Free2Surf Proxy Blog

Comcast is currently experimenting with new camera technologies that will be able to recognize who is in your living room. Apparently this information would be used for things such as recommendations (based on your viewing history) and blocking inappropriate content when it ‘detects’ that children are in the room… Oh yeah, and it’ll serve up some totally sweet advertisements, catered specifically to you. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? No? You can read more here.

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HushMail, is an email service that was known above all else for it’s privacy. They market themselves by claiming “not even a Hushmail employee with access to our servers can read your encrypted e-mail, since each message is uniquely encoded before it leaves your computer.” This service has been around for a long time, and as far as I know, it was respected and trusted for providing private email services. Not anymore. According to this article, Hushmail has cooperated with government agencies by granting them access to over 12 CDs worth of e-mails from three Hushmail accounts. Sounds pretty secure to me… What do you think?

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There hasn’t been a whole lot going on in the ‘proxy world’ as of late. I noticed that on September 11th, a new version of the Glype Proxy script was released. Version 0.4 beta has some new features, including a “massively revamped javascript parser”, as well as a new plugin feature which will allow for compatibility with sites such as YouTube, and more. You can read the details of the release here, or you can grab a copy of the script here. This script seems to be increasing in popularity, especially as word spreads that some schools have blocked PHProxy proxified pages altogether. More to come on this as more information is available.

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When it comes to freely available web-based proxy scripts, Glype Proxy may not be the most well known. But it’s an “up and comer” so to speak, and definitely worth keeping an eye on. Glype Proxy 0.3b was released on August 6th, and it comes with some new features - namely, server side caching. What this means is that files that are commonly requested by users of your proxy site will be saved on the server. The script also comes with am improved setup wizard, and other notable features include IP banning, access controls, and a “curse word” filter. The script can be downloaded here. Please remember that this is still in beta, so there may be some bugs, in which case you should report to the script’s support forum. Feel free to post your Glype proxies in the comments of this post!

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If you’re one of those people that is paranoid about who has access to your information, you may already be familiar with CIPAV (The Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier). If not, it’s basically spyware that was developed by the FBI. It captures sensitive information such as a user’s IP address, MAC address, open ports, running programs, operating system, last visited URL, and more.

You may wonder how the FBI could get away with developing and deploying such a program. It was ruled that the information gathered by CIPAV is “the legal equivalent of dialed phone numbers”, and therefore the government can obtain this information without needing to show probable cause or obtain a wiretap warrant. Shocking, isn’t it?

While most of us may not have a whole lot to hide from the FBI, we all deserve privacy. This article will explain to you how to “detect and deter” CIPAV and other similiar programs. If the FBI can develop and deploy garbage like this without us knowing, we should be able to protect ourselves from it.

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AT&T has recently announced that it will develop technology that will attempt to keep pirated matrial off of it’s network… From the looks of this article, though, that will entail deep packet inspection and monitoring.

Users who are not comfortable with this type of surveillance can just get a new ISP, right? Not necessarily:

“In addition to running a massive network of its own, AT&T runs a good chunk of the backbone infrastructure in the US. It’s a rare bit of traffic that can make it to its destination without passing on to an AT&T-owned network. If the company deploys its anti-piracy technology to all data passing through its networks, AT&T’s “solution” could affect most US Internet users.”

Scary stuff.

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The Pirate Bay, arguably one of the most popular torrent sites on the web, has launched a new image hosting service: bayimg. There are tons of image hosting services out there, so what makes this one so special? Well, for one, it’s uncensored. In a time where censorship seems to be rampant, that’s a pretty important feature. They also have a 100MB file size limit, which is more than anyone should ever need for one image. In addition, they allow .rar and .zip archives. Read more about The Pirate Bay’s bayimg project here, or check the site out for yourself!

And yeah, the censorship is worse than you think.

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A new version of the Glype proxy script has been released, Glype v0.2. It now supports Basic HTTP Authentication and even goes some way to towards parsing Javascript. With this new version, users will be able to login to sites such as Gmail, Facebook and all other interactive scripts. There are more features as well - Find out more at Glype Media, or download Glype v0.2 right here. Obviously, Glype is a new script and may still have some kinks to work out, but it is definitely headed in the right direction. For more information on free web-based proxy scripts, check out Free Proxy Scripts: A Rundown.

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Today is the official deadline for compliance with the FCC’s new interpretation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). So what does that mean?

Cable modem companies, DSL providers, satellite internet companies, and even some universities all have until the end of today to ensure “the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have the necessary surveillance capabilities.”

So in a nutshell, it is now much easier for the FBI to more-or-less ‘wiretap’ your internet connection. Internet service providers, as well as providers of VoIP services, must integrate into their networks and software the abaility for law enforcement to snoop on users of those services. Scary stuff. You can read more here.

My advice to you? Start using TOR, the onion router. And be a little more careful what you do and say online - Remember, things can easily be misinterpreted…

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I don’t know how many of you have had a friend or loved one over in Iraq, but they definitely rely quit heavily on the internet in order to stay in touch with friends and family. I had a friend over there for a year, and MySpace was pretty much the only way I kept in touch with him. I know for a fact that the majority of soldiers stationed over there use MySpace (or a similiar social networking site) in order to stay in touch with people. So for those that are still stationed over there, this article is definitely bad news.

According to a memo that was sent on Friday by the US Forces Korea commander, the Defense Department will soon begin blocking access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its networks. This is a major step, and will impact soldiers significantly - Possibly more than the Defense Department understands. Fortunately, members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sites affected by this ban are YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. You can read the full article here.

I wonder how much trouble a member of the military would get into if they were caught using, say, a MySpace Unblocker site to access MySpace? Surely some soldiers are aware of proxy sites and how to use them… I hope that this move doesn’t affect our soldiers serving abroad too much, and that they are still able to stay connected to their family and friends.

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