mardi 24 avril 2007

Are you anonymous when surfing the Internet?

How do you feel about your identity leaking when surfing the Internet. Do others know your location or much more about you?

If I want to order something, I write a letter with the several items I would like to receive and put it in an envelope. On the front of the envelope, I write the seller's address and on the back, mine. Then after throwing it in a postbox, several people forward the envelope to its final destination. They only check the destination address on the front of envelope. Finally, when receiving my order, the seller processes my command and using my address which is written down on the envelop back, he sends me back a packet.
The way it works on the Internet is exactly the same. Each time, you ask for a web page, you send a request to a web server which sends the response to the source's address of request, yours.
Therefore, each time you request something on the Internet, the server knows your address. The Internet addresses are numbers and their topology is well known.
A few websites display the address they found when you send a request to them, and after consulting a database, they also splash your location map on your screen. Try the http://www.ip-adress.com website by clicking here it will send you back a map where the address you use is supposed to be.

Does the answer fit your real location?
Now, you understand that all the web servers you are talking to and the devices that transmit your data, are able to record all your actions.

The next question is how could you browse with anonymity?

This was the EN version of this.

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