- Traffic analysis is how outsiders manage to interpret what you have been doing on your computer. This means that they analyze websites to see how much traffic those sites receive and they use that information to determine the source of the traffic, namely your computer. They can then use this information to post advertisements that they feel are pertinent to you. By using an anonymizer, depending on the sophistication of the anonymizing site or sites, you can keep this type of information stealing from happening.
- Anonymizers work by helping you to access the Internet without leaving traces of your search record lying around for anyone to find. They allow you to surf the web while remaining distant from the sites you are visiting so that tracking cookies cannot pick up on what you are doing. To use an anonymizer you need to open a website designed for this purpose, and then type in the information you wish to search and the anonymizer website will do all of the searching for you, thereby eliminating your "cyber trail." The anonymizer site can slow down your search process due to the fact that it is a separate step toward your destination but some sites counteract this problem by having several thousand website links already filed away in their system for easy access. This can actually make your web surfing faster if you happen to hit one of the sites that are already provided.
- There are two types of anonymizers, networked and single-point design. The networked sites are several different sites all connected to do one thing; keep your information and your searches private. The more outside sites involved in this process, the more safe your information will be. The single-point anonymizers, on the other hand, involve only one outside site. Given enough time, anyone with a sophisticated traffic analysis system could eventually find your information and know what you have been doing while online.
