Are there any genuine security advantages in surfing the internet anonymously? I stumbled across an ad for a program that enables this; showing me what it could learn from my computer without 'masking' or whatever you call it, the site pegged my ip number, my home city, and a couple of other things besides that didn't relate to me personally.
That was rather unnerving, but I wasn't scared enough into buying the product.

Well, anyone can get your IP address if your browsing normally, and anyone can find out the area you're in from it. It's not a big problem. EG, Bebo tell you your IP Adress when you go to their site, and they record it so they can tell users where the people viewing their profiles are.

If you really are concerned with it, don't buy one. There are plenty of free ones around. Look for proxys that will intergrate into the browser.

-Paul

Thanks for the info.

no prob

But Paul, if you surfed here anonymously, we wouldn't know it was you.

Are you talking about cookies now?? (I like chocolate chip ones personally )

Good point, Dan! I've done some more research over the weekend and I've discovered that there are numerous proxy servers available for a free service. But I was more concerned with online shopping and banking and it seems that these are not usually accessible when you're surfing anonymously anyhow.

Yeh, I wouldn't use a proxy for online buying, banking, ebaying etc.