The Internet is serious business. Your personal information, if leaked, could be abused to practically no end. Any piece of information released to the public on the internet has the potency to be viral, meaning that you have no control over the flow of the information. Because of this, many people wonder how to stay anonymous on the internet.

The truth is that there is no way to remain “completely anonymous” on the Internet. Whenever you access a website, the website has a log of your “IP address” that is used to identify you and your actions.

The “ip” address is like a street address of your house that is used by online services in order to identify devices like a laptop, printer, or a router. The address can be used to backtrack the actions on a certain website back to the originating router and the machine, making it possible to find the identity of the person controlling the machine (computer) during a certain time frame.

You can use “proxy” servers in order to disguise your identity. Proxy server are servers that will fulfill the request for you when you tell it what to do; it’s like doing things wearing a glove. But even the IP addresses logged into proxy servers can be backtracked, meaning that there is no way to disguise your identity on the Internet fully, even if you use multiple proxies.

To be safe on the Internet, just follow these tips to avoid complications regarding your identity:

1. Do not share your name/address/email address/SSN unless there is a good reason and you are using a trustworthy site. Identity theft is an ongoing threat despite all the precautions.

2. When buying something online (online transactions), check the web address to ensure you are using a secure connection to enter your financial information. If the website address begins with “https://”, it means that the connection is secure. If the website address begins with “http://”, it means that it is not secure.

3. Avoid public wireless connections when you are transferring important files online or downloading files to your computer. A virus might catch onto the file.

Additional Help

If you feel like you need professional help on how to stay anonymous on the Internet, TalkLocal can help with finding the correct local experts in this case, saving you time and energy in what may be a stressful situation.

This entry was updated on Monday, June 15th, 2015 at 11:59 am. This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Computer Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.