Surfing the Net used to be footloose and fancy free but all that has changed radically over the last few years. As the major players in the Internet space, whether it be search, e-commerce, or social media, become ever more powerful, you, the Internet surfer become weaker. And by weaker, I mean compromised.

Each time you surf the Net you leave a little bit of yourself behind and slowly but surely your privacy is stripped away. There are people whose naivety has resulted in them posting information about themselves online on such sites as Facebook. When this sometimes innocuous behavior or uncommon hobby is revealed by a current or future employer it means the end of their relationship with that party.

There are others who are somewhat aware of the dangers lurking in cyberspace and would like to be more circumspect when surfing the Net. They are sick of pop-up ads appearing and destroying their on screen real estate every time they have made an innocent query. These are people who   For those of you who do want to avail themselves of the advantages and multitude of uses of the of the Internet yet do not want to become victim to its gatekeepers.

For these people there is a solution and it is a solution that is cheap, easy to implement, and simple to use. To defend yourself from prying eyes when surfing the Internet all you need do is surf via a proxy server. “What is a proxy server?” I hear you ask.

Let’s briefly explain what transpires when you conduct a web search. You type in the search parameters to your search engine of choice which sends that data to a server which gathers the relevant responses which are then passed on to you or more specifically, your IP address. This enables those who control and monitor the Net to know who searches for what from where and to tailor responses to your queries.