Anonymizers are tools that ensure the anonymity of web surfing. They are also used to circumvent the web filters and local legislative restrictions\blocking of websites. Some types of anonymizers (VPN) may also encrypt your traffic. This article discusses how anonymizers are used and what types of anonymizers are there.
These days browsers are open to users’ computers most of the time. Services that initially worked through special programs and protocols are now mostly presented in web version: e-mail, messengers, conferences, dictionaries, and much more. At the same time, users are increasingly faced with the problem of blocked websites. There are many different types of restrictions these days:
- Employers block access to social media and entertainment content.
- ISPs prohibit access to resources based on orders from state bodies.
- Website owners block certain countries and regions from accessing their services.
All this leads to restrictions in the free use of the web. An example of such a problem is international sanctions against ordinary residents of Crimea (Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by Russia). Access to the services of American companies for citizens and organizations of the peninsula was closed by the US government order. People cannot use popular services provided by Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.
Another problem – most websites collect a lot of information about their visitors. Registration is required almost everywhere. Sometimes registration involves the transfer of personal data. Websites set cookies to track user actions. Ad networks monitor our online activity too. Social networks transfer information entrusted to them to third parties – advertisers and government agencies. With total control over the World Wide Web, ordinary users want to preserve their privacy and anonymity.
All these problems have one solution – anonymizers. These are special services that redirect user’s web traffic through their servers and ensure anonymity by hiding the user’s real IP address. Anonymizers also delete cookies, help to bypass web filters, and encrypt traffic.
The use of anonymizers solves two main problems that were identified in the introduction — getting access to blocked websites and maintaining anonymity when using the web.
Let us see how the websites are usually accessed. The user enters the address of the website in a web browser, a request is generated and sent to the site server. On the route to the target web server, user traffic can go through one or more filters. It can be a transparent proxy server set by the employer and designed to control Internet usage at the workplace.
Another filter can be set by the ISP that needs to comply with federal laws and block access to prohibited sites. As a result, the request may be rejected and a blank page notifying of the blocked access will be shown to the user. The target web server will not even receive your request.
Such blocks are implemented by a remote server. The server will determine your IP address and, after checking its database, may deny or grant access. The reasons for the ban can be very diverse – from denying access for you personally to regional blocking if the website is not intended to be viewed from your location like the Netflix case.
The anonymizer breaks the direct connection chain and becomes an intermediary between your web browser and the desired web server. Your request is sent to the anonymizer server. Owners of such services operate servers that cannot be found in blacklists, filters are not applied, and the request always succeeds. The anonymizer server creates a new request and sends your data to the target web server. It then receives the response and directs it back to your computer.
At the same time, many anonymizers provide additional protection for the user. In addition to hiding information about the real IP address of the user, they may also change information about the web browser, computer settings and clear service cookies used to track users.
Types of anonymizers
Web anonymizers are special websites. Users do not need to install any additional software. They simply go to the web page and enter the address of the desired site. All the contents of the site will be available on the anonymizer’s page. This type of anonymizer has a number of technical limitations.
The proxy server technology is actively used in different IT spheres, but proxy servers are also ideally suited for performing anonymization functions. The advantage of this technology is that there is no need to install additional programs, you just need to specify the proxy server address in the browser settings. The proxy server may transfer all sorts of data, so any interactive sites and all types of multimedia work well with proxies.
However, there are some disadvantages too. The proxy server will work for all websites at once (not only for the required ones). It cannot function in a chain, which means that if a proxy is already used to access the Internet on your network, this method cannot be used.
Virtual private network
VPN technology, like proxy server technology, is actively used for numerous tasks. It may, for example, provide secure remote access to the internal network. However, VPN technologies are also successfully used for anonymization. The advantages of VPN include the ability to completely redirect traffic – not only the web but any other services. This technology also has some disadvantages. You need to accurately configure VPN access or install additional software. It cannot work through a corporate proxy server.
This type of anonymizers requires installation. It can be enabled on certain sites only. The quality of work of this type of anonymizers depends on the developer of the browser extension and server operations. Some browser extensions function correctly with any site and media content, while others provide bad results.
This type of anonymizers is significantly different from the rest. It includes special builds of popular web browsers. Most of them are based on Chromium and FireFox. Such browsers possess built-in anonymization tools like Tor or security extensions.
The problem of blocking access to websites by the employer, local ISPs, and other entities worry many users and prevent free access to information. Also, many website owners place restrictions on access to information based on the client’s IP address in a particular geographic location.
All these issues, as well as problems of ensuring anonymity on the Internet, can successfully be solved by anonymizers. Anonymizers can be both paid and free, but there is also a general trend. Web anonymizers are often conditionally free and display ads on visited sites. VPNs are often paid, but sometimes offer trial accounts limited in traffic.