more on Wired: How to Foil Search Engine Snoops

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Date: January 20, 2006 4:40:16 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] Wired: How to Foil Search Engine Snoops

On Fri, Jan 20, 2006 at 03:37:03PM -0500, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Claudio Gutierrez <claudio.gutierrez.m () gmail com>
> Date: January 20, 2006 3:17:04 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Wired: How to Foil Search Engine Snoops
>
> Maybe (surely) useful
>
> How to Foil Search Engine Snoops
> http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70051-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

Not that this advice isn't good, including the advice to use the
EFF-funded "Tor" system for highly anonymous web surfing, but
the article may also present a false sense of security, as I go into
in more detail here:

http://ideas.4brad.com/node/339

Many people can be identified by the IP address, forget anything about
cookies or logins.   I have a static IP so I am hard identifiable if
not using TOR.

Most broadband users today in theory have dynamic IP but only in theory.
In reality, especially if you have a home gateway box, you keep the
same IP for months at a time.   In most cases, especially with PPPoE,
your ISP keeps logs of when it changes and who has what IP.  How do
you think the alleged infringers on P2P networks are being found?

Indeed, the people with the most anonymity are dial-up users or people
who turn their computer on and off regularly per session with a dynamic
IP.   In those cases the Google logs won't track you very easily if you
don't set a cookie, but combined with the ISP logs they do, cookie or  
not.

However, most serious internet users, and most corporations, use a  
static
IP, and you can be tracked easily unless you use TOR.


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