# Is the GhostSurf proxy server really anonymous and safe?



## Solaris (Oct 27, 2003)

I'm finally giving serious thought about using an app that let's you surf 
the web anonymously. A few years ago these apps had all sorts of 
problems. Usually, they routed your requests through various public
servers. There was no way to know if the server you were being
routed through could be trusted, and many of them were incredibly
unstable.

GhostSurf 2005 seems to be getting the best reviews online and in the
major computer magazines. They have their own private server. The
reviews I've read say that their server is very stable and secure. Tenebril
claims that nothing is ever cached on their server.

Here's my concern about these kind of apps. If you don't use them you
can never fully protect your privacy. If you decide to use an app like
GhostSurf, you have got to trust Tenebril that none of your web activities
will ever be cached. 

The latest issue of PC World has an article about several of the major
anti-spyware makers, like Lavasoft, who have caved into some of the
major adware companies after legal action was threatened. They are
secretly (well, not secretly anymore) "delisting" some adware so it will
not be detected by their anti-spyware apps!

What if some company with large amounts of cash made a deal with one
of these anonymous software makers to sell them the data that passes
through their servers. As far as I know, they wouldn't be breaking any
laws, and as long as the deal was kept from the public who would ever
know? Add to that the local, state, and federal authorities who might
be very interested in knowing about all of you out there who think you
are surfing anonymously.

Am I just being overly cautious (ok, paranoid) about these apps? Should
I go ahead and try an app like GhostSurf?

Solaris


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## greyknight17 (Jul 1, 2004)

Hi Solaris, I never tried a program like GhostSurf before but have tried testing out those sites that allow you to browse anonymously :grin:

Personally, I say this is just for those being paranoid (like you said). If you are visiting a safe site that has good encryption, it won't likely be seen by any third parties easily. I assume you are asking this for security reasons and not your casual browsing? If you use a site with a high encryption (these sites have the addresses http*s* when you fill out their forms and they also have a gold lock on the bottom task bar for internet explorer), your credit card and other personal information are very safe. Most shopping sites use high encryption algorithms which makes them hard to break.

As long as you have up-to-date security programs (antispyware programs, antivirus, firewall, etc.) you should be ok. If you use a different browser, like Mozilla Firefox, you should be even more safe.

If you still want to take that extra step, then go with GhostSurf. PC Magazine seems to like it.


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