Someone once told me that I could surf the Internet anonymously, but I

Someone once told me that I could surf the Internet anonymously, but I can’t remember
what it was that I was supposed to do. Can you help?
- Anonymous

This question was answered on November 25, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Since early in the development of Internet marketing, companies have been devising methods for tracking users for the purposes of targeting marketing messages.

One of the most common methods of tracking users is through the use of ‘cookies’, which are small text files that contain unique identifiers much like the ‘value card’ at most grocery stores do.

While these text files contain no personal information, they can be tied to information that you provide when you fill in a form or make a purchase online Large networks of advertisers can ‘track’ your usage across large numbers of ‘member’ websites so that they can send you offers via e-mail or pop-ups based on sites that you have been visiting.

Think twice about giving up real information unless you totally trust the site For casual downloads, newsletters or any site that requires you to register to gain access to information, be vary vague about your personal information and use a free e-mail account from Yahoo or Hotmail as your e-mail address.

Some users try to delete cookies, in an attempt to avoid being tracked, but an easier way is to surf through sites such as Anonymizer.com, which basically makes you invisible while you surf It also allows you to use the cookies on your machine (for preferences or shopping carts) without the sites being able to track your usage.

If you want to make it even easier, you can download their free Privacy Toolbar, which creates an on/off switch in Internet Explorer, which eliminates the need to start at their web site.

Remember, the core issue with privacy on the Net starts with the information that you give up when you visit a web site, not the cookies they place on your machine or any special tracking systems.

If you give your personal information to the wrong web site, it does not matter what you do after the fact.

So how do you know what sites are going to do with your information? Most sites that ask for personal information have a privacy policy (generally at the bottom of the page) Unfortunately, most of them are too difficult to decipher without a law degree.

That’s where a free download from AT&T can help It’s called ‘Privacy Bird’ (privacybird.com) and it reads the privacy policy for you, then warns you when a site does not meet your requirements for privacy.

It uses the P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences Project) standard for reading privacy policies and gives you a red (bad) or green (good) bird if the site uses the P3P format.

Any site that does not have a P3P encoded privacy policy posted will generate a yellow bird, which means Privacy Bird has no information to work with Remember, you should only be concerned about sites that are asking you for personal information, so don’t be concerned with the yellow bird on sites that don’t.

The best part of this tool is when the bird get’s mad and turns red, because you can click on it to get a very simple explanation about what angered the bird!