Do I Really Need Software to Remain Anonymous ?
There is a rather simplistic pretext that nobody needs to use anonymous software unless you have something to hide. In some sort of utopian idealistic society, that might be indeed the case however you and I don’t live in this reality. The simple fact is that there is an information war going on all around us and we’re the targets.
Who wants our Information ?
The list is frankly endless but here’s a small selection
Advertisers – want our information to profile and target their goods.
Search Engines – again want to build up profiles to target searches and advertising.
Democratic Governments – to catch criminals, terrorists and watch what their citizens are doing
Less democratic Governments – to track down political opponents, quell free speech.
Identity Thieves – our information is gold to them clean out bank accounts, identity theft etc
Why use Anonymous software – I’ve done nothing wrong!
I could expand on this but remember there are thousands who have been locked up both legitimately and for ‘ saying the wrong thing’, billions are stolen online every year. All over the world peoples lives are changed irrevocably when somebody accesses their everyday electronic information. You only have to watch the news from the BBC to see all sorts of examples.
Let me give you an example of something that will happen very soon here in the UK and most of Europe and indeed the world.
You are
sitting in a room waiting to have an interview for a standard Government job, maybe a clerical position in the Civil Service. Your interviewer has accessed a central database and printed out a list of every single web site you have visited for the last two years.
Do you think this is right ?
Do you feel your Government has the right to do this?
Well it’s already happening in most ‘advanced ‘ countries across the world. There is a European Directive already in force ensuring that all ISPs log all our communications (emails, web browsing etc) for two years. Remember the ISP logs contain all our browsing data – every last web site you have visited unless you use anonymous surfing software. The UK government is already planning something called the Intercept Modernization programme which is basically a big database containing all these logs so agencies and the government to access easily. The US government has been doing it for years as well and has similar plans to increase this monitoring.
Of course this is all done in the name of catching terrorists, 99.9% of the population will be spied on and monitored in the slim chance of occasionally catching one thick terrorist who uses the internet. To be honest if the terrorists are trying to wreck our way of life I think they have succeeded – freedom of speech and liberty is now being destroyed by our governments who say they are protecting us.
I’ll leave you with that thought of you sitting in the reception room prior to your job interview. The interviewers are sitting in the next room all studying a comprehensive list of every web site you have visited recently.
This is not fantasy, this is not some sort of Orwellian nightmare – it is reality.
If you don’t like this – use anonymous surfing software or change your governments mind , it’s that simple.
