The UK publication, The Register, has an article citing the difficulties with avoiding tracking of your Internet activity. Privacy and anonymity - Just how far does Big Brother’s Eye See? is peppered with links to news articles and data security sites. The author offers the surprising conclusion that a wireless connection through an Internet cafe may better shield your IP address.
I think the final frontier is still wireless. If you need a cheap, easy-to-borrow IP address that isn’t yours (but is entirely legitimate), there is always one available inside a Wi-Fi coffee shop, an internet cafe, or your local public library. Surf with a cappuccino, along with everyone else. Socialise a bit. Your IP address is a cup of beans. When combined with a system like Anonym.OS, these are good and mostly anonymous options for most people.
As a frequent “borrower” of wifi (I regularly surf from the surveillance van when I’m in range of a signal) I think its great that people are willing to share, even if some are doing so unwittingly.
I keep my wireless at home open, but one thing that has crossed my mind is what people are going to use it for. What if someone were to pull up outside my home and use my connection to download some kiddie porn? That could land me in a lot of hot water, and while I might ultimately extricate myself from it the idea is cause for concern.
Is the WiFi surfer who piggybacks on your home Internet comparable to (in terms of legal liability) the drunk driver and the bar owner? I haven’t seen any court determinations on this but it’s something to worry about during those many hours on surveillance, when you’re waiting for other people to live their lives…
Well, I don’t think you can hold the owner of the internet connection liable for what the surfer does online. Unless, like in the bar situation, the owner has reason to believe that something illegal is taking place.
What I was talking about was mistaken identity. Obviously, if kiddie porn gets downloaded from my connection the feds would probably visit my home in front of all my neighbors and would probably want to search all my computers. Not a good situation to be in.
Another good choice, and excellent balance of privacy and security for the investigator and anyone else concerned with the security issues that exist with simple internet browsing is ZoneLabs Forcefield browser protection. A FREE beta can be had here:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/beta/index.html