Avoiding The Prying Eyes Of The State.

         We all know that the state loves to stick its nose into our private affairs, it is important for control of the population that it knows what you are up to, where you are, should you be there, and why are you there. Our towns and cities are festoon with CCTV cameras, shopping malls, pubs, bus and railway stations and on our public transport vehicles, if you carry a mobile phone, you are being tracked, their eyes and ears are everywhere. They are sweeping up every aspect of your life, profiling and storing it for future use. However it is not just when you are out and about that you are being targeted, as you sit at your computer, you activity on the internet is being logged stored and sifted through by the prying eyes and ears of the state.

      Short of spray painting CCTV cameras, leaving your phone at home, or always wearing a mask when out and about, there isn't a lot you can do about the outside surveillance by the state. However there are lots of ways to make it much more difficult to be logged and profiled while on the internet.

      There is an excellent guide to making yourself more anonymous while at the computer, it is called The Ultimate Guide for Online Privacy, and is freely available on vpnmentor. It covers everything from encryption to antivirus, malware and firewall and much more. 

     Below is a short extract:

What Can You Do To Improve Your Privacy?
         Knowing that nearly all types of encryption can be broken if someone was motivated enough, we can better protect our privacy. Even though not all the recommendations will work perfectly every time, they will improve your online privacy overall.

Anonymizing Internet Use
         There are two popular ways in which you can anonymize your use of the internet: using a VPN or using the Tor network. Both hide your internet use from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the government. They also hide your location and identity from the websites and services that you visit and use.
         While these technologies sound like they serve similar purposes, there is only a tiny amount of overlap. They are used for very different purposes and are coded very differently.

VPNs
        Most people use VPNs to hide their internet usage from their ISP and the government. They can also be used to avoid censorship, to “geo-spoof” in order to access the websites of other countries, as well to protect you from hackers when using public Wi-Fi hotspots.
       Depending on the VPN that you are using, you may have to sign up and pay for the service, most setting you back about $5 to $10 per month. While a VPN provides you with a high level of internet privacy, they do not provide any level of anonymity, reason being that the VPN provider knows what you are doing online.

Check out VPNMentor’s top VPNs here.

Tor Network
        If you require a high degree of anonymity online, the Tor network is a great option. However, you lose a lot of the usability of the internet that we use daily. The Tor Network is free to use and is a useful system, as you do not provide your information to anyone. This has made it a popular anti-censorship tool. There are governments that have tried to block the Tor Network, but they have not always been successful.

Using VPN and Tor Together
        If you are willing to do some work, you can use Tor and a VPN at the same time. You will need to find a VPN that supports Tor and install the VPN using their guide.

Read the full text HERE: 

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