Q. How does Anonymizer protect people’s privacy?

A. Anonymizer acts as a trusted intermediary between its users and the Web sites they are viewing.

Every computer that connects to the Internet is assigned an IP (Internet Protocol) address. This is very similar to a telephone number in many ways. By tracking your IP address, online snoops are able to track the sites you visit and build profiles on your Internet activities. Anonymizer protects your privacy and personal information (credit card numbers, financial transactions, etc.) from cybercrimes and other abuse by redirecting your Web traffic through its secure servers. This ensures that your IP address is kept private, and your online identity is protected.

Our privacy solution for home users, Anonymizer Universal™, protects you by keeping your IP address (and your identity) private. Anonymizer Universal works by creating an encrypted tunnel between your computer and the Anonymizer servers to shield you from even the most sophisticated methods of online spying, phishing, and pharming. Anonymizer Universal is simple to set up and use, and works silently in the background.

Anonymizer Nyms™ protects your personal email address and identity with disposable, alias email addresses. Nyms allows you to create unique alias email addresses for every Web site you visit so you can shop online, track stock prices, join online newsgroups, and more without the fear of spam flooding your Inbox. Each alias email is automatically forwarded to your primary email so you don’t need to check multiple email accounts.

Q. How is Anonymizer different from other Internet privacy products and services?

A. Our technology, performance, support, infrastructure, and track record set us apart from the competition.

Technology: Anonymizer develops proprietary technologies that specifically protect a user’s identity on the Internet. All Internet traffic is routed through dedicated hardware, housed in secure facilities with complete access control. Other Internet privacy solutions such as Tor do not use secure hardware or private proxies. Their technology relies on individuals to “open” their own workstations for users to access as proxy machines.

Performance: Anonymizer’s solutions enjoy very high availability and are tested and optimized on a regular basis. Because other Internet privacy solutions rely on individual computers for the proxy network, performance and reliability can be severely impacted.

Infrastructure: Anonymizer maintains tens of thousands of privately owned untraceable IP addresses and rotates them frequently to keep users from being blocked. Internet privacy providers that use an onion router type of network use proxies owned separately by individual operators. Users don’t know who is on the other side of the connection, and are at the mercy of the integrity of each one of these operators.

Support: Anonymizer offers free customer support. Tor and other Internet privacy solutions do not offer customer support.

Track record: Anonymizer is the most experienced and widely used Internet privacy service, protecting millions of users and billions of Web pages since its inception in 1995. Because of Anonymizer’s hardened networks, redundant connections, and strict internal procedures, the company has been able to weather everything from hacker attacks to government-sponsored intrusion teams. Anonymizer is the only Internet privacy service that has earned its reputation in the field, and our real-world experience gives us the edge in developing newer, safer, and better privacy technology.

Q. How much do Anonymizer services and software cost?

A. Anonymizer’s products for home users are sold on a subscription basis, and range from $19.99 to $79.99 for one-year licenses.
Anonymizer also offers custom business class solutions, from small business to large organizations and agencies. The cost of these solutions varies by individual customer requirements. Please contact us for additional information.

Q. Do you have to install any special software to use Anonymizer?

A. Yes, Anonymizer’s home user solution, Anonymizer Universal, requires a software installation that can be downloaded from our Web site. Anonymizer Nyms is Web-based and available through the Web site www.nyms.net. The business class solutions vary. Please contact us for additional information.

Q. How does someone use Anonymizer services?

A. Once the software is installed and activated, it works silently in the background. You simply surf the Web as you normally would using any browser, with the added peace-of-mind knowing that your privacy is protected.

Q. What kinds of computers and operating systems does Anonymizer support?

A. Compatibility varies depending on the service. Anonymizer Universal, for example, is compatible with Mac® OS X 10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard®, Windows XP, Windows Vista™ or Windows 7, and iPhone® and iPod touch®, OS 3.0.

Q. What is Anonymizer’s privacy policy and can user information be subpoenaed?

A. Please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Q. What stops the “bad guys” from using Anonymizer to carry out malicious attacks and get away with it?

A. Anonymizer has built strict limitations into the software that prevents abuse to the system. Customers aren’t able to send spam, launch denial of service attacks, or carry out other types of malicious attacks with Anonymizer software.

Q. Does Anonymizer have business solutions?

A. In addition to its products for home use, the company offers security solutions uniquely adapted for corporations and agencies. Please contact us for additional information.

Q. What are Anonymizer’s business solutions?

A. Anonymizer provides corporations tools that allow them to access online competitive intelligence without the risk of being blocked or spoofed. Our products help businesses to safely harvest data or manually collect it while remaining completely anonymous.

Anonymizer has a proven track record in business applications, and is currently servicing a variety of industries including:

Healthcare
Insurance
Legal
Lending / Mortgages
Real Estate
Security
Travel
Retail

Q. How do business solutions differ from home user services?

A. Services offered to businesses are completely customized based on each client’s unique needs. Additionally, business services provide enhanced security and functionality:

• Business services have a highly flexible and specialized IP pool, while the home user services IP pool is restricted.

• The enhanced enterprise service platform allows access to other services, and also allows easy modification to the service platform for different customer requirements.

• Business services can be monitored by the customer to ensure internal security.

• Business services have an enhanced security model.

Q. Do Anonymizer’s IP addresses come from different blocks?

A. Yes, Anonymizer has a wide variety of IP addresses that come from many different blocks. This allows us to maintain a fresh IP pool for our services and prevent our users from being blocked.

Q. Can Web administrators easily recognize Anonymizer’s harvesting IP addresses?

A. No, Anonymizer has built-in levels of security that help ensure non-attribution while harvesting critical data. Security levels can be adjusted to meet the specific requests of each business.

Q. What kinds of information can Web sites gather about their visitors?

A. The amount of outsider observation that can happen in the online world is much greater and more dangerous than in the real world. For example, in a physical bookstore, the store can only gather a list of what books you purchase (assuming you don’t pay cash). In the online world bookstores can gather all purchases, your home address, credit card numbers, all the books you merely browsed, and the amount of time you spent browsing each book. It is like being followed around the store with a camera over your shoulder.

Web Analytic tools make it possible for any Web administrator to identify specific IP addresses, domain names, and geographic locations of visitors in order to collect visitor activity. With just this simple tool, they can analyze individual surfing behavior, track the pages within the site that are most frequently accessed, and identify downloaded files, etc. It is this aspect of functionality that can, in turn, be used to build a detailed psychographic profile based on your purchases and online tracks.

Q. How concerned should an average user be and what are the biggest risks?

A. People expose themselves online in all kinds of ways they would not do if they realized their vulnerability.

Anyone who surfs the Internet should be concerned about the amount of information that’s shared as well as how long it’s kept. Your trail of information accumulates with data points giving a wide range of personal information to those seeking it. These data points are often sold to marketing companies who will then target you with pop-ups, spam emails, and other junk mail based solely on your online profile. To make matters worse, this information can even be sold to health insurance companies who may want to track what health information you’ve been seeking to deny coverage or increase your rates.

For example, AOL released “anonymized” search logs for 650,000 users. There was no “identifying information” attached to individual searches, but all searches done by the same person could be grouped together under some “anonymous” identifier. A reporter at the New York Times was able to identify one of those people in just a few days based on her searches.

The Internet’s top search engines state in their privacy policies that they automatically record information on user searches, including Internet browser and language, computer IP addresses, unique cookie information, and the URL of the page requested. Just as you wouldn’t want anyone listening in on your private conversations, you don’t want anyone watching your every move on the Internet. This simply underscores the importance of protecting your identity when on the Internet.

Q. Can self-regulation and privacy seals be effective?

A. While self-regulation is a fine thing, it provides little assurance to the end user. Few users understand the standard policies advocated by many industry groups, many of which are far from privacy friendly. It is also difficult for users to tell the difference between legitimate privacy organizations and window dressing. Finally, enforcement is very difficult. There are serious questions about the ability of these groups to effectively sanction violators.

Q. Can legislation protect privacy?

A. Legislation has a role to play, but it cannot effectively protect privacy. People need to actively protect themselves. Viruses are illegal, yet you need anti-virus. Hacking is illegal, yet you need firewalls. If you want to be anonymous, you need to take responsibility for that as well.

Legislation is key for setting baseline expectations of privacy and minimum privacy standards. It is also required to protect privacy in situations where an individual is required to hand over personal information such as banking, medical, and online purchases.

However, legislation is mainly national or local, while the Internet is, by its nature, international. Also, enforcement of legislation is difficult, and unlikely to be pursued against small time violators. It is often difficult to tell who has gathered information that is later used by a third party. And lastly, restrictions on the use of publicly visible information have serious first amendment implications.