3. How can I surf the Web from anywhere in the world without being blocked or traced? The governments of countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China control the way their citizens use the Internet. One way they do that is by blocking access to websites

3. How can I surf the Web from anywhere in the world without being blocked or traced?
The governments of countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China control the way their citizens use the Internet. One way they do that is by blocking access to websites that contain political criticism or adult material. Most of these countries use "censorware" developed in the United States. Censorware works by comparing all website requests against a list of forbidden websites. If you are in the United Arab Emirates and try to access a forbidden site, you'll see something like this on your screen:

Some hotels, libraries, companies, and other organizations in free countries such as the United States block certain websites from Internet users, too. Fortunately, there are ways to get around censorware. This is especially useful for people who live in repressive regimes, but its also useful for anyone who find themselves behind a censorware barrier that blocks access to sites they want to access.

One of the most effective ways to defeat censorware is by using Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP), a free service developed by a university in Dresden, Germany. JAP works by creating a bunch of untraceable, encrypted connections across the Internet, making it impossible for anyone to trace the source or the destination of the data going through it.

Because JAP doesn't let censorware know the destination address of a site, the censorware's blacklist of forbidden sites is useless. In addition, your IP address is hidden, making you effectively anonymous. (You can find out what other websites know about you by visiting whatsmyip.org. You'll see your IP address, type of Web browser you are using, screen resolution, and more. When you use JAP, your IP address will be replaced with something like "proxy1.anon-online.org," instead of your actual IP address.)

Of course, if your cookies are active, then the websites can still identify who you are. (Make sure to set your Web browser to reject cookies before you attempt to surf anonymously.)

It's also important to note that while a proxy might let you get past a firewall and access blocked sites, they don't prevent a company (or a country's) system administration staff from discovering that you are using a proxy or monitoring what you're looking at online. Proceed with caution.

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4. How can I create a false identity?
To access news and information on sites without having to disclose my personal information, I often use BugMeNot, a free service that maintains a database of usernames and passwords you can use to gain instant access to over 100,000 outlets. I don't feel that an online newspaper has the right to know who I am and what articles I read. After all, when I drop two quarters into a newspaper vending machine, I don't have to swipe my driver's license into a card reader.

When BugMeNot doesn't work, I'll sometimes just enter a fake name and address information into the form. The best way to obtain a fake identity is to visit the Fake Name Generator at fakenamegenerator.com. The information it generates includes a name, address, phone number, e-mail address, mother's maiden name, and credit card and social security numbers. Not only is this good for accessing snoopy newspaper sites, it's also a great way to infuriate spammers and scam artists.

There are other legitimate reasons why you might need to generate fake names: to test a software application by populating it with fake user data, to log into a message board from a foreign country that uses an address form that doesn't work with the local address format, to create a pseudonym on the Internet so that you can maintain a separate online identity from your life in the real world, and so on.

Once you go to the site and accept the terms of service (basically promising that you won't abuse the service to commit fraud, which would be a very bad thing to do), all you have to do is click the "Go" button to get a page fake information that can fool almost any form.