Darknet

Chapter 1 - Privacy and Anonymity

If you’re like one of the many billions of people on the planet who use the internet to surf the net, check email, download programs or do any kind of online work, then you probably know there are risks associated with being a habitual internet user. It is not your fault that there are so many latent traps and pitfalls associated with online spelunking, in whatever form that may be. It is just a fact of life that the Good lives alongside the Evil in our lives, offline or online. This book is meant as a beginner’s guide to distinguish between the Good and the Evil, and to conceal your online footprint. To be a ghost on the internet. This book is not necessarily for the advanced, such as those who teach computer science courses, but rather it is for those who would like to learn to surf without compromising their identity, or having their online habits tracked 24/7, and who engage in some risky speech against their government once in a blue moon. It is also for those who might not know about some of the little known vulnerabilities in their favorite anonymous software programs. In the end, you just might learn there is a vast difference between anonymity and privacy.

Let’s start with the basics. I’ll just put this out there so you know the weight of the privacy situation entirely. As of 2014, you are always being tracked on the internet in just about every way you can imagine. Search engines, cookie managers, download managers and everything you do online has the potential to make someone, somewhere, a LOT of money. Most of the time, this is because laser-targeted advertising is extremely profitable. The more they know about your habits, the more money they make.

How?

Simple. If they know more about your fears, your likes and dislikes, and how and where you spend your money, they can deliver targeted advertising to you. Laser targeted advertising. That means more power for them, less for you. Now, advertising in and of itself is not such a bad thing, but neither is a loaded gun sitting on top of the fridge. By itself it can do nothing. However it is the method of execution that defines its usefulness.

If you type any medical search term into a major search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing, soon enough you’ll start to see targeted ads. If you search for how to cure a hangover, you might not see anything right away, since hangovers generally don’t last that long. However if you were to type how to cure herpes, you will likely be typing variations of that sentence over the course of a few weeks or months since it is not an easy condition to treat. Eventually you would see pay-per-click ads start to manifest themselves in your search engine results in the top corners. These ads might be selling all manner of snake-oil remedies for the cure to herpes, or they might be referrals to medical specialists. The bottom line is this: why do they think you have this disease?