MyHulk

hbob:
Check Cloakfish (same site as the proxy checker, Cloakfish.com - Anonymous Web Surfing) it is an advanced Tor.
It uses the Tor network but gives much more performance and options plus it is very simple to install and use.
I'm using it for two days now, payed a few bucks and I like it.
Before Cloakfish I used Tor but the low performance and all the connection timeouts really made it very hard to browser websites.

oldThymer:
There is an easy rule that counts all proxies:
Do not send important data without ssl connection.

These days most websites offer SSL for login/password/payment, and maybe one of 100,000 proxies is able to decrypt that (that's called Man in the Middle technique).
So if you use HTTPS for impotant data you are usualy fine.
But I'd still avoid web proxies and open proxies.
Web proxies are just crap in terms of anonymity and open proxies are usualy illegal hacked/misconfigured servers.

Edit: I guess when someone tries to crack SSL you will get a message that the signature is not verified, I'm sure you saw that annoying browser popup box once when browsing a forum or mailing list. I'm not entirely sure but I think you will get that warning in the case of cases. Just don't ignore it as usual

OldThymer

It depends what you call important data. If people are worried about protecting their identity online (through this site) then they are probably also worried about what they are typing (otherwise they probably wouldn't care). I am simply warning people that most proxies are wide open unless the data is encrypted. Therefore, most proxies are useless unless, as you said, the website offers some form of encryption.

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Karmas Perfect Cannabutter

MyHulk

Yes you are right about it, most people do not know what they do that's why they get caught even if they think they are secure.

But for cloakfish there is a difference:
Cloakfish is always encrypted, also if the website is NOT encrypted.
Authorities or your provider have no chance to see anything you send through a Cloakfish identity.

Cloakfish uses 1-4 (currently 2 or 3 selectable) proxies that are chained.
Only the last one can see the data (there is no way around it, a proxy has to see the data) but the last proxy has no chance to know who you are.

So as long as you don't send your real name or similar there is no way to track you back based on the identity you used.

MRPIMPN4EVA

Dont download a bunch of shit.

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"I stay high like giraffe pussy" .

OldThymer

That is why, in my original post, I mentioned about paying for services. Cloakfish isn't free (unless they have changed something since the last time I looked into it) neither are most [reliable] high anonymity proxies.

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Karmas Perfect Cannabutter

MyHulk

Yea it's not free, but if you look at the work that has to be done in the background to keep it working that perfectly I understand it.
Actually it's cheap, much better than the other services I compared.
And you can test it for 1$.

I'm using it for some days now when posting "delicate" stuff and found it very reliable.
I was using Tor before and the performance and regular downtimes really pissed me off.

I tried a lot to make Tor faster, changed the circuit building times, changed the way it connects, tried using bridges as entry, tried creating the complete circuit on my own based on fast ips .. after sometime it was back to normal.

It's worth a few bucks per month to me, but I also use it a lot. If you rarely need anonymity tor will do it.
I'd not use public proxies at all, those are more danger than they can do good.

OldThymer

I'll agree with all of that. I have my own network of proxies setup (actually a colleagues and I put it together). I use that when I am working as I need total privacy (I'm a legal hacker (hired by companies to do a C&A exercise on their networks), so to speak) and I know I can trust it 100%.

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Karmas Perfect Cannabutter