'Most people are aware that there are privacy issues on the Internet, but the reality is that information gathering is now ubiquitous,' he says. This is especially true with the explosion of spyware on the Web. But Anonymizer's mission is to protect your information from the outside world, he says. And it can help you hide a browser's true history from your significant other. It is true that subscribers can use the service to keep their employers from seeing what they're doing online at work. It's more complicated than that, Cottrell says. But what do Joe and Jane Surfer have to hide? The advantages of Anonymizer are clear for people, companies, and even governments that deal in highly sensitive information. Initially introduced as Privacy Button, the Anonymizer Privacy Toolbar lets you activate and customize protection from your browser, without logging on to. In addition to an easier-to-use Web version of the program, the company is updating its downloadable toolbar. When an Anonymizer user accesses a page with Java script, the service basically rewrites it so it won't reach any personal information.Īlso new is the service's interface. The site has had to address the technology as it has become more popular, Cottrell says. In the past, Anonymizer merely blocked Java scripts, since few sites used them. Also, Cottrell says some security problems associated with Microsoft Internet Explorer have been related to Java scripts. Sites can gather quite a bit of information using Java scripts, he says. Private Surfing 2.0 offers a handful of improvements to the original service-most notably, support for Java scripts, Cottrell says. Traditionally, people have felt that good security required a compromise in convenience. 'This represents a major evolution of our privacy service,' Cottrell says.

Surf anonymizer