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Anonymous Browsing Options

In today’s world, online privacy is a dwindling privilege as people’s identities and personal information are hijacked and misused more and more frequently.

Christina Craig

Oct 04, 2015 · 3 min read

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Why Anonymous browsing is required

From stealing your personal or financial information to tracking your location and monitoring all your internet activity, there are individuals as well as organizations who would have no issue with prying into your internet activity or personal life.

Stealing someone’s personal information is so easy that there are links which, when clicked, gather all your personal information like your name, phone number, address, and device information. This is quite a cause for concern as one can never know how this might be used by the thief. Where hackers look to steal your identity and personal data, government organizations look to monitor your internet activity in order to keep your activity in check in the name of national security.

Since nobody would like their activities monitored, let alone their personal information being stolen, anonymous web surfing is essential in today’s world.

How to surf anonymously

Web proxies

In case of a proxy, the web address you are browsing thinks that the IP address of the proxy server is your address, making it harder to track your location or monitor your activity. There are a few things you need to know about proxies first:

They do not guarantee access to all websites as the proxy for a website might be blocked as well (countries like China, where heavy bans of internet usage of users are present, employ such methods. You need to use a VPN in China for unrestricted internet access).
Although a tracker cannot simply look at your internet activity, the proxy server can. It is important to check if the proxy server is secure (it should have an HTTPS url). One must also be wary of fake proxy servers which act as centres for collecting users’ personal information.
Proxies are generally free to use as they only provide a relay but do not encrypt your online data.

Virtual private network (VPN)

Using a VPN is another method to surf the internet with a greater level privacy. VPNs connect you to the internet through an encrypted tunnel. The IP address visible to others is the address of the VPN server through which you are connected to the internet. They offer another functionality which makes them superior to proxy servers in that they encrypt all the packets exchanged between your system and the computer. So not only do VPNs hide your IP address, they also keep your data safe.

Anonymous browsers

A third option to increase one’s privacy online is to use anonymous browsers. Tor Network is an example of such browser. Tor Network is a privacy network designed to hide information of which computer actually requested the traffic. Routing traffic through different nodes, it makes it difficult to say whether your computer initiated the connection or it may just be acting as a relay, relaying that encrypted traffic to another Tor node.

There are many threats to your personal data being exposed while you are surfing on the internet. Your location, identity, personal information, including interests and behaviour patterns can be ‘sniffed’ online. That information can be exploited without your knowledge. Therefore, you are encouraged to use a combination of anonymity services for desired security and privacy level.

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Christina Craig success

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Christina is a community manager and the heart, the voice and the soul of NordVPN. She is always up for a conversation with our community of users and blog readers.

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rc::c	This cookie is used to identify the difference between humans and bots.	Session
PHPSESSID	Preserves user session state across page requests.	Session
csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery.	30 days
Oauth2_authentication_csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery during the OAuth 2.0 authentication and consent flow.	30 days
oauth2_consent_csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery during the OAuth 2.0 authentication and consent flow.	30 days

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cookieconsent_status	Determines whether the visitor has accepted the cookie consent box.	1 year
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CurrentSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
FirstSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
ReturningSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
_domainTest{timestamp}	Determines websites domain value for cross-domain support.	Session
popups_referrer	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_session_duration	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_session_pageviews	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_chains	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_chains_finished	Used for popup management.	7 days
bc.visitorToken	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
bc.visitor_token	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
3E6DB64A	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
u	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
session	Contains a session identifier that is used to remember the user’s agent and allows the system to re-authenticate users without credentials.	30 days

Cookie name	Description	Expiration
_ga	Registers an ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.	2 years
_gid	Registers an ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.	1 year
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collect	Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor's device and on-site behavior.	Session
personalization_id	The cookie allows the visitor to share content from the website onto their Twitter profile.	2 years
_gat_gtag_UA_42858496_11	Used to throttle request rate.	1 minute
client_dimension	Prevent fire client_dimension event more than 1 time per session.	Session

Cookie name	Description	Expiration
__cfduid	Used by the content delivery network, Cloudflare, to identify trusted web traffic.	29 days
rc::c	This cookie is used to identify the difference between humans and bots.	Session
PHPSESSID	Preserves user session state across page requests.	Session
csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery.	30 days
Oauth2_authentication_csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery during the OAuth 2.0 authentication and consent flow.	30 days
oauth2_consent_csrf	Ensures visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery during the OAuth 2.0 authentication and consent flow.	30 days

Cookie name	Description	Expiration
locale	The cookie determines the preferred language and country-setting of the visitor.	1 year
cookieconsent_status	Determines whether the visitor has accepted the cookie consent box.	1 year
fontsCssCache	Determines whether the visitor has cached fonts so the font would not be cached again upon re-entry.	7 days
CurrentSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
FirstSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
ReturningSession	Retrieving the traffic sources data (source, medium, campaign, term, content, date) of the different sessions.	182 days
_domainTest{timestamp}	Determines websites domain value for cross-domain support.	Session
popups_referrer	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_session_duration	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_session_pageviews	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_chains	Used for popup management.	7 days
popups_chains_finished	Used for popup management.	7 days
bc.visitorToken	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
bc.visitor_token	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
3E6DB64A	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
u	Used by chat widget from Nanorep.Determines unique visitor ID used on the new reporting page to group queries performed by the same visitor.	1 year
session	Contains a session identifier that is used to remember the user’s agent and allows the system to re-authenticate users without credentials.	30 days