, some have used this as an excuse to monitor everyone. After all, we all have the potential for going rogue or breaking bad, don’t we? Although terrorist incidents are less likely to affect us than common accidents or domestic violence, security agencies around the globe have used this excuse to intervene and hack personal data from computer users, email messages, and phone calls. This makes wire-tapping (telephones) of the past seem like child’s play.

Although we were warned by authors and thinkers like George Orwell (in the novel 1984) about the dangers of a totalitarian surveillance society, it was once easy to argue that technologies didn’t really exist for scrutinizing the activities of millions of people—all at once. Not anymore. Now those technologies do exist and they’re being used to track and follow all of our activities. The fact people don’t see this, gives them a false sense of complacency and allows them to rationalize that the technologies being used are reasonably safe, but this isn’t the case. There’s a hidden Big Brother in AI technology that monitors many of the things we do.

DARPA image by USGov-Military, Public Domain

In our own brave new world, most people innocently trust technology to take care of them. A problem arises, however, when that trust is violated in order to extract the most personal details of our lives. Would corporations, governments, and thieves stoop to do this? You bet they would. We can see examples of this happening almost every day.

Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves?

The answer is yes, we can protect ourselves if we’re aware and convinced of the need to do this.

Since the Internet is an open communications platform between computers, it tends to reveal extensive data about its users. IP address information reveals specific identifiers for the computers being used in networks, Internet providers, and geographic locations. This is similar to a caller ID, except that many user platforms also mine more data about the users themselves than is supposedly needed for marketing purposes. Companies with millions of users collect huge quantities of information including bank account information, browser history, computer use, credit card information, email addresses, passwords, phone numbers and physical addresses, past purchases, contact lists, and user preferences. These companies (and also the Government) can track what you’re doing any time you’re online, and may (or do) monitor all other personal activities whenever they want to.

How you can protect yourself from these outrageous levels of scrutiny? Do you have to give up what you want and completely change your habits for computer use?

Let’s start by saying it’s useless for people to try to change the course of history, unless they become directly involved with making it. Computers are here with us to stay, but we can take advantage of their capabilities without putting ourselves at serious risk. First however, people need to admit that they are at serious risk without realizing it, simply by signing up and allowing massive social media exposure for the popular services they’re using. What are we talking about? People who sign up for email services, those who subscribe Facebook and Twitter, buyers who make purchases with Amazon or E-bay, and use Google searches for browsing online are exposing their personal lives and information in ways they cannot imagine. In short, that means nearly all of us are unwittingly revealing personal information and ignoring the potential consequences.

So, should we become technological Luddites and deny the convenience and luxury of using online services? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean we have to go into those services with our eyes wide shut. Being blind to the possible consequences of having personal data hacked isn’t the best way to go. People need to be aware they’re exposing themselves up front, and then decide whether it’s convenient to do something about it or not. Those who become aware often discover this too late, only after an attack occurs. Foreknowledge can help people to be prepared ahead of time.

This assumes, however, that people know about other alternatives for their online activities. It also assumes they’ll be mindful and conscious enough of their online computer interactions to take precautions when it’s necessary to use them.

How can people avoid this type of public and private scrutiny? Go incognito and become anonymous. In spite of the overt and open platform browsing habits most people use, it’s possible to browse anonymously without revealing computer IP and personal information.

This requires using a few different tools and changing certain internet computer use habits, but users will discover a completely new type of freedom for internet use—one which is unrestricted by personal exposure and all that’s implied by this.

What’s it like to be free from Big Brother looking over your shoulder? It can be incredibly liberating to feel you’re not constantly being watched. This doesn’t free a person to behave irresponsibly or illicitly. But it does give more freedom to say or do what you want, without unknown or unwanted scrutiny by inhuman algorithms, which are intended to exploit your emotional intelligence—and yes, these are configured to predict your eventual behavior in order to manipulate you.

Buy this, do that, post a like, react or respond in some way. Do you really want to be emotionally controlled by a machine? In today’s world,