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Just like people strolling in the snow, Internet users leave pretty clear tracks. Every site called up is put into a log, recording the date and time of the visit, as well as activities, like downloads.

Most of that data stays online for six months, an unsettling thought for some. But special anonymization software allows some cover, but not without some drawbacks.

“Key to the anonymization process is obscuring one’s own IP address,” says Hannes Federrath, a professor of business computer science at the University of Regensburg in southern Germany.

The IP address is like a street address, allocated to a computer during surfing by a provider so that the contents of Web sites can be uploaded properly. That identification is then saved in data logs.

Taking an IP address and the data kept by a provider creates a trail, says Mathias Otten of Computerbild, a German computer magazine. The provider can make it possible to observe a customer’s online activities. “From there, you can draw conclusions about private or personal activities,” Federrath says.

Anonymization programs change the way a computer communicates with a Web site. Otten says most requests for site access done with such software are sent through encrypted VPN connections to a provider. Thus, it’s possible to confirm that a data transfer has occurred, but not of which content.

Taking it further, the request from a provider can also be sent through an anonymizer, which is encrypted and disguised with an intermediate proxy server. “The encrypted page request now has the IP address of this service, which makes identifying the user very difficult,” Otten says.

Some programs function with NAT routing, which gives multiple users identical IP addresses. “It’s almost impossible to say later who accessed which Web site,” Otten says.

The more simultaneous users, the better the subterfuge.

But there are drawbacks to such secrecy. Setting up the extra relays in information flow can hurt speed, says Frank Ziemann, a German computing consultant. People with DSL connections can find their connections slow to dial-up speeds.

That’s when users have to decide if every download needs to be anonymous. It’s also important to keep in mind that, while the software disguises the actual data, it also registers it, thus providing an insight into a user’s personal details.

“Complete anonymity is hardly possible,” Ziemann says.

Good software is also usually not free, as Computerbild confirmed in a recent test. Cyber Ghost VPN 6, from SAD, won by virtue of encrypting online communications while barely slowing down connections. But the service costs around $100 for a year. There are cheaper options available.

Otten advises testing free versions of programs, which do not offer all functions and sometimes only allow transfers of one gigabyte per month. But that is usually enough for average users. There’s also the risk of long delays and glitches with anonymization. One popular free program is TOR, at www.torproject.org, which is reliable, but slow. 



DPA