Internet Security
This is no longer just a question of privacy – it is the freedom to be spontaneous; to respond to the moment, to a mood or a whim. How can we really be ‘social’ when nothing is forgotten?
Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) August 26, 2013
idcloak publishes an updated list of Anonymous Facebook Proxies, a database of high-anonymity encrypted proxy servers which can be used to access Facebook without divulging IP or location information.
Terence Shull, of the idcloak privacy team, says these proxies allow users to create anonymous social media accounts, which is an act of privacy protection he is a strong proponent of.
“After the recent NSA whistle blowing, I personally began to feel different about my behavior on social media sites. I hesitated to ‘like’ this or comment on that because I saw a newfound permanency to my online activity – whatever I did or said would be recorded and stored in one of the NSA Data Centers and be available to every successive government for who knows how many years. In the eyes of anyone filtering this data in the future, I would always be the person responsible for that particular statement, like or share. That’s a strange cloud to hang over everyday social media use.
“This is no longer just a question of privacy – it is the freedom to be spontaneous; to respond to the moment, to a mood or a whim. How can we really be ‘social’ when nothing is forgotten?”
Shull’s solution is not to give up on Facebook, or even give up on expressiveness, but to set up and use an anonymous Facebook account by means of an HTTPS proxy – a remote server in a different country which hides all trace of a user’s identity and location, shuttling all content back to them over an encrypted connection.
“I configured a separate browser to connect to a proxy from the list and then set up both a webmail and Facebook account, parting with none of my real credentials as I did so. Now, when I use Facebook, neither the site itself nor the NSA have any idea who I really am or where I am actually based. Gone is the weight of permanency.”
However, the proxies protect users’ identity only if it is not divulged in other ways. With Facebook, the most common ID giveaway is the friends list. “It’s like the old trick with phone records – our social networks are a fingerprint in and of themselves. You need to be careful not to overlap your friend network in the same pattern as your normal Facebook profile. A good workaround is to set up a different account for different circles of friends. All you then need to do is add as many random other ‘friends’ as you can to blur what little matching there is left.
“Oh yes – and you can’t use an anonymous Facebook account on your phone, for obvious reasons.”
In situations where the need for anonymity is more serious, such as political activism, Shull recommends users take additional precautions. Some of these are laid out in the idcloak article How to Create an Anonymous Facebook ID, as well as: Anonymous proxy servers and other tools of the political activist.
idcloak Technologies is a developer of proxy-based privacy and security solutions. The idcloak privacy VPN is due for release in September 2013.