Do I-net Anonymizers Work ?

Sorry for the technical jargon.

I'll explain some of the acronyms and other things.

SSL is "Secure Sockets Layer." That is a protocol that is used when you connect with an Internet server computer that uses "HTTPS" in the address instead of "HTTP." When you are connected to such a site, most browsers will display a little "lock" icon on the screen to show that you have a secure connection, like a banking site, or the check-out pages of Amazon.com or Ebay where you enter credit card information. The secure connection means that all of the data that travels between your computer and the Internet server computer is encrypted. It can't be read by anyone else.

An ISP is an "Internet Service Provider" like "America On Line" or, in your case, FairPoint. Any data that travels between you and any other server on the Internet goes through the servers at FairPoint. All of that data can be recorded and retained. If, however, you have a secure connection with another computer on the Internet, all of the data that goes through the FairPoint computers is encrypted and can't be read by anyone.

When you delete a file on your hard-drive, the data actually stays on the hard drive. All the computer does is remove the pointer to the file that identifies the data as a "file" to the file system. Until that portion of the hard-drive is over-written by some other file, all of the "Ones and Zeros" that made up the contents of the deleted file will remain on the hard-drive and can be read to see what was in the file. A disk "wiping" program will over-write those remaining "Ones and Zeros" to make them unreadable.

now knowing that my screen name and comments here @ FR are NOT PROTECTED and obviously anyone else here is subject to public scrutiny...

You should have no expectation that anything you post on a public discussion forum is "protected." Anything that can be read by anybody who reads the FreeRepublic website can just as easily be read by the WOPULAR computers.

A good rule of thumb to go by is that anything that you send over the Internet, be it a forum post here, an instant message, a comment on Facebook, an email, or anything else, can be recorded by any computer that it passes through, can be stored forever, and can be found by someone who really wants to find it.

The anonymity that you have here on FreeRepublic is limited to the fact that you can post your comments as "MissDairyGoodnessVT" instead of using your real name. If, however, you posted something that caught the interest of law-enforcement, and they obtained a warrant, JR would be legally compelled to turn over any of your personal information (real name, email address) that you used when signing up for your account on FreeRepublic.

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