Steganos Internet Anonym 6

Keep your web surfing habits to yourself.

What is this?

Price: £30

Manufacturer: Steganos

Ratings

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Verdict

Pros:

Everything you need to surf anonymously. Security on the internet and on your PC.

Cons:
Some features make surfing harder.

Overall:
Everything for internet security in one place.

Tim Smith, Computeract!ve 30 Mar 2004

Every time you surf the internet you leave a trail of information behind you. Some of this is discreetly hidden on your computer; the rest is stored with your Internet Service Provider and the websites you visit. Steganos Internet Anonym 6 is a collection of applications that remove this digital trail and stops other people finding out about you and your surfing habits.

When you access a website, your computer requests each bit of text and every picture from the site using its IP address. Websites can use your IP address to track the parts of the website you view. Anonym prevents this by using a set of IP addresses created by Steganos instead of your own, and continually switching between them increases the effectiveness of this tactic. However, if the IP address you're relaying with is on the opposite side of the world there is a slight impact on surfing speed.

Three's a quick option to block cookies and other things that identify what you've been looking at. However, it does have limitations, as you can't block all cookies but allow them for individual sites - something that some web browsers can do as standard. be frustrating.

One aspect of privacy that is often forgotten is the security of the computer itself. You might be able to hide your habits from the websites but still leave everything on display for other users of the PC. Anonym comes with options such as 'Private Favourites', which puts all your favourite websites into a file that requires a password to gain access. It can also automatically delete your website history and temporary internet files.

Internet Anonym 6 offers a thorough and simple way of making sure your surfing habits remain secret. Like any form of security, though, it does involve an element of sacrifice; the main case being some website features will not work properly or at all.

Contact: Steganos 00800 7834 2667
www.steganos.com

See also:

Kidisafe

Protect your child from internet grooming. 10 Aug 2004

Combating spyware

These days companies are using increasingly intrusive techniques to get hold of your details and snoop on your surfing habits. We show you how to hit back. 27 May 2004