A fresh cyber start

[Stillhomewardbound]

New computer on the way, new broadband supplier ... This is my chance to make a fresh cyber start, and these are my conditions:

1. I wish to withhold my ip address forthwith, unless it may be mandatory for a retail transaction.

1a. I similarly want protection for my email address.

2. I demand to be a spam virgin

3. I want to be cookie free and I want to be sure that my browsing is not analysed by my ISP

I have no secrets to hide and am open and out to all I know and even those I don't, but what I would like to know is ... just how can I travel cyber space in an utterly untraceable way.

Current technology has now brought us to a sitation where our retail habits are monitorable and recordable in a highly sophisiticated way. Huge businesses are predcated on their being able to analyse and target individual purchasing trends.

What that says to me is that my habits, my impulses, have been hijacked as a saleable commodity.

Nobody sought my permission to apprehend my data in this way and I genuinely take it as not only an invasion of privacy but, effectively, as an active theft of my personal data for commercial exploitation and gain by a third, unassociated party.

So, what to do, what to do??

[Frances_iom]

New computer on the way, new broadband supplier ... This is my chance to make a fresh cyber start, and these are my conditions:

1. I wish to withhold my ip address forthwith, unless it may be mandatory for a retail transaction.

So, what to do, what to do??

get yourself a book on telecommuns and then understand you are asking for an impossibility unless you want only 1-way communcation - you can use the TOR scheme to give anonymity but for most uses much too slow
Assuming you are a bog standard customer for eg Vigin, BT then the IP address you use is only held by you on short term 'rental' your router box hides the reasonably frequent switches thus the IP address alone only identifies your geographic location
For spam avoidance sign up to a good blocking scheme (will cost), get several non-guessable emails, preferably on a domain owned by you + be careful in giving out those used for say family + friends
install firefox, noscript + turn off images - set cookie management to ask first
but then the USA with its corrupt legal system and no real privacy means that Facebook and others eg Google often avoid meeting EU legal requirements - watch what you click, avoid Microscoft products like the plague(tho windows7 does seem to have addressed several but not all security concerns), Apple is bad in sense you are locked into a walled garden but basically more secure from many threats);
read the terms of agreement before clicking - make sure that family + friends don't include you in their facebook contacts etc