Do you value your privacy?

When you're using the Internet did you realise that people can electronically look over your shoulder and see what pages you are looking at?  Did you know that the websites you visit could find out who and where you are, even if you don't tell them?  If you would prefer to surf privately and anonymously, read on ...

The Problem

Every time you visit a website the operators of that site are told your "IP Address".  This is the unique identifier for you machine on the Internet.  So they can identify you and find out where you are.

And most internet communications use unsecured communications.  That means that anybody can snoop on the messages you send.  They could, for example, produce a list of all the pages you have visited.

The Solution

The simplest solution to both of the above problems is to use a system called "Tor".

Tor, put simply, allows you to surf the web privately, free from snooping and so that the sites you visit cannot trace you.  How Tor works is explained on its website but, if you have ever seen Criminal Minds you will know the trick.  When Garcia is trying to trace a message across the Internet and admits defeat because the sender is "bouncing his message off lots of intermediate points" that's something like Tor.

Download Tor, install it on your computer and you can surf the Internet completely anonymously.


NB: OK Tor is not actually a St. Helena site, but privacy is a big thing on St. Helena, where the community is small and it often seems like everybody knows your business.  So its inclusion seems to be a worthwhile exception.