These days privacy is a big deal. With all the drama happening around the world on a daily basis Big Brother is always around the corner keeping an eye on everything and everyone. I don’t want to point any fingers but *cough, cough* the US, UK, and other major governments and let’s not forget Google and most ISPs, although I’m still hoping they’re on the good side of things, we’ll see.

Either way, point is if you don’t want those pictures of yourselves that you took when you were drunk and gave the dog a bath in your grandmothers underwear to end up in the wrong hands OR if you’d simply like to have your freedom of speech back, at least on the internet, then you probably want to stay as anonymous as possible when surfing the internet. Luckily for you, if you don’t already know how to do this, I’m going to tell you.

The easiest way and possibly most interesting way due to the fact that it also opens a gateway to a boatload of hidden content, is Tor. Tor is an internet browser that you can download and use for free at www.torproject.org . It is much like Firefox due mainly to the fact that it is a modification of Firefox, the big difference being that it routes your connection to the internet through the computers of the many other users that are on the network at the time of your connection. This essentially puts you somewhere else on the globe for the duration of your browsing therefore making it harder for Big Brother to find out where you are and what you are doing on the internet. You can find out more about how this works on their website here www.torproject.org/about/overview .

Now, while Tor is a very good solution, if you’re really paranoid like me it might not be enough. This is mainly due to the fact that, while Tor works great, it does not make it impossible for you to be tracked and monitored, it only makes it difficult. It is also very very slow.

For those of us that really want to stay well hidden, I would recommend getting yourselves a paid VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN works a bit in the same way that Tor does, except that it doesn’t route your connection through other users on the network but rather through a server, of your choice in most cases, that is located somewhere else on the globe. This server can of course be switched at any time, should you wish to be somewhere else although this depends on what VPN you chose. The big benefit with a VPN over Tor is that it encrypts all your connection’s traffic and sends it through the selected server before reaching the internet. Hence, applications like your Skype, Steam, Yahoo messenger, etc. are also safe and sound and never again will you have to watch what you say or do on the internet. Also depending on the VPN you can unlock certain websites and have access to geographic dependent websites.

I’ll get more specific about what VPN to chose and why you should stay away from free ones in a later post, but for now should any of you wish to do this ASAP, I highly recommend TorGuard . And as far as Tor goes, I’ll also discuss the ‘cool’ things you can do with it at a later time.

If you’re really out there with the paranoia, then go ahead and get a VPN and Tor and use both of them for maximum security

Why do all of this? It’s simple really, privacy online simply doesn’t exist anymore. Keep in mind that should you ever go out of line with the smallest thing, your government can find out everything about you including what you like to do, eat, watch, where you go to work, where you live, where you’ve traveled in the past, who you’ve been dating, etc. And all of this thanks to the internet and websites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Youtube, etc. Therefore, if you don’t want to wake up with cops at your door for some trivial reason you could go the extra step and be safe on the internet. Trust me it will be worth it in the long run.

So there you go, hope this helps you all with your internet security needs. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow me if you want to see more awesome articles like this one in the future. Happy browsing and stay safe.