Internet Privacy

Internet Censorship – Online Anonymity Pros and Cons

To be honest the more I think of this subject, the more I keep filling in the cons category and see little for the Pros. For instance you may have read recently a survey commissioned by Google about the value of the internet economy to different countries. To the UK economy the internet was estimated to be worth over 100 billion dollars – a staggering amount of money I’m sure you’ll agree.

online anonymity pros and cons

It is potentially one of the biggest benefits that the internet can give to the economies of the world, the chance to open up world markets to people, companies and countries across the world. Some investment in infrastructure could give people the chance to set up online businesses and engage with economies across the planet.  Imagine the potential opportunities that are available in less developed countries, the chance to access these market irrespective of your location.

So what has this got to do with online anonymity?  After all doing business online is partly about trust and being anonymous from your customers hardly helps this.  Of course this is a perfectly fair opinion and a very valid point.   Indeed if the internet was a huge global digital marketplace where we where all treated completely equal then there would be little reason to hide your identity online.  Unfortunately it isn’t and there are many barriers of entry to even the simplest online business from many countries.  Payment processors, geo targeting restrictions and

Considering the Online Anonymity Pros and Cons

This is one of the reasons why being anonymous is good, it gives you the chance to detach your online business persona from your personal one. If you live in a country where it’s difficult to operate online for whatever reason, then you can detach from this and operate virtually from another country. For instance I know loads of people who now make their living entirely online, from web designers, marketers, programmers you name it. An amazing chance to perhaps equalize the life chances of people across the planet.

Why are lots of people at a disadvantage? Well there’s a variety of reasons, from access to payment processors to simply credibility issues. The internet should really be a level playing field where we can all have exactly the same access irrespective of who we are and where we are located.

In reality of course this isn’t happening, the same backward, despotic governments that have created third world countries have spotted the internet and seen it as a threat rather than an opportunity. But of course they’re probably right it is certainly a threat to them, alas the opportunities for their people will be denied. I strongly believe there is no real argument, there is no internet censorship pros and cons discussion to be had.

You will see investment in internet technology, Saudi Arabia have spent a fortune in hardware to spy on their citizens, Syria force Cyber Cafe owners to monitor their customers – whilst they filter at a packet level every single web request from their country. Of course we know about China and Iran who live in fear of every web site that allows people to communicate and talk to each other.

There is no real ‘pro’ to internet censorship and blocking only excuses. Despite what people may argue regarding the ethics of online anonymity. The reality is that even if it was decided that online anonymity is bad and should be prevented then only ‘law abiding’ people would follow these restrictions. It is possible to be pretty much invisible online if you have some knowledge and the ability to fund a solution. So anyone who is involved in criminal acts is likely to take these options, the poor and innocent would be blocked from these solutions.

Need a HideMyAss Alternative ? Try This Much Better Proxy

It’s many years since I used Hide My Ass proxy service for my online security.  It was one of the first VPN/proxy services available but unfortunately it became very popular and got overloaded years ago.   There’s no doubt that they were one of the first VPN provider companies to bring a decent VPN service to the ordinary internet surfer, however now there are so many other options.  It’s just a matter of choosing the best hidemyass alternatives that are simply better value all round. The interface has improved but I still find it rather hard to navigate, yet the real issue for many of us is that they are automatically blocked by many of the biggest websites which use geo restrictions.  They also no longer allow access to a free VPN but do have an unsecured free proxy, it’s easy to use but very slow though,  particular when using the popular endpoints in the UK and USA.

HideMyAss Alternative

So what are the options ? What’s the best hidemyass alternative out there? Well as mentioned there’s no shortage of other VPN providers in todays market. What used to be something of a niche requirement is now commonplace. In fact millions of internet users, will depend on their VPN service for all sorts of reasons. Whether it’s the security of bit encryption or simply a way of hiding their IP addresses there’s no doubt it’s one of the most useful internet tools available today.

Yet which of these products you should choose, depends largely on what’s your main focus.  For example a large proportion of VPN users have little concern for the virtual private network component, instead they just use it to unlock sites and content normally blocked by geo restrictions.   This means that the number of servers, their location and speed is arguably more important than the encryption level and the log management policies.  After all if you’re using your VPN to mainly watch the BBC or stream movies from Hulu then speed is vital.

Obviously cost is an issue too for most us, which can be an issue as the cheaper prices are normally associated with slower connections.  This is because most VPN services will lower their prices by  loading more users on their VPN servers.  This enables them to lower their costs (and prices) but the speeds will plummet too as there is more internet traffic being routed through each VPN server.   There’s not much you can do about this, as the more simultaneous connections you route through each server the slower it will become.

The trick is to get the balance right, and unless you’re willing to pay more for a premium product then maximizing speed usually involves an efficient, large scale proxy network like NordVPN.

Which VPN Can Hide My Ass ?

Hide My Ass proxy was originally a FREE proxy server for surfing anonymously, it could hide your IP Address and country with a simple web Page.  You can still access this free proxy setup on their site, although truth be told it’s of very limited use.  Most of the more popular connections through US and UK servers tend to be rather slow in my experience.  Also so many sites can now detect and block internet traffic routed though basic proxies.  Without the encryption protocol and DNS leak protection it’s fairly simple to spot this traffic.   For a few sites it may still work and you can route through some other countries though, if hiding your location is not important.

It’s definitely a slicker product now, and millions use to protect their connections on the Internet.  As it’s a mature product that’s been around many years then you should have limited problems using it in diverse network environments.  You’ll have issues though with locked down environments as with the majority of these products.  It does have some specialist settings to route though routers and Firewalls, although there are better alternatives to Hidemyass in this situation (e.g. Identity Cloaker). There are of course lots of reasons why you would use a Proxy Server so it’s still a worthwhile application to invest in.

Unfortunately this isn’t free anymore and to be frank it’s a long time since HMA was anything like a leader in this industry.   For those looking for privacy and a way to bypass the geoblocks on the internet’s best sites may I make a suggestion?

Click to Check Out NordVPNs’ Latest Discounts

For the geo-blocks on popular specific sites like the BBC iPlayer they constantly monitor specific servers.  This  involves rotating IP addresses and checking data transfer rates against specific sites which obviously requires large customer support teams.  There’s no doubt that they’ve become s more focused on bypassing filters and watching TV stations although they still take security very seriously.  So it probably depends on what your main concern is.

hide my ass proxy

Hide My Ass Proxy for example is probably more concerned with genuine privacy but unfortunately is often rather slow which makes streaming video across the connection a tedious experience.

There is a Better HideMyAss Alternative

If security is your primary concern, then there are certainly  more serious VPN programs available than HMA proxy. One such example is a program which is nearly as old as HMA – it’s called Identity Cloaker. Not only does the VPN have adjustable security levels so that you can upgrade or downgrade the encryption depending on what you’re doing. Hint – you don’t need high encryption if you’re just streaming Match of the Day on BBC iPlayer.

It also allows you switch ports and piggy back other proxies. These functions are probably of no use to the ordinary user, but are essential if you want to encrypt from a corporate network or bypassing some firewall restrictions.

The market for these services are split to some extent, the simple hide my IP programs are becoming fairly pointless as they are easily detected.  Many of the larger websites will actively block or filter traffic directly from proxy servers if detected.   Indeed the best proxy server is probably more likely to be one of the VPN services which perform the same function but add a layer of encryption and are difficult to detect too.

One thing that is for sure, the usefulness of those free proxy servers has long gone  Many of them are used by cyber criminals to steal personal data and accounts.  The legitimate commercial ones finance their free service by turning you into the product, mainly by using your bandwidth and cpu while you’re connected.  If you don’t want some complete stranger routing their web traffic through your internet connection, then stay away from the free VPNs like Hola.

The right service might depend on your primary objective, if you just want to watch American TV online then you’re going to need something with a fast US proxy to use.  I am still using Identity Cloaker almost 12 years from my first subscription primarily because it’s has the most UK servers for the BBC and UK TV.  It also is one of the best proxy sites for YouTube as there’s very limited contention.

 

Here’s An Identity Cloaker Coupon for You

OK further down the page you’ll find and Identity Cloaker Coupon, basically I get quite a lot of requests for cracks, serials and downloads for copies of my favorite security software Identity Cloaker. Ironically there has been a big upsurge in the use of these products, not particularly for the anonymity but because an IP cloaker is needed to bypass lots of geotargeting restrictions.

That is people want programs that can hide their IP address so that they can access stuff like BBC Iplayer, Hulu and Pandora no matter which country they’re in. One thing you instantly notice is that you can forget using free products for streaming video down – although for just audio like Pandora it’s probably ok.

identity cloaker coupon

Which brings me back to the title and these requests for a cracks for Identity Cloaker, I haven’t got one because it’s a subscription – it has to be every MB downloaded has a cost to it – they’re called bandwidth charges. So you either use advertising to recoup your costs and enter the security nightmare of something like AnchorFree or Hola which then riddles your computer with adware, spamware and goodness knows what or you have to pay for the service. Which is why you need an account to logon to these services, the software is free but access to servers can never be.

So please stop looking for cracks, serials or gens for any of the commercial VPN services because you won’t find any. But I appreciate everything in the world worth having now seems to cost a fortune as my children’s christmas lists are a horrifying example of.

So I’ve nagged the Identity Cloaker guys and they let me have an Identity Cloaker coupon thing that gives you 15% off .  It works on everything but the trial subscription (the ten day one).

Here’s the Code – 3E9E264B you just add it to the coupon section to get the discount – .

And just so everyone knows – it is a security product, the best available in my opinion. But it can be used to access all the media sites like BBC Iplayer, Hulu, NBC etc using either a proxy or the VPN function, although it’s not advertised on their site as they don’t wish to be the target of legal letters from those companies.

So if you’re feeling fed up on arriving at this page and not finding a free version I’m sorry.  But there is a purpose to the subscription, not only does it pay for the many servers across the world – it also allows the company to invest.

There is a new version which will be released soon which is the result of several years of development work – from a security side it introduces some amazing features but there’s more…….The new version of Identity Cloaker is speed optimized and will actually boost the speed of your internet connection for many people!

Try out the 10 Day Trial of Identity Cloaker.