How Anonymous Can You Be?

The World Wide Web is a relatively new invention that dates back to 1989. The Internet offers a lot of possibilities; however, there are also some dangers associated with it. Let me explain in a nutshell what they are.

-One of the things that seems to be bothering some Internet users is the fact that they cannot be as anonymous on the Internet as they wish they could be. Some Internet users wonder whether it is fair that everyone can see where anyone is from by simply looking at their IP address. In fact, there might be a solution to this issue. I am thinking about proxies. Basically, proxies allow people to connect to websites indirectly by masking the IP address of the user. It sounds great, but using proxies may not work that well for everybody for many reasons. Most Internet users do not intend to use such services. It might be because proxy servers usually drastically slow down Internet connection speed and response time, but there are some other reasons behind it as well.

-Let us look at the issue from a different perspective. If everybody on the Internet was completely anonymous, then the Internet would be a perfect haven for cheaters and criminals. It would be impossible to track them down. By masking their IP addresses, criminals have a chance to get away with some valuable information without anybody tracking them down. This isn’t something that should happen in my opinion at all. The right to privacy is one thing, but the right to having your privacy protected is already another thing.

As you can see, there are positive and negative sides to everything. If we were anonymous on the Internet, then also hundreds of scammers would be anonymous. It is interesting to speculate how in the future this problem is going to be solved, or is it going to be solved at all? Nonetheless, I still think that Internet users deserve some privacy.