What Is Anonymous Web Surfing?

You're reading the day's headlines and you're noticing a lot of horror stories about computer security. Everyone should know to install anti-virus and anti-spy-ware on their computers, but some aren't aware that they can use a feature within their browser to ensure that people are checking out, say your bank statements. But what exactly is anonymous web surfing? And why would you want to do so?

Anonymous web surfing is the act of surfing the web without giving sites information about you, like your IP address, your time zone, etc. Websites track this information, usually to give a more personal experience to the user while they are on the site. Browsers, like IE or Firefox, will also save the information and history of your browsing session.  

This is where anonymous web surfing comes in handy.

This type of surfing usually involves using a proxy server; sort of like a middle man between your computer and the Internet. Corporations or businesses will sometimes use proxy servers, especially if they work with sensitive materials like hospital records. If using a proxy isn't going to work for you, no worries. If you've upgraded to either Internet Explorer 7 or 8, there's a built in anonymous surf feature built in. Here's some steps to activate it -

1.  Open Internet Explorer. Open IE-either 7 or 8-and allow it to open to your homepage.
2.  Open Safety Menu. On the upper right hand side, click on the "Safety" open in order to expand its options. If you don't have the "Safety" text or anything at all on the right hand side, you may need to enable the command bar.
3.  Choose In Private. When the "Safety" menu is expanded, choose the option for "In Private Browsing". If you like shortcuts, you can also use CTRL+Shift+P to bring up another browsing window. Use this window for whatever you don't want to be tracked with, say like certain sites you don't want your parents or your boss discovering that you were on. This is especially useful if you are using a temporary computer, like at a friend's house or at the public library.

Once you're finished, just close the window and go about your merry way. If you use Firefox, they also have a built in anon surfing feature, but there are also more secure add-ons if you'd like to give those a try.